DeSantis is always cutting off his nose to spite the people of Florida's noses. Come on Ron practice what you preach. Tell President Biden to keep his FEMA money, FEMA resources, and Disaster Declaration so the rest of us taxpayers don't have to bail Florida out again.

And whatever you do Ron don't come running to the federal government for help with skyrocketing insurance costs and insurance companies fleeing your state.

But I also see a President Biden and Democrats coming with lots of campaign ads on this this. A great example of how the MAGA extremists constantly hurt the people of their own states just for spite. And they will be driving that point home to the people who would directly benefit from these programs.


DeSantis tells Biden: Keep your IRA money

President Joe Biden is offering one of his White House challengers hundreds of millions of dollars to spend in his state. The only problem: that opponent is refusing to take it.

The Inflation Reduction Act makes Florida eligible for some $350 million in energy efficiency incentives. But Gov. Ron DeSantis has rejected the funding and other measures, creating the most prominent blockade by any Republican governor against Biden’s economic agenda.

And there’s nothing the White House can do besides hope he changes his mind.

The rejection has the potential to create significant ripple effects, politically and economically, in the coming months. As the president and his Cabinet members go around the country boasting about the IRA, rebates for energy-efficient purchases — the majority of the funding that DeSantis has refused — have played a particularly prominent role. That’s not just because they underpin the administration’s climate agenda but because they provide direct rebates to consumers.


The IRA allows governors the authority to block a handful of its programs, and with it, the power to blunt the political impact of legislation that some Democrats believe will be a key factor in the 2024 election.

Through a veto of his legislature’s request, DeSantis turned down $5 million to set up the rebate program for consumers who buy energy efficient appliances and retrofit their homes. It also effectively blocked $341 million to fund the program because the state would need the administrative money to apply for the program, according to people familiar with Florida's budget process. However, federal Energy Department rules allow a state to accept the second pot of money even if they don’t take the first.

The governor also rejected $3 million in IRA funds to help the state fight pollution and rebuffed the Solar for All program which would have paid to help low-income people access solar panels. DeSantis also vetoed $24 million in grants from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

So far, DeSantis is the only governor to signal that he will block the energy rebates. But on the smaller sums of money, he has company. He’s one of four to turn down pollution mitigation funding from the IRA. The others are the Republican governors of South Dakota and Iowa, and Kentucky’s governor, who is a Democrat. The states that haven’t applied for the solar fund are all led by Republicans. They include Florida, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota and South Dakota.

The Biden administration has explored ways around the energy rebate blockade but has come up empty so far, according to federal and state officials. The IRA was written in a way that requires the rebates to go through a state energy office. Unlike many federal laws, there is no federal fallback option or way to circumvent an obstinate governor.

That leaves the Biden administration hoping Florida will reconsider — and that the IRA funding doesn’t snowball into a political litmus test for GOP governors as Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion, and the Obama administration’s high speed rail funding, did a decade ago.

So far, the White House hasn’t publicly hit DeSantis by name over the rejection of funds, perhaps in hopes that he changes his mind before time runs out next August.

“It’s unfortunate that some officials are putting politics ahead of delivering meaningful progress for hard working Americans,” said White House spokesman Michael Kikukawa. “Despite this, President Biden and his administration are working with cities, counties, businesses, nonprofits, and other entities in the Sunshine State to ensure Floridians benefit from the lower costs and stronger economy delivered by his agenda.”

There’s reason to think Florida wants the funds: the state’s energy office requested them and the state legislature approved it before DeSantis vetoed a grant for the program.

“It’s clear from Administration conversations with Florida’s state energy office that they want the rebate funding,” said an administration official granted anonymity to speak freely. “After all, that’s why the request for accessing the administrative funding was in the budget line DeSantis vetoed in the first place — because the state energy office asked for it.”

Administration officials expressed confidence that Florida residents will ultimately get access to the rebates — even if they have to wait until after the Republican primary concludes or, at worst, the presidential election.

Republican governors used their opposition to high speed rail funding and Medicaid expansion dollars during the Obama era to showcase their fiscal conservative bonafides and the extent of their opposition to a Democratic president. In that vein, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem’s spokesman Ian Fury said that she “absolutely believes that the federal government’s wasteful spending, much of it at the behest of President Biden, is the single largest cause of the inflation crisis that our nation finds itself in.”

But Democrats believe the situation is different now compared to a decade ago. DeSantis’ decision could serve as a line of political attack: with another hurricane looming amid possibly the hottest summer on record, the governor is placing opposition to Biden over helping Floridians weatherize their homes, and helping protect them from pollution or buy energy efficient appliances.

“He’s senselessly making the state more vulnerable,” said Rep. Darren Soto (D-Fla.), who is on a House panel that works with the White House on implementation. “A lot of other states that are majority Republican haven’t been this foolish.”

