After whining non-stop about tech company “censorship” when private businesses enforced their terms of service on Agent Orange, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis showed us what honest-to-dog censorship looks like when he signed a bill banning the 1619 Project and discussions of critical race theory in Florida’s public schools. Now he’s out to identify thought-crimes at state universities: [Miami Herald]
In his continued push against the “indoctrination” of students, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday signed legislation that will require public universities and colleges to survey students, faculty and staff about their beliefs and viewpoints to support “intellectual diversity.”
The survey will discern “the extent to which competing ideas and perspectives are presented” in public universities and colleges, and seeks to find whether students, faculty and staff “feel free to express beliefs and viewpoints on campus and in the classroom,” according to the bill.
The measure, which goes into effect July 1, does not specify what will be done with the survey results. But DeSantis and Sen. Ray Rodrigues, the sponsor of the bill, suggested on Tuesday that budget cuts could be looming if universities and colleges are found to be “indoctrinating” students.
When asked, DeSantis didn’t name any instances of indoctrination — he says he hears “worries” from parents. But lack of evidence that legislation is needed to address a problem is no obstacle to DeSantis, who follows the Trump-GOP model of government by trolling. DeSantis couldn’t identify a single example of critical race theory being taught in K-12 public schools, or trans girls dominating girls’ sports teams, or widespread voter fraud. Yet he championed and signed legislation addressing all these fictional problems.
I’m not happy with my alma mater’s response to the latest outrage:
The University of Florida issued a statement that upheld the Gainesville-based school as a “marketplace of ideas where a wide variety of opinions are expressed and independent inquiry and vigorous academic deliberation are valued.”
“We believe the survey will reflect that, and we look forward to widespread participation across campus,” the statement said.
Maybe they felt like they had to say that since they’re probably in a shitty financial position after decades of budget cuts, followed by the pandemic, and have been implicitly threatened with further budget cuts. But I hope the students freep the living fuck out of that survey, at UF and every other state school.
DeSantis ran as a Trump acolyte to win the GOP primary but ran toward the center to get elected, which he did by a hair. When first in office, he did some non-Trumpy things, like increasing budgets to address environmental problems and raising teacher pay. I’m not sure exactly when he decided to stop governing altogether and commit to full-time trolling. Maybe it was the pandemic and the undeserved praise he collected from political gossip rags that credited him for Florida’s weather.
As I’ve mentioned, he probably figures Florida is getting redder, and the evidence of the last two election cycles bears that out. I keep hoping his full-time hard-right trolling will be a turn-off to voters, but I guess we’ll have to wait until next year to see if Florida has gone full Alabama.
Open thread.
Elizabelle
Ron DeSantis is scary. I wish he could be recalled. I have a nephew in Florida, other than that, I do not want to spend a penny in the state. Money is the only way out of staters can get back at this dictator type who likely wants to go national.
Baud
Whatever the results of the survey, DeSantis can spin it to his advantage. The only way to win is not to play.
Tony Jay
So they want quotas in place for racists, homophobes and conspiracy theorists or they’ll defund children’s education?
I think a pretty good advert could be cut by Democratic candidates explaining why this is bad.
Old School
Theme parks will be exempted from having promote that it is not a small world after all.
Betty Cracker
@Tony Jay: The likely Democratic opponent in 2022, current Ag Commish Nikki Fried, had a pretty solid clap-back:
Emma from Miami
Well, that nails it for me. Once my father leaves this world, I leave Florida.
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker: That is most excellent!
Cameron
I think the hard right turn started when he decided to run for President. This fascist stuff is red meat for the national right-wing audience.
WaterGirl
@Emma from Miami: I’m not sure which is worse – that they are not even hiding it anymore, or that there are a whole lot of people who are not horrified.
ian
The definition and goalposts of ‘indoctrinating’ will be moved according to need.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: Even if every response is “other” and the “please explain” box says “Fuck Ron DeSantis”? (Just speculating here; I have no idea what the format for the loyalty survey will be.)
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Those responses prove indoctrination!
Betty Cracker
@Cameron: You could be right. I keep hoping he’s overreached and will get clobbered for it next year. Florida is a weird place politically. We’re overdue for a correction. (Hope springs eternal and all that.)
