The editorial boards of two Florida dailies, the Orlando Sentinel and Sun Sentinel, marked the May 1 imposition of the state’s 6-week abortion ban by jointly publishing an editorial titled, “A frightening tyranny over Florida women.” It’s paywalled, but here are a few excerpts:
Much of the nation — including Florida now — resembles a theocracy where women’s bodies belong to the state, not to themselves…
The greatest immediate danger is denial of emergency care to women with pregnancy complications. Physicians will necessarily think twice about what care to provide, even if delaying it might have lifelong consequences.
Many are to blame for Florida’s theocracy, starting with former President Donald Trump, who boasts of appointing the Supreme Court justices who repealed Roe v. Wade.
There are the six justices who did it; the Florida legislators who took advantage of what they did; Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose state Supreme Court appointments were as maliciously purposeful as Trump’s; the six Florida justices who signed an intellectually corrupt opinion excluding abortion from the protection of Florida’s constitutional right of privacy; and Attorney General Ashley Moody, who maintains that the privacy right applies only to the disclosure of information, not to police-state control of personal conduct…
Like Roe, Griswold and Obergefell depended upon the Constitution protecting the people of the United States from government intrusion into their private lives.
But now, many millions of women in the U.S., and in Florida particularly, are the handmaidens of theocrats who are doing just that.
The opportunities for so many people to do so much harm owe to fundamental fault lines in the constitutional order, and the triumph of “state’s rights” in the defeat of democracy…
Thomas Paine wrote, “tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered.” But in Florida today, the tyrants are winning.
Exactly right. Floridians have an opportunity to defeat the theocrats and restore abortion rights by passage of an amendment to the state constitution via a ballot initiative in November. But it needs 60% to pass, which is a tall order. We’ll see.
Meanwhile, Politico is still trying to make DeSantis happen. The latest is an article with the dumb title, “Has the DeSantis comeback already begun? His next act: Republican money machine.” An excerpt:
TALLAHASSEE, Florida — Gov. Ron DeSantis is poised to take the most public steps yet to rebuild his political future after dropping out of the 2024 presidential race, campaigning for GOP candidates in Florida and beyond in the coming months — and taking a leading role in fighting an abortion-rights referendum in his home state.
Puts me in mind of a quote from Beatrix in Kill Bill, “Bitch, you don’t have a future.”
That said, DeSantis doesn’t really have another play except to align himself with the fanatical opponents of Florida’s grassroots abortion rights initiative. He knows the supermajority threshold makes passage difficult, so he’s positioning himself to take credit if the initiative fails to clear that hurdle.
DeSantis is inextricably connected with the abortion ban regardless — it was a presidential primary stunt that he 100% owns. I don’t think it bodes well for his political future beyond the most fanatical outposts of the wingnut welfare circuit, but who knows?
Politico goes on:
After months of sniping with Donald Trump, DeSantis will soon use his connections and fundraising network to help the former president — and is expected to bring in millions of dollars. But he’s also raising money for members of Congress, including Reps. Chip Roy (R-Texas) and Laurel Lee (R-Fla.). Both backed his bid for president.
Someone in comments the other day made an excellent point about the so-called DeSantis funding juggernaut. They noted that DeSantis was the generic not-Trump into whom Trump-weary GOP donors collectively poured their funds for the 2024 primary. Mostly on the strength of idiotic media hype and ignorance about Florida’s bizarre politics.
DeSantis has since proven to be a dud. Will GOP donors contribute to a slush fund so the dud can play kingmaker? Stranger things have happened in the Disarray Party, but color me skeptical.
Open thread.
Geo Wilcox
Did Casey cut Politico a check from that money she stole?
sxjames
Just popping in to say good morning :)
feebog
In 2028 DeSantis will be two years post Governorship. Will the wider general public have any impression of him other than that dud from Florida? Doubtful.
Betty
With a name like Politico, you might think these jokers would be clued in enough to remember how awful and embarrassing the DeSantis run was. Oh well.
MazeDancer
Hope VP sets up camp in FL.
It was heartbreaking to hear so many women “who don’t follow news” hadn’t heard of the law change.
Cannot figure out why people don’t care about what’s happening, but so sad to hear.
If you haven’t heard Mr. Biden’s remarks on the “student” protests – more than half the people arrested are not students – highly rec you watch him.
Here’s a link.
He was smart, strong, clear, and right.
Harrison Wesley
If one is an Olde Farte who is both white and wealthy, Florida is great. Not so great nowadays for raising a family (unless white and wealthy). I guess I’ve got somewhat jaundiced opinions, since I’m not a native and I live in a community of fellow Olde Fartes. It is interesting that Florida newspapers are far quicker to and much more direct in calling out bullshit than Our Liberal Media.