The DeSantis administration did not return repeated requests for comment.

The Florida Democratic Party plans to put public pressure on DeSantis to reverse course. Party Chair Nikki Fried said many people don’t yet know about the fallout of the veto. Still, she doubts DeSantis would reverse course. “He is not one who admits that he made a mistake or changes his course,” she added.

Soto is urging the administration to work with local officials where it can. The climate funding, for instance, can go to localities instead of a state. Three Florida cities have taken it up.

“My main goal is to get the money to Florida so my advice to the White House has been work with the local government and go around the state in every way possible,” he said.

The administration does not have a work around option when it comes to the rebates program, however. That program is supposed to help consumers cover part of the cost of projects such as insulting homes, installing a heat pump or upgrading to Energy Star appliances. The administration projects that the $8.5 billion program will save consumers up to $1 billion in energy costs and support an estimated 50,000 jobs in construction and other sectors.

Half of the money is supposed to go to households with incomes at or below 80 percent of the area median income. White House climate and energy adviser John Podesta said rejecting the rebates is a disservice to low-income households.

“Governors who are interested in servicing those communities would be well advised to kind of take that money and put those programs into effect, and then make those rebates available,” Podesta told reporters recently.

Other states are eager to take their piece of the money Florida has rejected. Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) has asked the Energy Department to send Florida’s money to his and other states. Rhode Island “could utilize additional funds that Florida’s Governor may not accept for purely partisan reasons,” Reed wrote to the Energy Department.

In Kentucky, Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, who is up for reelection this fall, has applied for “a number of federal grants,” according to John A. Mura, spokesman for the Kentucky energy and environment cabinet. But, “local governments are best situated to apply for and administer the Climate Pollution Reduction Grant funds,” he said.

Florida’s rejection of IRA money is not absolute. The state has accepted other pots of money, including $3.75 million to support urban tree canopies and access to nature, $209,000 for pollution control and $78.7 million to several state and local entities to protect against climate change — a fund that is made up of the IRA and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law

https://www.yahoo.com/news/climate-clash-desantis-refuses-biden-083000996.html

 

That actually makes him a hero!

Taken this money would have made him part of the crime family & dedicated to the biden mafia! Climate control bullshit! An expense that this country didn't need at this time!!!!

What I would like to know, is what did the dems do with their hundreds of millions? It's obviously not spent on the people, police, or improving the climate.....

 

Shooter knows what governors and mayors and what not need to do when Biden comes around with his IRA pork money.
Take every penny offered.
And return it to the treasury specifically earmarked to reduce the debt.

Course, then Biden would be bragging about how he reduced the debt, eh?

 

And don't forget using the power of government to attack private businesses that disagree with him.

This is actually so true. DeSantis recruited and befriended White Supremacist and Neo Nazis. He's constantly fanned the flames of racism, bigotry hate fear and anger. Then when one of his Nazi supporters slaughters innocent Black people he barges in uninvited for a photo op and offered a million dollar bribe a Black college and the families of the victims to make himself look good. And deflect from him being at fault.

But wait, wait, what happened to his demands there is no racism and Black people should not receive special treatment?

One of the phoniest hypocritical opportunistic treasonous conservative/America Hating/Republicans since Trump.

 

Disney's firefighters backed DeSantis as he feuded with the company. Now his new board ignored their pleas and stripped away their park benefits.
Rebecca Cohen,Brent D. Griffiths,John L. Dorman
Thu, August 31, 2023 at 8:34 AM MDT·3 min read

• Disney World's firefighters were once in support of DeSantis' plan to assume control of the Reedy Creek Improvement District.
  
• That was until his new board stripped them of their discounts and free passes to the parks.
  
• A number of firefighters confronted DeSantis' board last week at a meeting about this.
  

Disney World's first responders once backed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' plan to assume control of the Reedy Creek Improvement District, which formerly had autonomous control over the land that Disney occupied.

"Anything has got to be better than what we currently have," Tim Stromsnes, communications director of the Reedy Creek Professional Firefighters Local 2117 union, told the Orlando Sentinel in January.

But now firefighters are having second thoughts after the new oversight board moved to strip them of special Disney perks they've had for decades. Last week, the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, the rebranded Reedy Creek board, revoked all of the firefighters' free passes to the Disney parks and resorts. First responders told the Miami Times Online makes visits to the theme park unaffordable now.

"The removal of this benefit takes away, for some, their entire reason for working here," firefighter Pete Simon told the Times Online.

A number of firefighters confronted DeSantis' new board at a monthly meeting last Wednesday about the free passes and what they meant for them and their families. They said, according to the Times Online, that the discounts afforded to them by Disney were a major reason they chose to work there.

