This is actually dangerous misinformation.


Talk about making me laugh. Someone who claims to know a lot about radon would know mining has nothing to do with it. Radon is a naturally occurring gas that is present everywhere. Although is can be more concentrated in areas with Uranium deposits under ground. And the only way to know if you are being exposed to dangerous levels of radon is to test your house for it. I have a cousin dying of cancer caused by radon exposure from just sitting in his ranch house that doesn't even have a basement. And once he tested his house and the meter spiked the family tested the old ranch house that is more than 100 years old. The radon what a little high inside the old cabin but spiked when they went in the cellar. Which can be a problem there because there is no electricity to run fans. So now we have to open the cellar windows and all the windows and doors in the cabin and let it air out before anyone stays in it. The two places are more tha12 miles apart and neither is anywhere near a mine.

 

What part of shooters post triggered you stumbler?

 

Course trumplicans don't want to talk about Trump's big lie and his attempted overthrow of the government.

So shooter, when is Trump going to show evidence of how the 2020 election was stolen from him?

Enlighten us
us

 

Desantis, gravitas? polish? intelligence? Well comming from the forum resident racist. Your support for Desantis is understandable. But Desantis was only elected because Trump fully endorsed him for Governor.

Desantis is just another trumptard from the Trump tree. Desantis is an election denier. Who pushed Trump's election fraud lies for political gain.

 

@Distant Lover
You see?
Offer up any opinion not in lockstep with the liberal agenda and you will immediately be personally attacked and pummeled for your dangerous and arrogant behavior.

You been warned.

Shooter came across this bit while looking for something else, and thought it might inspire the liberals.

"Lawyer: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?
Witness: No.
Lawyer: Did you check for blood pressure?
Witness: No.
Lawyer: Did you check for breathing?
Witness: No.
Lawyer: So, then, it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?
Witness: No.
Lawyer: How can you be so sure, Doctor?
Witness: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.
Lawyer: I see, but could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless?
Witness: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law."​

 

Disney scrapping a $1 billion campus in Florida could screw over adjacent developers banking on it to build their own projects: report

1.3k
Hannah Getahun
Mon, May 29, 2023 at 4:40 PM MDT

• 
  Disney's decision to scrap its $1 billion campus could affect projects nearby.
  
  
• Thousands of homes were built after Disney announced its plans, The Wall Street Journal reported.
  
  
• However, the development group that owns the land said that Disney's decision would not affect it.
  

Disney's decision to scrap its $1 billion campus in Orlando, Florida, this month could leave many surrounding development projects in the Lake Nona community scrambling, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The House of Mouse purchased the land in the Lake Nona community in 2021 but ultimately decided not to follow through and canceled plans to build the campus, the Journal reported on May 18. Hundreds of employees set to work at the new campus had already moved to Lake Nona before Disney announced it would be abandoning the plan.

Lisa McNatt, a director of market analytics for CoStar Group, told the Journal that when Disney initially announced plans to build in Lake Nona, 2,100 new apartment units were built as a result, with 1,200 units currently being constructed. McNatt told the Journal that only 750 units had been built in the preceding three years.

- ADVERTISEMENT -

Representatives for Tavistock Development Co., the group behind Lake Nona, told the Journal that it had been "intentional in curating the selection of organizations, innovators, and entrepreneurs that fuel our ecosystem."

The representatives added that 95% of the multifamily housing at Lake Nona was currently being occupied.

McNatt said that Disney's presence "would have resulted in a strong uptick in higher-income jobs that could have benefited the Orlando area at large."

Disney's decision to scrap the plans was part of the company's focus on cutting costs, the Journal previously reported, as well as its ongoing political battle with Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, which began after Disney spoke out against a law backed by the governor that would limit discussions on sexual orientation and gender in public schools.

Insider's Kelsey Vlamis previously reported that if the feud continued, the state of Florida could see significant financial loss if Disney — the second largest private employer in the state — decided to tap out of more projects in the state. Although that was not quite happening yet, Deadline reported.

"I think DeSantis has more to lose, as this incident made apparent, depending on whether, as a fairly skilled politician, he can somehow put a good face on this," Richard Foglesong, an expert on Walt Disney World's history and politics, told Insider.

