Tag: DeSantis

Three Travel Advisories are in Effect for Florida Because of Its War on “Woke”

The Legislature Continues to Focus on Issues Gov. DeSantis Can Boast About on the Campaign Trail

Trish

Equality Florida logoA third travel advisory has been issued for Florida. Equality Florida, the state’s largest organization devoted to fighting discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender idenity, is warning not to visit or relocate to Florida. The group joins The Florida Immigrant Coalition and state chapters of the NAACP in the same message:

Don’t come to Florida

The move comes in response to…the passage of laws that are hostile to the LGBTQ community, restrict access to reproductive health care, repeal gun safety laws, foment racial prejudice, and attack public education by banning books and censoring curriculum.

Florida’s legislature continues to churn out culture war laws devised by Gov. Ron DeSantis. One source from within the body even told a Politico Florida reporter that the governor’s office must sign off on any changes to bills as they work through the legislature.

Florida’s elected Republicans find themselves ignoring serious problems like a crisis in homeowners insurance that is causing Florida residents to sell their homes. They have also produced no bills dealing with climate change even as the Fort Lauderdale airport had to be shut down from torrential rain and flooding. Instead, they focus on issues that Ron DeSantis wants to be able to boast about in his primary challenge to disgraced former Pres. Trump.

Fascism Rising: DeSantis Cronies Cancel Liberalism at Small College

Pensito Editors
New College Florida
New College Florida

Vice News: “If Ron DeSantis has his way, what his board did at New College will happen at every public university in Florida.

“Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ handpicked board of trustees voted to shutter New College’s diversity, equity, and inclusion office on Tuesday, the latest step in its hostile takeover of the school and a harbinger of what Florida’s entire university system could look like in a few months.

“The board, which has a majority of DeSantis appointees, voted 9 to 3 to abolish the school’s Office of Outreach and Inclusive Excellence.

“Christopher Rufo, a rightwing education activist and one of DeSantis’ appointees to the board and [who singlehandedly made Critical Race Theory into fake issue], argued during the meeting that diversity efforts undermine fairness. ‘DEI goes against those principles because it restricts academic freedom, it degrades the rigor of scholarship, it treats people differently on the basis of skin color or other inborn identities,’ he said during the board meeting.

“DeSantis has sought to make an example of New College, a tiny liberal arts school with a mostly progressive student body that has a large LBGTQ community. Earlier this year he replaced most of the college’s board of trustees with right-wing loyalists who quickly moved to fire the college’s president, replace her with an ally, and push the liberal-leaning school hard to the right.”

Normalizing Ron: Right-Wing Columnist Says the Left Should Welcome the DeSantis Alternative to Trump

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Rich Lowry in Politico: “Progressives have to decide two things. One is if they really want Trump gone, or if they want him as a foil for the duration. If it is the former, they should welcome DeSantis as a potential vehicle for ending what they believe is the ongoing state of political emergency represented by Trump. If it is the latter, DeSantis could spoil everything. The second is whether they consider Trump-led efforts to undermine the 2020 election the chief threat to our system, or whether they consider populist-inflected conservatism itself the threat. Again, if it is the former, DeSantis is the way out of the purported crisis. If it is the latter, DeSantis is indeed a bigger threat than Trump, since he’d have a better chance of winning a 2024 race and a much better chance of governing effectively. By any reasonable standard, DeSantis’ supposed sins are peccadilloes compared to those of Trump.”

Newsom to Florida: ‘Freedom Is under Attack in Your State’

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Deadline.com: “Continuing the war of words between Florida and California – and potentially previewing the presidential campaign for 2024 – California Governor Gavin Newsom has issued a new ad attacking Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Newsom’s July 4 weekend ad claims “Freedom is under attack” in states run by Republican governors, like Florida. It goes on to demonize several decisions led by the conservative DeSantis.

“’Your Republican leaders, they’re banning books,’ Newsom says in voiceover of images of DeSantis. Republican governors are ‘making it harder to vote, restricting speech in classrooms, even criminalizing women and doctors,’ Newsom’s ad claims….

“Newsom called on Floridians to ‘join the fight’ against DeSantis. He added that disgruntled citizens in the Sunshine State are welcome to move to California, ‘where we still believe in freedom. Freedom of speech, freedom to choose, freedom from hate and the freedom to love. Don’t let them take your freedom.’”

Under Gov. DeSantis, Florida Has Become the Least Affordable Place to Live in the United States

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CBS News: “Rents, which are rising by double-digits nationwide, are positively ballooning across Florida, fueled by a surge of people who relocated to the state during the pandemic. Florida’s population is growing faster than any state but Texas: Between 2020 and 2021, 300,000 people moved to the Sunshine State.

“In February, Realtor.com designated Miami as America’s least affordable place to live. Average monthly rents in the metro area, at $2,930, are on par with San Francisco and Los Angeles — and double the level considered affordable for people in the region given the local median income. Miami, Orlando and Tampa have the fastest-growing rents in the country over the past year.”