DeSantis, who has briefly paused his presidential campaign as Hurricane Idalia neared his state, has made efforts in recent weeks to move beyond his long-running feud with the entertainment giant. Disney previously sued DeSantis and his administration amid their increasingly acrimonious relationship.

"So all we want to do is treat everybody the same, and let's move forward. I'm totally fine with that," DeSantis told CNBC, encouraging Disney to drop the suit. "But I'm not fine with giving extraordinary privileges, you know, to one special company at the exclusion of everybody else."

The feud began when Disney, after significant internal pressure, opposed DeSantis' parents rights in education bill that critics deemed "Don't Say Gay" due to its ban on discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten classrooms through third grade. There is also a broader restriction based on what material is "age-appropriate."

DeSantis argued that he wasn't specifically targeting Disney when he pushed the legislature to end its special status shortly after the fight over the parental rights law. But in his book, the governor seemed to delight in taking on one of the largest employers in his state. Disney also scrapped a $1 billion project planned in the state.

Read the original article on Business Insider

https://www.yahoo.com/news/disneys-firefighters-backed-desantis-feuded-143443169.html

 

Opinion
Scott Maxwell: Florida lawmakers cower in gun-free zones with bulletproof glass while criticizing ‘safe places’ for others
Scott Maxwell, Orlando Sentinel
Thu, August 31, 2023 at 2:00 AM MDT·5 min read
107



Imeh Akpanudosen/Getty Images North America/TNS


Some Florida lawmakers are furious that businesses in Mount Dora may soon start putting stickers on their doors to let LGBTQ residents know they can find shelter inside if they’re ever being threatened.

Yes, we’re talking about grown men triggered by rainbow stickers.

So triggered, in fact, that the Republican legislators are threatening legal action against the city to prevent the stickers from ever being stuck.

The story might almost be funny — little men throwing big tantrums — except for the dangerous division-stoking involved.

Just last weekend, another group of Floridians were slaughtered in what appears to be a crime of bigotry — Black residents gunned down in Jacksonville by a guy who had swastikas etched on his rifle.


Yet Florida politicians are fuming about private businesses voluntarily offering to help protect others who might also feel threatened.

Keep in mind: The same politicians who loathe safe spaces for others enjoy special gun-free zones whenever and wherever they meet — and are currently spending more than $60 million on bulletproof windows in the state Capitol.

So these guys can have Floridians arrested for brining a firearm into a room with them. But they want to stop private businesses from voluntarily offering shelter to citizens who don’t enjoy the same protection.

There are characters in Dante’s Inferno who’d be impressed by the hypocrisy here.

But seeing as how shame is an increasingly rare emotion in politics, the four GOP members of Lake County‘s legislative delegation sent a letter threatening to block Mount Dora’s “Safe Place Initiative.”

The letter was signed by Sen. Dennis Baxley, who has a long history of pushing anti-gay measures in this state. A sponsor of the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law, Baxley was also one of the last Florida politicians still fighting gay adoption, arguing kids were better off with no parents than two, loving same-sex ones. He once compared gay parents to alcoholics and abusers.

This time, Baxley was joined in his anti-rainbow crusade by State Reps. Keith Truenow, Taylor Yarkosky and Stan McClain. The four men signed a letter threatening to use “all legislative, legal and executive options” against Mount Dora and citing the Bible as part of their justification for doing so.

The Sentinel’s long-time Lake County columnist, Lauren Ritchie, used to argue that Lake’s legislative delegation was the “laughing stock” of the entire state. But it’s hard to laugh right now.

After this past weekend’s shootings, Gov. Ron DeSantis scurried to Jacksonville to announce that he wanted to give $1 million to a historically Black college there for better security.

Think about that for a moment.

So we’ll spend $1 million after people are murdered. But we’re opposed to voluntary programs meant to stop people from ever becoming victims in the first place.

What is wrong with these people?

These politicians don’t even listen to the cops who they normally claim to respect. The police chief in Mount Dora, for instance, said he backs the safe-place initiative as a way to both enhance public safety and build trust.

In fact, I invite you to read these two simple paragraphs from the Sentinel’s story last week:

“Such Safe Place programs are common throughout Central Florida, including ones facilitated by the Orlando Police Department, Orange County Sheriff’s Office and Osceola County Sheriff’s Office.

The programs task participating businesses with posting the sticker, allowing crime victims to enter their establishment and stay there until law enforcement arrives, and assisting them in calling authorities, the agenda item shows.”

I’m sorry, but if those two paragraphs trigger you, you need help.

In their letter threatening Mount Dora, the Lake County legislators offered up a bunch of nonsensical catch phrases that wouldn’t make any more sense if you put them in a blender.

