More Friday Male Beauty

 

Freedom Is Under Assault in DeSantis’s Florida

While perhaps never a liberal state, Florida never seemed hell bent to be more backward and reactionary than states like Alabama, Mississippi and Arkansas where ignorance and backwardness aew now celebrated (40 years ago, Alabama was more progressive than today). Now under Ron DeSantis and the Republican controled Florida legislature,  abortion is banned after 6 weeks - DeSantis jist signed the bill - and effectively illegal, freedom of the press is under assault, and gay, blacks and undocumented immigrants are the targets of censorship and state sponsored inhumane treatment. All of these attacks on freedom are being ushered in as DeSantis moves towards announcing his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination.  In some ways DeSantis is just as frightening an individual as Donald Trump.  He has no regard for the rights of those he sees as not supporting his fascist agenda and seemingly has an equally crazed ego. Florida is now a case study of why Republicans should never be allowed control a state much less the federal government.  One has to wonder when Floridians will wake up to the nightmare they have brought on themselves and realize that other than unresticted gun ownership, their rights have been stripped away.  A main editorial in the Washington Post looks at Florida, now one of the least free states in America,  DeSantis must be stopped.  Here are editorial highlights:

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) describes his state as “a citadel of freedom,” “freedom’s linchpin” and “freedom’s vanguard.” He titled his memoir “The Courage to Be Free” and called his budget a “Framework for Freedom.” In his State of the State address last month, he said: “We find ourselves in Florida on the front lines in the battle for freedom.”

The ongoing 60-day state legislative session in Tallahassee, which Mr. DeSantis is treating as a springboard to announce a presidential bid, shows the hollowness of his rhetoric.

Backed by GOP supermajorities in both chambers, Mr. DeSantis is waging frontal assaults on press freedom, reproductive freedom, free enterprise and academic freedom. Meanwhile, in the name of protecting gun rights, he has scaled back prudent safety rules. And now he’s poised to target undocumented immigrants, including “dreamers," with what will be some of the cruelest policies in America.

All of this should give pause to those looking to Mr. DeSantis as an alternative to the toxicity of Trumpism. Let’s look at some of Mr. DeSantis’s efforts to undercut freedom:

Freedom of the press

Mr. DeSantis wants to make it easy to successfully sue journalists who quote anonymous sources. The governor has set his sights on overturning a 59-year-old Supreme Court precedent in Times v. Sullivan, which requires plaintiffs suing for defamation to prove an outlet acted with “actual malice” when publishing erroneous information about a public figure. The governor is pushing a bill that would create the presumption under the law that any information attributed to an unnamed source is false.

This would have a chilling effect on whistleblowers and make it harder to hold corrupt government officials accountable. . . . .The measure would encourage venue shopping by trial lawyers whose clients want to harass journalists. It could also expose small newspapers, local TV stations, bloggers, talk-radio hosts, YouTubers and even online commenters to crippling liability. Even DeSantis admirers in right-wing media have mobilized against the measure.

Freedom to choose

Last year, Mr. DeSantis signed a ban on abortion after 15 weeks without exceptions for rape or incest. Apparently, that wasn’t extreme enough. He has since signaled support for legislation, passed by both houses of the legislature, which would outlaw abortion after six weeks of gestation and make Florida one of the most restrictive states in the country.

Free enterprise

Mr. DeSantis tried to build a better mousetrap. After Disney — the employer of 75,000 Floridians — publicly opposed one of his education policies, the governor retaliated by removing the company’s power to self-govern the land around Walt Disney World in the Orlando area. He dissolved a special tax zone that existed since 1967 and named a new board to oversee the land. But before Mr. DeSantis’s handpicked appointees took over this year, the outgoing board passed a series of covenants to tie their hands.

Last week, Mr. DeSantis ordered an inspector general to investigate the former board, and his attorney general is trying to find ways to invalidate the covenants. The governor floated hiking taxes on Disney-owned hotels, imposing tolls on roads into its theme parks and exploring other pressure points. “Ultimately, we’re going to win on every single issue involving Disney,” said Mr. DeSantis.

This hostility to the actions of private corporations repudiates what conservatives used to stand for. But it’s part of a pattern. Mr. DeSantis outlawed cruise lines from asking passengers on their own ships to be vaccinated against the coronavirus. He signed a law to impose daily fines up to $250,000 on social media companies that deplatform candidates for office in his state for any reason.

The freedom to teach and learn

The attacks on Disney started after the company criticized what critics have branded the “don’t say gay” law, which restricts classroom lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity from kindergarten through third grade. The legislature is expected to pass an updated law expanding the prohibition through eighth grade. Meanwhile, the governor is using administrative powers to try banning these subjects from being taught in any grade.

