Fla. Gov. Ron DeSantis Bans Completely Respectable Books-Geo. Orwell's "1984" Revisited...Again

 

Bestselling author Jodi Picoult's book, The Storyteller, a novel about the unlikely relationship between the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors and an aging S.S. officer, was banned by southeast Florida’s Martin County. Of course, at the impetus of the state's dictatorial governor, Ron DeSantis. Another 20 of her books were also banned. The DailyBeast commented in shock...

”Picoult said in an email to The Washington Post, calling book bans a 'breach of freedom of speech and freedom of information. 'According to Picoult, most of her books have nary a kiss in them but do include 'gay characters, and issues like racism, disability, abortion rights, gun control, and other topics that might make a kid think differently from their parents.'”

None the less, just what DeSantis abhors; that is in order to pacify his double-digit voters. And, most U.S. voters aren't buying his crap with a recent poll indicating...

"56% of Americans consider “woke” a positive term, meaning “to be informed, educated on, and aware of social injustices.” Even more than a third of Republicans agree."

"Wokeness" is probably on a parallel with the autocrat's latest 2024 campaign slogan, "We were right. They were wrong," referring to Florida's policies on freedom, more specifically DeSantis' handling of the Covid pandemic. But under his leadership, the state's pandemic results were considerably worse than the rest of the country. In fact, Florida was third highest in the country for both Covid cases and deaths. 

The Washington Post says DeSantis claims the state only bans “porn” and “hate,” but there is a problem with that allegation...

"The people deciding which books to remove from classrooms and school libraries didn’t get the memo. In many cases, the notion that banned books meet the highly objectionable criteria he detailed is an enormous stretch."

 Hear from author who had 20 of her books banned in Florida school district...

WaPo continues...

"This week, Florida’s Martin County released a list of dozens of books targeted for removal from school libraries, as officials struggle to interpret a bill DeSantis signed in the name of “transparency” in school materials. The episode suggests his decrees are increasingly encouraging local officials to adopt censoring decisions with disturbingly vague rationales and absurdly sweeping scope."

The impact of DeSantis's banning of Picoult's book The Storyteller has much of the media cashing in. She tells RawStory that the book has never been banned before, and RawStory's Brad Reed said...

"While DeSantis is not involved in choosing which books to remove, his 

Department of Education has issued guidance saying that schools should 'err on the side of caution' and to remove books that they wouldn't feel 'comfortable reading aloud.'"

It is unconscionable to "err on the side of caution" when the act results in taking away the rights of individuals in the likeness of Big Brother. It is clearly censorship and in my opinion borders on 1st Amendment rights. The "woke" American public isn't stupid and they will carry this malfeasance of justice to the 2024 elections.

Why Ron DeSantis is unacceptable on any level

 

Any level meaning specifically politics, but I sure wouldn't want DeSantis living in my neighborhood. I am, however, surrounded by Republicans here in Arizona but in my worst possible fantasy, even this state's rightest radicals cannot come close to the dictating governor in Florida. Ron DeSantis is a dictator of the first rate and here are some of the issues that confirm that title.

Afraid of the press and called a "fascist" by AlterNet, he recently blacklisted the media at a GOP event in Dallas. Of course he had plenty of friends there with his tyrannical  twin, Texas governor, Greg Abbott, at the annual "Reagan Day Dinner," hosted by the Dallas County Republican Party. I knew Ronald Reagan and do not think for one minute the former president would condone an autocrat like DeSantis.

 But listen to this...

Even Civil libertarians slam Ron DeSantis' 'brazen and blatantly unconstitutional' war on press freedom

 Here's the scenario...

"We are not able to invite the media," Jennifer Stoddard-Hajdu, Dallas County Republican Party Chairwoman said. "That was the decision of Governor DeSantis' team."

But, this takes the cake: "DeSantis promises Florida will control Disney's content.

Right-wing board to clamp down on 'woke ideology' in cartoons." I moved to California just after Disneyland opened and remember the fun my family and I had at the park in Anaheim. Walt Disney was alive then and believe he would have considered it sacrilege what Ron DeSantis is doing. This is what he actually did,,,

"DeSantis appointed a board to oversee Disney. The Central Florida Tourism Oversight District is stacked with DeSantis cronies, including Bridget Ziegler, a proponent of his education policies; Ron Peri, who heads the Christian ministry the Gathering USA; and Michael Sasso, president of the Federalist Society’s Orlando chapter."

 This is the New York Intelligencer's Jonathan Chait's take...

"It is worth pausing a moment to grasp the full breadth of what is going on here. First, DeSantis established the principle that he can and will use the power of the state to punish private firms that exercise their First Amendment right to criticize his positions. Now he is promising to continue exerting state power to pressure the firm to produce content that comports with his own ideological agenda."