MattF
I’ve noticed that DeSantis gets major fluffing from the RW noise machine. I think the powers-that-be see him as a manageable and popular politician— in the TFG tradition and appealing to TFG’s fans but not actually a psychopath.
Almost Retired
This is absolutely chilling. DeSantis is like a cross between Trump and Putin. I hope DeSantis’ growing profile will provoke some blowback from a jealous Trump, and undermine his standing with Greater Wingnuttia. But I’m probably dreaming.
Joe Falco
Is there something in the Gatorade in Florida that’s causing Republicans there to have their heads lodged inside their anal cavities? Just asking questions!
Emma from Miami
@WaterGirl: I am a Miami black swan. Older, Cuban, very liberal. Being here has been painful. Leaving will not be.
gene108
I would fill out my survey about how there’s no positive positions being taught about the benefits of Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei ideology. It’s total anti-NSDAP indoctrination all the time, and see if Republicans will get behind launching a pro-Nazi course, lecture series, or campus Nazi chapter.
Cameron
@Betty Cracker: I don’t know if I’ll be here to find out. I have to move in a couple weeks and can’t find anything that I can afford. May wind up back in Philadelphia (there are worse fates).
Enhanced Voting Techniques
As I mentioned is a previous thread, so how long before DeSantis goes there and starts some CCP style social credit rating system for Florida residents?
TomatoQueen
I am deeply saddened by UF’s complete collapse, and a little surprised, but then, I don’t know who owns them.
Last night on public tv (how does this survive?) was a reshowing of an American Experience piece on Joe McCarthy, with full biography, much resurrected footage and much context that normally you don’t see in shorter documentaries. Owen Lattimore, China scholar, gets more than just a look-in. This includes also a full treatment of that unspeakable scumbag Roy Cohn, as well as one Joseph Welch. Then, this today.
There are too many damn coincidences lately.
eclare
@gene108: Don’t tempt them!
Mallard Filmore
@gene108:
“You have failed the DeSantis loyalty test. Funding for this school will be zeroed out in the next budget and the facilities will be turned over to Liberty University.”
Brachiator
@Tony Jay:
You nailed it in one stroke.
Spanky
I’m having a sandwich on multigrain bread, and half the seeds they sprinkle on top look like ticks, which of course fall off and disperse randomly on the counter and ??? I think I have tickbite PTSD.
I mentioned last thread that my answer on the questionaire would be “Go fuck yourself”, but freeping it in a variety of other ways would be entertaining too, so long as we get to read about it.
catclub
Unless you ask WC Fields.
Betty Cracker
@Cameron: It’s more affordable in the boonies, as I’m sure you know. But then you’d have to live in the boonies! It’s not everyone’s cup of tea. ;-)
SiubhanDuinne
@Betty Cracker:
My alma mater is USF. Do you know whether they’ve issued a statement yet?
gene108
@gene108:
A response would be like the below, to see how many Republicans bite to demand pro-Nazi ideology be taught:
Despite its name, the National Socialist Workers Party, in Germany, a pro-business political movement founded in 1920 by Anton Drexler, who sought to restore national pride in Germany, after their crushing loss in WW1. In some ways, his goal was similar to what President Reagan successfully did in restoring our pride in this country after the turbulent 1960’s, the left wing overreaction to Watergate, and the liberal surrender in Vietnam. His political party had success in the 1930’s. They rebuilt German heavy industry, by supporting private enterprise. They built, what was then, the best highway system on the planet giving the similar boost to their automotive industry the President Eisenhower Interstate System has given America.
Yet this political movement is constantly demonized by academics, the mainstream media, and popular culture.
leeleeFL
@Betty Cracker: l have good feelings about Nikki Fried, she seems like a member of my Tribe. I will send her some ducats, she will use them well, I think!
TaMara (HFG)
@Emma from Miami: You have my deepest sympathies. Watching my younger brother slip from liberal, open-minded to Christian Conservative republican (now, libertarian) after he moved to FL has been devastating. When I found out my niece voted trump in 2016 I was crushed.
And I get hives just spending the weekend visiting my family in NE.