Mr. DeSantis also signed a law last year limiting how teachers can talk about race. Instructors are barred from suggesting students should feel guilty about racist acts perpetrated by earlier generations. The DeSantis administration announced in January that Florida won’t recognize the Advanced Placement African American studies course.

State efforts to undermine local control of education also have contributed to a frenzy of book banning, which Mr. DeSantis falsely called a hoax. A proposal under consideration in the legislature would essentially give a heckler’s veto over what’s taught and available in school libraries. Mr. DeSantis also continues to challenge academic freedom in higher education.

Meanwhile, there is at least one area where Mr. DeSantis has expanded individual rights — albeit in violation of common sense. He signed a bill this month that allows Floridians to carry concealed handguns without a permit, safety training or background check.

One of the cruelest steps Mr. DeSantis plans to take in the coming weeks to bolster his presidential bona fides is a crackdown on undocumented immigrants. He wants to require hospitals to collect data on the immigration status of patients, which would deter people from seeking needed medical care. Another measure under consideration would make it a felony to shelter, hire or transport any undocumented immigrant. Advocates say this could criminalize a lawyer driving a client to court or an American citizen letting a parent live with them. Landlords could face legal jeopardy for tenants who have an undocumented housekeeper or nanny.

Bryan Griffin, a spokesman for Mr. DeSantis, says Mr. DeSantis is fighting to keep Florida “free from things like" critical race theory; diversity, equity and inclusion programs; and “medical authoritarianism that can force ineffective covid vaccines on people.”

Now Mr. DeSantis wants to go national. He promises to “Make America Florida.” If the bullying coming out of Tallahassee is an indication of what that means, we think most Americans won’t want what he is offering.

Friday Morning Male Beauty

 

More Thursday Male Beauty

 

Civil Rights Groups Warn Against Travel To Florida

Much of Florida's economy - like a large segment of Virginia's economy - depends on tourism which flourishes when a state or region is welcoming and friendly to all.  This reality is seemingly lost to Ron DeSantis and the Republican controled Florida legislature who are making it ever more clear that only white evangelicals and white supremacists are welcome in that state. Everyone else is not only unwelcomed by the state government but needs to be fearful for their safety.  The result is the unusual step of Equality Florida, the Florida NAACP, and the Florida Immigrant Coalition all issuing travel warns advising members of their respective communities to reconsider travel to Florida.  I have noted before that we have vacationed in Florida for many years, but I will be very unlikely to go back and will consider Puerto Rico and other LGBT welcoming destinations in the Caribbean as alternatives when we seek an escape from cold weather.  Hypocritically, DeSantis has called the travel warnings a "political stunt" yet the racist, and anti-LGBT jihad he is leading is ALL about his posturing himself to attract the hideous GOP primary voter bas. USA Today looks at the situation which cannot be good for Florida tourism overall,  Here are excerpts:

Florida advocacy groups have issued a state travel advisory following the passage and pushing of controversial bills by Gov. Ron DeSantis this legislative session.

LGBTQ civil rights group Equality Florida and the Florida Immigrant Coalition, made up of more than 65 organizations, both warned people away from the state on Wednesday.

"Today, Equality Florida took the extraordinary step of issuing a travel advisory, warning of the risks posed to the health, safety, and freedom of those considering short or long term travel, or relocation to the state," according to an Equality Florida news release. 

Of concern are "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," Equality Florida wrote.

The Florida Immigrant Coalition said travel across the state should be done with "extreme caution." "It can be unsafe for people of color, individuals who speak with an accent, and international travelers," it said on a webpage made for its advisory.

Due to unconstitutional legislation supported by Governor Ron DeSantis and introduced by Legislative leadership, every county in Florida poses a heightened risk of harassment, possible detainment, and potential family separation based on racial profiling.

The coalition is referring to Senate Bill 1718 and House Bill 1617, legislation that is being pushed by DeSantis.

That legislation strengthens employment requirements, allows state law enforcement officials to conduct random audits of businesses suspected of hiring undocumented workers . . . . . Local governments would be banned from contributing money to organizations creating identification cards for undocumented immigrants and driver's licenses issued to non-citizens in other states would be barred from use in Florida – another provision critics say could lead to confusion and law enforcement profiling, especially in a diverse, visitor-filled state.

The travel advisories come weeks after Florida NAAC members unanimously voted to ask the group's national board to issue a travel advisory.

DeSantis called that move a stunt as well.

The warning to the LGBTQ community also comes days after state representative Webster Barnaby compared transgender people to "mutants," "demons" and "imps," during discussion of legislation that requires people to use public restrooms that correspond with their sex assigned at birth. It would effectively bar transgender people from facilities that match their gender identity. It also came a day after Senate lawmakers voted to amp up regulations on drag shows, something advocates fear could impact Pride festivals.

