And another day of understanding DeSantis, moving boxes, 20 articles of impeachment against Paxton, SCOTUS curtailing EPA’s power, R’s pushing for child labor, accountability for the climate apocalypse, and our immune systems out of practice comes to a close:
“fuckin ashamed of humanity” — God
Ron DeSantis Is All In—on Creating an American Autocracy. DeSantis, in his telling, had removed a tyrant to benefit the less powerful. But what happened is a stark example of the opposite: an autocratic governor overturning the will of the people to punish his enemies for political gain. It was DeSantis who had placed himself above the law…The episode showcased DeSantis’ disregard for the democratic process, his use of the state to punish political opponents, and his mission to install loyal allies across positions of power. While Donald Trump shares these authoritarian tendencies, DeSantis is much more methodical, though no less ruthless. Trump’s appeal relied on charisma, but DeSantis compensates for his lack of it with staged attacks and appearances that score points with GOP voters. DeSantis has proven his “willingness to routinely use the machinery of the state to punish rivals,” explains Harvard government professor Steven Levitsky. “That’s authoritarianism at its core. That’s what authoritarians do.”…He’s booted school board members, an election supervisor, and a sheriff—all Democrats. DeSantis has turned the power of the state against political opponents, businesses that transgress his orthodoxy, and the education system and universities that serve as liberal bulwarks against illiberal rulers. DeSantis breeds fear of vulnerable groups for political advantage. As part of this politics of reprisal, he is imposing a uniform ideology upon Florida: anti-queer, anti-Black, anti-immigrant, and patriarchal, through laws banning discussion of gender identity, systemic racism, and sexism. The “Free State of Florida,” he likes to say, “is where woke goes to die.” But his rhetoric scrambles reality. In fact, DeSantis has stoked a fear of wokeism to strip freedoms and amass power…But what connects each conflagration is “a belief that freedom is designed for some people, not all people. It’s a belief that democracy is not an institution worth defending, but rather an obstacle.”…DeSantis calls his agenda the “Florida blueprint,” and it’s no secret that he dreams of replicating his authoritarian experiment at the national level. But even if DeSantis doesn’t become the GOP’s 2024 presidential nominee, he has already demonstrated that further abandoning democratic norms can bring great success in the Republican Party. His governing style is the logical evolution of Trumpism, from a chaotic politics of reprisal to a calculated system of repression and power-grabbing. “This really is what’s coming to the country,” says Anders Croy, communications director at Florida Watch, a progressive group. “Florida, essentially, is a laboratory of authoritarianism right now.”…“Most politicians, you gain respect from your colleagues and your peers by working with them, by not being a jerk, by having good conversations and good relationships,” says Fried, who now chairs Florida’s Democratic Party. “He cannot do that. So the only way that he’s going to be able to move his agenda is through fear and intimidation.”…“People who come from the realm of bureaucracy…don’t necessarily have to be charismatic because they want to be feared and not loved. Now, somebody like Trump needs to be loved as well as feared, but DeSantis just wants to be feared. His remoteness, actually, is a shield, where it helps him be ruthless and dominant.”…Such power grabs are “a cornerstone of authoritarianism,” explains Ben-Ghiat, and “create a climate where you can more efficiently transform everything.”…The law authorizing secret recordings also mandated that faculty and students fill out an annual “intellectual freedom and viewpoint diversity” survey, just one of many new oversight tools DeSantis and his legislative allies have imposed…The effort calls to mind a surveillance state, where snitching is encouraged, the government keeps enemies lists, and free speech is censored. “Almost invariably, universities are bastions of opposition to autocratic parties, government parties, movements, leaders—and so they’re their targets.”…DeSantis’ attack on academic freedom has already taken a toll. Despite years of growth in the center’s graduate program, Morse says, this fall enrollment will go down by more than half, as many admitted students declined offers, usually citing Florida’s political climate. And departments without enough enrollment get closed. “As long as they just scare people away and make Florida a hostile area for this kind of work, that can achieve the same goal as an outright ban,” Morse warns. The onslaught of rules, surveillance, lawsuits, lists, and bans has created an atmosphere of chaos and fear on Florida campuses…DeSantis, by contrast, strategically deploys chaos to advance his political priorities. “This is part of using the law for repressive purposes, but in vague ways,” says Ben-Ghiat. “You create confusion, you create discouragement, and ultimately, you create silence and inaction.”…“DeSantis, we need to remember, is a product of Harvard Law,” says University of Miami law professor Mary Anne Franks. “His attempts to punish Disney, for instance, his attempts to restrict what private employers are doing—he knows that that violates the First Amendment,” she adds. “What he is trying to figure out is, can he remake the law? Can the new, far-right conservative movement, which seems to be a kind of might-makes-right movement, can he put that into effect?”…DeSantis’ decision to take on Disney was a shot across the private sector’s bow: fall in line or the state will come knocking…But in 2018, on the same day DeSantis narrowly won election, Floridians overwhelmingly approved Amendment 4, which restored voting rights to most people who had completed their sentences. After taking office, DeSantis and Republicans in the legislature immediately set out to undermine the amendment, adding a requirement that the new voters must first pay all their legal fines, fees, and restitution. But the state never made it possible for its citizens to find out if they have any such debts; experts believe records are so scattered, error-riddled, and incomplete that creating a trustworthy database would be impossible. “It’s designed to fail.”