The Case for Ron DeSantis

DeSantis is a mission-oriented Gen X conservative who single-handedly made the nation's largest swing state ruby-red.

by Josh Hammer for American Greatness

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ much-anticipated 2024 presidential campaign is finally here. DeSantis, by any empirical metric or otherwise reasonable estimation, is the only person with a viable chance of defeating former President Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination. What follows is a straightforward affirmative case for DeSantis’ candidacy, written from the perspective of someone who moved to the Sunshine State during the COVID-19 pandemic due in no small part to his courage, independent judgment and dynamic leadership during that most woeful chapter of recent American history.

President Ronald Reagan famously said, “the nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.'” That was an accurate assessment at the time Reagan said it, when America was drowning in punitive taxation and draconian regulation. In the year 2023, by contrast, overweening government is certainly still a threat, but the single all-encompassing threat facing the American people is the metastasis of the woke ideology, which spreads like a cancer and is weaponized by the out-of-touch ruling class elites who populate all the major institutions of our political and civic life.

There is no elected official in America who better understands this reality and—even more important—who has wielded political power to repeatedly fight back against it than Ron DeSantis. Whether it is anti-Americanist critical race theory or gender ideology indoctrination in the elementary school classroom, the university faculty lounge or the corporate boardroom, DeSantis has taken decisive measures to defend civilizational sanity and curtail or outright proscribe the dissemination of wokeism’s corrosive tenets.

DeSantis’ righteous crusade to remake New College of Florida as a “Hillsdale College of the South” is perfectly emblematic of the approach now needed to recapture lost institutions, over a century into the Left’s insidious “long march,” to salvage and revive the American experiment in ordered liberty. DeSantis’ similarly righteous crusade against The Walt Disney Company is the encapsulation of how a conservative elected official evinces “knowing what time it is” amidst today’s woke-addled social decay: the prudential wielding of political power to bolster the forces of civilizational sanity and punish the forces of civilizational arson within the confines of the rule of law. His ongoing battle against a Fortune 500 corporate behemoth may offend the delicate sensibilities of libertarian purists and “zombie Reaganites” wedded to outmoded 1980s-era bromides, but it reveals a sound understanding that, in the year 2023, corporate America is firmly on the side of civilizational arson—not civilizational sanity.

Perhaps most impressive from the perspective of an aspiring presidential candidate, DeSantis is almost singularly responsible for transforming the nation’s third-most-populous state, which was once the iconic swing state that decided the 2000 presidential election by a paltry 537 votes and which only first elected DeSantis himself in 2018 by a 0.4 percent margin, into the beating heart of red-state America. By leading the top of the ticket with a whopping 19.4 percentage-point victory this past November, DeSantis helped usher in an all-Republican state cabinet (the first time that has been the case since Reconstruction) and Republican supermajorities in both houses of the state legislature. Thanks to that influence and those victories, the recently completed Florida legislative session successfully enacted the most sweeping right-wing agenda of any state in modern American history. The legislative session’s myriad achievements, too numerous to list in full, touched on virtually every hot-button issue: immigration, abortion, guns, gender ideology, and education among them.

These achievements were made possible due to the sheer number of people who flocked to Florida during the COVID-19 pandemic, where DeSantis stood above the fray and brazenly defied the biomedical security state’s pro-lockdown/pro-vaccine mandate ruling class ideology. People moved to Florida for those policies, no matter how much revisionist history and disingenuous gaslighting DeSantis’ foes may regurgitate to the contrary.

Registered Republicans now outnumber registered Democrats in Florida by nearly 500,000, a shift of over 700,000 since DeSantis’ minuscule 2018 gubernatorial victory. Of the active voters who have moved to Florida since the onset of COVID, roughly twice as many are registered Republicans as registered Democrats. Simply put, throngs of people (including yours truly) have moved to Florida en masse due to DeSantis’ impressive leadership of the Sunshine State—initially on COVID, and subsequently on a whole host of other issues. DeSantis has secured for the Republican Party of Florida a voter registration advantage for an entire generation or two—similar, on a smaller scale, to what FDR was able to achieve for the national Democratic Party over the course of his lengthy presidency.