And the New York Times Editorial Board really took DeSantis to task with this headline: "Florida Is Trying to Take Away the American Right to Speak Freely." The Times exhibits three cases of free speech and then adds...

"All three are examples of Americans engaging in clamorous but perfectly legal speech about public figures that is broadly protected by the Constitution. The Supreme Court, in a case that dates back nearly 60 years, ruled that even if that speech might be damaging or include errors, it should generally be protected against claims of libel and slander. All three would lose that protection — and be subject to ruinous defamation lawsuits — under a bill that is moving through the Florida House and is based on longstanding goals of Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Bobby Block, executive director of Florida’s First Amendment Foundation, says... 

“This isn’t just a press issue. This is a death-to-public-discourse bill. Everyone, even conservatives, would have to second-guess themselves whenever they open their mouths to speak or sit in front of a keyboard.”

'We Were Right, They Were Wrong": DeSantis Touts Florida Policies In 'State Of The State' Address...

But get this, DeSantis is going to run for President with this slogan, "We were right, they were wrong," referring to state policies on "freedom" and his handling of the Covid pandemic crisis. To this, AlterNet commented...

"But under DeSantis' leadership, the Sunshine State's results were far worse than nearly every other state in the nation."

The facts are, Florida was third highest in the U.S. for Covid cases and deaths. This clearly proves that Ron DeSantis is a fraud posing as a legitimate politician. To close, DeSantis's opposition to the "Woke" movement may backfire. A new poll in MSNBC...

"shows that 56% of Americans consider 'woke' a positive term, meaning 'to be informed, educated on, and aware of social injustices.' Even more than a third of Republicans agree."

Ron DeSantis is probably just a flash in the pan, but the sooner the American public realizes this, the better. 

First There Was Long Covid - Now There Is Long Covidiocy

 

The Republican Party has shared with us a gang of certified idiots since even before taking the majority in the House. There is Matt Gaetz, Josh Hawley, Paul Gosar, Andy Biggs, Lauren Boebert and the primo-moron, Marjorie Taylor Greene. I recently said we should just ignore Greene but I find it more productive to talk about her asinine antics and big mouth stupidity. It is endless. And Dana Milbank has captured much of MTG and the others in his Washington Post piece...

"There ain’t no cure for long covidiocy," which features a lineup where "House Republicans presented with a textbook case of the ailment this week."

The graphic that came with the article displays a picture of Marjorie Taylor Greene on Capitol Hill ready to do more damage to U.S. democracy. Here's the scenario...

"The newly formed select subcommittee on the coronavirus pandemic met for the first time for what its chairman, Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio), said would be some “Monday-morning quarterbacking.” It instead became a Tuesday afternoon of false starts and illegal blocks."

There's more...

"Republicans on the panel, some of them medical doctors and others just playing one on TV, offered their predictable assessments. Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-Ariz.) kicked off with the unsupported allegation that “covid was intentionally released” from a Chinese lab because 'it would be impossible for the virus to be accidentally leaked.'”

Republican War On Covid Science with Florida a leader in denial…

Lesko is an Arizona wacky Republican radical whose past is known for "bankruptcies, multiple aliases, an arrest warrant and multiple lawsuits for unpaid bills," according to AZCentral. This should give you an idea of what the Arizona Republican legislature is like. And here is a lunatic opinion from another rightist, this time from Georgia...

"Rep. Richard McCormick (R-Ga.) advanced the ball by informing the panel that coronavirus booster shots 'do more harm than good.'”

You have to wonder just how many constituents of this moron could have died or become seriously ill by not getting a Covid booster. But this is the epitome from the biggest imbecile that has ever been elected to the U.S. Congress, Marjorie Taylor Greene, also from Georgia...

“Researchers found that the vaccinated are at least twice as likely to be infected with covid as the unvaccinated and those with natural immunity.”

The subcommittee goes on to present...

"three scientists who arguably did more than all others to champion a herd-immunity approach to covid. Two of them were co-authors of the 'Great Barrington Declaration,' put out by a Koch-backed group, which argued in 2020 for letting the virus run wild through the population while somehow segregating the old and vulnerable."

My opinion is you cannot trust anything supported by a Koch-backed group and

you can see my posts on this divisive gang of goons here. It has been proven that the herd immunity approach could have killed "hundreds of thousands more Americans." This is Republican radicalism at its best, best known as the killing machine. But here is the closer from Marty Makary, a Johns Hopkins surgeon and Fox News regular...