…Meanwhile, FRRC was hearing from people who had decided it wasn’t worth voting—even individuals who had never been found guilty of a crime. Coming less than a week before the 2022 primary and the start of the general election, the arrests were well timed to suppress turnout, and seemed to have an obvious political motivation. “The state registered these people, these former incarcerated felons,” says Shaw, the former state lawmaker. “DeSantis goes and arrests them for voter fraud, because they should not have been allowed to register to vote. And if you don’t think that depressed turnout amongst Black people, then I got another thing to tell you.”…This year, Florida exited an interstate compact that helps ferret out double voting, leaving the state much less likely to catch a kind of intentional fraud that Republicans have been more likely to commit in recent years. “He likes to call us the Free State of Florida,” adds Shaw. “But that freedom only applies to people that look like him and that think like him. And if you don’t, then this state is not free at all.” Voter suppression is a widely practiced authoritarian strategy. It’s also an American pastime…But even if DeSantis’ national ambitions don’t take him to the White House, his authoritarian style, far from withering, is likely to be embraced by fellow Republicans seeking to emulate his success. DeSantis has demonstrated a path to power based on circumventing the democratic process and preying on fear of minorities—a template that is already being adopted by GOP legislatures around the country. But if DeSantis becomes president in two years, critics warn, his brand of authoritarianism could take hold from Washington. “If you’re uncomfortable with the book banning, imagine giving him the keys to the US Department of Education,” says Wolf. “If you’re uncomfortable with the migrant flights dumping people in a deserted parking lot somewhere, imagine giving him the keys to Border Patrol and ICE. If you’re uncomfortable with the way he goes after voting rights, imagine the same conversations that Donald Trump was having with Georgia election officials [demanding they “find” votes he needed], but it’s Ron DeSantis on a call that’s not being recorded.” “DeSantis would finish what Trump started,” says Ben-Ghiat, “which is wrecking our democracy.” -- I know this is long. I know the article is very long. But it is so important to understand who DeSantis is and what he’s been doing in Florida. He’s an authoritarian, and he will only get worse--much worse--if he takes the presidency. Share this with everyone you know. Everyone must know who Ron DeSantis is.
Florida groups warn America of danger from ‘dictator’ DeSantis. “It will only get worse if Governor DeSantis gets anywhere near the White House,” said Anna Eskamani, who represents central Florida. “We’re here to not only hold the line and fight back, but to be that canary in the coalmine, reminding the people of this great country how dangerous Ron DeSantis really is.”
DeSantis pushes past embarrassing campaign start, raises $8.2M ahead of early state blitz. For the doubters, the campaign confirmed Thursday night that it had raised $8.2 million in the 24 hours since entering the race, a massive sum that far exceeded the amount raised by President Joe Biden over the same period.
“Why do I have a feeling that an ever-accelerating number of caveats and footnotes will attach to this number, once it's legally reported and not just assertion by the campaign itself?” -- David Frum
Trump workers moved Mar-a-Lago boxes a day before FBI came for documents. Two of Donald Trump’s employees moved boxes of papers the day before an early June visit by FBI agents and a prosecutor to the former president’s Florida home to retrieve classified documents in response to a subpoena — timing that investigators have come to view as suspicious and an indication of possible obstruction, according to people familiar with the matter. Trump and his aides also allegedly carried out a “dress rehearsal” for moving sensitive papers even before his office received the May 2022 subpoena, according to the people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a sensitive ongoing investigation.
Prosecutors in addition have gathered evidence indicating that Trump at times kept classified documents in his office in a place where they were visible and sometimes showed them to others, these people said.
Texas lawmakers issue 20 articles of impeachment against state Attorney General Ken Paxton. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton teetered on the brink of impeachment Thursday after years of scandal, criminal charges and corruption accusations that the state’s Republican majority had largely met with silence until now. In an unanimous decision, a Republican-led House investigative committee that spent months quietly looking into Paxton recommended impeaching the state’s top lawyer on 20 articles, including bribery, unfitness for office and abuse of public trust. The House could vote on the recommendation as soon as Friday. If it impeaches Paxton, he would be forced to leave office immediately.
Supreme Court delivers blow to wetlands protections in win for Idaho landowners. The ruling is another example of the court's conservative justices powering a decision that curbs broad power of federal agencies, a consistent theme in recent years.
Supreme Court limits EPA's regulatory control over certain wetlands. The Supreme Court limited the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) ability to oversee certain bodies of water on Thursday, determining that the agency cannot regulate wetlands isolated from larger bodies of water.