The 2024 Republican presidential primary is shaping up to become a grand battle royale between an eccentric, larger-than-life Baby Boomer who obsesses over relitigating the last election and is constantly distracted by self-imposed wounds and personal grievances, and on the other hand an extremely disciplined, mission-oriented Gen X conservative who single-handedly made the nation’s largest swing state ruby-red and has overseen the implementation of the most transformative right-wing agenda in modern American history. That is the basic choice.

In order to defeat presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and stand the best chance of (actually) draining the swamp and salvaging a decadent late-stage republic, let’s hope Republican voters choose wisely.

X22, And we Know, and more- May 27

 

Democrats Demand Homage to Hoover’s Ghost

The FBI knowingly participated in the Democrats’ seditious undermining of a duly elected president.

by Thaddeus G. McCotter for American Greatness 

Though the public was unaware at the time, the seminal Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) director, J. Edgar Hoover, was a political extortionist. Deftly manipulating both his political opponents and the press, Hoover was able to retain his job, pursue his causes, indulge his friends, and crush his enemies with impunity. The Constitution proved no bar to this venal reprobate whose innumerable violations of Americans’ civil rights were legion. 

When death finally ended his arbitrary, capricious, and wholly unaccountable one-man reign over America’s national law enforcement, one would expect the response to be relief accompanied with the recognition of his maladministration and a refusal to permit a recrudescence of this sordid chapter in governmental abuses of power.

Instead, the FBI headquarters is named the J. Edgar Hoover Building.

The past is prologue in our disordered age. Recently, a gaggle of the self-professed “moderates” of the “New Democrat Coalition” sent a letter to U.S. House Appropriations Chairman Kay Granger (R-Texas), demanding ever more millions for the FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies. 

Per Fox News, the signatories contend “the partisan Republican budget proposal that recently passed the House would cut critical resources, exposing communities across the country to increased levels of crime.”  

‘The first duty of government is to protect the safety of its citizens,’ a letter sent by the New Democrat Coalition to House Appropriations Chair Kay Granger, (R-Texas), read. ‘Therefore, Congress has a responsibility to sufficiently fund essential programs that empower law enforcement agencies to address the diverse set of criminal threats facing the communities we represent.’ 

They’re asking for $569.6 million for the FBI in fiscal year 2024, to go toward ‘investigating extremist violence and domestic terrorism.’

Employing the same false reasoning that brought you the COVID lockdowns, these Democrats refuse to recognize that the first duty of government is to secure the God-given, constitutional rights of its citizens. This refusal allows the New Democrat Coalition to studiously ignore the FBI’s recent return to the politicized abuses of power of Hoover’s COINTELPRO heyday. 

The public, however, cannot.

According to whistleblowers’ congressional testimony, the FBI has been “cooking the books” to falsely increase the incidences and locations of “domestic terrorism” to stifle political dissent. 

As reported in the Washington Examiner:

‘Whistleblowers assert that the FBI pressured agents to reclassify cases as domestic violent extremism (DVE), and even manufactured DVE cases where they may not otherwise exist, while manipulating its case categorization system to feign a national problem.’ The whistleblower claims were made public in an 80-page report released Thursday by the GOP-led House Judiciary Committee and the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, chaired by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).

And who were some of these falsely labeled Americans? Fox News provides a partial answer: “The FBI targeted pro-life groups, Catholics, and parents attending school board meetings with investigations in an effort to ‘inflate’ the sense that they were a domestic terrorism threat, according to new whistleblower reports.”

The reason the FBI is inflating these numbers? For this, Andrew C. McCarthy—who has prosecuted actual terrorists—has an answer:

The projection of dystopian America mired in a terrorist war waged by the Democrats’ political adversaries is false. Since it doesn’t exist in reality, congressional Democrats and the Biden administration are trying to create it by FBI bookkeeping. As we’ve seen over the last eight years, and again this week with the release of the Durham Report, when Democrats say jump, the FBI says, ‘How high?’

“How high?” would also include going easy on Democrats like Hillary Clinton and Hunter Biden. For the whistleblowers who refused to jump and are instead bringing the truth to light, the FBI’s retaliation has been swift. Not surprisingly, the FBI denies it.

