2024 GOP Presidential Race (3 Viewers)

in Florida over the past several years, extremism and hate crimes have risen precipitously. A report by the Anti-Defamation League found that antisemitic and racist incidents increased over 70% in the state from 2020 to 2022.

Now, Florida lawmakers are trying to combat their state's reputation as a welcoming place for hate. The legislature has proposed amending the state's nuisance law to make it a crime to conduct many of the activities that hate groups have been using to harass marginalized groups and spread bigoted propaganda.

Right-wing extremists are apoplectic over the proposed law. White supremacists, antisemites, and other bigots are casting the attempt to crack down on hate crimes as an assault on their rights. Some clearly feel betrayed by the Republican-dominated government generally, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) in particular.

The bill would amend Florida's nuisance law to apply to a broad variety of conduct extremists are notorious for. These include distributing hateful fliers on private property; projecting images like swastikas onto property without permission; harassing people over religious or ethnic garb; interrupting religious services or funerals; and threatening or intimidating people on college campuses.

People who violate the law could be charged with a misdemeanor or felony, depending on certain factors. Throwing fliers on someone's property in order to intimidate or threaten them is a misdemeanor under the proposed law. If that flier contains a "credible threat," it becomes a felony.

These classifications also apply to harassing people over religious or ethnic garb; interrupting religious services or funerals; and displaying images onto property without permission. If it's intimidating or threatening, it's a misdemeanor; if their conduct constitutes a credible threat, it's a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.

Violations of the law can be deemed a hate crime if it targets people on the basis of various protected classes, including race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, and ethnicity.

Some have voiced concerns that the law won't survive a challenge on First Amendment grounds. And while the bill's sponsors have clearly said that it is intended to clamp down on hate speech by the likes of neo-Nazis and antisemites, liberals are also concerned that the law will be disproportionately applied to leftists whose viewpoints run afoul of the state's conservative leadership.

No one is more concerned about the law than far-right extremists, however. They've been rallying against the legislation for weeks.

In early March, the Aryan Freedom Network urged its Telegram subscribers to contact a member of Congress to urge him to vote against the bill. The bill is before the Florida legislature, not Congress.

InfoWars' Alex Jones claimed that the Florida GOP had declared "war on the First Amendment to combat antisemitism." His comments singled out DeSantis.

"DeSantis better veto that, or I'm going to totally not support Ron DeSantis. That will just be a nail in the coffin," Jones said.

Jon Minadeo of the antisemitic Goyim Defense League reposted a clip of Jones going off on the proposed legislation, and proclaimed, "It's the war on whites. War on whites."........

Taurus said:

Taking down Trump would be so easy for the right person.

Unfortunately, the right person must be a vertebrate. Which none of these bootlickers are.

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Hutchinson would be Ok if he stuck with the same moderate views he had early in his career. That said
he has zero chance of getting the nomination.

The primary debates are going to be a doozy with the Trump indictment (and who knows how many more by then)

Politics 101 is pounce and exploit every and any weakness you can. If a candidate gets a parking ticket he/she would get ripped to shreds over it

The GOP had their opportunity to do that when the indictment came down but instead chose to offer their full throated support to Trump

What will they say during a debate? More support and defense or total 180?

Will be interesting to watchhh

faceman said:

Hutchinson would be Ok if he stuck with the same moderate views he had early in his career. That said
he has zero chance of getting the nomination.

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Any GOP challenger who can even remotely point to their accomplishments re: Covid can swat Trump like a fly. But they have to be willing and able to attack him.

Launch the assault, keep hammering and never back down.

"Trump is a loser, an idiot and a coward. He appeals to the worst impulses and the worst people. Luckily, those are in the minority. But beyond that, he was too stupid to see that Covid was reelection offered on a silver platter. The one thing that unites Americans more than anything else is an external threat, which Covid was in early 2020. All Donald had to do was act like an adult for twenty minutes, long enough to give a few speeches telling America that Covid was coming and it was deadly, but if we all unite, if we all pull together and take care of ourselves and our communities, we'd weather the storm until a vaccine was available.

But when the crisis of his time came, Trump crumbled. Like a child who hears something in the closet, he pretended it wasn't there, it wasn't real. It was a hoax, it would be gone by April..like magic. The threat of Covid completely unmanned him and turned the President of the United States into a babbling sideshow, going on about bleach, UV lights and horse dewormer.