“'It’s a no-brainer that it came from a lab,' he declared. What’s more, 'at this point it’s impossible to acquire any more information, and if you did it would only be in the affirmative.' He even suggested that two of the nation’s top virologists knew this but 'changed their tunes' because they were bribed with grant money by Anthony Fauci."

This is why the American public is so confused about what they should do about Covid. I urge you to read this WaPo article.

 

Fla. Gov. Ron DeSantis threatened bloggers...THE KISS OF DEATH

 

Some DeSantis minion, a Republican Florida state senator, proposed a bill that would require bloggers to register with the state if they plan to write about Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.), his Cabinet officers and members of the Florida legislature. You have to have received compensation on your blog for this to apply and, the requirement does not include websites of newspapers or similar sites. Sounds like he is afraid of the 4th Estate but he'd better watch out for the bloggers.

We have a tendency to stick together to defend each other because of the relative recency of this media and the repeated criticism we receive. Some consider us amateurs, but many bloggers have been at it for years and are very good at what they do. When you concentrate on a subject like politics, the kind of blog DeSantis wants to control, you have to commit to facts in your posts, and that is also what the despot DeSantis wants to prevent. The deplorable facts about his record.

In the bill, these morons also want bloggers to file monthly reports according to The Hill...

"detailing where, when and by whom the post was published, plus the amount of compensation received. Failure to file reports could lead to fines."

Just more of DeSantis inspired lunacy: Florida senator introduces bill that could get rid of state's Democratic Party...

You have Big Brother and a heinous violation of the 1st Amendment all rolled into one stupid law. It will never fly in a court of law but these Florida double-digits believe they can control the country because they think DeSantis will win in 2024. Well, he won't, and a recent Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll finds Trump leading DeSantis 46 percent to 23 percent, a 5-point drop in support for DeSantis since last month. We don't want Trump but don't want DeSantis more.

AlterNet says Fascist Ron DeSantis is "afraid of the press" for blacklisting the media at a Dallas GOP event. Here's the scenario...

"We are not able to invite the media," Jennifer Stoddard-Hajdu, Dallas County Republican Party Chairwoman said. "That was the decision of Governor DeSantis' team."

I doubt seriously if the decision was a hard one based on the Right's opinion of the

media being the contra position they hold. Kristy Noble, Dallas County Democratic Party chair said...

"We know fascist Republican Ron DeSantis is afraid of history books, free market capitalism, and kids playing sports, but we didn’t know he was afraid of Dallas County’s local reporters,"

It is well known the tyrant DeSantis has destroyed much of what the state of Florida was but it would take a very short time for national media, and especially bloggers to dismantle the DeSantis machine. 

 

QUOTE: "Greene is ignorant of the Constitution she swore to uphold"

 

The quote is taken from the Editorial Board of the St. Louis Post Dispatch and is yet another disparagement of the U.S. House's top moron, Marjorie Taylor Greene. It is still hard, near impossible, to understand how the people of Georgia reelected this lunatic to office. One can only assume that her constituents are equally as ignorant as is Greene. This is how the Editorial Board begins...

"Loath as we are to grant attention to reprehensible Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the latest head-spinning pronouncement from the Georgia Republican demands discussion — if only for what it says about the House speaker who empowered her after rescuing her from irrelevance."

Folks, they are talking about a member of the U.S. Congress as if she was some obnoxious person not fit for society. Well, she isn't, but Greene is a member of Congress and she shouldn't be. Here's a very scary statement...

"She also confirms that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, political hostage that he is, has elevated an anti-constitutional, anti-democracy, un-American crank to a position of significant and dangerous national influence."

The unlikely alliance of Kevin McCarthy and Marjorie Taylor Greene...

With Kevin McCarthy, equally disjointed of the mind, in control of the U.S. House, he can keep Greene in dangerous levels of power allowing her to spew her lunacy throughout the political spectrum. So far, her most divisive move has been to advocate the division of the U.S. into blue and red states with what she calls a "national divorce." This dimwit wants to start a civil war and Medium.com makes it clear how Republicans could make this happen...

"The repulsive extremism, ugly racism and nativism, and the unhinged conspiracy-mongering that has always existed like a toxic mold on the fringes of the American right are now at its emotional and political center, a place where throngs of QAnon believers gather with Christian nationalists and white supremacists to form the very heart and soul of the new Republican anti-orthodoxy."

Whew! This is a condemnation of the Republican faction in general, and most

certainly applies to Marjorie Taylor Greene. She is labeled the "QAnon-coddling conspiracy theorist and white-nationalist sympathizer who once posited that California wildfires were caused by a space-based laser controlled by Jewish investors." Greene is joined to McCarthy at the hip and plans to advance her radical ideology by using the Speaker.