But, unlike the New Democrat Coalition, the FBI could not ignore the Russiagate scandal (although it did downplay it). For the confused members of the New Democrat Coalition, the New York Post provides a nice recap of the Durham report’s major findings. But here is a CliffsNotes version: the FBI knowingly participated in the Democrats’ seditious undermining of a duly elected president.

As the earlier U.S. House’s Republican Judiciary Committee Staff Report of November 4, 2022, concluded:

The FBI’s Washington hierarchy [is] ‘rotted at its core,’ maintaining a ‘systemic culture of unaccountability,’ and full of ‘rampant corruption, manipulation, and abuse.’ . . . The FBI has abused its law-enforcement authorities for political purposes, and how actions by FBI leadership show a political bias against conservatives.

Like Hoover, today’s Democrats view the Constitution as an obstacle not to be obeyed but overcome. And they have been rewarded for it. In contrast to Hoover, who sought to stop political change, the Left aims to “fundamentally transform” America. But neither end justifies the use of unconstitutional means. At least in Hoover’s era, both parties had to be politically extorted to ignore his abuses of power. Presently, the Democrats do not just willingly ignore such abuses of power—they embrace them. 

In submitting their monetary demands, the New Democrat Coalition laughably proffer that they are taking a stand against crime by increasing funding for a federal law enforcement agency that has abused its powers against American citizens, especially the Left’s political opponents. Unlike the rest of us, Democrats are most pleased with the weaponization of the FBI’s police and counterintelligence powers against the Left’s enemies. 

In the cold, autocratic logic of the Democrats: why not accelerate when you are already on a roll . . . especially when all it takes is half a billion more taxpayer dollars to pay homage to Hoover’s ghost? 

Migrant Interviews Debunk Biden DHS’ False Talking Point About Cartel ‘Disinformation’

Most immigrants do not spend fortunes on risky journeys based on disinformation from criminal strangers.

Todd Bensman reporting for The Federalist

AUSTIN, Texas – In government communiques, press conferences, and congressional hearings under oath, top Biden administration officials have repeatedly blamed a particular bogeyman for the unrelenting, historic southern-border mass-migration crisis now into its third year: human smugglers who spread “disinformation” that the border is “open.” 

“DHS expects that encounters at the Southwest Border will increase as smugglers spread disinformation…” read a typical May 1, 2021 Department of Homeland Security Fact Sheet about a major upcoming policy shift.  

When immigrants have died in trucks or trains while being smuggled into America, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and White House spokespeople have gone straight to the explanation of Mexican cartel disinformation. 

The administration is now so invested in this narrative that, in a May 10 press conference, Mayorkas once more blamed a major border surge on “smugglers…hard at work spreading false information.” Then, the secretary announced a government salve: a “digital marketing campaign” to “counter the lies of smugglers” in Central and South America.  

As someone who has interviewed thousands of U.S.-bound immigrants over the last several years, I can confidently attest that this narrative is a fabrication. It is pure political misdirection, deflecting blame away from Biden administration policies, which immigrants most commonly cite for why they come. 

Most immigrants do not spend fortunes on risky journeys based on disinformation from criminal strangers. Likewise, they would not stay home based on U.S. digital marketing campaigns claiming, “the border is not open.”  

They are not the mindless rubes the Biden administration makes them out to be. 

No matter what information smugglers or equally untrustworthy U.S. government officials tell immigrants, most will not make a move until they have hard evidence. They will want to confirm with their cousins, friends, or long-time neighbors that the information conforms to the reality on the ground.  

A Cuban immigrant in Del Rio Texas sends a video selfie of himself, released with papers, about to board a Greyhound bus for Miami.

IMAGE CREDITPHOTO BY TODD BENSMAN

Rather, immigrants calculate travel decisions based on the experiences of immigrants who recently crossed, were admitted, and sent back selfies of themselves inside America. They also send testimonials and other hard evidence. 

