Florida, Florida, Florida!

[pbrower2a]

I am typically slow to suggest a thread for one state unless something comes to the fore (such as the plot to kidnap the Governor of Michigan, which, had it succeeded, could have had effects similar to John Brown's raid in 1859.

The antics of the Governor have begun to look as egregious as those of Donald Trump, and many see him as the 'logical' successor of you-know-who, especially if you-know-who should die be crippled with a stroke. Florida politics look increasingly like a corrupt machine in some ways resembling a land about 90 miles to its south, if in the service of crony capitalism instead of Marxism-Leninism. Remember well that Marxist-Leninist revolutions often succeed most readily in lands under the thrall of crony capitalism, and that political vileness that typically precedes a socialist revolution is itself evil.

I'm sure that Florida politics and especially its erratic Governor could easily outshine (or out-stink, depending upon your taste) the antics of Donald Trump, who seems to have chosen to live in alligator country. (Trump dreads dogs, and alligators eat dogs, so Trump must feel safer in Florida, I suppose).

Erratic patterns of behavior grow over time and encompass more things. One of those is education, a huge chunk of state budgets. Florida has had a reputation for a good system of public universities, but Governor DeSantis seeks to find a "Christian" alternative to the College Boards.

Florida Mulls 'Classical' Christian Alternative To SAT And ACT Testing

The College Board's standardized tests are the latest target of Gov. Ron DeSantis' campaign against the organization.
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By 
[url=https://www.huffpost.com/author/sara-boboltz]Sara Boboltz
Feb 18, 2023, 07:13 PM EST
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As Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis continues picking fights with the College Board over “wokeness,” the state’s Department of Education is searching for an alternative to the board’s SAT and ACT college entrance exams.
State officials have been meeting with Jeremy Wayne Tate, who founded the company Classic Learning Initiatives in 2015 as an alternative way of measuring student ability, the Miami Herald reported Friday.


Tate’s educational philosophy centers around using the Socratic method to teach the traditional Western literary canon, largely made up of works by white men. A company board member said the test follows the “great classical and Christian tradition.”
The SAT and ACT have been criticized for years for how they incentivize “teaching to the test” or prioritizing test material over all other material that could also benefit a student’s education.

But recently, DeSantis and other conservatives have begun attacking the organization behind it, accusing the College Board of going too far with diversity and inclusion efforts. A new AP course on African American studies offered by the College Board was rejected by DeSantis’ education department earlier this year, and the governor has even suggested the idea of banning AP classes in Florida entirely.
Henry Mack, senior chancellor of Florida’s education department, supported Tate and his Classic Learning Test on social media.
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Mack tweeted Thursday that the test “offers the opportunity for all our colleges & universities to rightsize their priorities.”
On Friday, he was more succinct: “CLT, not CRT!” (CRT, or critical race theory, has been a conservative boogeyman for years in the era of the Black Lives Matter movement.)

Mack has said that the American public school system “often compels or cultivates the treacherous belief that students should be taught to either hate others based on race or that the free society we are so fortunate to enjoy is inherently racist, stacked against the marginalized.”
“We’re thrilled they like what we’re doing,” Tate told the Miami Herald of the Florida officials. “We’re talking to people in the administration, again, really, almost every day right now.”



Tate told the Miami Herald that the College Board’s SAT has become “increasingly ideological” due to having “censored the entire Christian-Catholic intellectual tradition” and other “thinkers in the history of Western thought.” On Twitter, he called the College Board “one of the most ideologically extreme organizations in American education.”

His Twitter page contains at least one retweet from Jordan B. Peterson, the men’s rights activist, and self-authored sentiments about the West declining because people have drifted away from Christianity.

Tate also serves on the board of the Maryland Family Institute, a religious advocacy group that opposes abortion.
On Friday, Tate tried to refute charges of leading a right-wing company ― he says it is neither right-wing nor left-wing ― by pointing to how his test includes passages written by Karl Marx and Susan Rice, a national security adviser in the Obama administration. The company also boasts on its website that its sample test “features passages from Aristotle, Benjamin Franklin, Adam Smith, Pope John Paul II, and even Susan Rice.”
With DeSantis eyeing a run for the White House in 2024, his state’s feud with educational institutions appears to be far from over.


(Huffington Post)

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Presidential Historian Michael Beschloss Torches 'Local Mussolini' Ron DeSantis
The author highlighted the "scariest thing of all" about the potential 2024 GOP presidential candidate.

