Listening to Jamie Raskin in these hearings, I marvel again at his brilliance and oratory prowess! What a patriot. Let’s all send him whatever amounts to your version of prayer for his complete recovery.
I’m not good at embedding links but I’ll try. Pamela Paul has a good op-ed in the NYT about Ron DeSantis. Basically she says we satirize him at our peril. Though he is heavy handed, cruel and promotes a Christian Nationalist agenda he is resonating with Florida voters including a lot of Latinos, and many others around the nation. He is far more intelligent than Trump and is sincerely on a mission. To me, the fact that he hasn’t announced his candidacy is a sign of his political prowess. A matchup (if this happens) between him and Biden will be difficult. One point Paul makes is that most people do not like their kids learning about gender and sexual preference in primary school. I don’t know if that was really happening in Florida schools or an isolated incident or book was pulled out to create conflict. I would need to depend on serious journalists to get to the bottom of that. Likewise, exactly what in the Black History AP course caught so much flack. Certain flashpoints have been mentioned but surely don’t tell the whole story. No matter what, if DeSantis can reach voters with his anti-woke messaging, Dems need to make sure we understand what these voters worry about and how we can address those concerns with understanding, not condescension.
I have lived in Florida since 1956 when I was 9.......Educated in Florida 4th grade through graduate school. I taught in the public schools in Florida for 27 years and worked with teachers another 11 years. I then started a publishing company writing test prep books for the Florida mathematics assessments grades 2 through 8, Algebra 1, Geometry, grade 10, and Biology.
I am TOTALLY ashamed, terrorized, saddened, and demoralized by what DeSantis (aka DeShittis in my house) is doing to the state of Florida in education and in everything else!!!!
There are many in Florida who feel as I do!!!!!! And we vote!!!!!
put Pence up for charges of misprision of a felony since he knew enough that Trump was engaged in a seditious coup attempt and has been sitting on it all this time
BUT
drop the charge if Pence cooperates and testifies to all the criminality now, rather than delay through exec priv claims in the courts.
RICH! How I would dig a grammar usage newsletter, right when I thought civilization beyond politics was dead. The exchange over Twitter is pathetic. I have thought for some time that FLA had moved into the Texas column of potential secessionists, and DeSatis has proved this is so. What a great newsletter you write,Robert.
I watched two tirades by Representatives Boebert and Greene against a Twitter employee (former, I think). I believe in the Greene one, the witness did not say even one word—she just yelled at him the entire time.
Is this legal? A private citizen can be forced to appear before Congress and have to sit and be yelled at, on nationwide TV, no less?
I heartily agree with your phrase “Make Florida America”. As a Floridian trans plant from NY the news here is one of liberties reversed. There is a cruelty in our state legislature that is horrific to witness. This is no place to emulate.
Keith Olbermann, on Twitter, skewers the committee. I was reading a good mystery (One Perfect Shot) but came to a standstill when the author used 'dour'. I decided it was OK to accept my lifelong pronounciation ala 'sour' so I could continue reading.
Two points, the first is minor and relates to your pronunciation of "dour." I had never heard it pronounced as you did, to rhyme with "tour," so was somewhat surprised by it, but I accepted it. Why? Because I do the same thing with the word HARASS or HARASSMENT. In a high school vocabulary class I learned that the "original" pronunciation was with the stress on the first syllable, thus sounding like "Harris" and "Harrisment." That's the pronunciation I have chosen to use throughout my life. This simple vocabulary lesson opened my thinking to alternate pronunciations of words. (to-may-to, to-mah-to, if you will!)
Okay, now that I've got that out of the way, I want to talk about the DeSatan bumper sticker. I am a Floridian. I love my state. I am consistently embarrassed and infuriated by my state's government. Ron DeSantis is evil. I do not say that lightly. I mean it in every sense of the word. He has become emboldened and enabled by a spineless Florida legislature and Courts, to march, seemingly unchallenged toward becoming a dictator. (The cow-towing of the Florida legislature to DeSantis is exactly the same as what we have seen nationally between Republicans and Trump.) So when I saw your "Concluding Thoughts" piece on the bumper sticker appearing in San Diego, a gagging lump immediately came to my throat! The very thought that anyone in California (or anywhere in this country) would want to recreate what Florida has become under this dictator wannabe took me by dismaying surprise. Just follow the headlines in some of Florida's major newspapers (I suggest the Tampa Bay Times and Miami Herald, but there are others that will give you the same understanding) and you will quickly see why I say this. His thirst for absolute control is insatiable. I hold hope that, once he is faced with national exposure that he will be revealed for what he is, a small man with a natural bend toward racist, fascist, and dictatorial impulses. In Florida he is, sadly, unchallenged. But, once on the national scene, I am confident he will not go unchecked or unchallenged.
wow I did not see the DeSantis sticker. I am in marketing - not a great idea - whoever thought of that must be in 3rd grade or maybe MTGreen is involved!!!
