Hurricane Ian

Ron DeSantis Is A Right Wing Threat, Undermining Basic Human Rights, Education, Health Care, And Harming Public Safety!

Ronald 4 Comments

Florida, the state I have lived in for 34 years, since 1989, has become a right wing threat under Governor Ron DeSantis.

DeSantis has banned an elective African American Studies Advanced Placement Course in Florida High Schools, claiming it has no educational value.

DeSantis has fired an elected Prosecutor, Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warren, for publicly disagreeing with the governor’s stand on abortion rights and transgender health care.

DeSantis has cracked down on the Disney Company and its control of its properties in Central Florida, because they disagree with his policies and actions.

DeSantis is planning to promote a policy of guns “open carry”, without any permit or training or licensing, in all public places, which will insure mass murder incidents occurring ever more as happened at the Parkland Florida School Massacre in 2018 and the Orlando Florida “Pulse” Massacre in 2015.

DeSantis is banning books in public schools and libraries, and threatening prosecution for teachers or librarians who defy him. This is censorship, totally against American democratic values, but it will not stop students from inquiry about all kinds of issues, but has the effect of intimidation.

DeSantis has as Florida State Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo who is undermining protection for seniors or children or anyone else with the COVID 19 Pandemic, as he works with DeSantis on banning of masks and vaccinations as Florida policy.

DeSantis has fired school board members in several counties, and appointed Republican replacements that are dictating policies and curriculums in local schools.

DeSantis has set out to destroy the New College of Florida, in Sarasota, a liberal university which has received great honors and reputation. He has put a right wing extremist onto its board, and the President of the university has been fired, and the plan is to fire faculty members who do not fit the version of DeSantis regarding what is proper education.

DeSantis has interfered with college professors at Florida state universities, dictating what can be expressed in classes and put into class syllabi, and working to end tenure rights.

DeSantis has banned any protection or safety for gay and transgender children, which will promote suicides, as his puritan view of sexuality permeates the state of Florida.

DeSantis has declared war on empathy, decency, compassion, and is more concerned about so called “guilt” that white students might feel, totally preposterous, and at the same time, having no concern about the effect on students of color.

DeSantis’s war on abortion rights is also taking away a woman’s control over her body, putting Florida into the crosshairs of right wing control by an authoritarian minded man who wants to be President of the United States.

DeSantis also formed a political stunt about immigration, shipping Venezuelan migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, promoting his nativism agenda.

DeSantis has declared war on people of color; science and medicine; education and libraries; gays, lesbians and transgender individuals; women’s rights over their own bodies; elected officials who defy him; corporations who disagree with his views; immigrants; and he has shown no concern about public safety from unstable individuals who will have license to kill innocent citizens with firearms.

DeSantis is promoting intolerance, hatred, division, and destroying the reputation of Florida, at a time when the cost of living is high and housing prices are out of sight; the state is trying to recover from Hurricane Ian; and the public health threat from COVID 19 is still killing Floridians every day.

And since he did not react to recent examples of antisemitism displayed by White Supremacists and Neo Nazis, that is another great concern.

But his lust for power is unchecked, and he must be challenged and stopped, before he becomes an ever greater threat to the nation and the world beyond just the state of Florida.

All decent, humane people must rise up and resist, even as DeSantis had a law passed barring demonstrations that might block traffic, so one can expect the possibility of the use of police forces to crack down on the freedom of assembly.

This is not a time to sit on the sidelines, as what is happening in Florida could become the future of the entire nation, if Ron DeSantis was to go on and to win the Presidential Election of 2024!

A Growing Sense Of Overwhelming Challenges Facing America As Midterm Elections Arrive In Six Weeks!

Ronald 3 Comments

This author and blogger has a growing sense of overwhelming challenges facing America as the nation faces the Midterm Elections of 2022 less than six weeks from now.

The horror of the massive damage of Hurricane Ian, after all the other natural disasters that Climate Change have brought to the nation and the world in the last few years, is multipled by the threat to American democracy and democracies elsewhere.

More than any other midterm election cycle, the present one is a challenge to the stability of the American nation.

America is a divided nation with at least a third of the nation living in delusion and fantasy, and with the worst elements of human nature displaying themselves on a regular basis. This includes, in no special order, misogyny, nativism, racism, homophobia, theocracy, and the promotion of Fascist ideologies.

Promotion of conspiracy theories and incessant lying and deceit by Donald Trump and a vast number of Republicans undermine the American nation and the world!

We are on the brink of not only disarray increasing in America, but the possibility of a World War III, promoted by an unstable, evil tyrant, Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation, as he continues the assault on Ukraine!

The challenges reminds us of the 1930s and early 1940s, demonstrating that the battle for democracy and social unity is a never ending struggle!

Hurricane Ian Puts Florida Governor Ron DeSantis On The Spot: How Will He Handle The Disaster?

Ronald 4 Comments

Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, who clearly wants to be President of the United States, faces a major crisis that puts him on the spot!

How is he going to handle Hurricane Ian, with millions of his constituents in crisis?

And will he conduct himself properly in his dealings with Democratic President Joe Biden, who has been to the forefront of this crisis, even as it was developing?

This is a test case for crisis leadership, and arrogant, right wing demagogic Ron DeSantis is likely to cause controversy, and show lack of empathy, sincerity, compassion, and decency, since he has no element of any of these characteristics!

On the other hand, Joe Biden exudes empathy, sincerity, compassion, and decency throughout his nearly half century of political leadership.

This may well be the test of Ron DeSantis’s planned Presidential candidacy, as the likelihood is that he will fail miserably, but will blame others, rather than take responsibility for the reaction to this natural disaster!

Will he even show the kind of leadership that former Governor Jeb Bush demonstrated in numerous hurricane crises in 2004-2005 when he was in charge in the “Sunshine” state?

And short term, how will this horrendous disaster affect the Florida Governorship election, which is less than six weeks from now, and will Democratic opponent Charlie Crist gain an advantage?

Crist was lucky that there were no major hurricanes in the four years he was Florida Governor as a Republican (2007-2011).

This crisis will be a possible forerunner of a DeSantis-Biden confrontation in 2024!

Hurricane Ian Reminds Us Of Climate Change, And Momentarily Unites Americans!

Ronald 2 Comments

The disaster of Hurricane Ian, a massive, historic hurricane hitting the west coast of Florida as I write, is an excellent reminder of Climate Change, even though Republicans continue to deny it, and work against finding solutions.

This author and blogger lives on the east coast of Florida in Boca Raton, and we have been spared the direct hit, but it is pure luck and coincidence, and anyone living in Florida has to face the reality of the dangers of hurricanes and climate change!

The damage that will be wrought by this monster hurricane, with more than 150 MPH winds and massive flooding, will require cooperation between the state government of Florida, under Ron DeSantis, and the Democratic Presidency of Joe Biden.

DeSantis will have to stop partisanship and acknowledge federal help, which is already forthcoming, and it seems already is acting appropriately, appreciative that Biden is having no limits in what he will promote for the survival and stability of millions of people!

But the issue of hurricanes will not go away, even after this tragedy, and it is time for politicians to stop their games of climate change denial, and acknowledge climate change is real and getting worse by the year, and cooperate to cope with it in the next decades, as the situation will not improve without willingness to overcome party politics!