You do not have to believe me, but you should believe the immigrants I have interviewed on camera for two years — and the dozens in recent weeks who started crossing en masse from Juarez to El Paso and from Matamoros to Brownsville. They surged across as the Title 42 rapid-expulsion policy neared its May 12 end. The policy supposedly applied to every illegal border crosser, but it did not. 

During a major surge of mass illegal crossings from Juarez to El Paso last month, Mayorkas and senior CBP officials repeatedly vowed that the border was not open, and that cartel disinformation tricked the poor dupes into coming.  

But these three Venezuelans, and many others besides them, who I interviewed that same day were not mindless dupes. They told me they were going because friends and family had just crossed and were residing in Washington State or were authorized on the Texas side to take buses to New York.  

This Venezuelan man told me he was about to cross with his wife and child, not because a smuggler told him the border was open or because Mayorkas said it was closed, but because friends had crossed two days earlier. They reported back to him that they were now in Colorado and New Jersey. 

“They [the Americans] let them in,” he said. “They get permits, immigration papers.” 

These are not mere internet wives’ tales. At the McAllen, Texas bus station, for instance, I met countless immigrants who had crossed illegally and were not sent back under Title 42as sworn. Instead, they were released on their own recognizance to settle in interior America. They sent selfies of themselves — thumbs-up on the bus or in plush Manhattan hotel rooms — to everyone they know who had not yet crossed, advising them they could safely enter the United States.  

So why would top Biden government fabulists still spin the disinformation tale? 

The Biden administration can displace the actual blame by repeatedly blaming loathsome criminal con artists for enticing millions of ostensibly stupid migrants to invest thousands journeying over the American border. The Biden administration and the Democratic Party can deflect the blame from the policies that caused the crisis. Their policies, which have allowed millions to enter and stay, remain a major tractor-beam enticement to everyone who can see the open border on their cell phone.  

Immigrants just released by Border Patrol in Del Rio corresponding with friends and loved ones up and down trail that they are about to board buses to U.S. cities.

IMAGE CREDITPHOTO BY TODD BENSMAN

The transfer of blame is a politically motivated lie. But naïve and ignorant American audiences and corporate media outlets are uncritically accepting this hogwash. 

Who is not naïve or uncritical of claims? Certainly not these Venezuelan gentlemen who I interviewed in Matamoros this month or hundreds of other immigrants I have met in recent years. These three young men were smart, savvy, and fully connected to the internet and social media platforms. All planned to swim the Rio Grande to Brownsville along with thousands of others. They were all moving because they knew someone who had recently gotten into the United States. 

“Do you all know someone who was just let in?” I asked. 

“Si, si, si,” they all answered in unison, naming friends all admitted into America or, in one man’s case, a cousin who had crossed and was happily staying in a Tennessee hotel. He showed me the paper with the man’s new address written on it.  

I have never met someone intending to cross the border who did not have a cell phone with internet access. In analyzing incoming information, I would argue that immigrants are more discriminating about disinformation than most Americans. They rely on primary-source evidence. 

If testimonials do not expose the disinformation narrative as a lie, then basic logic might help. Cartel operatives and smugglers are untrustworthy liars to be sure, but they are also good businessmen first. 

No one knows better than smugglers the power of immigrant selfies from the states. Telling a lie that the border is easily breached when it is not might work once or twice on the first fools — But not millions of times. 

Lying would kill business instantly, while happy immigrants who paid their smuggling fees and send back videos of their children enrolling in Chicago Public Schools keeps the cash register ringing for months and years. 

The half of America willing to fall for the Biden administration’s blame-displacement tactic could learn a thing or two from immigrants and their smugglers. 

California Justice: Hatchet-Harboring Former Bank Robber Torches Student's Head, Gets No Prison or Probation

via GIPHY

Alex Parker reporting for RedState 

We hear a lot about “social” justice, but how is actual justice being dished across our once-united states? When it comes to serving red-hot punishment, California, for one, isn’t on fire.

Consider the case of Brandon McGlone. According to witnesses, on September 14th, 2020, he accosted a slew of strangers in Alameda County.

Per the Berkeley Scanner:

[Brandon] told a man sitting at a Durant Avenue parklet that he “wanted to light someone on fire,” saying, “If I don’t get to see my family tonight, someone else doesn’t get to see their family tonight. And I choose you.”