Representatives for Disney, Tavistock Development Co., and DeSantis did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Read the original article on Business Insider



https://www.yahoo.com/news/disney-scrapping-1-billion-campus-224057520.html

 

Don't get to excited @stumbler

When answering a question about the adversarial stance that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has taken against The Walt Disney Company, Disney CEO Bob Iger said that Disney is planning massive investments in Walt Disney World over the next decade. In fact, Iger said that Disney is planning $17 billion worth of investments in Walt Disney World over the next 10 years. Iger also said that 13,000 new jobs would be created by the investment. No specific details were announced.


https://blogmickey.com/2023/04/disn...l-jobs-at-walt-disney-world-over-next-decade/

 

This is known as the carrot and stick technique. Floridians have to believe it's possible to regain Disney's good grace again. It gives hope to those suffering under the DeSantis regime and incentive to his opposition.

 

‘Sure wasn’t by drag queens’: DeSantis slammed for ignoring Florida mass shooting that included children

David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement
May 30, 2023, 12:49 PM ET



Florida Governor Ron DeSantis speaking at Lynchburg, Virginia, on April 14, 2023. (Shutterstock.com)


A Memorial Day mass shooting 20 miles north of Miami left nine people, including children as young as one, wounded, yet Governor Ron DeSantis hasn't said a word about it publicly, leading many on social media to blast the Florida Republican who for months has been highly-focused on his presidential campaign.

"Nine people were wounded Monday evening when gunfire erupted along a beachside promenade in Hollywood, Florida, sending people frantically running for cover along the crowded beach on Memorial Day," CBS News reports. "The shooting happened on the Hollywood Oceanfront Broadwalk near a convenience store, a Ben & Jerry's ice cream store and a Subway sandwich shop."

Police continue to search for "two people they believe were involved in the shooting. The department released the surveillance video alongside still images of the individuals and asked that anyone who recognizes them contact police."

"Several children were among those injured. Police spokesperson Deanna Bettineschi said four children between the ages of 1 and 17 were hit, along with five adults between 25 and 65," CBS News adds.

Governor DeSantis, who is hosting a major event in Iowa Tuesday, has not said a word on his Twitter accounts, has not posted a statement on his government website, and it does not appear he has spoken to reporters about the mass shooting.

The governor's official press secretary did, however, take time to attack California's Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom, who noted on social media that DeSantis recently signed a permit less carry bill into law, which will further expand the number of guns on the streets.

"California Gov. Gavin Newsom was fact-checked by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' spokesman after he blamed the Memorial Day shooting in Hollywood, Florida, on laws DeSantis signed that are not yet in effect," Fox News reported. "Newsom reacted to reports of the shooting on social media, blaming gun violence on a bill DeSantis signed in April that eliminates the requirement for an individual to obtain a permit to carry a concealed firearm."

DeSantis' government spokesperson Jeremy Redfern, on what he says is his "personal" Twitter account, tweeted: "Hi Gavin, How does a law that doesn’t take effect until July 1st change this outcome?"

But Governor Newsom's remarks are entirely factual.

"DeSantis signed a permit-less carry bill in April that removes requirements for:

-background checks

-instruction

-training+oversight

Until our leaders have the courage to stop bowing down to the NRA and enact common sense gun safety this kind of senseless violence will continue," he wrote via Twitter.

Meanwhile, many on social media are blasting DeSantis for ignoring the mass shooting.

"9 people were shot in Hollywood, Florida and it sure as hell wasn’t by Drag Queens," one social media user wrote, referring to DeSantis' attacks on drag queens and the the LGBTQ community, and making clear drag queens aren't a danger.

"Ron DeSantis had laws changed so he could stay Governor AND run for POTUS," another social media user said, accurately. "MEANWHILE he ignores what is happening in Florida. He hasn't said ONE WORD about this mass shooting (a 1 year old got shot) in HIS STATE this weekend. Ron, I think you should leave."

In response to a news report on the shooting, another user simply said, "Thank you Ron DeSantis."

"To all the Ron DeSantis supporters out there. 9 people were just shot and not one word from your precious governor," wrote another on Twitter.



https://www.rawstory.com/sure-wasnt...florida-mass-shooting-that-included-children/

 

Leaked Audio From a Ron DeSantis Donor Event Is Really Bad News for His Campaign



Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Reuters
When Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis gathered top allies with deep pockets last week in Miami for a three-day “Ron-o-Rama” retreat, his team made the case for a path to victory. But there’s a major problem with the Team DeSantis logic: Its case for DeSantis’ path to victory actually worked better for his chief rival, former President Donald Trump.

The rationale hinges on myriad assumptions, and even those are shaky.