JoyceH
@Almost Retired:
I don’t think you’re dreaming and I think a Trump anti-DeSantis rant is more likely than not. After all, DeSantis edged him out in that straw poll down there – this cannot be tolerated!
gene108
@eclare:
I know. Part of me is tempted to think there’d be enough pushback and/or historically literate people working for DeSantis and the Republicans in the state house to point out Nazis are bad, and unAmerican. We literally fought a war over it.
The other part of me thinks so many Nazi sympathizers have wormed their way into the Republican Party that they’d welcome pro-Nazi courses with open arms.
leeleeFL
@Joe Falco: Suffice it to say, I drink only filtered or bottled water and never walk outside without shoes. Can’t take chances with the crap in this place.
Cameron
@Betty Cracker: Alas, I don’t drive, so if I lived in the boonies I’d wind up eating raw gecko and drinking swamp water.
UncleEbeneezer
So are these attempts to prevent indoctrination going to apply to All the Supply-Side Econ schools?
Anoniminous
Doubt Florida will change until it stops getting a yearly influx of replacement old white bigots for the old white bigots who croak.
artem1s
FL board of Governors.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_Board_of_Governors#University_campuses
Tim Cerio; attorney
10/27/2017 – 1/6/2024
Aubrey Edge, President & CEO, First Coast Energy
2/3/2020 – 1/6/2027
Patricia Frost, retired school principal
10/27/2017 – 1/6/2024
Edward Haddock, lawyer & businessman
11/24/2020 – 1/6/2027
H. Wayne Huizenga Jr., businessman
1/10/2013 – 1/6/2027
Ken Jones, lawyer & businessman
11/20/2020 – 1/6/2027
Darlene L. Jordan, former attorney
6/22/2017 – 1/6/2024
Sydney Kitson, Chair, real estate developer
6/22/2017 – 1/6/2024
Brian Lamb, Vice-Chair, business executive
3/29/2019 – 1/6/2026
Alan M. Levine, President & CEO, Mountain States Health Alliance
6/22/2017 – 1/6/2024
Charles H. Lydecker, insurance executive
6/14/2019 – 1/6/2027
Steven M. Scott, physician and entrepreneur
3/29/2019 – 1/6/2026
Eric Silagy, President & CEO, Florida Power & Light
3/29/2019 – 1/6/2026
Kent Stermon, COO, Total Military Management
3/29/2019 – 1/6/2026
Richard Corcoran
Commissioner of Education
6/17/2019 –
Will Self, Chair, Advisory Council of Faculty Senates
8/1/2020 – 7/31/2021
Ally Schneider, Chair, Florida Student Association
6/1/2020 – 5/31/2021
My bet is that Federal Guidelines are preventing DeSantis from awarding contracts to somebody on this list.
gene108
@MattF:
At the end of the day, the underlying tenet of Trumpism is that “the cruelty is the point”.
There’s no way to embrace that without becoming a psychopath
leeleeFL
I think awful pychopathy (?) Is a pre-req to join these days.
James E Powell
Right after Trump lost, when he decided to run for president in 2024.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Am I wrong for the thoughts I’m having regarding DeSantis-voting olds (and really, any of his voters) and COVID in America’s wang? I mean, the same stupid fucks who won’t vax are the same stupid fucks that will be all thoughty and prayery when Epsilon, Iota and Kappa start striking down a lot of saintly white haired drawling grannies….
?BillinGlendaleCA
@MattF: One of the things that TFG had that appealed to his base was not being a politician, these guys don’t have that.
OGLiberal
I don’t live in Florida, go there rarely, and don’t know many people from there but my guess is that it’s getting redder because asshole racist old white folks from Michigan and New York keep moving to places like the Villages when they retire. I don’t think the wingnut growth there is homegrown – the wingnuts there have been wingnuts for generations. It’s because of the imports. As a resident of the Northeast I say, “good riddance”. Would love to never have to worry about FL again in presidential races – prefer to focus on states like VA (really don’t have to worry about that one any longer), NC, GA and TX – among others – where younger, not wingnutty people choose to relocate from deeper blue areas of the country.
Ruckus
@gene108:
The point to remember is how much actual difference is their in the basic ideology of the two groups. My thought is that it’s not a lot.