WaterGirl
They are trying to repackage DeSantis. How can they not know that DeSantis is out of code????
Jackie
60% is a hurdle, to be sure, but it’s doable – especially since legalizing recreational marijuana is also on the ballot! It, too, requires a 60% super majority to pass, but I have faith in today’s youth – and old hippies to get to the polls! 😉
John S.
@Betty: They are the Kraft Singles of politics. They just haven’t been forced to disclose that they are a “political cheese product” just yet.
Betty Cracker
Trigger warning: if you can’t bear to read about the puppy killer, keep scrolling…
From The Hill:
What a liar, and how unoriginal to offer a post-hoc justification of sociopathic behavior that invokes “the chiiiiiiilllldren.” But it’s good that Noem feels compelled to lie and spin more. Hopefully this incident tanks her political career, which never would have gotten off the ground in the first place.
Harrison Wesley
@John S.: Hmm. “Pasteurized Processed Cheese Food.” Yeah, pretty apt.
Harrison Wesley
@Betty Cracker: Ick.
Elizabelle
I wish we could train alligator commandos to go after these jamokes.
And dang, the overwhelmingly successful Kansas abortion referendum drew 59.16% against restrictions. A hair below the 60% needed.
But: presidential election year, and post-Dobbs. (FWIW, Dobbs decision came down June 24, 2022. Kansas vote was August 2, 2022. But we’ve seen a lot more of the bad effects by now.)
Dorothy A. Winsor
Someone needs to ask these politicians “Six weeks from when?” Because I guarantee you they don’t know that the calculation starts from the first day of your last period as week 0. So, at week 3, a woman be expecting her next period, assuming she’s regular. She doesn’t have 6 weeks to decide. She has 3 more at the longest.
wjca
Most people don’t closely follow political news because they simply don’t realize that it might impact them.
Their governor gives speeches occasionally, and claims to be doing something about disasters — although all they see is him showing up and getting in the way. Their legislators ditto. They may write laws, but those are full of impenetrable language, and mostly have only indirect impact.
So, until something up and smacks them in the face (e.g. Dobbs) they only pay attention (if they ever do) a few weeks before an election, when it comes time to decide who/what to vote for.
Baud
@MazeDancer:
To be fair, it’s not something important like gas stoves.
Scout211
This is a very big issue. But I don’t think these lawmakers really care.
Being irregular, my OB miscalculated my due date by over three weeks. I can’t believe they still calculate pregnancies this way. It’s just not accurate so much of the time until the ultrasound with actual measurements. And of course those are scheduled way into the pregnancy.
And I’ll bet most of these lawmakers cry “ick” when they think about periods. 🙄
Mike in N
Citizen Dave
I assumed that Florida has created a new state agency to track the, uh, activities of all the Florida women.
Kay
I don’t envy the organizers having to get to 60. That is a big lift. The last 5 are going to be touch and go.
I love how “60” is now “what is needed for a majority” in Republican and media land. I’m still clinging to (the reality) of 51. They changed the definition of “most”. I’m not going along with it.
Harrison Wesley
@Citizen Dave: Balloon-Head Gaetz is all over it!
Harrison Wesley
@Kay: IIRC, voters got to 60 here in restoring voting rights to ex-cons. Then the state legislature yanked the rug out.
Kay
Next they’ll apply this new definition, this strange math, to candidates. The Democrat has to get 60% or the Republican wins by default.
JoyceH
Maybe DeSantis campaigning against the amendment will be a good thing. Remember when W made that big pitch to privatize Social Security? The more he campaigned for it, the less popular it became. And unlike W, DeSantis is a lousy campaigner – his presidential run showed us that.
cain
This is interesting since it seems that there is some coverage about Florida being in play and the Biden campaign planning to do some woo’ing.
I think this is a good idea as Mazedazer laments – women do not know about the law so it’s a great time for MVP to show up and start talking about it and also what Biden has done for the country. We need to hit this state hard.
Kay
@Harrison Wesley:
OMG really? Heartbreaking. There is not much that is more nasty than the Right’s obsession with denying people with a criminal record the right to vote. Just mean spirited. Bullying.
Also funny as hell since so many Right wingers are criminals!
Kay
@cain:
Agree. Democrats can’t give up on Florida. It’s huge and diverse. They can’t walk away and be a self respecting political party.
They should find new consultants though. There’s some grift going on there, I bet. Someone is getting paid a lot for losing.