Leaked audio and slides obtained by Florida Politics show contradicting claims, spun in a way meant to make it sound like DeSantis has not just a shot, but a good one.

Ron DeSantis’ 2024 Campaign Launch Fail Could Predict What Happens Next


However, the information presented raises more questions than it answers.

The data used showed both DeSantis and Trump virtually tied. It’s the job of campaign staffers to find silver linings in anything, and deploying a “rah-rah, we’re just as popular as Trump” mantra is a prime example. But anyone who knows anything about politics—or who even has a shred of logic—can look at the broader data and see that this is actually bad news for DeSantis.

Most polls have DeSantis trailing Trump by double digits, with the Real Clear Politics average showing Trump up by 22 percentage points in Iowa, 18 points in New Hampshire and 25 points in South Carolina—all early-voting states that often break candidates before they even really get started.

This is important because DeSantis’ logic also relies on making it to the winner-takes-all Florida primary, which also carries a huge haul of delegates.

Team DeSantis presented data showing him with better favorability in those early-voting states, which also includes Nevada. Its data puts DeSantis 18 percentage points ahead of Trump’s favorability in Iowa, 5 points ahead in New Hampshire and Nevada and 13 points ahead in South Carolina.

The leaked audio from the DeSantis donor event includes a presentation that tries to explain why DeSantis isn’t running stronger against Trump. The argument is that is because the governor hadn’t yet entered the race (the retreat began as DeSantis was officially announcing his bid.)

But that excuse also means the opposite is true—Florida’s governor has not yet faced substantive attacks as a presidential candidate, suggesting his favorability may be inflated, likely based on positive conservative press coverage. It’s also important to note that Trump’s favorability, as a candidate who has been on the ballot in these crucial early primary states twice, has been tested. DeSantis’ has not.

Ron DeSantis’ Anti-Free Speech Crusade Would Cancel Fox News

DeSantis’ team also talked up the large share of voters in early voting states who believe DeSantis is ready to be president, with 62 percent in Iowa, 50 percent in New Hampshire, 47 percent in South Carolina, and 56 percent in Nevada. What the talking points ignore is that 27-42 percent of voters in those states believe he’s not ready.

Political campaigners know they have to boast about any metric showing net favorability. But any political observer would tell you those large negative numbers are a discouraging sign for a candidate, especially one with near-universal name ID.

Additionally, DeSantis’ team presented data showing voters believe the governor to be more conservative than Trump, a fact the presenter can be heard in the leaked audio saying “is really important in a Republican primary.” Indeed, DeSantis is considered “very conservative” by half of likely GOP voters in Iowa, 43 percent of New Hampshire GOP voters, 45 percent in South Carolina and 48 percent in Nevada.

But there’s another problem—DeSantis is losing to Trump by a wider margin among voters who consider themselves “more conservative” than Republicans in general, according to a Quinnipiac University Poll.

And here’s a really big problem for DeSantis: All of this data, the assumptions made, and the details ignored happened inside just four minutes of the leaked audio recording, which goes on for more than 40 minutes. In the first four minutes, Team DeSantis made a compelling argument for a path to the GOP presidential nomination, but it made the argument for Trump.

It doesn’t get any better, either.

The presenter heard on the leaked audio then moves on to how the team can “build this math going forward” and displays a chart showing “the battlefield.”

This little math assignment acknowledged the 35 percent of Republican primary voters who will inevitably support Trump “even if his name isn’t on the ballot.” It also acknowledged the 20 percent of voters who are “never Trump” and believe DeSantis is too Trumpy to support him, either. But its primary focus is on the roughly 15 percent of voters in “the battleground.”



Assuming Team DeSantis’ math is correct, which it may very well not be, DeSantis would need to earn a healthy margin of the 15 percent “battlefield,” a bold assumption if this is the path to victory.

Why? Because public polling in multiple states shoots the math all to hell.

Taken as a whole, the presentation, at best, paved a very narrow path to victory for the governor. At worst, it succeeded in highlighting Trump’s path to victory, and not one for DeSantis as intended.

In any case, donors may have left the retreat with more questions than answers about how to send DeSantis to the White House. Team DeSantis is likely hoping they’re not questioning their investment in his campaign.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/leaked-audio-ron-desantis-donor-081806509.html

 

Special about Ron DeSantis' time at Guantanamo Bay canceled with no explanation

Sarah K. Burris
June 4, 2023, 9:30 PM ET



Florida governor Ron DeSantis. (Photo by Gage Skidmore)


The Hollywood Reporter revealed that Showtime pulled a special by Vice News that went into detail about Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) and his time working as a JAG officer at Guantanamo Bay.

