What’s so great is that DeSantis is just laughably, impossibly awful at like 98.4% of even being a candidate. He offers nothing to anyone, except for rubes hanging out on 8CHAN and stuff like that.
NBC News reviewed text messages from four DeSantis administration officials, including those directly in the governor's office and with leadership positions in state agencies. They requested the recipient of the message contribute to the governor’s campaign through a specific link that appeared to track who is giving as part of a “bundle” program.
...“The bottom line is that the administration appears to be keeping tabs on who is giving, and are doing it using state staff,” a longtime Florida lobbyist said. “You are in a prisoner’s dilemma. They are going to remain in power. We all understand that.”
...NBC News spoke with 10 Republican lobbyists in Florida, all of whom said they couldn't remember being solicited for donations so overtly by administration officials — especially at a time when the governor still has to act on the state budget.
That process that involves DeSantis using his line-item veto pen to slash funding for projects that the same lobbyists whom they are asking for political cash have a professional stake in. Most of the lobbyists said they felt pressure to give to the governor's campaign...
“What the f--- am I supposed to do?” one lobbyist said. “I have a lot of business in front of the DeSantis administration.”
“The ethics behind this is questionable at best, especially when the budget has yet to be acted on,” another Republican lobbyist said...
Being a politician would definitely suck, but if it's not your thing, why put yourself thru it? (That's a rhetorical question, we know "why".)
As I'm sure you've heard and as no surprise to those of us who are so thankful for the freedom to have a governor who cares enough to decide for us what's fit to read, Rod is prickly and uncomfortable in public, isn't the most charming personality under any circumstances, and either hates to &/or isn't capable of making small talk.
That would be bad enough if it was all, but, perhaps to compensate for being so socially awkward and inadequate, he's a bully, too. And not only to the press, although he certainly is that.
When it comes to republicans, it's hard to beat Nicole Wallace:
Marj, on the other hand... (I mean really, can you imagine waking up next to this every morning?)
Re: Where's the FL Gov Ron DeFascist thread?
Posted: Sun Jun 04, 2023 6:02 pm
by Shirley
Turns out, DeeeeeSantis was for Fauci, before he was against him:
(You can stop after the first 20 seconds or so.)
Re: Where's the FL Gov Ron DeFascist thread?
Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2023 12:48 pm
by jfish26
This story is a neat encapsulation of the MAGA playbook: break or frustrate the function of basic government services, then blame the services for not functioning, and then open a grift.
Opinion | In DeSantis’s Florida, it’s vouchers-for-all, even the wealthy
Florida public schools are having an awful year. Record numbers of teachers have left their jobs, and those who remain face a minefield of ambiguous culture-war dictates about what they can say and how they teach.
And it’s about to get worse for Florida’s beleaguered public schools.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) recently signed legislation that might radically undermine the state’s education system by making Florida’s already robust school voucher program the largest and most expensive in the country.
Beginning in July, the state will make it possible for every Florida K-12 student to receive a taxpayer-funded voucher or savings account worth $8,648. And for the first time in Florida, the vouchers will be available to children from wealthy families, even those who are home-schooled or who already attend private or religious schools. The money can go to tuition and educational expenses.
[...]
In a state infamous as a magnet for schemers and grifters, there’s plenty of reason to worry as millions of dollars in new spending will soon pour into schools that have little accountability. When DeSantis celebrated passage of his vouchers-for-all gambit as a victory for school choice, he was no doubt being cheered on by those with no ideology other than diving into any trough freshly filled with public money.
Re: Where's the FL Gov Ron DeFascist thread?
Posted: Tue Jun 06, 2023 3:53 pm
by Shirley
Re: Where's the FL Gov Ron DeFascist thread?
Posted: Tue Jun 06, 2023 4:12 pm
by zsn
I am hoping Bonta will put out a warrant for his arrest on charges of human trafficking.
Re: Where's the FL Gov Ron DeFascist thread?
Posted: Tue Jun 06, 2023 4:45 pm
by KUTradition
there’s gotta be legal issues with all this…or, at least there should be
..."The plaintiffs’ adolescent children will suffer irreparable harm — the unwanted and irreversible onset and progression of puberty in their natal sex — if they do not promptly begin treatment with GnRH agonists," wrote Hinkle, who was appointed by former President Bill Clinton in 1996. "The treatment will affect the patients themselves, nobody else, and will cause the defendants no harm. The preliminary injunction will be consistent with, not adverse to, the public interest. Adherence to the Constitution is always in the public interest."
..."There is no rational basis for a state to categorically ban these treatments," Hinkle wrote....