Ruckus
Betty, I know a lot of people have retired and moved to FL. Is that number a part of the problem? Is that number not as big as I’m making it sound? Because of course someone old might think about life and their future a bit differently than someone a third to a quarter their age – ask me how I know. It’s not that all old farts are turning into hateful old farts, far from it, but the perspective is a lot different, and if someone’s perspective was a bit conservative earlier in life it may get more so as they age. Just a possibility. And this from the perspective of someone who lives in a county that has a larger population than 40 states, getting remarkably close to 10 million residents.
Leto
Personally I think he does: Casey’s purse holder. He’s shown he’s extremely talented doing that. Standing just out of the spotlight, holding the purse, making sure the kids are all in matching outfits (the picked out) and not picking their noses…
I mean, you could probably replace him with a coat rack and nobody would know the difference. At least the coat rack would laugh naturally, and it could def pull off boots of any type…
narya
“Fetal personhood” will enter the chat in any state that passes a pro-choice amendment or statute. They’re already gearing up for it all over the damn place.
Harrison Wesley
@Leto: Supposedly Casey’s running for guv after Ron’s term is up. Consider it a sequel to the classic “A Fistful of Pudding.”
Jackie
OT: Not so great news for Eastman:
🤭 teehee!
lou
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Yeah, some women continue to have periods 2 or 3 months after they get pregnant. So those women don’t even have three weeks.
Anoniminous
DeSantis is done nationally. His only viable next moves are to run for Senate or a safe House seat. Senate is a better gig so I expect him to go for that, first.
(Edited)
West of the Rockies
I imagined Florida to be a fun, quirky, adventuresome place such as Jimmy Buffett described. A shame it is instead (by a slim plurality) a God-bothering bunch of judgmental, hypocritical morons.
JML
@WaterGirl: i’m all for repackaging DeSantis. He’d fit comfortably into a nice refrigerator box and then we can ship him to Timbuktu.
Trollhattan
@Anoniminous: He’s the Scott Walker of Ted Cruzes.
Ruckus
I like how so many rethuglicans seem to go for the gusto, limits on everything so that life is, what’s the word, pure? And not just pure but pure in their very narrow, very limited view of how all the rest of us should have to live. In a preordained, limited lifestyle that they would NEVER consider. It’s not that they want to be elected they want to be king or queen. Even England has mostly limited the royalty to figureheads – the leaders of society but not necessarily the leaders of the day to day government.
I wonder if conservatives have ever actually read the constitution or have any real concept of what this county is supposed to be. Because they sure seem to want to go to a time when we fought a war over the concepts that they want us to live under, and all the while they violate their own views of what life is supposed to be for everyone else. In a country that supposedly does not look through a bank book or a stock portfolio to determine someone’s human value.
sdhays
@JML: You monster! They have enough problems in Timbuktu without having to deal with our political garbage.
Maybe he can move to Ohio and run for governor there. That’s his spiritual home, after all (according to his shitty book).
Jackie
@Scout211: Speaking of ill-regular periods, when girls first start theirs, the first year or more, oftentimes their periods skip a month or more before the next one.
Ruckus
@JML:
If we are shipping him off to Timbuktu we can put him in a much smaller box. Just takes a bit of forceful, creative packing.
Scout211
Yes and females with PCOS can skip months.
catclub
That was horrible and probably still ongoing.
“You can vote if you have paid all your fines and restitution. We cannot even tell you how much you owe, or if you have paid it all, but we will prosecute you for voting illegally.”
catclub
@Ruckus: I am reminded of the XKCD cartoon of putting a bobcat in 1 out of every 20 boxes one ships to customers on E-bay, and getting a 95% positive rating.
OzarkHillbilly
The right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed!
What? You mean there’s more?
Bostondreams
In other Florida news, the state is going to pay parents and grandparents 150 bucks to take a one hour course so they can do ‘resiliency training’ in classrooms. ‘Resiliency’ is the state’s new language around character ed and mental health.
https://www.flgov.com/2024/04/18/first-lady-casey-desantis-unveils-first-in-the-nation-opportunity-for-parents-and-grandparents-to-support-students-in-the-classroom/
Anoniminous
This is a hoot.
catclub
Teaching how to say ‘Thots and Preyers’ to kids after a mass school shooting?
Harrison Wesley
@catclub: Also how to survive an attack of WokeWaves.
JML
@sdhays: lol, ok. How about Siberia?
OzarkHillbilly
@JML: Innocent people live in Siberia too. I suggest Pluto.
Soprano2
@MazeDancer: People are busy with their lives and don’t have time for it, or their perception is that all the news is negative (they’re mostly not wrong) so they don’t want it in their lives.
scav
Beat your kids early and often so that they’ll be resilient in their future free-market workplace.