"The episode, the fourth in Vice’s fourth season, had been slated to air May 28. Showtime pulled the episode, however, and is now referring to the June 4 installment as episode four of the season. Repeat programming aired in place of the shelved episode on May 28," said the report.

The episode, titled “The Gitmo Candidate & Chipping Away,” has been "scrubbed from Showtime’s website and press portal. An email sent to press on May 24 noted that a screener of the episode was available; however, on May 30, a follow-up email noted a different installment, titled 'Detransitioners & Draining the DRC,' as episode four."

No information from the network or Vice has been given about why Showtime canceled the show. The description f the show "hinted at potentially explosive material about DeSantis." Very little information is available to the public about DeSantis' time at GitMo.

“Seb Walker investigates allegations from former Guantanamo Bay detainees that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis witnessed acts condemned by the United Nations as torture during his past service at the controversial detention camp as a Navy JAG officer," the description reads.

In April, a report revealed DeSantis' campaign is haunted by what could drop from the governor's role in the military prison. He has already exploded over questions about the subject.

One inmate said: "I will never forget his face, he was laughing and smiling watching me being tortured on the force-feeding chair."

Vice Media recently filed for bankruptcy protection but they announced a group of funders has agreed to purchase them for $225 million.

Read more here.



https://www.rawstory.com/ron-desantis-guantanamo-bay-vice-canceled/

 

250,000 Floridians get kicked off Medicaid as DeSantis rakes in big donor cash

Jake Johnson, Common Dreams
June 5, 2023, 10:03 AM ET



Florida Governor Ron DeSantis speaking at Lynchburg, Virginia, on April 14, 2023. (Shutterstock.com)


Hundreds of thousands of poor Floridians have been kicked off Medicaid in recent weeks as their Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, travels the country for his 2024 presidential bid and rakes in campaign cash from big donors.

Florida is one of more than a dozen states that have begun unwinding pandemic-era rules barring states from removing people from Medicaid during the public health emergency. Late last year, Congress reached a bipartisan deal to end the so-called continuous coverage requirements, opening the door to a massive purge of the lifesaving healthcare program.

A dozen states have released early data on the number of people removed from Medicaid as they restart eligibility checks, a cumbersome process that many people ultimately fail to navigate.

So far, the statistics are alarming: More than 600,000 people across the U.S. have been stripped of Medicaid coverage since April, according to a KFF Health News analysis of the available data, and "the vast majority were removed from state rolls for not completing paperwork" rather than confirmed ineligibility.

Nearly 250,000 people who have been booted from Medicaid live in Florida, whose governor is a longtime opponent of public healthcare programs. As HuffPost's Jonathan Cohn wrote Sunday, DeSantis "has refused to support the ACA's Medicaid expansion for the state, which is the biggest reason that more than 12% of Floridians don't have health insurance."

"That's the fourth-highest rate in the country," Cohn noted.

But DeSantis, who has said he wants to "make America Florida," appears unmoved by the staggering number of people losing Medicaid in his state as he hits the campaign trail. The governor relied heavily on large contributors to bring in more than $8 million during the first 24 hours of his presidential bid.

Prior to formally launching his 2024 campaign, DeSantis traveled the country in private jets on the dime of rich and sometimes secret donors, and he is currently facing a Federal Election Commission complaint for unlawfully transferring more than $80 million from a state committee to a super PAC supporting his White House bid.

"Families with children have been erroneously terminated, and parents are having trouble reaching the DCF call center for help with this process."

Late last month, DeSantis' administration insisted it "has a robust outreach campaign" aimed at ensuring people are aware of the hoops they have to jump through to keep their Medicaid coverage, such as income verification.

In Florida, a four-person household must make less than $39,900 in annual income to qualify for Medicaid.

The state's early data indicates that 44% of those who have lost coverage in weeks were removed for procedural reasons like failing to return paperwork on time.

The figures have drawn outrage from local advocates, who urged DeSantis late last month to pause the Medicaid redetermination process after hearing reports of people losing coverage without receiving any notice from Florida's chronically understaffed Department of Children and Families (DCF).