The man testified (in court) that he had been sitting…outside Artichoke Basille’s Pizza…when he noticed [Brandon] bothering some students nearby.

The contents of a person’s hands occasionally indicate avoidance is well-advised…

[Brandon] walked up to the man while holding a can of WD-40 in one hand and a lighter in the other, he testified.

At some point, [Brandon] began chasing the man down Durant and sprayed him with WD-40, according to testimony.

From there, reportedly, Brandon chemically coated a customer in line at Taco Bell Cantina. The recipient skedaddled before a pyro party could get lit. At the Feng Cha Tea House, however, a couple of UC Berkeley students lacked such luck.

[Brandon] sprayed…them with WD-40 and used a lighter to ignite the gas, creating a massive fireball, witnesses said.

But don’t take their word for it:

The students’ friends subsequently scuffled with Brandon in the street. But the flaming felon was packing more than firepower:

During the fight, according to testimony, [he] first pulled out a knife and then pulled out a hatchet.

As stated in court papers, he was “in possession of matches, two lighters, clothing that smelled of gasoline, a can of WD-40, and four glass bottles filled with gasoline subsequently identified as Molotov cocktails.”

Fortunately for the accused, a deft defense was offered. Per his attorney, Brandon had been experiencing “a very dark time, a very bad time.” That potent argument ostensibly won the room.

There had also been an earlier incident, to which Brandon alluded amid his WD-40 spree:

[P]olice said he attacked his (school teacher) wife (on September 1st), striking her repeatedly with a pistol and punching her in the face. He then fled the scene, leaving her with an open head wound…

…

[Brandon] had agreed to bring over groceries but showed up empty-handed, she said. The two were still married, with an 11-year-old daughter, but did not live together.

[He]…accused her, out of the blue, of being a prostitute, she said. … The woman said [he] became irate when she laughed. He insisted she was “in a prostitution ring” with two of her friends.

He must not have been carrying his canister of combustion…

The woman testified that [Brandon]…choked her and pushed her against a wall on the porch, which was near their daughter’s bedroom. …

…

Then he punched her in the face and told her to “shut up” over and over as she repeated “Oh my God,” she said.

Enter an altogether different kind of heat:

Then [he] pulled out [a] gun…and pointed it at her face, just two inches away. The black Glock had an Air Force logo on it and was [his] favorite gun, she said.

Due to a 1999 federal bank robbery conviction, he wasn’t legally allowed to possess a pistol.

Continuing:

[He] struck her twice in the head, she said, splitting open her scalp.

Brandon, who worked as an EMT after being honorably discharged, was described by his lawyer as suffering from PTSD. His time in the service had also caused his substance abuse.

It seems that was an excellent explanation, as he secured a plea deal. Brandon entered no-contest to the following:

• Assault with a deadly weapon
• Possession of a destructive device
• Three counts of assault with caustic chemicals
• Assault with a firearm
• Carrying a loaded firearm (concerning the domestic violence case)

All other charges were dropped.

A 10-year protective order was set for his wife and daughter. Additionally, the judge issued stay-away orders related to nine other people across Oakland and Berkeley.

Sentencing would be postponed for two years, Judge (James) Cramer explained, with the cases to be dismissed at that time upon successful completion of [a “diversion program”].

Forty-nine-year-old Brandon is no longer in custody, but don’t get it twisted — leniency won’t be his:

In closing remarks, the judge also observed that the court’s referral to the diversion program was not in itself a guarantee: If [Brandon] was ultimately not accepted into treatment, “I’ll rip all these papers up and we’ll be back at square one,” Cramer said from the bench.

On June 2nd, he’s required to appear in Veterans Treatment Court. From the website:

This court accepts veterans with misdemeanors or felonies, pre- or post-plea. Veterans in this program are dealing with PTSD, alcoholism, military sexual trauma and other issues. This program connects veterans with the benefits they have earned in service to our country. This program helps veterans change their lives and gain legal relief.