They basically whined about everything from Bud Light to “virtue signaling” and complained about government “picking winners and losers.” (In their minds, it appears the “winners” are the businesses that offer to call the cops if a crime is reported. That’s somehow a bad thing.)

Read the letter for yourself. See if you can make sense of it.

But don’t stop there. Try to make sense of these guys’ safety priorities in general.

They pass laws easing gun restrictions — while spending your tax dollars on bulletproof glass to protect themselves.

They push to allow guns in classrooms — while making sure they get to work in gun-free zones. (Statute 790.06 makes it a crime for any Floridian to carry a firearm into “any meeting of the Legislature or a committee thereof.”)

And they spent the better part of the past three years demonizing and dehumanizing LGBTQ residents. Yet now, amidst reports of threats and vandalism, they want to stop the businesses that have offered help.

This is twisted stuff.

Mount Dora’s website offers this simple explanation of its Safe Place initiative: “Anyone who seeks solace in a Safe Place location can be assured that if they are the victim of a crime, police will promptly be called.”

It’s disturbing to think such a statement enrages some politicians.

But even more so when you consider these tough-talking politicians who say they want more guns and fewer safe spaces pass their bills from within the safety of their own little gun-free zones … which will soon enjoy the added protection of new bulletproof windows.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/scott-maxwell-florida-lawmakers-cower-080000565.html

 

DeSantis' new law will increase suffering of Hurricane Idalia victims: report

Gideon Rubin
August 31, 2023, 4:39 PM ET



(Gage Skidmore)


Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday assured residents ahead of Hurricane Idalia, vowing to push “to make people whole" if they were affected by the storm and saying insurance companies should step up to make speedy repairs.

But DeSantis late last year signed revisions to an existing law that complicate customers' ability to hold the companies to account, Mother Jones reported.

DeSantis and the state’s GOP lawmakers changes make it more difficult for policyholders to sue insurers over payment disputes, according to the report.



Hurricane Idalia will serve as the first test for the revised law, which was re-written in December of last year in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian.

Mother Jones reported that: “The sweeping revisions makes it more difficult for homeowners to sue their property insurance companies for acting in “bad faith” and removes the right of homeowners to recover attorney’s fees, even in lawsuits they ultimately win.

"Additionally, the adjustments to Florida’s insurance laws allow insurance companies to create new policies with mandatory binding arbitration agreements in exchange for a premium reduction, which will also thwart many homeowners’ option to take insurers to court…Moreover, the legislation shortened the window in which policyholders can file claims with their insurers, invested $1 billion of taxpayer funds into a state-run reinsurance fund to help insurance companies mitigate their losses in the event of catastrophic events, and narrowed eligibility for Citizens, Florida’s state-run nonprofit insurance company that provides insurance to people who cannot find affordable coverage on the regular market.”

Amy Bach, the executive director of the advocacy group United Policyholders, in an interview with Mother Jones suggested that filing suit against insurers over hurricane damage would now be almost pointless.

“It’s now economically absurdly risky for a consumer to file a lawsuit,” Bach said, “and it’s going to be incredibly hard to find a good lawyer.”

Read the full article here.



https://www.rawstory.com/desantis-2664715970/

 

It is amazing that DeSantis and other treasonous conservative/America Hating/Republicans deny the existence of human caused global warming/climate change considering how much money it is costing them and all the rest of us.



Florida's insurance industry is in flux as Idalia cleanup begins
Rob Wile and Gabe Gutierrez and Phil McCausland and Melissa Chan
Thu, August 31, 2023 at 7:14 PM MDT·6 min read
160




CEDAR KEY, Fla. — As cleanup begins in the aftermath of Hurricane Idalia, the storm has served as a stark reminder that Florida’s insurance industry remains in flux.

Idalia made landfall in Florida’s Big Bend just before 8 a.m. Wednesday as a Category 3 hurricane. It killed at least three people in Florida before it battered Georgia and other states on the East Coast as a downgraded tropical storm.

Idalia moved offshore Thursday morning, leaving around 330,000 customers without power in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.

Powerful storms have regularly pummeled Florida’s coastal communities in recent years. The hurricanes have brought high winds, lashing rains and deadly storm surge. Idalia brought much of the same, and it has forced many homeowners to turn to their insurance policies in hope that repairing their homes and replacing their belongings might be covered.

But many of those homeowners face uncertainty amid the upheaval that has emerged in Florida’s insurance industry in recent years.


Image: Burned rubble where a house stood after a power transformer explosion in the community of Signal Cove in Hudson, Fla., on Aug. 30, 2023, after Hurricane Idalia made landfall. (Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo / AFP - Getty Images)
A thinning insurance market that is beset by more regular hurricanes has caused insurance policy costs to skyrocket. An average home premium in Florida is about $6,000 per year, according to the Insurance Information Institute, an industry trade organization. The U.S. average is about $1,700.