Kids could fill labor shortages, even in bars, if these lawmakers succeed. Lawmakers in several states are embracing legislation to let children work in more hazardous occupations, longer hours on school nights and in expanded roles including serving alcohol in bars and restaurants as young as 14. The efforts to significantly roll back labor rules are largely led by Republican lawmakers to address worker shortages and in some cases run afoul of federal regulations. Child welfare advocates worry the measures represent a coordinated push to scale back hard-won protections for minors. “The consequences are potentially disastrous,” said Reid Maki, director of the Child Labor Coalition, which advocates against exploitative labor policies. “You can’t balance a perceived labor shortage on the backs of teen workers.” — The Republican Party is actively trying to bring back child labor.
Inside the Florida group pushing to slash food stamp rolls nationwide. More than 42.5 million Americans were enrolled in the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program as of February, the latest data available, receiving an estimated $6 per day for help buying groceries. That tally was up 3.2% from a year earlier but reflects the month before enhanced pandemic-era benefits expired for millions…Some critics of these moves see less of a locally tailored policy approach than a partisan campaign for a long-standing conservative goal. “We had national Republican Party politics playing out in our legislative agenda this year,” said Michelle Book, CEO of the Food Bank of Iowa. “They continue to say, ‘We’re going to beat down unemployment benefits, we’re going to beat down SNAP benefits, because this will produce more workers,’ and we’ve not seen it.”…Several studies have found work requirements decrease participation in SNAP, but only a few have found them to increase employment…“We have a lot of people who are working but not earning enough money to get out of poverty,” said Jonathan Coppess, one of the report’s authors. “So what is the point of policy built around work requirements when it isn’t an unemployment issue?”…Most families receiving SNAP benefits are already working…A lot of workers are in and out of the labor market through no fault of their own.
Where is the Accountability for the Killers Ushering in the Climate Apocalypse? For over 50 years, the top executives of that industry have known their products would produce this exact result: a crisis that is killing an average of around 7,500 Americans a year (and over a million worldwide) and promises to kill hundreds of millions within a decade or two. But instead of doing anything of consequence to mitigate the damage of their operations, they instead funded a massive, 50-year-long campaign to lie to the American people, cloud the science, and buy off Republican politicians…In essence, Hansen is proposing that the world will soon see both a collapse of the Gulf Stream that keeps Europe’s climate capable of growing crops and a worldwide 60-meter rise in sea levels. Possibly in our children’s or grandchildren’s lifetimes. As Thomas dryly notes in God’s Spies: “For Americans, 60 meters is about 200 feet.”…Today’s climate crisis dwarfs the threat of Nazism in the 1940s, Bin Laden’s 9/11 attack, or the massive bank robberies that took place during the Reagan and Bush administrations. It literally threatens all life on Earth.
Supreme Court rules in favor of 94-year-old woman who got nothing when county took her condo. A unanimous Supreme Court on Thursday gave a 94-year-old Minneapolis woman a new chance to recoup some money after the county kept the entire $40,000 when it sold her condominium over a small unpaid tax bill. The justices ruled that Hennepin County, Minnesota violated the constitutional rights of the woman, Geraldine Tyler, by taking her property without paying “just compensation.”
Body-cam footage shows indicted ex-police officers laughing at man who died in their custody. Three former police officers who were indicted by a Mississippi grand jury joked around about a Black man who died in their custody, with one of them questioning whether to call an ambulance for the man immediately, body-camera footage shows.
Keep getting sick? Your immune system is out of practice after COVID, experts say. Many people say they’ve suffered back-to-back common illnesses in recent months that seem both more frequent and more severe than what is typical for springtime. Although data on common infections is not collected on a large scale outside of the winter respiratory virus season, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported a recent surge in strep throat — even among adults, who are usually less susceptible — and outbreaks of norovirus, sometimes called the “stomach flu.” The timing of the onslaught — in the wake of a three-year, once-in-a-generation pandemic followed by a winter virus season for the record books — makes it all the more painful to endure. People are left wondering what could be going on, and when will we all catch a break?…The body’s more sluggish response makes people feel like they’re getting sicker from common illnesses than they used to, said Dr. Niharika Khanna, primary care physician at the University of Maryland Medical Center and professor of family medicine at the university’s School of Medicine. “That’s kind of upsetting a lot of people,” she said, especially when they’re getting sick more often as well.
Experimental drugs aim to surpass weight-loss stars like Ozempic and Wegovy. Next-generation options now in development may be easier and more convenient to take, turbo-charge weight loss and offer additional health benefits.
ChatGPT-maker warns it might leave EU over planned AI law. The boss of the company behind ChatGPT has said it might consider leaving the EU if it fails to comply with a planned law on artificial intelligence (AI). The EU's planned legislation could be the first to specifically regulate AI. And it could require generative AI companies to reveal which copyrighted material had been used to train their systems to create text and images.
Saturn’s iconic rings are disappearing. “We have shown that massive rings like Saturn’s do not last long.”
Life’s short. Live, love, create, and help others.
Until next time, my friends. Stay safe and stay sane. Good night.
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