Kristine
Another USF alum here. They were a commuter campus when I was there in the late 70s. Idk if that’s changed. A campus with a large percentage of older students may give different survey results.
MisterForkbeard
I hope the universities all word their surveys in such a way that it complies while clapping back at DeSantis and the rightwing:
“Have you ever felt that a professor might disapprove of political views such as communism or fascism?”
“Have you ever felt punished or looked down upon for espousing a political opinion or example from conservative media in class? (Examples: Barack Obama was born in Kenya, Biden eats children, Michele Obama is secretly a transvestite)”
Betty Cracker
@SiubhanDuinne: Not that I know of; I think they’re all sort of under the gun! One thing I neglected to mention in the OP (that can be confirmed in the Herald article) is that the survey isn’t required to be anonymous. Schools should definitely step up and protect faculty, staff and students if the fascists try to make them put their political views on public record.
@Cameron: Haha! That would certainly be true if you lived in my ZIP code, but there are some lovely small towns that are somewhat walkable!
@OGLiberal: This is 100% true. We’ve always had Dixiecrats-turned-Republicans in the interior and Panhandle, but the state started turning redder when retirees from NY stopped flocking to South Florida and retired wingnuts from Ohio, Michigan, etc., started flocking to The Villages.
Villago Delenda Est
Are these motherfuckers all the reincarnations of Mikhail Suslov?
Villago Delenda Est
@MisterForkbeard: “Kamala Harris is the begotten daughter of Satan?”
Betty Cracker
@James E Powell: It definitely pre-dated Trump’s loss. I think it was around the time Politico and other gossip rags started throwing panties at him for weathering the pandemic so well last winter (i.e., governing a state that’s warm during the winter so the virus is less likely to be transmitted). DeSantis is a skilled media manipulator though. He got Trump’s attention by going on Fox and defending him, then parlayed the endorsement into a nomination, burying establishment Repubs along the way.
Bostondreams
@gene108:
Except apparently there is no requirement that these be anonymous. They had to make a statement that the survey will not impact tenure or hiring decisions. You don’t say that unless you get names…
Brachiator
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
As is the case in many states, older people tend to get the message when it comes to vaccinations.
In Florida, over 80 percent of the people between age 65 and 84 have received at least one shot. And for those over age 84, about 76 percent have received at least one shot.
geg6
It’s going to be all MAGATs, all the time in FL if my friends are any indication. One couple we are friends with are selling their condo, deciding that they don’t really live the snowbird life and that buying a place on the VA, NJ, MD or DE coast would be better as they could spend four or five months there, with their grandkids for a couple months since they won’t be in school during summer. Plus a much easier commute to a condo or house there from here. Also too, fewer MAGATs. Another friend who owns a house in FL and usually spends five months there in winter is now cutting back to 2 1/2 months because that’s all she can take of the people there.
WaterGirl
@TaMara (HFG): That is how I feel about my entire family in Colorado.
WaterGirl
@Bostondreams:
Oh my god, are we supposed to believe that? Do they thing we are idiots?
Mike in NC
I’m about midway through Michael Wolff’s “Siege: Trump Under Fire” and he relates how Steve Bannon thought the Orange Clown might not run in 2020 for health reasons, and Bannon was thinking about forming a new White Supremacist GOP ticket with Sean Hannity as his running mate. Problem was, Hannity was thinking that it should be the other way around. Too soon to guess which fascist will get the nomination for 2024. Tucker Carlson perhaps? It’s pretty clear DeSantis thinks of himself as the rightful heir to Trump’s golden throne.
James E Powell
@Betty Cracker:
I was just being a smart ass. I don’t know anything about Florida politics except that I regard Florida politics and its impact on national elections with fear & loathing.
Villago Delenda Est
@WaterGirl: They do, in fact, think we are idiots. Just like their base.
They are of course, mistaken.
(BTW, WG, I had to go to text mode to respond to you properly. Visual mode didn’t show the hyperlink to your post. Latest Firefox and Windoze 10.)
OK, update. I just responded to Mike in NC, and could do so with the visual tab ruling. So this is an annoying random thing.
kindness
If we could somehow convince the poor and lower middle class to vote I suspect Florida’s government might be more balanced. Sadly I have no idea how to make that happen.