I still cannot get over the visual of her kindergarten antics and beyond the imagination during Biden's State of the Union speech. She showed the MAGA true colors and did them no favors. She certainly helped make Biden look amazing and he rose to the occasion.
"Make America Florida?" Wet, humid, temperatures in the 90s that feel hotter, and in danger of increasingly dangerous hurricanes and being reclaimed by the ocean.
I read a comment recently that referred to the Republican Party as the "GQP." At first I thought the writer had hit the wrong key, but on reflection, GQP seems to be an apt name for the Party that embraces QAnon AQueen Marjorie Greene Taylor.
In Twilight of Democracy, Anne Applebaum exposes how the far-right in Europe exploited social media to advance conspiracy theories, lies, and personal/racial ad hominems to galvanize rage and fear. Left unchecked, these political forces filled a vacuum and gained power.
It is reassuring that the Democrats in the House are vigorously pushing back and presenting a counter narrative of truth. The Biden Administration has also been masterful at exposing the duplicity of the far right as well as asserting the real, tangible benefits of Democratic leadership. Contrasting our lived democratic order from the far right's nostalgic, mythological historical fantasies must be continuously and aggressively challenged and exposed.
Excellent analysis as usual tying all the threads of events into a digestible treat 👍 Just keep our fingers crossed 🤞 that the radicals like DeSantis and Huckabee Sanders keep shooting themselves in the foot launching their ideologies, same for the weaponized clown 🤡 committee 😀 while Jack Smith makes hay 😀 😄 😉
Listening to Jamie Raskin in these hearings, I marvel again at his brilliance and oratory prowess! What a patriot. Let’s all send him whatever amounts to your version of prayer for his complete recovery.
I’m not good at embedding links but I’ll try. Pamela Paul has a good op-ed in the NYT about Ron DeSantis. Basically she says we satirize him at our peril. Though he is heavy handed, cruel and promotes a Christian Nationalist agenda he is resonating with Florida voters including a lot of Latinos, and many others around the nation. He is far more intelligent than Trump and is sincerely on a mission. To me, the fact that he hasn’t announced his candidacy is a sign of his political prowess. A matchup (if this happens) between him and Biden will be difficult. One point Paul makes is that most people do not like their kids learning about gender and sexual preference in primary school. I don’t know if that was really happening in Florida schools or an isolated incident or book was pulled out to create conflict. I would need to depend on serious journalists to get to the bottom of that. Likewise, exactly what in the Black History AP course caught so much flack. Certain flashpoints have been mentioned but surely don’t tell the whole story. No matter what, if DeSantis can reach voters with his anti-woke messaging, Dems need to make sure we understand what these voters worry about and how we can address those concerns with understanding, not condescension.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/09/opinion/ron-desantis-democrats.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
What Liberals Can Learn From Ron DeSantis
Robert
I have lived in Florida since 1956 when I was 9.......Educated in Florida 4th grade through graduate school. I taught in the public schools in Florida for 27 years and worked with teachers another 11 years. I then started a publishing company writing test prep books for the Florida mathematics assessments grades 2 through 8, Algebra 1, Geometry, grade 10, and Biology.
I am TOTALLY ashamed, terrorized, saddened, and demoralized by what DeSantis (aka DeShittis in my house) is doing to the state of Florida in education and in everything else!!!!
There are many in Florida who feel as I do!!!!!! And we vote!!!!!
Barbara Nunn
Coral Springs, Florida (suburb of Ft Lauderdale)
Here's a suggestion for Jack Smith:
put Pence up for charges of misprision of a felony since he knew enough that Trump was engaged in a seditious coup attempt and has been sitting on it all this time
BUT
drop the charge if Pence cooperates and testifies to all the criminality now, rather than delay through exec priv claims in the courts.
RICH! How I would dig a grammar usage newsletter, right when I thought civilization beyond politics was dead. The exchange over Twitter is pathetic. I have thought for some time that FLA had moved into the Texas column of potential secessionists, and DeSatis has proved this is so. What a great newsletter you write,Robert.
I watched two tirades by Representatives Boebert and Greene against a Twitter employee (former, I think). I believe in the Greene one, the witness did not say even one word—she just yelled at him the entire time.
Is this legal? A private citizen can be forced to appear before Congress and have to sit and be yelled at, on nationwide TV, no less?
I’m not a lawyer, but this seems not okay.
I heartily agree with your phrase “Make Florida America”. As a Floridian trans plant from NY the news here is one of liberties reversed. There is a cruelty in our state legislature that is horrific to witness. This is no place to emulate.
From Denialad: donbialostosky.substack.com
The Dems on Oversight pitched a no-hitter
Against Republican claims that Twitter
Deliberately suppressed the Hunter story
‘Cause Biden said it was derogatory—
Part of a pattern real but unofficial
That toward the right they said was prejudicial.