How many times have I said this? 'The Republicans have no agenda so they shower conservatives with a rhetoric that condemns the left, which, apparently a large amount of the right wants to hear. If MTG and the GOP think that governing with their disruptive stunts will keep them in power, my gut tells me they are wrong. There is always that point of, 'I've had enough,' and I think there is a large proportion of the American population that is fed up with Republicanism.

 

Marjorie Taylor Greene's Crusade To Eradicate American Democracy

 

Even her Republican peers have said she is crazy and they are concerned that Marjorie Taylor Greene could help take the party down in 2024. One can only hope. Stephen Colbert demolished her secessionist lunacies on his show; called Greene the "chief spokesperson for civil war." Additionally, the berserk buffoon wants to ban Democrat voting for at least five years if they move to red states. Here's the way the New Republic describes Marjorie Taylor Greene...

"Marjorie Taylor Greene’s idea for America to “separate by red states and blue states” isn’t just dumb and harmless. It’s also a window into a dangerous vision that’s ascendent in the Republican Party."

Here's her scenario...

“We need a national divorce,” she wrote on Twitter on February 20. “We need to separate by red states and blue states and shrink the federal government. Everyone I talk to says this. From the sick and disgusting woke culture issues shoved down our throats to the [Democrats’] traitorous America Last policies, we are done.”

Marjorie Taylor Greene advocates for 'national divorce'...

We are definitely "done" if the U.S. Congress allows lunatics like Greene and her cronies in the House continue to serve. TNR says her vision "is an authoritarian
rejection of democratic government itself." Isn't that what Republican ideology is all about? Power at any cost and the welfare of the American public be damned. Secession has been tried before and failed, but it becomes newly appropriate, many think purely for attention.

But this action is at least also due to the fact that the GOP still has no real agenda for the country so Speaker Kevin McCarthy allows his deranged bunch of dimwits to blunder on just so he can enjoy his speakership. The inference that red states should secede from the Union is likened to the old saying, 'if you don't let me win, I'll take my ball and go home.' What this gang of crackpot legislators doesn't understand is the fact that we don't need separation, we desperately need unity.

But Greene says the left and the right have "reached the point of 'irreconcilable differences' on a variety of topics." Here's her take from TNR...

“I’ll speak for the right and say, we are absolutely disgusted and fed up with the left cramming and forcing their ways on us and our children with no respect for our religion/faith, traditional values, and economic & government policy beliefs,” Greene explained.

What we need is members of Congress who can negotiate their difference and come together with a solution that fits both sides. Lyndon Johnson could do this. So could Everett Dirksen. But the fact is that Republicans don't want to negotiate; their main goal is to thwart whatever the Democrats bring to the table. My guess is this has become something the American public is fed up with and voters will show their concern in 2024.

I urge you to read the New Republic article.

 

People Have More Humanity Toward Animals Today

 

That's why they call it a "humane shelter," because animals deserve considerate and merciful treatment just like us humans. I cannot understand why someone would abandon their family pet, much less abuse them. It is unconscionable and there should be more laws affecting their well-being. They are innocent, loyal, and all they really want is to live. That's right, something we take for granted but in the case of most animals, something they have absolutely no control over.

But there seems to be hope, if the amount of space on the Internet devoted to animals is any indication of the public's awakening to the fact that they do have rights. The enactment of animal protection laws has been slow but it is showing promise in several states across the country. The Animal Legal Defense Fund has ranked U.S. states in their order of protection based on 20 different categories of protection.

It seems that a lot of southern states, which also have low ratings in the care of their human populations, also neglect their animals. These, along with other states like Alaska, Wyoming, Utah and Idaho make up what is called the "Bottom Tier" of protection. The "Top Tier" includes states like California, Washington, Illinois, Colorado and eleven more. The in-between "Middle Tier" has Pennsylvania, Nevada, Arizona and Hawaii plus others.

The Animal Legal Defense Fund: All Our Clients Are Innocent...

The number one state for animal protection is Maine; number fifty is New Mexico. Here's the scenario...

"The disparity in various jurisdictions’ animal protection laws demonstrates the unfortunate reality that, in many places, the law significantly underrepresents animals’ interests. However, the Rankings Report also presents an opportunity to improve laws everywhere. New animal protection laws continue to be implemented around the country by motivated lawmakers and their constituents — just like you."

Some notations from ALDF...

Maine maintains its top rank

New Mexico ranked last for third year in a row

 Most improved: Maryland

Major trends: Animals included in protection orders and laws prohibiting sexual assault of animals

But, yes, I feel, at least from Internet activity, that the public is becoming more conscious of the rights of animals. And they are finding out just how much love and affection pets can contribute to your household. They become family and hope they have found their forever home. We cannot let them down!