Welcome to Florida, the Freest State in the Country!

The First Amendment provides that Congress make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting its free exercise. It protects freedom of speech, the press, assembly, and the right to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Apparently, Florida’s gov DeSantis doesn’t know much about the first amendment and State Senator Jason Brodeur doesn’t either. The Florida lawmaker has proposed a bill that would require bloggers who write about DeSantis or any other state official to register with the state or face fines.

Throughout history, this tactic has been a favorite of autocrats. Silence the public criticism. The legislation also requires bloggers to disclose how much they’re being paid for their posts.

The terms of the bill states, “If a blogger posts to a blog about an elected state officer and receives, or will receive, compensation for that post, the blogger must register with the appropriate office” within “5 days after the first post by the blogger which mentions an elected state officer.”

Here’s the bill.

So, just for the record, we’ve been blogging for 14 years. No one pays us. This new proposal of the governor is just one more edict handed down by a man who calls Florida the “freest state in the nation.” What he doesn’t tell you is that it’s only that free if your beliefs are like his.

This is the governor, after all, who passed the “Don’t say gay” bill, banned gender and black studies, banned books and threatened teachers with felony charges if they have any forbidden books in their classrooms. Then he moved on to higher education- specifically with New College of Florida in Sarasota.

Our daughter graduated from New College. It was one of the most upbeat, diverse and stimulating campuses I’ve ever visited. Megan loved her experiences there, she flourished, she became an artist, a writer, started a windsurfing club, got to spend a semester working with dolphins in the keys. New College was a place where you learned to think and to trust your own inner voice.You accepted people as they are – black, white, Latino, trans,  who cares?

But DeSantis didn’t want it to be a liberal bastion. So he muscled his way in, fired a bunch of trustees, installed his loyal foot soldiers. The new board ousted the college’s president and appointed DeSantis’ ally Richard Corcoran as interim president. Corcoran will serve on the job from February 27 to September 1, 2024, and will earn a base salary of $699,000.

They intend to turn New College into a conservative, private Christian college like Hillsdale College in southern Michigan.

Oh, and he also hired a pilot to pick up illegal immigrants in Texas and drop them off in Martha’s Vineyard.

He’s slick at these political stunts but was too cowardly to debate his opponent, Charlie Crist, during the governor’s race.

On one level, I’d love to see Ronnie boy DeSantis debate trumpie the orange man as both of these grifters and con men ran against each other for president.

On another level, I don’t understand why trump hasn’t been indicted more than 2 years after he left office and I don’t understand the Floridians who voted Ronnie boy into office.
He has done NOTHING for the people of this state – nothing about the skyrocketing homeowner’s insurance rates, the state’s health care system, nothing practical. He’s too busy with his culture wars, racism, homophobia, and apparent brainwashing in schools that makes white children feel guilty about their history. You know, slavery.

Ronnie boy may be more dangerous than Donnie orange man. Ronnie is younger, a slicker politician, just as narcissistic as trump but not as boastful.

So, Ron D., just for the record: we weren’t paid to write about you. But here’s a sliver of hope: in the midterm elections, there was no red wave of republican wins as was predicted and expected. It was a red trickle. The repubs won the house by 222 to 213 democrats. And what a mess they are. Republican Speaker McCarthy apparently had to sell his soul – and most of his power – to become speaker on the 15th vote.

So I don’t think the Ronnie boy agenda will fly nationwide. Can you just imagine Ronnie boy placing Harvard and Princeton and Yale under his federal tutelage and control?