Villago Delenda Est
@Mike in NC: DeathSantis DeRacist DeStupid demonstrated his totalitarian tendencies yet again by signing this obviously unconstitutional bill.
JoyceH
@Mike in NC:
I would have loved to have been eavesdropping into the conversation when a political consultant explained to Bannon that if he actually intended to run for elective office, he should probably stop dressing and grooming himself like a homeless man.
Cheryl from Maryland
I’d answer that the curriculum uses the most standard and approved texts which have been fact-checked by leading scholars. Supplementary materials for U.S. History from University Presses in the South, such as Louisiana University Press and University of North Carolina Press (Per my history undergraduate spouse, those two presses are the best and most liberal re the Revolutionary and Civil Wars). See how Death Santis Shit-for-Brains handles that. I know one science prof at Univ. of Florida — he specializes in post-Cretaceous animals, especially how they evolved to be large animals due to warmer temperatures (Global Warming makes for BIG BIG snakes and other reptiles, plus the E word). He can’t be happy. My undergraduate and graduate degrees were in Art History, focused on Northern European Art of the 16th – 18th C. Which means many, many nudes. If Death Santis Shit-for-Brains comes for Art History, this means war (cue appropriate gif of Bugs Bunny sawing off Florida from the rest of us).
raven
This railing about how stupid he is. . . stupid. The dude knows exactly what he is doing.
Patricia Kayden
@Tony Jay: What happens when voters are perfectly fine with fascism because it’s their fascists? I assume the majority of Floridian voters are perfectly fine with DeSantis shutting down speech of which they don’t approve.
eclare
@raven: I agree
Patricia Kayden
@gene108: They’ll launch pro-Confederate classes which is pretty much the same thing.
eclare
Colleges make a lot of money from out of state students. I wonder what effect, if any, this will have?
raven
@eclare: Now Kemp. . .
Elizabelle
Biden is going to give a speech on gun violence at about 3:30 today.
FelonyGovt
@Betty Cracker: Interesting, as a (long ago) native New Yorker the cliche was always that the older NY folks retired to Florida- and they were mostly Democrats. Is that less so now?
eclare
@raven: Which match are you watching today? I’m watching France Portugal.
Almost Retired
@eclare: That’s a great question. I just googled it, and a semi-reliable web site indicated the out of state percentage was only 3%. That seems low, but I guess not atypical for large states (the University of California system is mostly locals as well). And, I suppose if Florida is drawing from neighboring states, this requirement won’t be a deterrent.
Elizabelle
@raven: Max Boot agrees with you. DeSantis does know exactly what he is doing with the constant bomb-throwing. His WaPost column. Its conclusion:
Villago Delenda Est
@raven:
In the case of COVID, he knows exactly what he’s doing, and it’s stupid, yet politically astute for currying the favor of the wingnuts. He’s condemning untold thousands to death, just like mass murderer TFG.
Martin
Man, the willingness of states to destroy their higher education systems is impressive. Guessing we’ll be going on a recruiting run again (we got some good hires out of UWisc after Walkers idiocy) and good luck getting tech/engineering firms. More for CA, I guess.
eclare
@Almost Retired: Three percent does seem low. But if so, that’s negligible.
Betty Cracker
@kindness: That’s the eternal question, and I don’t know the answer either. But I think there’s at least a chance DeSantis’s wingnut TV preening will backfire in 2022. I could be wrong, but I don’t think most people are on board with this hard-right culture war bullshit.
raven
@Martin: Sonny Perdue is in the running for Chancellor of the University System of Georgia.
Leto
(WaPo) Nearly 900 Secret Service members were infected with the coronavirus. A watchdog blames Trump.
Bolded part is mine; not sure why the writer felt the need to put that in considering for that time period Trumpov’s Admin was in power for basically 99% of it. One admin advocated for injecting bleach and sunshine up people’s asses, the other admin advocated for following science/medical advice. But sure, we don’t know the breakdown.
raven
@eclare: I’m guessing that will be best but Amir of Tony’s take would be welcome. That Sweden-Poland game was a barn-burner!
