Florida, Florida, Florida

CoffeeHorse

*sip*
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
DeSantis only won 49.6 to 49.2

Against the most interesting and charismatic candidate Florida Democrats have ever had, in a blue wave election.

Democrats absolutely have the voters to be competitive down here, but the most boring candidates imaginable. Gillum was an anomaly, and I don't think he's going to run again.
 

Pocket

jumbled pile of person
Citizen
Florida was at one time a purple state.. it's slide into right wing extremism is somewhat recent.
I get that; what I mean is that "Trans people not only have the right to get a sex change, we should give it to them for free, funded by taxpayers" seems like it would have been seen as the kind of radical idea that even Democrats wouldn't be unanimously in favor of until extremely recently, if that.
 

Ungnome

Grand Empress of the Empire of One Square Foot.
Citizen
My guess is Florida's existing Medicade regulations is if it's Doctor prescribed, it's covered unless outright blacklisted. They didn't think of putting it on the list when the regulations were originally enacted, probably because at the time trans issues weren't really on the radar for most voters. Now that Republican politicians are using it to sow fear into their followers said oversight must be corrected......
 

Patch

Active member
Citizen

Records obtained through a series of public-records requests show that DeSantis’ office recently developed a sweeping plan to overhaul higher-education oversight in Florida. The governor’s proposal would have centralized more power in boards run by the governor’s political appointees, made colleges and universities more dependent on money controlled by politicians in Tallahassee, and imposed more restrictions on what schools can teach.

The DeSantis plan would have even stripped university presidents of the ability to hire professors.

Higher education isn’t the governor’s only potential target.

The records show that DeSantis’ staff also drew up proposals targeting newspapers, state attorneys and school boards. They devised plans to take control of everything from local toll-road agencies to high-school sports. And amidst it all, they wanted to make it harder to legally challenge the governor’s own authority.

All these ideas were included in legislation drafted at the request of the governor’s office in the weeks leading up to the 2022 legislative session, which began in January and ended in March. The drafts surfaced in post-session public-records requests seeking copies of communications between DeSantis’ office and the Legislature.

Only a few fragments ultimately made it into bills that were passed into law, though it’s not clear whether that was because DeSantis decided not to pursue them right now or whether legislative leaders privately objected.

But DeSantis could resurrect any of them in the future — whether through executive edict or, if he is re-elected this fall, in future legislative sessions. The governor’s office declined to answer questions about DeSantis’ intentions.

But even if he decides not to do anything further, the DeSantis drafts offer a window into the thinking of one of the most powerful Republican politicians in the United States — one who is widely expected to run for president in 2024.

Oh, apparently he's also retaliating against another corporate entity in his state, per an email newsletter I'm subscribed to:

In a scoop that seems to have been hand-fed to the conservative sports publication Outkick, DeSantis plans to veto a $35 million bill subsidizing the Tampa Bay Rays spring stadium. Subsidies for sports franchises are highly controversial, but there is no pretense that DeSantis is acting out of fiscal conservatism or principled libertarianism. The story reports plainly that he is retaliating against the franchise for its expressions of support for gun control: “DeSantis’s decision is in response to the Rays politicizing recent shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde ahead of a matchup with the Yankees in May.”
 

Wheelimus

Administrator
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
Without a new stadium they're going to move out of Florida, so way to lose a sports team dumbass.
 

CoffeeHorse

*sip*
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
DeSantis will probably resurrect these plans if he wins reelection. It hasn't exactly been a secret that he wants to do these things.
 

PrimalxConvoy

NOT a New Member.
Citizen
I accidentally came across this news, amongst serval links to right-wing comments about "thousands of customers leaving Disney+" due to it being "woke", which seems untrue.

It's amazing how Republicans can take so long to enact swift gun control laws and yet they can pass laws based upon a personal vendetta in a month or so:

-

Apologies if this has already been covered.
 

CoffeeHorse

*sip*
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
DeSantis wants a statewide grand jury to look into illegal immigration cases, including any direct or indirect facilitation by individuals, organizations, or local governments. Florida's Supreme Court has now granted the request.
 

CoffeeHorse

*sip*
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
The worst part is I'm not sure this is even a downgrade from what our schools were already teaching.

My history classes were not great.
 

PrimalxConvoy

NOT a New Member.
Citizen
America seems to be a bit of a sh*t-tip, eh? I work at an Islamic school and although there are some similarities (no education about sex issues, etc), I doubt anyone would be behind the "faux slavery" (sic) BS that I just saw at that Twitter post...

However, even straight people can't display their photos of family or partners at schools, or even offices in Japan. I was told not to mention my girlfriend to my kindergarten/primary school pupils, even if it was just in passing. Such conversation is frowned upon in Japan.
 


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