The Twitter monitors all testified
That Biden in no way had ever tried
To stop the story and that their delay
In linking it for just a single day
Came from concerns that it had come from hacking—
No there there in Republicans’ attacking!
But questions raised by the Committee Dems
Uncovered a couple of damning gems.
The monitors revealed Trump asked to ditch
A Tweet that called him a “pussy ass bitch”
(The Tweet had answered his Tweet on the Tweeter
That had been a crude, mean way to treat her).
And having thus neatly turned the tables
On who deserved the Tweet-suppressing label,
Another Dem, this time Rep. AOC,
Displaying a Trump Tweet for all to see,
Then led a Twitter witness to agree
That it had modified its policy
To let an ugly Trump Tweet go out
And then to’erase the rule he chose to flout
That disallowed Tweets treating folks like scum
Who “should go back to where they had come from.”
Far from suppressing Tweets serving the right,
The Twitter bosses gave them a green light!
Unless McCarthy kicks off all the Dems
From committees, they’re going to’expose these shams.
Keith Olbermann, on Twitter, skewers the committee. I was reading a good mystery (One Perfect Shot) but came to a standstill when the author used 'dour'. I decided it was OK to accept my lifelong pronounciation ala 'sour' so I could continue reading.
Two points, the first is minor and relates to your pronunciation of "dour." I had never heard it pronounced as you did, to rhyme with "tour," so was somewhat surprised by it, but I accepted it. Why? Because I do the same thing with the word HARASS or HARASSMENT. In a high school vocabulary class I learned that the "original" pronunciation was with the stress on the first syllable, thus sounding like "Harris" and "Harrisment." That's the pronunciation I have chosen to use throughout my life. This simple vocabulary lesson opened my thinking to alternate pronunciations of words. (to-may-to, to-mah-to, if you will!)
Okay, now that I've got that out of the way, I want to talk about the DeSatan bumper sticker. I am a Floridian. I love my state. I am consistently embarrassed and infuriated by my state's government. Ron DeSantis is evil. I do not say that lightly. I mean it in every sense of the word. He has become emboldened and enabled by a spineless Florida legislature and Courts, to march, seemingly unchallenged toward becoming a dictator. (The cow-towing of the Florida legislature to DeSantis is exactly the same as what we have seen nationally between Republicans and Trump.) So when I saw your "Concluding Thoughts" piece on the bumper sticker appearing in San Diego, a gagging lump immediately came to my throat! The very thought that anyone in California (or anywhere in this country) would want to recreate what Florida has become under this dictator wannabe took me by dismaying surprise. Just follow the headlines in some of Florida's major newspapers (I suggest the Tampa Bay Times and Miami Herald, but there are others that will give you the same understanding) and you will quickly see why I say this. His thirst for absolute control is insatiable. I hold hope that, once he is faced with national exposure that he will be revealed for what he is, a small man with a natural bend toward racist, fascist, and dictatorial impulses. In Florida he is, sadly, unchallenged. But, once on the national scene, I am confident he will not go unchecked or unchallenged.
The "sour/dour" debate was an excellent way to see how closely we read Robert's daily installment: Pretty darn closely!
I think "Make America Florida" is a hoot! It's as big a miss as possible!
wow I did not see the DeSantis sticker. I am in marketing - not a great idea - whoever thought of that must be in 3rd grade or maybe MTGreen is involved!!!
I still cannot get over the visual of her kindergarten antics and beyond the imagination during Biden's State of the Union speech. She showed the MAGA true colors and did them no favors. She certainly helped make Biden look amazing and he rose to the occasion.
"Make America Florida?" Wet, humid, temperatures in the 90s that feel hotter, and in danger of increasingly dangerous hurricanes and being reclaimed by the ocean.
I read a comment recently that referred to the Republican Party as the "GQP." At first I thought the writer had hit the wrong key, but on reflection, GQP seems to be an apt name for the Party that embraces QAnon AQueen Marjorie Greene Taylor.
In Twilight of Democracy, Anne Applebaum exposes how the far-right in Europe exploited social media to advance conspiracy theories, lies, and personal/racial ad hominems to galvanize rage and fear. Left unchecked, these political forces filled a vacuum and gained power.
It is reassuring that the Democrats in the House are vigorously pushing back and presenting a counter narrative of truth. The Biden Administration has also been masterful at exposing the duplicity of the far right as well as asserting the real, tangible benefits of Democratic leadership. Contrasting our lived democratic order from the far right's nostalgic, mythological historical fantasies must be continuously and aggressively challenged and exposed.
Excellent analysis as usual tying all the threads of events into a digestible treat 👍 Just keep our fingers crossed 🤞 that the radicals like DeSantis and Huckabee Sanders keep shooting themselves in the foot launching their ideologies, same for the weaponized clown 🤡 committee 😀 while Jack Smith makes hay 😀 😄 😉