"One of these individuals is a seven-year-old boy in remission from Leukemia who is now unable to access follow-up—and potentially lifesaving—treatments," a coalition of groups including the Florida Policy Institute and the Florida Health Justice Project wrote to DeSantis. "Families with children have been erroneously terminated, and parents are having trouble reaching the DCF call center for help with this process. Additionally, unclear notices and lack of information on how to appeal contribute to more confusion."

Citing Miriam Harmatz, advocacy director and founder of the Florida Health Justice Project, KFF Health News reported last week that "some cancellation notices in Florida are vague and could violate due process rules."

"Letters that she's seen say 'your Medicaid for this period is ending' rather than providing a specific reason for disenrollment, like having too high an income or incomplete paperwork," the outlet noted. "If a person requests a hearing before their cancellation takes effect, they can stay covered during the appeals process. Even after being disenrolled, many still have a 90-day window to restore coverage."

The Congressional Budget Office recently estimated that, nationwide, around 15.5 million people are likely to lose Medicaid coverage over the next year and a half—including 5 million children—as states resume eligibility checks made necessary by a system that doesn't guarantee healthcare to all as a right.

"Many people don't realize that they've been disenrolled from Medicaid until they show up at the pharmacy to get their prescription refilled or they have a doctor's appointment scheduled," Jennifer Tolbert, director of state health reform at the Kaiser Family Foundation, told The Washington Post last week.


https://www.rawstory.com/250000-flo...-desantis-rakes-in-big-donor-cash-2660948224/

 

Lets see if we can follow the logic here.
During Covid the Feds made it illegal to remove anyone from Medicaid, even those who should not qualify.
Now that prohibition has been removed and Florida, along with other states, is completing the eligibility reviews that were prohibited during Covid.
Because the law now allows (requires) it.
People are being removed from the Medicaid roles because they either no longer qualify or have failed to complete the review process.

And this upsets despicables.
Well of course it would.
Cause, deplorable.

But what wrong story/stumbler fail to point out is that Federal LAWS require elegibility reviews at the time of enrollment and at regular intervals.
(This is nearly always what we find when we fact check wrong story/stumbler posts. It's why we give no credence to his posts.)

Failure to comply can jeopardize medicare payments from the feds to the state.
Medicaid Eligibility: Accuracy of Determinations and Efforts to Recoup Federal Funds Due to Errors | U.S. GAO

Medicaid Eligibility:Accuracy of Determinations and Efforts to Recoup Federal Funds Due to Errors
GAO-20-157Published: Jan 13, 2020. Publicly Released: Feb 12, 2020.

Fast Facts
States must determine whether people are eligible for Medicaid. The accuracy of these determinations affects federal and state spending. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services oversees this process.

Our review found:

Federal and state audits showed several accuracy issues—some of which resulted in errors

For decades, CMS hasn’t recouped federal funds from states with eligibility error rates exceeding 3%—but plans to start in FY 2022

CMS updated its national estimate of inaccurate payments due to eligibility errors in November 2019—the first update since the Affordable Care Act required changes to states’ processes.

yocomc@gao.gov.

Full Report
Highlights Page (1 page)

Full Report (39 pages)

Accessible PDF (42 pages)

 

Texas sheriff calls for charges after DeSantis migrant flights

41
Julia Mueller
Mon, June 5, 2023 at 5:43 PM MDT




The sheriff’s office in Bexar County, Texas, has filed a criminal case with the county’s district attorney over a 2022 incident in which 49 migrants were flown from San Antonio to Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., the office said.

“The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office has officially filed a completed criminal case with the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office regarding the incident from September 2022 where 49 migrants were flown to Martha’s Vineyard,” a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office told The Hill.

“The charge filed is Unlawful Restraint and several accounts were filed, both misdemeanor and felony. At this time, the case is being reviewed by the DA’s office,” the spokesperson said.

Last September, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) sent dozens of migrants to Martha’s Vineyard as part of a migrant relocation effort. Several GOP governors have moved to bus or fly thousands migrants north to liberal cities in protest of immigration at the border and Biden administration policies.


Javier Salazar, the sheriff for the southern Texas county that includes San Antonio, opened an investigation last year into the incident over concerns that the Venezuelan migrants were “lured” under false pretenses onto the flight to Martha’s Vineyard.

The Bexar County sheriff’s office’s latest move signals the office has wrapped up the investigation into the incident, according to The Miami Herald, which first reported on the recommendations, and prosecutors will now decide whether to follow them. Top DeSantis aides could reportedly be involved in the case.