The state’s insurance industry is preparing to lose four insurers since last year — Farmers Insurance, Bankers Insurance, Centauri Insurance and Lexington Insurance. Farmers Insurance announced just last month that it intends to leave Florida, affecting about 100,000 policy holders, and that it would not be writing new policies.

Still, it appears Florida is better-positioned to handle insurance claims than it was last year after the state’s insurers acquired adequate levels of reinsurance — a reimbursement system that insulates insurers from very high claims.

“With all the weather and hurricane events that have come through, the reinsurance market has hardened on the Florida insurance companies,” said Chris Draghi, who specializes in the state’s insurance market as an associate director at AM Best, a global credit agency. “That’s led to material increases and reinsurance costs, which, of course, then strain bottom line results to afford the same level of protections as in the past.”

That could mean that, as the costs for insurers rise further, Floridians’ premiums will be affected.

Gregory Buck, the president and owner of National Risk Experts Insurance, based in Florida, said that his company’s premiums last year were four times the national average but that those prices are largely based on reinsurers. He expects rates to increase further.


Image: The remains of a destroyed home built atop a platform on piles are seen in Keaton Beach, Fla., during a flight provided by mediccorps.org, following the passage of Hurricane Idalia, on Aug. 30, 2023. (Rebecca Blackwell / AP)
“If you look at year on year for the last three to five years, you’re probably talking about between 100 and 300% (in insurance cost increases) depending on where you are and obviously the age and the construction of the homes themselves” Buck said by email. “But absolutely, we are looking at more increases.”

Homeowners in the state said they expect the cost to jump once again, which has led some to consider going without insurance because of the price.

Aimee Firestine stood outside her hotel, the Faraway Inn, in Cedar Key as she said her homeowners insurance rate doubled last year. She said it has left her “thinking about whether you can keep paying for that.”

“That’s one of the issues in Florida is Mother Nature does what it wants and we have to just rebuild and hope insurance can help us out with it,” Firestine said.

The cost of insurance policies could be a major contributing reason that as many as 15% of Florida homeowners are living without property insurance. That is the highest percentage in the country, according to the Insurance Information Institute.

In Florida, 16 severe storms or hurricanes since 2020 have caused $100 billion to $200 billion in damage. That has pushed many in the state to turn to Citizens Property Insurance Corp., the state-backed insurer of last resort, which has quickly become Florida’s fastest-growing insurer.

The company now has more than 1.4 million policies, centered largely in southeast Florida, up precipitously from 500,000 in 2019. It now covers roughly 1 in 8 Florida households.

It is a reflection of how private insurers have left the state as the storms walloping Florida grow in number and strength, said Amy Bach, the executive director of United Policyholders, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group. Because the agency is a state-run entity, it could also have an effect on taxpayer dollars.

“As they retreat and government is having an increasing role, that basically translates into taxpayers,” Bach said. “So really, we’re talking about a huge shift in risk-bearing from the private sector to the public, and it’s a big deal.”

Four new insurance companies will join the Florida market next year after legislative reforms designed to promote market stability were passed and signed into law, which could help address the problem. It is unclear, however, what market share the companies might be able to soak up or what their rates might be.


Image: A flooded house is seen in Crystal River, Fla., on Aug. 31, 2023, after Hurricane Idalia made landfall. (Chandan Khanna / AFP - Getty Images)
Aggravating the problem, 82% of Floridians do not have flood insurance, which is typically operated by the National Flood Insurance Program, a federal program run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Congress created the program in 1968 because of a similar issue — the lack of private insurers in flood-prone areas.

Analysts and experts said few people purchase flood insurance because many do not realize that most homeowners or hurricane policies do not cover flooding, even though hurricanes are a key threat to Florida’s low-lying areas.

Hundreds of thousands of Florida homes lie in flood-risk areas that are not designated as such by the federal government, leaving many homeowners vulnerable to massive out-of-pocket costs for damage after hurricanes.

More than 785,000 properties in the state face flood hazards but are not recognized as high risks in FEMA’s flood maps, according to data from the First Street Foundation, a nonprofit research group.

The First Street Foundation said that it factors in heavy rainfall, the impact of small waterways’ flooding and climate change and that it updates its models annually, while FEMA does not. On its website, FEMA said it “consistently releases new flood maps and data, giving communities across America access to helpful, authoritative data that they can use to make decisions about flood risk.”

Meanwhile, Mark Friedlander, a spokesman for the Insurance Information Institute, said Florida has major flood events year-round.

“We’re going to see very significant flood losses from the hurricane this week, and only a small percentage of homeowners have that coverage,” he said.

In Taylor County, where Idalia made landfall, for example, only 5.4% of homeowners have flood insurance, Friedlander said. The county, in the Big Bend area of Florida, is home to about 21,000 people, according to the latest census data.