JMG
I will be seriously disappointed in our current crop of college students if 99 percent of their responses to this survey aren’t sophomoric efforts at dirty jokes. Oh, that’s too high. I imagine the right and left activists on campus will take the survey seriously, but very few others will.
Citizen Alan
@Patricia Kayden:
The question that keeps me up most nights is “How big can the percentage of U.S. citizens who would prefer to live under a white supremacist dictatorship get before democracy cannot possibly survive?” Because right now, at a minimum, it’s 1/4 of all voters.
raven
@Villago Delenda Est:
“he doesn’t care about how much collateral damage he inflicts”
Neither did Mao, Giap, Stalin or Hitler.
raven
@JMG: Like the dude at Stanford Law.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Almost Retired: I think the University of California, it would depend a bit on the campus, I think(and was my experience) that UCLA and Berkeley would have more students from out of state or out of the country. For example, he had a pretty good contingent from Hawaii at UCLA, many from a private school in Honolulu(I’m sure many from my class knew a thin black guy with big ears a year younger than them).
Martin
@Almost Retired: UC gets more – depends on campus. Berkeley and UCLA quite a few undergrads, the rest not so much. We’re generally capped at 20% of seats for out of state/international, so what many of us lack in out-of-state we fill in with international. Mind you, these don’t offset the number of in-state seats we have which is set by the legislature. We have two caps – one in-state and one out-of-state that don’t interact.
Bit different at the grad level. Lots of out of state/intl students. Same for at least some FL unis. UCF has a massive online masters population – most being out of state. Not sure those students will care though.
Martin
@?BillinGlendaleCA: We draw a lot from Hawaii. Guessing these days the fraction at Cal/UCLA is lower just due to more national competition, but the less competitive campuses get a lot from Hawaii because we draw fewer from the other states.
Jeffro
“You mean, instead of actually governing, I can film myself reading ‘The Art of The Deal’ to my young kids and ReQublicans will fall all over themselves to support me??? Seriously? Well, ok then – let’s troll!”
Steve in the ATL
@Martin: you should have them bring a few million gallons of Great Lakes water with them when they come
Almost Retired
@Martin: Yeah, that’s true, California instate percentages are nothing like that 3% Florida statistic (if it’s accurate). By “mostly locals,” in my mind I was comparing it to my son’s out-of-state experience at the University of Arizona, which the California kids called “UC Tucson.” UA was super-dependent on out-of-state students, especially Californians. Whereas here, the CA Legislature was considering out of state caps at 10% for the UCs, which the system itself was, understandably, resisting.
Jeffro
This is me & Mrs. Fro’s plan down the road. DE’s beaches are just great, and they’re in a true-blue state.
Almost Retired
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Ha! I had a big mouth opposing counsel who went to Occidental with the big-eared kid. When the kid became a Senator, the guy mentioned that he knew who he was in college, but didn’t know him well. By the time he became President, the story changed to “one of my closest friends Freshman year.”
Villago Delenda Est
@raven:
That’s Max Boot as quoted by Elizabelle, not me, but it’s on target. Fire for effect.
Villago Delenda Est
@Almost Retired: We don’t call Knight U the University of California – Eugene for nothing, you know.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Martin: When I was at UCLA, I think the largest out-of-state contingent was from Hawaii.
Almost Retired
@Villago Delenda Est: There are at least three kids in my neighborhood in Los Angeles at UC Eugene right now. To paraphrase a great philosopher:”When California sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re sending some people that have lots of C’s, and they’re bringing those grades with them. They’re bringing low SAT scores. They’re bringing weed. And some of them, I assume, are B students.”
Tony Jay
@raven:
I missed today’s earlier matches shuttling The Boy to Judo and then Beavers but followed them feverishly on the BBC. Every time I looked away Spain scored!
Alternating between both of tonight’s games. Germany getting beat 1-0 by Hungary in the middle of a biblical downpour, which is good, because one half of the Optimum Draw requires it.
Unfortunately the other half requires France to beat Portugal so Hungary finish 2nd and play England next round, but Ronaldo made it 1-0 from the penalty spot after the French keeper punched a Portuguese player.
Oooooh, he’s given France a penalty.
1-1!
The game is afoot!
ETA – Never a penalty, though. M’Bappe dropped for that.