Better still, by strict non-exposure, they’re hardwiring their offspring to be utterly unresilient when faced with their first encounter with gayness.
Ruckus
@OzarkHillbilly:
Some humans really are rather simple.
They are the perfect victims for TV commercials. And leaving out 90% of the language when (or IF) discussing laws. Often the most important parts.
HumboldtBlue
DougJ’s response was to throw up his hands and admit he can’t compete with that kind of bullshit.
I have nothing positive to offer on what’s happening in Florida, so I’ll shut up about that.
Soprano2
@Kay: They’re trying make it 60% and it has to win in 5 of 8 House districts in MO. (That’s really hard because these things win in the big population areas by a big majority but lose in the rural areas. They’ve decided it’s not fair if a majority of the people of the state want it if it’s not the “correct” people.) Right now the crazy caucus is filibustering the yearly authorization of the tax that pays for Medicaid because the bill that will put that on the ballot isn’t done yet, and the governor hasn’t signed the bill that will keep PP from getting Medicaid money. They really only care about hurting people they don’t like.
Uncle Cosmo
Remember the old attributed-to-Churchill-but-prolly-not adage,
Any man who is not a socialist at 20 has no heart, but any man who is still a socialist at 40 has no brain – ?
It’s easy to be a share-the-wealther at 20 because by & large you have nothing to share. By age 40 those with even a modest skill set and a modicum of decent luck (vs a long run of bad luck) is likely to have accumulated a spouse, a place to live (that isn’t your folks’) and stuff to furnish it with, a yearly holiday and the means to spend it pleasantly, and often children. It’s not unreasonable tp want to “conserve” this sort of life and defend it from anyone who aims to take it from them.
Baud
@Uncle Cosmo:
Younger people are actually more social too.
Trollhattan
Signs spotted on yesterday’s road trip that have me scratching me head.
“Transitioning is not suicide prevention.”
“You do not have to be a Jew to defend Jews.”
I’m just a country doctor, Jim.
Bostondreams
@catclub: well, the state has also banned school materials from discussing social and emotional learning, because they say it’s CRT-like. So at this point we are lucky at what we get.
” SEL in instructional materials are considered extraneous, unsolicited strategies prohibited in the
specifications for the texts and are not part of the subject-area standards. These include:
o Identity and identity identification concepts
o Managing emotion
o Developing relationships
o Social awareness ”
https://www.fldoe.org/core/fileparse.php/5574/urlt/SocialStudies-IM-Spec.pdf
Ruckus
@Anoniminous:
As an old fart myownself, I can tell you that was seemingly a pretty widely held view point not all that long ago, as in my lifetime, throughout much of humanity. And to me it has led to a hell of a lot of issues, problems and troubles in life that might take decades to actually overcome and very much should be overcome. Conservatives who want to regress to the tenth century or earlier are a big part of the problem.
Betty Cracker
@Bostondreams: I was thinking about infiltrating that program. I could use the $150! ;-)
Took a quick look at the “Resiliency” website, and I noticed degenerate gambler William Bennett’s “Moral Compass” book is a featured resource. (I’d as soon consult that Reaganite dickhead on morality as I’d seek advice from the Kardashians on how to live a humble, low profile life!)
I know the FL DoE already considers wingnut extremist Dennis Prager’s garbage children’s propaganda suitable for teaching, so that dreck will likely make its way to this program too. Lots of grift opportunities!
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
“A compass is round like a Roulette wheel.”
Soprano2
@Bostondreams: I swear, they want their kids to grow up to be assholes just like they are. SEL is all about teaching kids not to be jerks to each other.
Bostondreams
@Betty Cracker:
I work with LOTS of teachers and districts in my job. The good news is that the FLDOE got a TON of pushback for the Prager stuff even from district leadership. Not that it mattered to them, but it does mean that the Prager stuff isn’t really seeing the light of day in most places.
Melancholy Jaques
@HumboldtBlue:
Has anyone ever put together a panel of DeSantis’s Beltway promoters and asked them if they feel like idiots?
gene108
@MazeDancer:
Until Dobbs, rights were never taken away this dramatically. I don’t think it registers with people we’re going backwards. It’s not something anyone’s really experienced.
I think it’s also the reason the threat of Trump/Republican fascism doesn’t register with so many because it’s so outside people’s lived experience.
Betty Cracker
@Bostondreams: That is good news, and I appreciate the teachers, administrators, staffers, etc., who are pushing back. Y’all are heroes!
scav
@Uncle Cosmo: Oh, but don’t take away social security and medicare from those grasping “I did it all myself!” bootstrap-levitating, previously educated, suddenly conservative old farts.