“That entire community is under water,” Friedlander said.

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/floridas-insurance-industry-flux-idalia-011406505.html

 

Maybe you can get that traitor John Kerry to fly to Florida in his private jet to tell Floridians "told ya so".

 

Talk about "Whataboutisms," eh?

 

It's funny that I live 15-20 minutes in either direction from Hudson and Crystal River, and all I got a little bit of rain and a few small branches down. I understand living "on the water" comes with it's risks, but as the crow flies, I'm about 3/4 mile from the Gulf.

 

If you look, as in actually taking a look around here treasonous conservation/America Hating/Republicans are terrified of answering just simple straight fowward questions. But at least they can't rough up 15 years old kids for asking them. Because you know not allowed. But their cowardice is still the same.


Ron DeSantis Is Afraid of Questions From a 15-Year-Old
Jake Lahut
Fri, September 1, 2023 at 2:31 AM MDT·12 min read
2.1k




Quinn Mitchell has seen at least 35 presidential candidates in person since 2019, when he first started showing up at New Hampshire primary events to ask them questions.

Not a single one of them had ever treated the now-15-year-old as if he were a threat—until Ron DeSantis came to town.

It all started with a straightforward question. In June, when DeSantis stopped for a town hall event in Hollis, Mitchell raised his hand in the crowd.

“Do you believe that Trump violated the peaceful transfer of power,” the teenager asked the governor, “a key principle of American democracy that we must uphold?”



DeSantis dodged the question and said Americans shouldn’t get stuck in the past, but not before remarking—in a somewhat impressed, incredulous tone—on Mitchell’s age. “Are you in high school?” the governor asked.

The moment went viral, with DeSantis’ non-answer encapsulating how even Donald Trump’s lead primary rival could not bring himself to acknowledge the former president’s efforts to undo the 2020 election. CNN even played it during an interview with Chris Christie to tee up a question to the Trump foe.

For Mitchell, however, the exchange kicked off a series of events that deeply rattled him and his family.

Speaking about it for the first time in an interview with The Daily Beast, Mitchell says that he was grabbed and physically intimidated by DeSantis security at two subsequent campaign stops, where the candidate’s staffers also monitored him in a way he perceived as hostile.

The experience, Mitchell said, was “horrifying” and amounted to “intimidation.”

At a Fourth of July parade DeSantis attended, Mitchell was swarmed by security and physically restrained after a brief interaction with the governor—with his private security contractors even demanding Mitchell stay put until they said so.

With his mother alarmed, the situation escalated to such a degree that the candidate’s wife, Casey, spoke directly with her—but to suggest her son was being dishonest about what happened, according to Mitchell.

Then, at an August 19 event—where Mitchell was tailed closely by two security guards—an attendee told The Daily Beast they saw a staffer for DeSantis’ super PAC, Never Back Down, take a photo of the teenager on Snapchat before typing out an ominous caption: “Got our kid.”

Seven other sources corroborated Mitchell’s version of events, either by sharing contemporaneous communications with the family or recounting what they witnessed in person at DeSantis events, including the Fourth of July parade. The teenager and his family say they have yet to receive any kind of apology from DeSantis.

The DeSantis campaign and Never Back Down did not return multiple requests for comment from The Daily Beast.

As astute an observer of the state’s politics as any, Mitchell had a blunt assessment of the fiasco over DeSantis’ treatment of him. “Really stupid,” he said, “in a small state like New Hampshire.”

‘I Just Want to Ask My Question’
As the DeSantis campaign’s summer from hell comes to an end, the governor is not much closer to seriously threatening Trump for the GOP nomination. Amid concerns over his stagnant polling numbers, his fundraising performance, and unsustainable spending, the DeSantis operation has seen substantial turnover, including the ouster of his campaign manager.

Across all of the reboots and turmoil, a consistent thread apparently remained: the DeSantis team’s willingness to go to unusual lengths to prevent a teenage boy from having a chance to follow up with the candidate on his question—and, to hear Mitchell tell it, personally express regret that he made the governor look bad.



More broadly, the teenager’s story distills some key reasons why DeSantis’ presidential bid is struggling: a candidate with clear difficulty making personal connections, a team obsessed with managing every detail on the campaign trail, and a pervasive anxiety over the idea of alienating Trump voters.

Combined together, those factors may ensure DeSantis gets nowhere near the White House in 2024. In New Hampshire, they’ve already pushed a precocious and passionate teenager to consider quitting politics altogether.

“I may be older now and know I can handle this a lot more, but if they had done that to me a few years back, I don’t know if I could have handled that,” Mitchell said. “It’s unfortunate, because I just want to ask my question.”