Republican lawmakers have filed at least 18 bills that directly or indirectly target transgender Floridians and in some cases the broader LGBTQ community, according to counts maintained by advocates. 

In its press release, Equality Florida said in part the following: 

Today, Equality Florida took the extraordinary step of issuing a travel advisory, warning of the risks posed to the health, safety, and freedom of those considering short or long term travel, or relocation to the state.

“As an organization that has spent decades working to improve Florida’s reputation as a welcoming and inclusive place to live work and visit, it is with great sadness that we must respond to those asking if it is safe to travel to Florida or remain in the state as the laws strip away basic rights and freedoms,” said Nadine Smith, Equality Florida Executive Director.

Governor Ron DeSantis, who has made the extremist policies the centerpiece of his presidential campaign strategy, has weaponized state agencies to silence critics and impose sanctions on large and small companies that dissent with his culture war agenda or disagree with his attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Thursday Morning Male Beauty

 

More Wednesday Male Beauty

 

Today's GOP": They Are America’s Leninists

The Republican Party's lurch to extremism continues unabated as national and state Republicans embrace ever more extreme positions contrary to the views and wants of the majority of Americans.  As their extremism drives away support of the majority, Republicans at all levels are pushing an agenda that can be called “minority authoritarianism” within the context of a nominally democratic system of government.  Indeed, they are much like Leninists from a century ago in Russia who constructed the trappings of elections even as they system was structured to guaranty election outcomes and dissenters were silenced.  Trapped by the demands of a shrinking base that controls primary election outcomes, moderation to meet the larger public opinion is increasingly difficult.  The solution for Republicans: undermine elections, gerrymander districts to inflate their electoral wins and give increased power to extremists both on social issues and those willing to use violence to inflict their agenda on states and, if allowed to do so, the nation as a whole. Frightenly, far too many voters are not paying adequate attention to what is happening and many remain in a fantasy world where they act as if today's GOP is the same as the one from 30 years ago.  A column in the New York Times looks at the Republican assult on demcracy and the growing extremism of GOP policies.  Here are highlights:

Republican leaders are now adopting increasingly autocratic measures, using the police powers of government to impose moralized regulations, turning private citizens into enforcement officers and expelling defiant elected Democrats just as county Republican parties, particularly in western states, are electing militia members, Christian nationalists and QAnon believers to key posts.

Here’s one example. Last November, the Republican Party of Clackamas County in Oregon chose a new vice chairman, Daniel Tooze, a Proud Boy from Oregon City, and Rick Riley, head of the county chapter of Take Back America, which denies the results of the 2020 presidential election, as chairman.

In June 2022, two of my Times colleagues, Patricia Mazzei and Alan Feuer, reported that “at least a half-dozen current and former Proud Boys” had secured seats on the Miami-Dade Republican Executive Committee, including two facing criminal charges for participation in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol . . .

“On the right, support for violence is no longer a fringe position,” Rachel Kleinfeld, a senior fellow in the Democracy, Conflict and Governance Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, wrote in a November 2022 Politico essay, “How Political Violence Went Mainstream on the Right.”

Those joining violent political events like the Jan. 6 insurrection, Kleinfeld continued, are more likely to be married middle-aged men with jobs and kids. Those most likely to support violence on the right feel most connected to the Republican Party. This is not a marginal movement: It is people who see violence as a means to defend their values, an extension of their political activity.

Democrats are not driving today’s political violence, Kleinfeld argued . . . Fear is a major cause of violence. As America undergoes immense change, from a fourth industrial revolution to remaking the concept of gender, many Americans are struggling to understand why they feel unmoored, anxious and behind. Snake-oil salesmen like Tucker Carlson offer the racist Great Replacement Theory as an explanation.

At the same time, Republican leaders are showing a growing willingness to disempower both Democratic officials and cities run by Democrats if they defy Republican-endorsed policies on matters as diverse as immigration, abortion and gun control.

The expulsion of two Black state representatives by the Republican majority in Tennessee received widespread publicity this past week (one has already been reinstated by local officials and the other may be soon). But their expulsion, as spectacular as it was, is just the most recent development in a pattern of attempts by Republicans to fire or limit the powers of elected Democrats in Florida, Mississippi, Georgia and elsewhere . . . .

In defiance of public opinion, 22 Republican attorneys general and 67 Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives filed amicus briefs that called on Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Federal District Court judge in Amarillo, Texas, to invalidate the Food and Drug Administration’s 23-year-old approval of the abortion pill mifepristone, which Kacsmaryk promptly went ahead and did last week. A February Ispos poll found that by a 3 to 1 margin (65-21), American adults agree that “medication abortion should remain legal in the United States,” including a healthy plurality (49-35) of Republicans.