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By 
[url=https://www.huffpost.com/author/lee-moran]Lee Moran

Mar 7, 2023, 03:06 AM EST


NBC News presidential historian and author Michael Beschloss warned how Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ® poses more of a threat to democracy than former President Donald Trump.

Appearing on MSNBC at the weekend, Beschloss noted how political candidates try to win nominations “by trying to appeal to what they think will work.”



And potential 2024 GOP presidential candidate DeSantis has tried to transform himself from “a sort of nondescript political leader and member of Congress” into “a local Mussolini in Florida with the book banning and the brutal tactics and even this week this suggestion that bloggers have to register with the state for the honor of writing about the governor and other political leaders,” he said.

“We have to call this what this is,” Beschloss added. “This is fascism and authoritarianism that goes even beyond what Trump has talked about. That’s what he thinks is going to work in that party and in a way that’s the scariest thing of all.”


https://www.huffpost.com/entry/president...6db70fa0e5

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Comment: it is regrettable that anyone needs to compare Governor Ron De Santis to a Bad Guy of similar ethnicity. It is more unfortunate, though, that the comparison  has validity. I would have no problem in comparing a neo-Nazi of German origin to Nazis. We all must reject our own rogues for their evil.

In Why We Fight, the Italian-American film director Frank Capra skewered fascism, whether German, Italian, or Japanese, with a conclusion about the fascist demand that people under fascist rule not think but instead credere, obbedire, e combattere  (believe, obey, and fight). Contrast what is necessary for democracy: we must sort out the truth for ourselves, rejecting nonsense, madness, and outright lies. Communism may be an abject failure for economic results and the body count, but for good reason we need to have the Communist Manifesto in the public library. Nazism may be demonic evil, but how can we know if we do not have Mein Kampf to leave no question? Protocols of the Learned Elders is absurd in its contention that people generally competent in many fields of endeavor comprise a monolithic plot that includes all Jews from babbling infants to senile people awaiting the end from Alzheimer's and even the drunks and beggars along with the alleged plotters of exploitation and degradation of all gentiles. (Conspiracies are generally for losers such as semi-literate mobsters and people seeking gain from such pathetic methods of enrichment as insurance fraud, as shown in the cinematic masterpiece Double Indemnity). 

We have people who would take away our freedom so that they could get more profits from economic shortcuts, wage cuts and harsher terms of employment, the quashing of competition, corrupt privatization, and wars for profit. Such people have backed fascism in Germany, Italy, and Japan, but they are in America too. They find people who market this vile 'product' much as ad agencies sell tobacco and alcoholism. They find disgruntled people who see opportunity by taking away opportunities and assets of others. They convince cranky people that fascism is on the side of ideas that they never examined. 

Truth is never an easy achievement except if trivial. Neither is thrift, self-control, integrity, investment, nor the honing of talent. We seek the truth and do the other necessities of personal success if we are to have a chance -- and to let others have their chances.

[pbrower2a]

[pbrower2a]

Does anyone want to take another look at my thread on dictatorial taste?

[pbrower2a]

Bad news: the sick "Goyim Defense League" that purports to defend non-Jews (goyim is the Hebrew word for non-Jews of all kinds, irrespective of merits which Jews recognize) from the conspiracy of Jews to debase, dominate, and exploit gentiles... nonsense because there aren't enough Jews to do that and most Jewish successes can be attributed to well-honed talents, hard work, investment, integrity, and professional dedication and because Jews according to such conspiracy theory don't even attract gentiles to sell out fellow gentiles and join them because Jews supposedly look down upon all gentiles. Yes, so much that Jews were heavily out of proportion among non-blacks in the struggle for civil rights for southern blacks, and that Christian Arabs do well !in Israel. The Goyim Defense League is violent, and probably a latent terrorist group.

Good news: a Florida sheriff recognizes those creeps for what they are.