The development comes as DeSantis runs for the White House in 2024. Also on Monday, California’s attorney general said the state of Florida appears to be behind a group of South American migrants who arrived at a church in Sacramento, Calif., via a private flight.


https://www.yahoo.com/news/texas-sheriff-calls-charges-desantis-234328613.html

 

Excellent.
Lets blow up the whole issue of 5 MILLION ILLEGAL migrants strolling into the country and many of them free to roam about with the government not knowing who they are, where they are or what they're doing.

Didja hear about the chartered jet someone loaded up with ILLEGAL migrants and flew em to Sacramento?

We oughta load em up and instead fly em back where they came from.

That'd cause despicable heads to explode, eh?

 

Don't be fooled — DeSantis' own state has worse crime than the 'woke' cities he attacks: analyst

Matthew Chapman
June 6, 2023, 10:01 PM ET



Florida Governor Ron DeSantis speaking at Lynchburg, Virginia, on April 14, 2023. (Shutterstock.com)


Former President Donald Trump was infamous for campaigning on fear of crime — and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, now challenging Trump for the nomination in 2024, is determined to outdo him, telling voters to fear criminal justice reform and progressive cities as morasses of violence and danger. But DeSantis' own state reportedly doesn't prove his point.

In reality, wrote Radley Balko for The Daily Beast, DeSantis' panic on crime gets everything wrong — including the fact that it's worse in his own state than in many of the liberal jurisdictions he condemns.

"We can start with the First Step Act, Trump’s uncharacteristically hopeful and optimistic criminal justice reform bill (which, naturally, he later regretted). DeSantis recently called the law a 'jailbreak bill' that 'allowed dangerous people out of prison who have now re-offended, and really, really hurt a number of people,'" wrote Balko. "There's no evidence for any of this. If a significant number of prisoners released under the FSA have gone on to commit new violent or sex crimes, we'd know their names. Their photos would be on the cover of the New York Post, their names emblazoned in Fox News chyrons."

The only example DeSantis provided of this is Glynn Neal, who stabbed a staffer for Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) shortly after being released from prison — but in fact, the First Step Act "reduced his sentence by a matter of days" and he was getting out anyway. On the contrary, people released under the FSA are reoffending at a third the rate of the general prison population — meaning the law is, if anything, actually reducing crime.

"As governor, DeSantis has already demonstrated his commitment to corrupting law enforcement. Earlier this year he forcibly removed a state’s attorney — Andrew Warren — from office. Warren was among the new breed of progressive prosecutors who 'take it upon themselves to determine which laws they like and will enforce and which laws they don’t like and won’t enforce,' DeSantis said, 'and the results of this in cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco have been catastrophic,'" wrote Balko. But actually, "The murder rate in San Francisco is significantly lower than that of the entire state of Florida — an incredible statistic, given that crime is usually more concentrated in cities. The murder rate in Los Angeles is significantly lower than major Florida cities like Miami and Tallahassee. And Jacksonville has consistently had the highest murder rate in the state, despite a series of Republican mayors and lead prosecutors."

This isn't the first time Republicans have failed to check statistics in their own states before lying about crime in Democratic-controlled cities — House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) made crime in New York City a huge focus of his attacks on Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg, despite his own district containing the so-called "Danger City" of Mansfield, where crime is far worse.

Moreover, noted Balko, things are unlikely to improve under DeSantis' leadership, as he has set up a policy of importing police officers from areas with "anti-cop" policies — and many of the police who have taken up the offer have criminal charges themselves.

"The more voters get to know [DeSantis], the less they seem to like him," concluded Balko. "If he manages to find some charisma, he could be a considerable force — and an enormously destructive one. But there's little reason to think he'll make the country any safer."



https://www.rawstory.com/ron-desantis-2661042692/

 

Crime in the US: All 50 states ranked by murder, violent crime rates (usatoday.com)
Figures never lie, but liars figure.

 

Migrants say Florida contractors pushed to get them to board planes to California

3.4k
Jack Herrera
Sat, June 10, 2023 at 2:47 PM MDT·10 min read




For the record:
10:30 a.m. June 12, 2023: An earlier version of this article incorrectly said that migrants who were flown to Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., in 2022 by the state of Florida had been recruited in Del Río, Texas. They were recruited in San Antonio. It also said Imelda Maynard was with Catholic Charities of Southern New Mexico; she is director of legal services at Diocesan Migrant & Refugee Services Inc.