Republicans in states across the country are defiantly pushing for the criminalization of abortion — of the procedure, of abortifacient drugs and of those who travel out of state to terminate pregnancy — despite clear evidence, in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade, that public opinion had shifted in favor of abortion rights.

[S]tates that have abortion bans at various early stages of pregnancy with no exception for rape or incest include Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

An overwhelming majority of Americans of all political persuasions believe there should be exceptions for rape and incest.

At least three states with Republican governors — Florida, Virginia and Texas — have adopted laws or regulations empowering private citizens to enforce restrictive policies governing abortion, sex education or the teaching of critical race theory, in some cases providing bounties for those reporting abortions.

Jacob Grumbach, a political scientist at the University of Washington, argues in his 2022 book, “Laboratories Against Democracy,” that  When it comes to democratic backsliding in the states, the results couldn’t be clearer: over the past two decades, the Republican Party has eroded democracy in states under its control. Republican governments have gerrymandered districts, made it more difficult to vote and restricted civil liberties to a degree unprecedented since the civil rights era.

When I asked him why the Republican Party had moved in this direction over the past generation, Grumbach elaborated in an email, observing that the two major elements of the Republican Party — “extremely wealthy individuals in an era of high economic inequality” and “a voter base motivated by cultural and demographic threat” — have a “hard time winning electoral majorities on the basis of their policy agendas (a high-end tax cut agenda for the elite base and a culturally reactionary agenda for the electoral base), which increases their incentive to tweak the rules of the game to their advantage.”

[C]ontemporary cultural conservatism depends on support from declining constituencies — non-college whites (as pollsters put it), evangelical Christians and other ideologues on the right — which places these groups in an increasingly threatened position, especially in the American two-party system.

The consequences of this long-term cultural development for the losers, Norris continued, is a buildup of “resentment at the loss of the hegemony of traditional values and identities.” The problem for the Republican Party, she observed, lies in the fact that “by appealing to their shrinking socially conservative base, the Republican Party has been unable to gain a majority of the popular vote in their bid for the White House in eight of the last nine presidential elections.” . . . . the pool of social conservatives adopting traditional views on these moral and social identity issues has been shrinking in size within the U.S. national electorate, from majority to minority status. They are running down an up escalator.

With their backs to the wall, Norris argued, conservatives have capitalized on institutional features of U.S. elections that allow Republicans to seek to dismantle checks on executive power — including the extreme decentralization of electoral administration to partisan officials with minimal federal regulation, partisan gerrymandering of districts, overrepresentation of rural states in the U.S. Senate and Electoral College, . . . .

[T]he pressure to moderate in order to win general elections faces growing counter-pressure to take immoderate positions in order to win primaries . . . . Ultimately, Cain continued, “If elected officials and judges get too far out of alignment with voters, they will get the message in the form of surprising electoral outcomes, as recently occurred in Wisconsin. Democrats in the seventies and eighties experienced the same on busing, crime and welfare.”

[A] professor of political science and sociology at Harvard, contends that many of the developments in states controlled by Republicans are the result of careful, long-term planning by conservative strategists, particularly those in the Federalist Society, who are developing tools to build what she calls “minority authoritarianism” within the context of a nominally democratic system of government.

They are stoking and using the fears and resentments of about half or so of the G.O.P. popular base to undo American democracy and enhance their own power and privileges. They are doing it because they can, and they believe in what they are doing. They are America’s G.O.P. Leninists.

This situation, locked in place by a corruptly installed Supreme Court majority and by many rotten-borough judicial districts like the one in Amarillo, means that minority authoritarians, behind a bare facade of “constitutionalism,” can render majority-elected officials, including the President and many governors, officials in name only.

First and foremost, the Republican Party’s commitment to democratic values and procedures has been steadily eroding over the past two decades — and the momentum has accelerated. The brakes on extremism are failing, with Donald Trump gaining strength in his bid for renomination and the continuing shift to the right in states like Tennessee and Ohio.

Second, in bright red states, the embrace of far-right positions on such issues as abortion, guns, immigration and election denial is now a requirement rather than a choice for candidates seeking office. At the same time, in purple states like Arizona and Pennsylvania, a hard-right posture may be a liability in the general election, even as it is often mandatory in a primary contest.

The Jan. 6 insurrection, and Trump’s actions trying to change the electoral college votes in five states, was an attempted coup built on the Big Lie of voter fraud. But the potential coup next time will come in neatly filed legal briefs and arguments quoting Thomas Jefferson and wrapped in ancient precedents and purported constitutional textualism. It will be no less pernicious.

Citizens need to wake up and vote out Republicans while there is still time to do so.

Wednesday Morning Male Beauty

 

More Tuesday Male Beauty