HinTN
@Betty Cracker: I live in the boonies and love it. There are drawbacks, however. I didn’t drive my car for a month (reasons) and some rodent ate the wiring harness.
raven
@Tony Jay: Because of a savage post surgery attack I can’t sit, watch and type so I’ve had to just watch and not converse.
Uncle Cosmo
@Villago Delenda Est:
Of course?? A much smaller fraction of “us” are idiots than their base. OTOH, a far LARGER fraction of “us” are easy prey for panic, despair, weeping, whining, and/or outright catatonia. That’s why they have so much fun shitting on us – it’s so simple to get us to waste our energies in emotional tumult, when we ought to be gathering our powers and our courage to “take [figurative] arms against them/ And by opposing end them.”
Uncle Cosmo
@Villago Delenda Est: Preying DeMantis.
J R in WV
@Tony Jay:
Did the FR keeper get a red card after that, or a pay raise?
ETA: Beavers? You got beavers in Britain? Is that like Cub Scouts? I was a Cub Scout…
Villago Delenda Est
@Uncle Cosmo: Point well taken, and yes, Rose Twitter is a great place to whine.
Villago Delenda Est
@Almost Retired: If they’re bringing weed, they’re idiots, because weed is cheaper here and much more available. Like every second storefront, it seems.
Tony Jay
@raven:
Damn man, you show one of those nurses so much as a flash of ankle…
Uncle Cosmo
Not to mention the vast majority of Italian-Americans nationwide, who for the most part have been just fine with fascism since it was invented in the Old Country a century ago. Once the drawbridge into the All-White Castle was lowered for them after WW2 and they were Godfathered into the fold, no ethnic group has labored longer and harder to yank it right back up after them and line the battlements with tommyguns and boiling oil to keep everyone still outside on the far side of the moat.
Tony Jay
@J R in WV:
Hold on, another penalty for Portugal… 2-2. We’re back to playing Portugal again.
Anyhoo, the referee could well have got a red for that, but since it wasn’t Pepe he punched no wine and flowers.
Yeah, The Boy is a proper little Beaver. He could have gone up to Cubs but with missing so much due to Covid they’ve let them stay in the messing around group a bit longer. He’s the kind of kid that, as soon as he gets into the crafts and tasks part of it he’ll stay in right up to Scouts.
Bloody hell, Germany have scored, which means England will be playing them… shit! No, Hungary have scored again! It’s mental!
raven
@Tony Jay: This seems to be related to opioids.
rikyrah
@raven:
ICAM.
Like with Dolt45, it’s DELIBERATE MALICE.
rikyrah
@Leto:
What bullshyt. You know damn well when those agents were infected.
And, sure, maybe they didn’t die…
but, how many have health issues now because of COVID.
Tony Jay
@raven
Understood. Heal up, pal.
steve g
I can’t seen Ron as president. His politics are sufficiently right wing, but he himself does not come across as a tough guy. He is very much the supplicant who needs a superior to rule over him. He’s happy when he’s with Trump! He doesn’t really know how to be the boss of people either. I don’t think he could survive a national campaign.
Commenting at Balloon Juice since 1937
2+2=5.
Don’t deny me my freedoms, man.
Uncle Cosmo
Leonard Leo is available. Or whoever is crappo di tutti crappi amongst the vile bazillionaires who make up the Global Oligarchy Project. Keep in mind that’s what this is really all about –
PaulWartenberg
Floridian here. UF alum here. This is all a fucking replay of the goddamned Johns Committee of the 1950s and 1960s that went after commies, gays, and “undesirables”. Our state-level version of the McCarthy witch-hunts that intentionally targeted and hurt people just for shits and giggles because the bullies wanted their pure conservative ideology dominating Florida forever.
Read this from the Independent Alligator paper: https://www.alligator.org/article/2020/07/a-skeleton-in-florida-s-closet-the-johns-committee-s-history-at-uf
PaulWartenberg
@TomatoQueen:
the state universities are all screwed because the state lege can cut their funding in a heartbeat. Even a major school like Florida will get gutted to send a message in spite of how it will hurt our state’s national (and international) standing in higher education ranks.
Jamey
@Jeffro: Come to the Jersey shore. Help turn Ocean County blue!