María traveled more than 2,800 miles from Venezuela to reach the United States in early May. Once crossing the border, however, she made it only four blocks, to a shelter at Sacred Heart Church in downtown El Paso.

Like many asylum seekers released on parole by Customs and Border Protection, she had no money to pay for a plane or bus ticket, she said. She slept in the church shelter, then in the alley outside, for three weeks, until a woman approached and said she would fly María on a private plane to California.

“She said I should go, that there were people there to receive us who would give us lodging, that they would help us … get our [immigration] papers in order,” said María, who asked to be identified only by her first name, out of fear of repercussions from the woman.


What María didn’t know was that the woman was a contractor hired by the administration of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

María had found herself in the center of a political storm. Migrant flights and the national attention they've drawn are yet another chapter in the political fight over the border, with California officials vowing to investigate whether travelers were misled and the Florida governor doubling down on hard-line policies and a portrayal of himself as a culture warrior.

The contractor, along with another woman and two men, spent the afternoon walking around the church trying to recruit migrants like María to board a charter flight to California. María and other migrants said the contractors did not identify themselves beyond saying they were there to “help the migrants.”

Over two days, the contractors managed to recruit 16 migrants for a flight June 2 and 20 for a flight June 5 — whom they drove two hours west to a small airport in New Mexico for the trips to Sacramento.


It was a gambit by DeSantis that brought attention to his recently launched presidential bid, focused on denouncing "wokeness" and attacking California and other states over “sanctuary city” policies.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom quickly condemned the flights and said his administration was looking into whether they "violated any criminal laws, including kidnapping.”

In an interview Saturday, he said, “You may not like [President] Biden’s border policies, you may have major criticisms about the asylum system in this country, but how dare you? How dare you treat other human beings this way?”

DeSantis and his spokespeople have defended the flights, arguing that migrants boarded them voluntarily. DeSantis organized a similar protest flight in 2022, recruiting migrants in San Antonio to fly to Martha's Vineyard, Mass. Despite widespread condemnation and an ongoing criminal investigation over whether those migrants were misled, the Florida legislature this year allocated $12 million that can be used for such flights. DeSantis' office did not respond to a request for comment.

Speaking Wednesday from Arizona, near the border with Mexico, he decried what he called "open border" policies and said, "I think the sanctuary jurisdictions should be the ones that have to bear that.”

In El Paso, three migrants who were approached by the contractors but decided not to go with them said the offers were vague and suspicious. They said that though the contractors appeared friendly, they pushed aggressively for migrants to board flights and insisted on seeing the documents border agents had given them.


When a Venezuelan woman told the contractors she didn’t want to go to California but was trying to get to New York, one told her that “people in California” would book her flights to New York once she landed, she said. The woman asked that her name not be used because she was unsure of the contractors' identities and feared repercussions if they returned. Other migrants who turned down the contractors expressed similar fears.

María said the contractor who talked to her was insistent and kept telling her that she should board the plane. When María said no, because she wanted to stay in El Paso to make her court date, the contractor said she would “change her date" for her.

María worried that the mysterious contractors were drug traffickers — why else would they have a private plane? The contractor seemed to sense her nervousness.

“She told us not to be afraid — that she didn’t want to steal our hearts or our organs or anything,” María said.

Despite the woman continuing to push her to get on the plane, María turned her down. But she watched in anxiety as one of her friends went.

Imelda Maynard, director of legal services at Diocesan Migrant & Refugee Services Inc., met with a family who chose to go with the contractors. She says the family — now clients of her organization — were offered help finding housing and jobs. The husband, wife and four young children on June 1 were driven in a rented van about two hours into New Mexico, where the contractors booked them rooms in a Super 8 motel and left.

According to Maynard, while the contractors reappeared the next morning to take some of the migrants to a private plane, they seemed unsure whether the family could travel with children and told the father to wait. Maynard says her clients waited in the motel until June 4, when one of the contractors suggested the father could fly alone the next day, and his family could join him later. The family asked instead to go back to El Paso. They were allowed to leave.

Maynard said the father told her his family had been treated well by the contractors; they had been fed and comfortably housed. Nonetheless, he was nervous about them coming to look for his family and stayed on the lookout. He was concerned that the contractors might have been drug traffickers.


María's friend who had gone with the contractors called her from California. The friend said the contractor had driven them about two hours to a motel before returning the next day to take them to the airport, where, as promised, a private plane was waiting, according to María.