There was a time when setting people ablaze was so frowned-upon as to produce a prison sentence. These days, we’re a more sensitive society — at least toward perpetrators whose propellants are partnered with PTSD. Will Brandon’s story serve as a cautionary tale, convincing would-be criminals not to set strangers on fire or critically assault school teachers? We can hope — with any luck, they’re all deathly afraid of diversion programs.

DeSantis Parts 3 & 4 - analysis by Sundance

posted by Sundance at Conservative Treehouse 

DeSantis 103 – Jack’s Magic Coffee Shop Continues, Elon Musk Makes Election Interference More Visible

Everything I have ever written about Jack’s Magic Coffee Shop is true, even if it takes a little longer for the more complex details about the data processing, govt subsidies and the DHS financial side of the operation to surface.   The DHS, ODNI and FBI control elements were proven in the Twitter Files before the lawyers shut down the pertinent line of inquiry. That horse left the barn as everyone stood jaw-agape.  The second aspect, the financial side of the operation, remains more elusive – but slowly even the biggest tech detractors are coming around to the realization.

Into this foray came the question of whether or not Musk knew about it.  A debate on these pages took place.  In the background, unbeknownst to the general public, the tech insiders within the rebel alliance had formulated a thesis about the takeover. The key part of their overlaid thesis was a timeline of sorts, showing the rise of Truth Social – and the partnerships therein (Rumble) – contrast against the entry of Musk into the coffee shop and the official DHS position about TikTok, – another competitor.

Was the Musk intervention timed to coincide with a rise in strategic competition against the interests of DHS?  Go back and look at the timeline and decide for yourself. It is certainly suspicious when contrast against the ‘new features‘ being advanced within the coffee shop business model.

Regardless, if you overlay the recent Musk decisions, and then overlay the deployed alignment of the Musk enterprise and DeSantis presidential launch, you can make a solid argument the Trillions at Stake group, the collaboration between govt, billionaire multinationals and Big Tech, have a multi-faceted approach to control public information in advance of the 2024 election.  Subtle like a brick through a window:

Fingers placed.  Scales tipped. Interests aligned.

[SOURCE]

You are going to hear me continue repeating this, and you might get sick of it, but always ‘Trust Your Instincts’.  If you are grounded in the truthful world, the pretending doesn’t work against you.

May 25, 2023 – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill Thursday providing additional liability protections for public and private space companies like Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin. Presidential hopeful DeSantis signed the bill one day after announcing his candidacy on a Twitter Spaces session hosted by Musk.

DeSantis approved CS/SB 1318 — Spaceflight Entity Liability and 27 other bills Thursday. The law provides liability immunity to a spaceflight entity “for an injury or death of spaceflight participant or crew resulting from a spaceflight activity,” under certain circumstances. The bill requires space companies provide a warning statement for crew members to sign. (more)

We are about to see exactly how the billionaire corporate funders control the Red State operations and manufacture the ‘illusion of choice‘.  The difference between now and the Romney era of 2012 – through the Bush era of 2016, is that the American electorate are eyes-wide-open.  We are watching the assembly in real time, and once again at CTH we have no financial affiliation to influence our sunlight.  The gang might be getting back together, but The Truth Has No Agenda.

Remember, GOPe politics is all about money, not ideology.  The ideological framework of Republican politics is a false front.  ‘Social issues’ are used as the illusion inside the theater keeping the audience entertained and distracted, while the directors who create the performances take loot out the back door.

Once you understand the real baseline of corporation run party politics inside the USA, all of the moves – past and present – make sense, and the ‘ah-ha’ moments just keep flooding in. {GO DEEP}

The boardroom of the Democrat private corporation (DNC) wants power. The boardroom of the Republican private corporation (RNC) wants money.  The Democrats use money to get power, ultimately control over people; the Republicans use power to get money, whatever happens to the people is irrelevant.

The DNC wants fundamental change; the RNC wants to be paid and control wealth while it happens.

The core issue to understand Republican politics is to look at how the people in control, the billionaires and multinational corporations, position for wealth.  This is why/how the DNC can weaponize voting systems (outcomes), while the RNC accept it and position to be paid off while voting fraud takes place.