America simply cannot afford to have someone who so abjectly failed his only real test, who ran crying like a little girl from the threat of a pandemic come anywhere near the Presidency again."

When Trump tries to fire back, just run the tape. There's Trump claiming Covid's a hoax, there's Trump saying it'll be gone like magic, there's Trump on stage babbling about bleach and ultraviolet lights. Also, never, ever refer to him as Mr. President. It's Donald or Trump, maybe Mr. Trump.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Disney sued Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday over the Republican’s takeover of its theme park district, alleging the governor waged a “targeted campaign of government retaliation” after the company opposed a law critics call “Don’t Say Gay.”

The suit, filed in Tallahassee, was filed minutes after a Disney World oversight board appointed by DeSantis voted to void a deal that placed theme park design and construction decisions in the company’s hands.

It’s the latest conflict in an ongoing feud between DeSantis, a Republican expected to run for president, and Disney, a powerful political player and major tourism driver in Florida……..

Former president Donald Trump, fighting criminal charges in New York and multiple other ongoing investigations by federal and local prosecutors, is pitching Republican elected officials to get behind him as the inevitable nominee — and many of them are buying it.


Trump is finally seeing the response he was hoping for when he announced his candidacy almost six months ago, in a moment of political weakness, as many Republicans were openly blaming him for the party’s disappointing showing in the midterms.

Now, Trump is reasserting his primacy in the GOP, capitalizing on his early polling lead and using his indictment by New York district attorney Alvin Bragg, on charges of falsifying business records in a 2016 hush money scheme, as a rallying cry.


He returns to New Hampshire on Thursday heralding some 50 endorsements in the state, according to his campaign, building on broader support he’s amassed in recent weeks, a reversal of fortunes since his last visit, in January.

Trump and top advisers are consolidating support among congressional Republicans and prominent figures in early primary states through a personal-relationship-based charm offensive, strengthened by survey results showing Trump widening his advantage over his foremost rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

“Trump is going to be the nominee, I think it’s inevitable,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said in a brief interview leaving the Capitol on Tuesday, verging on making himself the latest elected Republican to throw his endorsement to Trump. “After what Alvin Bragg did, I think that Donald Trump is absolutely going to be the nominee, and yeah, I’ll support him.”………

Optimus Prime said:

feels like this will become a bigger issue
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A former detainee of the Guantanamo Bay prison camp has claimed that Florida governor and 2024 presidential contender Ron DeSantis witnessed him being tortured during the time he was stationed there.

Mansoor Adayfi, a Yemeni citizen who was held for 14 years on the US Naval base in Cuba, told The Independent in an extraordinary interview that he was brutally force-fed by camp staff during a hunger strike in 2006, and that Mr DeSantis was present for at least one of those sessions.

The United Nations has characterised the force-feeding of hunger strikers at Guantanamo Bay as torture. The US government has denied that the practice amounts to torture, and it has been used against prisoners over successive administrations during hunger strikes.


Mr DeSantis was stationed on the base between March 2006 and January 2007, according to his military records.

An investigation by The Independent details the following claims:

• Two prisoners held at the camp at the time Mr DeSantis was stationed there claim he witnessed the forced-feeding of hunger-striking prisoners.
• Mr Adayfi claims that Mr DeSantis had initially told him he was there for the detainees’ welfare.
• Mr DeSantis was stationed at Guantanamo during a year marked by riots, hunger strikes and death.
• Part of his role was to field concerns and complaints from prisoners.
• Mr DeSantis emerged from his time at Guantanamo as an advocate for its continued use, and against the release of detainees...........

Former Guantanamo prisoner: Ron DeSantis watched me being tortured

Mansoor Adayfi says the brutal force-feeding methods employed on Guantanamo prisoners like him amounted to torture. He tells Richard Hall that Ron DeSantis watched it happen

www.independent.co.uk

...............Mr Mustapha told The Independent that the allegations that Mr DeSantis witnessed torture at Guantanamo would do “incredible damage to the US’ standing and will critically undermine its claims to promote human rights” if he became president.

“His behaviour is certainly cruel by any standard. It is unnerving considering he may be leading policy at the White House,” he added.

“That DeSantis has been able to secure a position in the upper echelons of US politics, despite being complicit in the torture and abuse of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, shows the disregard the US government has for human rights – the very notion it used in the propagation of its disastrous and calamitous so-called ‘War on Terror,’” he said in a press release issued last week as the allegations first broke.