In the nation’s first primary state, where individual voters can have an outsized impact on the process, Mitchell made himself a staple of the New Hampshire political scene before he was even a teenager.

A self-described political independent who loves history and politics, Mitchell sees it as his “civic duty” to show up to ask questions, especially on behalf of “people who live in other states and the people who want to ask those questions,” who “don’t always get the opportunity.”

Before DeSantis, presidential candidates have not just tolerated the teenager but seemed to genuinely appreciate him. In the 2020 Democratic primary, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) met with Mitchell and later worked his enthusiasm for politics into her stump speech.

More recently, Christie not only gave him a shoutout during the CNN interview—“he goes to every town hall meeting… he asks really tough questions”—but was quoted in a recent USA Today profile of Mitchell. “Quinn, remember me when you are president,” the former New Jersey governor quipped.

‘They're Watching You’
After his question about Jan. 6 blew up on DeSantis, Mitchell—who was not intending to land a punch on the governor—said he “genuinely felt bad about it.” A few days later, he woke up early for the hour-and-a-half drive to Merrimack, where he intended to personally say as much to DeSantis at the town’s Fourth of July parade.

Once there, the high level of security around the governor’s contingent stood out to Mitchell and other observers. Staffers for the super PAC, Never Back Down, “were nudging the security guys and pointing at me,” Mitchell said. “I actually had a reporter come up and just say, ‘They’re pointing at you and they’re watching you.’”

Unfazed, Mitchell patiently walked along as the candidate crossed from curb to curb, shaking hands with voters; each time he came close to DeSantis, however, the security guards would hold their arms out in front and parry him away.

Finally, Mitchell was able to get within earshot of the governor. When he passed by, he told him, “I’m so sorry that I got you in all that trouble,” and offered him a chance to give a different or more detailed answer to the question.



According to Mitchell, DeSantis nodded in response, at least acknowledging his question, and the two had a quick handshake. That’s when things went south: right after the handshake, Mitchell recalled his shock when he felt a firm tug on his shirt, pulling him away from DeSantis. Suddenly, all he could see were the outstretched arms of security guards and plain clothed aides.

“Usually what they do is they don’t push you or anything, but they put their hands out and kind of body you, so you just don’t move, basically,” Mitchell said, describing a shuffling motion more akin to an offensive line on a football team than a presidential candidate’s security detail.

If that were not startling enough, right after the fracas, a DeSantis security guard cornered Mitchell and ordered him not to move from the spot for another five minutes. In response, he did what almost any 15-year old would do.

He texted his mom.

Toward the end of the parade, Mitchell’s mother reunited with her son and then demanded an explanation from DeSantis for why his security detail was putting their hands on her boy, an interaction that was observed by a Boston Globe reporter on the scene.

What the Globe didn’t catch was the involvement of the second most important person in the DeSantis campaign: Casey, the governor’s wife and arguably his top political adviser.

Instead of diffusing the situation, however, the Florida First Lady suggested to Mitchell’s mother that she was overreacting—and that her son was fibbing.

“Well, I’m a mother, too,” Casey said, according to Mitchell and other witnesses, along with multiple sources who shared contemporaneous communications on the incident with The Daily Beast. “I know what you’re experiencing, and we’re all very afraid for our children—even if they’re exaggerating.”

As for the candidate himself, DeSantis told Mitchell he would “get to the bottom” of the one-sided encounter with security, and even told the teenager to come to his next event.

‘Got Our Kid’
Ahead of their August 19 event, a staffer for Never Back Down reached out to Mitchell. USA Today let the PAC know that a photographer wanted to come photograph Mitchell for the upcoming profile. The staffer just wanted to confirm he would be in attendance.

The teenager obliged. But after walking into the event, held in a firearm factory in Newport, he noticed something odd.



It wasn’t just that he saw a pair of security guards flanking him as he made his way to the far side of the venue. The weird part was that Never Back Down staffers were taking photos of him. It was notable to Mitchell, even before he learned of the ominous caption—“got our kid”—that one staffer was seen attaching to a Snapchat photo.

The governor kept audience questions to a tight 15 minutes, throwing Mitchell a glance but ignoring his outstretched hand, though the teenager now stands over 6 feet tall.

Security kept their defensive posture as Mitchell tried to make his way to stage right—where DeSantis was attempting to chat with voters and take selfies—blocking him from getting toward the group of voters waiting to chat with the candidate.

Even after Mitchell gave up on his months-long pursuit of a follow-up question to DeSantis about his views on Trump and the transfer of power, security prevented him from crossing the room to see a family friend, until they eventually relented.

Since the incidents, Mitchell has not heard from the DeSantis campaign, or the PAC, though he expected to. He could not reach an in-state contact for the governor’s team himself.