The person with the greatest opportunity to defeat the schemes of the corrupt political elite, is the person you see in the mirror every day when you brush your teeth.  There are more of us, than them – united we cannot be defeated.

There is a great MAGA insurgency taking place at the state level, and that is also visible in the endorsements.  However, the systems – not people, systems – which operate the business end of Republican politics at a state and federal level, are still under the control of the RNC as a private corporation.  Don’t look for MAGA support from the institutions until we have MAGA people in charge of them.

Once you see the strings on the marionettes, you can never go back to that moment in the performance when you did not see them.  While we have awakened many people to the ‘illusion of choice’ system by predicting the moves in advance, the enemy is cunning, and they know how to weaponize the feeling of desperation.

We are in an abusive relationship with our government, and that cycle of abuse is truly created by the background financial institutions who control our government.

[We Shall Keep Watching]

DeSantis 104 – Pay to Play, Florida Govt Officials Asking Tallahassee Lobbyists to Donate to Ron DeSantis Election Effort

According to Florida lobbyists, they have been contacted by state employees with instructions to send payments to the campaign of Ron DeSantis.  The ethical problems within this effort are numerous and could potentially be legally liable for DeSantis government officials participating.

At best, the issue is extreme swamp behavior, where DeSantis officials are pressuring lobbyists in Florida to donate to the DeSantis 2024 election campaign or their advocacy may be disregarded in state budget considerations.

When state employees use their offices to solicit payments to political entities, the legal issues become very murky.  Then again, this is swamp behavior – and when you hire the swamp to push your agenda, these are the types of outcomes that surface.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Officials who work for Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration — not his campaign — have been sending text messages to Florida lobbyists soliciting political contributions for DeSantis’ presidential bid, a breach of traditional norms that has raised ethical and legal questions and left many here in the state capital shocked.

NBC News reviewed text messages from four DeSantis administration officials, including those directly in the governor’s office and with leadership positions in state agencies. They requested the recipient of the message contribute to the governor’s campaign through a specific link that appeared to track who is giving as part of a “bundle” program.

“The bottom line is that the administration appears to be keeping tabs on who is giving, and are doing it using state staff,” a longtime Florida lobbyist said. “You are in a prisoner’s dilemma. They are going to remain in power. We all understand that.”

The legality of the solicitations depends on a series of factors, including whether they were sent on state-owned phones, or if they were sent on state property. A longtime Florida election law attorney said that even if the DeSantis aides are fundraising for the campaign in their personal capacity, off the government clock, it still raised ethical questions.

“At a minimum, even if they are sitting in their home at 9 p.m. using their personal phone and contacting lobbyists that they somehow magically met in their personal capacity and not through their role in the governor’s office, it still smells yucky,” the attorney said. “There’s a misuse of public position issue here that is obvious to anyone paying attention.”

But the practice was still jaw-dropping for those who have long been involved in Florida politics.

NBC News spoke with 10 Republican lobbyists in Florida, all of whom said they couldn’t remember being solicited for donations so overtly by administration officials — especially at a time when the governor still has to act on the state budget.

[…] DeSantis has framed much of his political persona as a political outsider whose goal is to “drain the swamp.” His campaign store quickly started offering t-shirts saying “DeSantis breaks systems” after the flubbed Twitter rollout, which his campaign is saying was due to such a high level of interest that the social media platform simply could not handle.

“The practice feeds the DeSantis corrupt swampy meme perfectly for opponents. For no f—— reason,” said another veteran Florida Republican. “Hard to be Mr. Break the Internet and Swamp when you do this. Really dumb.”

Republican consultants and fundraisers in other states told NBC News they have not heard of a similar situation of state employees trying to get political contributions, and it would raise serious questions if their clients tried a similar approach.

“If any of my clients had legislative staff sending out donation links, we would be having a hard conversation,” a Republican fundraiser who works on federal elections said.

The person added that regardless of legal implications, the optics of taxpayer-funded staff asking lobbyists for political cash are bad.

“Whoever is telling these kids to do this has lost their damn mind,” said another Florida Republican lobbyist. (read more)

Hang around a one-legged tribe long enough, and eventually you are going to start limping.