Sheriff to hate group: 'I'm honored to be on your hit list'

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by LENNY COHEN | The National Desk
Thu, March 2nd 2023, 9:35 PM EST


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[url=https://weartv.com/news/local/gallery/sheriff-hate-group-honored-your-hit-list-florida-jewish-volusia-county-mike-chitwood-bill-public-nuisances-litter-stalking-projecting-messages-first-amendment-randy-fine-religion-goyim-defense-league]
Sheriff Mike Chitwood had harsh words for members of hate groups, Feb. 27, 2023. (Volusia Sheriff's Office)

?subject=Sheriff%20to%20hate%20group:%20%27I%27m%20honored%20to%20be%20on%20your%20hit%20list%27&body=Here%20is%20a%20weartv.com%20article%20that%20you%20might%20like%20%0A%0Ahttps://weartv.com/news/local/sheriff-hate-group-honored-your-hit-list-florida-jewish-volusia-county-mike-chitwood-bill-public-nuisances-litter-stalking-projecting-messages-first-amendment-randy-fine-religion-goyim-defense-league

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (TND) — A Florida sheriff has made it clear there's no place for hate in his county.

Quote:We stand beside our Jewish neighbors," Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood said Monday as he started a news conference that lasted an hour. "We are not going to tolerate this.

Chitwood was referring to a series of incidents involving "the white supremacist neo-Nazi hate group Goyim Defense League."



He said members of that organization had dropped explicit hate propaganda around neighborhoods and parking lots; draped banners across a major road, International Speedway Boulevard; and projected messages onto Daytona International Speedway.



People seen using megaphones to shout anti-Jewish hate messages near Chabad of South Orlando recently were shown at the news conference on Feb. 27, 2023. (Volusia Sheriff's Office)

The sheriff also said they used megaphones to shout hate speech and “terrorize” people outside the Chabad of South Orlando, which is not in his county.
Several state representatives were also there, pushing for the passage of HB 269, titled “An act relating to public nuisances.”

Florida's HB 269, titled “An act relating to public nuisances” by Lenny Cohen-Wpec on Scribd


If passed during the legislative session that starts Tuesday, it would ban littering with hate propaganda, projecting it onto a building or stadium, and other activities such as stalking.
Places of worship and cemeteries would also be protected.
Anyone found breaking the law would be guilty of a hate crime and a third-degree felony. The bill also includes civil penalties.
Rep. Randy Fine, R-Brevard County, is Jewish and a sponsor of the bill. He explained the bill is guaranteed to pass.

Quote:There is no First Amendment right to litter,” Rep. Fine said. “There is no First Amendment right to graffiti, there is no First Amendment right to assault, there is no First Amendment right to block someone’s access to the place where they pray. In Florida, if you do that, you’re going to go to jail, and you’re going to go to jail for a very long time.

Chitwood noted no representative of the Goyim Defense League was there, despite some making death threats online including to “put a bullet in” his head, hack his computer, and “dox” him.

Quote:I wear that as a badge of honor,” the sheriff said. “Go for it. That’s my message to you. Go for it.

Quote:You came to the wrong county,” he added. “I stand with my Jewish friends and I’m honored to be on your hit list. It’s an honor to be sought after by a bunch of punk thugs like you. That’s my personal message.

https://weartv.com/news/local/sheriff-ha...nse-league


comment: Bravo, Sheriff Chitwood!

[Kinser79]

Oh how lovely. Good to see that not much has changed around here. PBR is still being ignorant, of course. I'm surprised I haven't seen Eric the Ignoramus post o this topic yet. He usually never fails to contaminate this board with his presence.

Lets get a few things straight here.

1. Florida is a unique case. Always was, always will be. It is unlike any other state, even in the South. Louisiana comes close, but without the French Baggage. Essentially, imagine a piece of Long Island floated down to where Miami is. That's Florida. We just regularly purge ourselves of communists.

2. Florida is not a swing state. It used to be back in te 90s perhaps. But as the Silents have died off the state has turned deep red and is likely to remain that way.

3. Florida is close to Cuba and we hate anything that smells of communism. It can largely be argued that a large proportion of our population also relocated from other lesser, more regressive states (Like Commiefornia--which is a literal shit hole these days) and as such we won't put up with a bunch of nonsense.

4. DeSantis isn't able as governor to set the legislative agenda. The Legislature does that. They are very very very locally elected so we get all kinds of weirdos in Tallahassee. Honestly, I want the weirdos there, then they are far away from my customers.

5. Chitwood is my Sheriff. I voted for him twice and will do so again this year. He does his job. Come to my county and break the law you'll end up his guest. Frankly given the way Volusia is, he should have just let the Nazi scum come and do their thing. It would be more entertaining.

The Bethune-Cookman Area is very very dark and we know how to handle actual racists down here.

6. This same stuff happens in other states too. They just don't admit it. Sunshine laws are great. They also expose the, sometimes, stupidity of politicians.