María said her friend told her that police interviewed the migrants as soon as they got off their June 2 flight, and that she and the others had met the governor of California. While confused at what was happening, the friend told María that the flight had been “normal,” and they’d arrived in California safely, as promised. María's friend could not be reached to verify her experience.

Newsom described his meeting June 3 with the migrants who were on that first flight. His wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, a fluent Spanish speaker, translated for him, the governor said by phone. Venezuelan migrants told of their brutal journey — some said they had seen migrants lynched for refusing to pay smugglers; others had seen travelers shot on a train; one woman said she had been threatened with rape.

Newsom said he was upset by the fact that DeSantis would “use them as pawns” after everything they'd been through. “I was crawling out of my skin for two days,” he said. “The fact that DeSantis put together the news conference in Arizona, days after he did this … it's just a manifestation of the worst of the worst of humanity.”

Newsom says when he met with the migrants, they were upbeat.

“Everyone was generous, everyone was smiling, and everyone was happy. Because they felt safe. But they didn't know they were being played,” the governor said. He noted that it became clear the migrants hadn’t understood what they were consenting to when one asked, “What is Sacramento?”

“They don't know who Ron DeSantis is. They didn't even know what Sacramento was,” Newsom said. “They didn’t know they were pawns. They didn't understand the forces at work.”

Father Rafael García, the pastor of Sacred Heart, said he learned about the flights from the news, but it didn’t surprise him that the Florida contractors had chosen his 125-year-old church as a place to recruit migrants. The church and its shelter have appeared frequently in the news, and migrant arrivals in El Paso have reached record highs in the last year. Still, García was disappointed to learn what had happened.

“It’s immoral when you’re using deception to make a political point, or to make a scandal in the media,” García said. "You’re using people for an end, without respect to their dignity.”

The priest said that if the contractors returned to his church to recruit more migrants, he would take pictures of their cars and call police.

By the end of the week, the news of who was responsible for the charter flights had begun to spread among those at the Sacred Heart shelter. Luis Guerrero, a Venezuelan asylum seeker staying at the church, was offended when he learned that a politician had organized the flights as a form of protest.

"The truth is, I see it as a very bad thing, the way they used the migrants," he said. "They don't understand the reality here: that it was by necessity that we've traveled through all these dangers. The governor of Florida, of California or wherever should focus on fixing their own internal problems, and not use immigration, because we migrants aren't the ones to blame here."

However, to the migrants who turned down the free charter flights, it was obvious why others boarded. For some, it was the promise of lodging and help with their immigration cases. For others, it was simply a free ride to California, a state many want to reach but are unsure how.

Many migrants crossing the Texas border are unfamiliar with U.S. geography and unprepared for how expensive travel can be from El Paso to Chicago, Los Angeles or New York. The federal government does not offer funding or assistance with shelter or travel; nonprofits and local shelters for years have raised money to help migrants reunite with family.

In 2022, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott began sending charter buses from the Texas border to Washington, New York and Chicago. While the buses were Abbott's attempt at protesting Democrats' policies on immigration, many migrants eagerly accepted the free ride away from the border.

But others have reported feeling confused about their destination. Many who accepted the DeSantis-organized flight to Martha's Vineyard in 2022 told reporters they felt misled and taken advantage of — none had been trying to reach the island, which has little shelter space or immigration aid, prior to getting approached by Florida contractors.

In El Paso on Friday, Norman Manuel Martínez, an asylum seeker from Nicaragua, said he was disappointed he hadn’t had the chance to take one of the Sacramento flights. He arrived at Sacred Heart Church on Monday, after the last flight had left.

During his first week in the city, Martínez has struggled to raise money so he could reunite with his nephew in Los Angeles or a childhood friend in San Francisco. Men have come to the shelter in the morning offering day labor in the farmlands to the east, and Martínez spent two long days picking onions.

When asked if he would get on a charter flight if the contractors returned, his answer was immediate.

“Of course I would,” he said. "Of course I would."


https://www.yahoo.com/news/migrants-florida-contractors-pushed-them-204713215.html

 

Despicable NIMBY

Whatsa matter, despicables, the reality of open borders setting in?

 

Yup, just proves how much shooter cares about his fellow man. It's the migrants that are the victims. They're being lied to about what they could expect at their destination.

The only thing that Desantis has accomplished with these kidnapping flights is to give these migrants head of the line privileges to being a citizen.

But hey, shooter doesn't care about human trafficking!