“The campaign, they could have called and said, ‘We’re so sorry, this should have never happened, we’ll get to the bottom of it,’” Mitchell said. “Never got a call like that. They never apologized to us for any of it.”

Mitchell often says that it’s a privilege to live in New Hampshire, a state where even a determined teenager can have the power to influence the presidential election in a small way. His dream is to become a political reporter, but he said the DeSantis events almost made him want to hang it up for good.

Whatever happens, Mitchell is likely to keep up his rigorous primary schedule—even if he’s unlikely to try to see DeSantis again anytime soon. But the teenager said if he ran into him “at conventions or a multiple candidate event, I will do my best to press him.”

Still, the political history buff came away with one silver lining after the last DeSantis event.

“I actually got a free hat that day,” Mitchell said, a fine collector’s item, even if it was for the Never Back Down PAC and not the DeSantis campaign proper.

For a 15-year-old who sacrificed more than a few dog days of summer—and more than a few hours of Minecraft—to be treated as a security threat by a major presidential candidate, a free Never Back Down hat selling for nearly $30 online was, he quipped, “probably the only good thing that happened that day.”

https://www.yahoo.com/news/ron-desantis-afraid-questions-15-083126041.html

 

More DeSantis supporters.



Neo-Nazis parade swastika flags in Florida, chanting 'We are everywhere'
Rebecca Rommen
Sun, September 3, 2023 at 8:09 AM MDT·2 min read
1.4k



People hold swastika flags as neo-Nazi groups Blood Tribe, and Goyim Defense League hold a rally on September 2, 2023 in Orlando, Florida.Stephanie Keith/Getty Images

• 
  White supremacist hate groups staged a neo-Nazi rally in Florida.
  
  
• They paraded swastika flags, performed the Nazi salute, and chanted, "We are everywhere."
  
  
• The rally comes days after three Black people were killed in a racist mass shooting in Jacksonville.
  

Neo-Nazis were marching in Florida on the Labor Day weekend chanting, "We are everywhere," The Mail Online reported. The extremist hate groups Blood Tribe and The Goyim Defense League paraded in the Orlando area on Saturday.

Blood Tribe was founded by Christopher Polhaus, a former US Marine linked to the January 6 insurrection. The group regards Hitler as a deity, says the Anti-Defamation League. The group, which does not allow female members, has been increasingly active since it was founded in 2021 and has staged anti-LGBTQ+ demonstrations.

The Goyim Defense League is an antisemitic hate group that has been known to harass Jews.



The two white supremacist groups joined forces to organize the "March of the Redshirts" rally during Labor Day weekend. According to videos of the rally posted on social media, the groups were able to muster a few dozen supporters for the event.

The Anti-Defamation League's (ADL) Center on Extremism had warned of the planned demonstrations. The ADL said US Nazis were increasingly brazen, and some had been outspoken in favor of Governor Ron DeSantis. The presidential candidate argues that these individuals are not his true supporters.

Anna Vishkaee Eskamani, a Florida House of Representatives member, posted a video on X (formerly Twitter) denouncing the groups. "Absolutely disgusting stuff and another example of the far-right extremism growing in FL," she wrote.

The marchers wore uniforms of matching red shirts, black masks, and black pants. They paraded swastika flags, performed Nazi salutes, and proclaimed "Heil Hitler." They gathered at Cranes Roost Park.

On the same day, a separate far-right group called the Order of the Black Sun protested outside Disney World. The groups targeted high-visibility locations to attract maximum attention, The Daily Beast reported.

Right-wing activist Laura Loomer was harassed by them and endured antisemitic slurs. She posted on X: "Very vitriolic and irrational behavior. However, they still have a right to free speech and freedom of association, even if they are irrational Nazi trolls (and possibly even Feds)." One protester yelled that she should be "thrown in an oven."

The far-right protests come days after a racist mass shooting in the same state. Ryan Palmeter fatally shot three black people at a Dollar General store in Jacksonville. He was armed with two guns, one of which was an AR-15 rifle with swastikas painted on it. The incident is being investigated as a hate crime.

Read the original article on Business Insider


https://www.yahoo.com/news/neo-nazis-parade-swastika-flags-140904682.html

 

From Stumblers excellent copy N paste propaganda post on this page;

"The two white supremacist groups joined forces to organize the "March of the Redshirts" rally during Labor Day weekend. According to videos of the rally posted on social media, the groups were able to muster a few dozen supporters for the event."
​

Just for comparison, the 50 year reunion of our whitewater rafting company, that hasn't had an employee since 1982, will have 40 or so people in attendance next week. So it would seem that 50 year whitewater rafting reunions are more popular than racism.

But we gotta give Stumbler credit; he really had to work to spin this one into something worthy of posting, eh?
Good job stumbler.

 

Dog whistle!!!!