Old School
@HumboldtBlue:
DougJ has excerpts from a NYT opinion column from today:
Jeffro
TRUTH
Baud
@Old School:
And they whine about Biden not doing interviews with them.
JWR
@MazeDancer:
This reminds me of that video from the other day of the young woman complaining about being unable to see the steel post that did so much (self-inflicted) damage to her ginormous SUV. Just f***ing clueless
ETA she heard the bump, but kept going anyway? Get outa here!. ;)
Marcopolo
Just heard from the MO pro-choice ballot initiative organizers: we’ve collected enough signatures to get it on the ballot! It’s been a multi-year effort w/ lots of headwind from the R state gov’t so glad it is happening.
Anoniminous
@Ruckus:
Oldfartalsotoo. But of the male persuasion so I didn’t undergo that social and cultural conditioning. Being a Nerdus Maximus I also didn’t undergo the social and cultural conditioning to expect that behavior from women and in fact found it very weird and off-putting.
Today I think, and suggest, the best way to fight that nonsense is to laugh at it. For one it drives Right Wingers totally bugfuck to be on the receiving end of hilarity and for two it drives Right Wingers totally bugfuck to be on the receiving end of hilarity.
catclub
Nimbyism
Trollhattan
In which I learn blue whales visit the California coast.
https://www.facebook.com/DanaWharfWhaleWatch/posts/831762698991295?ref=embed_post
Seeing one would be the experience of a lifetime.
prostratedragon
@Old School: I saw a cut of the original and my first thought was,”DougJ, retire!”
JustSecurity has the whole wonderful TFG Courtroom Extravaganza to date summarized in one handy graphic box.
A Ghost to Most
That’s what I call Texass, but Floriduh works as well.
As always, it’s the bipedal reptiles you need to worry about.
gvg
@lou: Technically they have extra time. If they are still having a period, they aren’t “pregnant”. I am sure that loophole will be removed soon.
kindness
Florida’s big problem wrt elections seems to be getting folk to actually vote. Not bothering to vote is the same thing as allowing the crazies to elect a crazy.
Manyakitty
@sdhays: hey! Leave us alone–we already have enough problems here!
Uncle Cosmo
Bullshit. If anything it’s zerosumism – any benefit “others” get from society is necessarily at the expense of those who (may or may not have) worked assiduously to make a life for themselves and theirs. That’s the basic narrative the Thugs have been pushing for eons: You aren’t getting the benefits you deserve because the eeeeebil Demonrats have given all the goodies away to undeserving people who aren’t like you,
What do we do to counter that narrative? We have programs. And no one trusts programs not to be corrupted or twisted up so that they don’t deliver as promised.
We need counter-narratives that refute Thuglican lies by acknowledging that they have a veneer of plausibility but at heart are demonstrably wrong. IMHO that’s the only way to (gradually and gently) scrape the less credulous away from their toxic crap. But who’s bothering to write them?
Ruckus
@Uncle Cosmo:
Actually it is.
And that is a huge part of the problem that society has, is that society wasn’t actually correct decades/centuries ago. And quite a bit of society is/has recognized this throughout much of the world. But parts of society that want to retain what now looks like the old ways will of course fight back because they think or want to think that this is the proper way of humanity. But it isn’t. We even say this in a way that can be taken out of context in our law. “All men are created equal.” First they aren’t in many ways and this should be part of the concept. Are we all the same size or strength or intelligence? No we are not. Are males and females the same? No we are not, we are equal, we are all humans but we are not the same. One could say we are effectively the two sides to the same coin, we are equal in our standing in the community but in many ways we are not the same. And I think many on both sides would agree that we would not actually want to be. Treated as equals absolutely, but just some of the issues raised in this post should show that we are in a few ways different. An example – I loved to play basketball, wasn’t bad at it but good enough to play even on a college team – no way. First my height, second and more important, my skill level, good in an amateur level way, but not within a lot of miles of any aspiring or actual pro player. But then how many of them know how to manufacture the molds to make Barbie Dolls, or machine metal to +/- .000025 tolerances?
We are all different in many ways but we are supposed to be equal in the eyes of each other, at least until we break, mangle, attempt to break the laws that make society better and recognize us to be treated reasonably and equally by OUR government and by each other. Humanity seems to very easily reject that last part, far easier than it recognizes us as a society.
I had to think a while and redo this a couple of times and I hope that I make what I’m trying to say correctly.
whatsleft
@Betty Cracker: at the risk of losing our curriculum, we do a monthly Wellness activity that focuses on conflict resolution and personal mindfulness in our Florida county, in elementary grades.