For those familiar with the finer details of the force-feeding regime at Guantanamo, the news was met with a mixture of concern and a lack of surprise.

Eric Lewis, a human rights lawyer who represented clients who were held at Guantanamo, wrote in an op-ed for The Independent that he watched videos of the force-feeding at the prison camp as part of his legal duties.

“I saw the pain and the humiliation and heard the screaming as my client was pinned to a chair and had overly wide, under-lubricated rubber tubing shoved blindly, quickly and forcibly down his throat, through his digestive tract and into his stomach. Only a sadist could impose and witness such treatment without grave concern and soul-sickness,” Mr Lewis, who sits on the board of The Independent, wrote.

“To my mind, relying on Ron DeSantis to feel empathy for torture victims was a fool’s errand then and would be one again if he runs for president in 2024,” he added.

Clive Stafford Smith, also a lawyer, who represents several detainees at Guantanamo and has protested against the force-feeding of hunger strikers previously, told The Independent that it was “not in the least surprising” that Mr DeSantis had remained quiet about his time serving at the notorious prison.

“He talks tough about ‘being in Guantanamo’ but omits any discussion of abuses. But then most people who were at Abu Ghraib prefer just to say they served in the Iraq War too,” he said...................

Calls mount for greater scrutiny of DeSantis’s Guantanamo record

Lawyers who represent detainees at Guantanamo said the allegations could do ‘incredible damage’ to the standing of the United States. Richard Hall reports

www.independent.co.uk

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Cheong is a huge hack, so I guess he would know, lol. On the serious side - this type of behavior by DeSantis is common. He drips with contempt when dealing with the press in general, and especially when the question is challenging in any way. Thin-skinned doesn’t even do it justice, it’s a huge red flag that he doesn’t have the temperament to lead.

I noticed that DeSantis says- "That's BS", he says "I was a junior officer, why would he remember me?", he accuses the reporter of 'trying to feed a narrative."

I also noticed that what he doesn't say is: "That's not true, I've never watched someone be tortured, I've never watched anyone undergo 'extreme interrogation techniques', anyone who says otherwise is lying"

Optimus Prime said:

Ron DeSantis blows up at reporter over question about Guantanamo Bay prisoner claims

Florida governor has faced increased media scrutiny as he readies 2024 campaign

www.independent.co.uk

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These right wing politicians with their 1-ply toilet paper egos always have a troglodyte applause section at their news conferences. They can't do anything without that fake and contrived adulation.

MT15 said:

Cheong is a huge hack, so I guess he would know, lol. On the serious side - this type of behavior by DeSantis is common. He drips with contempt when dealing with the press in general, and especially when the question is challenging in any way. Thin-skinned doesn’t even do it justice, it’s a huge red flag that he doesn’t have the temperament to lead.

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Just like his mentor...

MT15 said:

Cheong is a huge hack, so I guess he would know, lol. On the serious side - this type of behavior by DeSantis is common. He drips with contempt when dealing with the press in general, and especially when the question is challenging in any way. Thin-skinned doesn’t even do it justice, it’s a huge red flag that he doesn’t have the temperament to lead.

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The guy totally has the wrong temperament- he’s shown it over and over again. The Disney thing is just stupid - he thinks he’s being strong but he made a clear record of retaliation for corporate political speech. He’s going to lose that case like an idiot.

He’s also trying to change Florida’s FOIA (“sunshine law”) so that residents won’t be able to find out how much state money is being spent for his presidential campaign activities. And he’s trying to change FL law that requires officials to “resign to run” - basically when they run for another office they have to resign their post.

The guy is an authoritarian who thinks he is the law and makes the law - and is above the law. He sucks so bad.

I have been staying away from Florida due to the craziness there. Don't want to spend my money to support that crap.

Me too, GA. The last two winters we have rented a place down there in January, including this year. And we always manage to get down there one other time for a shorter visit. No more. Not going back there. They overwhelmingly re-elected him, and the state legislature is full of his puppets. Sick.

I am reading tonight that big R donors are lining up to run a third party candidate - but it won’t be someone who will take any support from Trump, it will be a “moderate” hoping to siphon votes from Biden and usher Trump into the WH. They call themselves NoLabels and they are being bankrolled by Harlan Crow of all people and several of his billionaire buddies.

More on the Gitmo charges: