Tag: Florida

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Elections GOP Ron DeSantis

Roger Stone Threatens To Wreck Ron DeSantis’ Reelection If He Refuses To Audit Florida’s Voter Rolls

Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is already facing a very uncertain bid for reelection next year in the Sunshine State, having completely mishandled the response to COVID and taking the public stance that he will oppose any local efforts to combat the deadly virus, which has resulted in sending nearly 60,000 Floridians to their graves.

But it now appears things are about to get much worse for DeSantis, as he’s facing a challenge on the extreme right-wing from longtime Donald Trump friend and protégé Roger Stone, who is demanding DeSantis run a full audit of Florida’s voter registration rolls.

Stone sent this warning to DeSantis via Twitter:

He followed up with this one:

Here’s the interesting thing about Stone’s threat to DeSantis: Both of them are acolytes of the failed, one-term, twice-impeached former president, so it’s hard to know if Donald put Stone up to this in order to take DeSantis down a notch and keep him from being a viable GOP presidential candidate in 2024. Because if DeSantis can’t get a second term in Florida, he’s all but guaranteed to be a dud in a run for the White House.

Of course, as unhinged and duplicitous of a bottom-feeding insect as Stone is and always has been (he used to work as a dirty trickster for Richard Nixon), he may have cooked up his run on the Libertarian ticket just so he can remain relevant and try to raise a few bucks. Word is that money is tight for Stone and his legal bills are believed to be enormous.

Whether Stone actually runs or not isn’t exactly the point. Just the threat proves that DeSantis is potentially weak on his right flank, which he thought he had safely covered.

For now, Stone is just testing the waters to see if he can get what he wants. But if he does choose to run, Ron DeSantis could well be sending out his résumé after the votes are counted next November.

 

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GOP Ron DeSantis

DeSantis Allegedly Attended Party With Underage Girls And Alcohol While Teaching At High School

Shortly after he graduated from college and prior to attending law school, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis took a job as a history teacher at the Darlington School in Rome, Georgia. His hiring was announced in a 2001 newsletter published by the school:

Ron DeSantis is joining the Upper School history department. DeSantis earned bachelor’s degrees in history and political science from Yale University, New Haven, Conn. While at Yale, he worked for the political science department, the athletic department, and the university sports camp. He has work experience with the Sonic Corporation and the office of Senator Connie Mack.

But it turns out that DeSantis was more than just a teacher while at Darlington, according to Hill Reporter:

His students would have been high school co-eds, teenagers, some of whom would have been living on-campus. According to our whistleblower, he had a reputation among students for being a young “hot teacher” who girls loved, and the girls in the photo are believed to have graduated in 2002, making them seniors at the time.

The photo shows a person purported to be DeSantis, in a group embrace with several young girls, one of whom is holding what appears to be a glass beer bottle. The source who provided the photo says that it was taken prior to graduation — meaning the young girls would still have been DeSantis’ responsibility at the time. It is not clear whether any of them were legal adults, though they would have been too young to purchase alcohol.

Of course, DeSantis isn’t the only Florida politician who seems to have an affinity for young girls. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) is current the subject of a wide-ranging federal investigation that reportedly involves the congressman taking underage girls across state lines and paying them, which is sexual trafficking of a minor. And that investigation could also wind up ensnaring the governor, who is up for reelection next year:

Still, the investigation may be moving uncomfortably close to the governor’s office. Besides Gaetz himself, the influential Florida political figures under federal scrutiny include Jason Pirozzolo, a hand surgeon and DeSantis campaign donor, and DeSantis’ political appointee Halsey Beshears, the state’s former top business regulator.

DeSantis has yet to respond to the photo or other revelations from Hill Reporter.

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Congress Crime Sex Scandals

Florida Bar Suspends Matt Gaetz From Practicing Law

 

The bad news just keeps rolling in for embattled Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who is reportedly under investigation for sexually trafficking underage girls.

The Daily Beast reports that the Florida Bar Association has suspended Gatez from practicing law in his home state:

As of Wednesday, Gaetz had not paid the fees he owes to The Florida Bar, which regulates lawyers there, prompting the organization to deem him “delinquent” and “not eligible to practice law in Florida.”

As you might expect, rather than be forthright about not paying the required money, Joel Valdez, a spokesperson for Gaetz tried to spin the latest humiliation for the congressman:

“Congressman Gaetz is no longer actively engaged in the practice of law. He is focused on representing his constituents in Congress, not the courtroom.”

However, attorneys who spoke to Daily Beast reporter Jose Pagliery said that sounds like a load of bull:

That explanation may sound reasonable enough. But four attorneys who spoke to The Daily Beast noted that it is extremely rare for lawyers to do this. Instead, attorneys taking a step back from their legal duties normally pay a smaller $175 fee to remain “inactive” but still a “member in good standing.

“He clearly doesn’t take his law license very seriously when he doesn’t take the time to pay the $265 dues,” said Daniel Uhlfelder, a Santa Rosa Beach attorney who lives in Gaetz’s district. “He’s not a serious lawyer. He’s not a serious congressman. He’s not a serious person. This is one small but symbolic example of that.”

The real reason Gaetz isn’t paying his dues to the Bar Association is probably so he can avoid having his law license revoked as more evidence continues to come to light regarding his alleged sexual misconduct with minors, according to Cris Dosev, a real estate developer who ran against Gaetz in the GOP primary last year:

“It might be a calculated move. I think he’s preemptively trying to remove a level of scrutiny from the Bar.”

This has been the proverbial “week from hell” for Gaetz, with his former “wingman,” Seminole County, Florida, tax collector Joel Greenberg receiving a four month delay in his sentencing as he continues to cooperate with federal prosecutors as they investigate whether or not the congressman sexually exploited underage girls.

If convicted of sexually trafficking minors across state lines, Gaetz could be sentenced to life in prison.

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Coronavirus GOP WTF?!

Ron DeSantis Sent Bonus Checks To Florida Teachers – Many Of Them Bounced

Ever since the COVID pandemic began last year, few politicians have mishandled the disease as badly as Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has repeatedly tried to minimize the importance of vaccines and protective masks, holding himself up as some sort of beacon of fake freedom for the people in his state who refuse to do what’s necessary to control a public health crisis that has so far killed nearly 54,000 people in the Sunshine State.

In an effort to literally buy the loyalty of teachers in the state, DeSantis decided he’d take some of the federal money given to his state and hand out $1,000 COVID bonuses to Florida teachers. Great idea, right? Yeah, until the checks started bouncing.

According to the Tampa Bay Times:

When dozens of Florida teachers tried to cash their state-issued $1,000 bonus checks this week, they got a startling response: “insufficient funds.”

No, the State of Florida hasn’t run out of money. Instead, the bad checks are being blamed on a “banking error” by JPMorgan Chase.

Checks issued toat least 50 teachers in 22 different counties bounced because of the error, Florida Department of Education spokesman Jared Ochs said.

Of course, considering that DeSantis has long considered failed, one-term former President Donald Trump to be his political idol and mentor, you can understand why some of the teachers might have thought the governor had stiffed them. After all, Trump has failed to pay contractors for decades, leading many of them to going bankrupt despite Donald having contracts with them. Trump’s solution was to tie up the matter in court for years, waiting for the contractors to drop their cases against him because the legal bills became too much of a burden.

In the past, teacher bonuses from the state of Florida have been sent to school districts for distribution, but DeSantis couldn’t resist taking a page from Donnie Dirtbag and issuing paper checks with accompanying letters bearing his signature:

The state paid a private contractor $3.6 million to print and send the checks. That led some lawmakers and the union representing school teachers to accuse DeSantis of using the bonuses to score political points.

The state said that by sending the money directly, saying the $3.6 million was well below the 10 percent normally allotted or administrative costs on federal funding.

DeSantis is facing an uncertain political future. He’s up for reelection in 2022, but his poll numbers have collapsed and there are at least two Democrats (one of whom, Charlie Crist, is a former governor of the state) who are polling ahead of him and could easily win next November.

Turns out Ron DeSantis is indeed a lot like Donald Trump: Neither one of them is bright enough to realize that the solution to a pandemic is following the science and not trying to buy people’s loyalty.

 

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Coronavirus GOP

Stephen King: Ron DeSantis Is Evil Enough To Be A Villain In My Novels – But He’s Too Stupid

Novelist Stephen King has created some incredibly memorable villains in his books, but he doesn’t think Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has what it takes to be among them.

As King explained during an appearance on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” the novelist was asked about some of the tweets he’s sent out recently that were highly critical of DeSantis, and he made it clear that while the governor is certainly evil enough with his absurd COVID-19 policies, he doubts that the Floridian has enough brains to carry off any actual evil plans:

“Ron DeSantis is probably not the brightest bulb in the chandelier at the best of times.”

That led Colbert to ask:

“So, not an evil genius? Not a mastermind?”

King responded:

“No, I wouldn’t say so. You know, he’s got that deer-in-the-headlights look somehow.”

Colbert couldn’t resist adding:

“Deer in the headlights hoping that’s two motorcycles that are going to go right by him.”

It should be noted that King — who is a native of Maine — now spends half the year in Sarasota, so he’s had a chance to observe DeSantis up close, and he’s not impressed, firing off tweets making it clear that he thinks the Florida governor is a few cans short of a six pack:

Or, to put it another way, consider what the AV Club had to say about DeSantis not being fit for a King novel. They pretty much hit the proverbial nail on the head:

“So that’s evil, but is it Stephen King evil? Not according to King, who greeted Colbert’s pitch for a future fictional Florida governor villain with the dismissive shrug of a guy who knows what makes a truly compelling antagonist. After all, your best Stephen King monsters (your Greg Stillsons, your Randall Flaggs) couple their nefarious machinations with a complexity of thought and more than a little charisma, whereas, in King’s authorial estimation, Florida is currently being led by a garden variety venal, callous dope, whose threadbare conservative posturing couldn’t sustain even the shortest tale of terror.”

But if you want to think of something truly terrifying, just imagine Ron DeSantis as president. Now THAT’S enough to give you nightmares.