Blog Betty (Thomas Friedman is a Great Man was an online novel): Ron talks 'colored' people

Monday, September 11, 2023

Ron talks 'colored' people

BULLY BOY PRESS & CEDRIC'S BIG MIX & THOMAS FRIEDMAN IS A GREAT MAN & ANN'S MEGA DUB -- THE KOOL AID TABLE

GOVERNOR DOO-DOO RON RON DESANTIS HAD A HISSY FIT WHEN A U.S. VETERAN PRESSED HIM ON GUN CONTROL AT A RALLY SO DOO-DOO HAD THE MAN KICKED OUT.

DOO-DOO SAT DOWN WITH THESE REPORTERS FOR AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW -- MUST CREDIT BULLY BOY PRESS & CEDRIC'S BIG MIX & THOMAS FRIEDMAN IS A GREAT MAN & ANN'S MEGA DUB - -- ADDRESSING THE ISSUES.

YOU KICKED OUT AN AFRICAN-AMERICAN MAN? IS THAT HOW YOU PLAN TO INTERACT WITH PEOPLE OF COLOR?

DOO-DOO: WELL, CLEARLY, HE HAD NOT LEARNED THE VALUABLE LESSONS OF SLAVERY. IF HE LIVED IN FLORIDA, RIGHT NOW, HE COULD LEARN ABOUT HOW SLAVERY PROVIDED MANY JOB SKILLS THAT THESE COLORED PEOPLE -- PEOPLE OF COLOR -- COULD APPLY TO JOBS LATER ON. CHIEF AMONG THEM/ DON'T QUESTION A WHITE MAN! WHERE DOES HE GET OFF QUESTIONING ME? THAT'S NOT THE AMERICA I WANT TO LIVE IN.

YOU DO REALIZE THAT THREE OF THE FOUR OF US ARE AFRICAN-AMERICAN, RIGHT?

DOO-DOO: OF COURSE, THAT'S WHY THE ONLY ONE OF YOU I'M LOOKING AT IS THE WHITE ONE.

PEOPLE SEE YOU AS RACIST?

DOO-DOO: COLORED PEOPLE -- PEOPLE OF COLOR -- ARE SO SENSITIVE. THEY'RE TOO SENSITIVE. WHY DO THEY FEEL LIKE NO ONE SUFFERS BUT THEM? THERE WERE HEBREW SLAVES. THEY ACT LIKE THEY OWN SLAVERY.

THEY WERE BROUGHT TO THE U.S. IN CHAINS, DOES THAT ESCAPE YOU?

DOO-DOO: SO EARLY ON THEY LEARNED A LESSON ABOUT THE VALUE OF JEWELRY. CHAINS ARE STILL POPULAR TODAY. YOU ARE WELCOME COLORED PEOPLE -- PEOPLE OF COLOR.

HAVE YOU ALWAYS BEEN A RACIST?

DOO-DOO: IF THE WHITE ONE HADN'T ASKED THAT QUESTION, I'D HAVE YOU ALL THROWN OUT.

WE THINK WE HAVE OUR ANSWER. DON'T LET US DELAY YOU FROM YOUR KLAN RALLY.

FROM THE TCI WIRE:

On Iraq, Jeffrey St. Clair (COUNTERPUNCH) notes:

Even as children in Iraq continue to be born with birth defects as a consequence of the radiological weapons used during the US invasion and occupation, the Biden administration is now shipping depleted uranium weapons to Ukraine, another “gift”, like cluster munitions, which will keep on “giving” long after the conflict has finally ended.

Possibly even deadlier than Depleted Uranium is Ronald DeSantis. Yesterday, the man who has ruined Florida, tried to charm potential voters and it did not go over well. Alec Hernandez (NBC NEWS) reports:

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis engaged in a heated argument Thursday with an audience member at a news conference who blamed him for the recent racist mass shooting that ki l led three Black people in Jacksonville [Angela Carr, Jerrald Gallion and AJ Laguerre Jr.].

The news conference, which was in Jacksonville, had been scheduled to highlight Florida's protections against Covid-related mandates. But it took a pugilistic turn when DeSantis called on an attendee to ask a question.

Speaking calmly from the back of the room, the man told DeSantis that while he was a veteran and appreciated DeSantis' military service, he felt DeSantis' policies allowed "immature people" to access weapons that ultimately "caused the deaths of the people who were murdered a couple weeks ago."

DeSantis interrupted: "I’m not going to let you accuse me of committing criminal activity. I am not going to take that."

"You have allowed people to hunt people like me," the man, who is Black, continued after some cross-talk between the two.

"Oh, that is nonsense. That is such nonsense," DeSantis replied over disapproving murmurs from the rest of the audience.

The man was escorted out of the room shortly afterward. DeSantis continued with his response as the man walked out, telling the assembled crowd that Americans had flocked to Florida in part because of his administration's commitment to public safety.

First, as Bishop William Barber told Amy Goodman on DEMOCRACY NOW! earlier this week:

Well, you know, DeSantis, though he’s trained and educated even at Yale and got a law degree, he’s rooted in racism and meanness. He has decided that this is his way to office: distraction, division, deflection, focusing on culture wars so that he cannot be labeled as a failed governor. That’s what he really is — not a presidential candidate, he’s a failed governor. Anytime you have this many poor and low-wealth people and low-wage workers and you haven’t addressed those issues, you’re a failed governor.

The president was right to call out the racism and call out the rhetoric and say that, either private or publicly, if you’re quiet, then you’re complicit. I would also encourage the president to go one step further, though. And that is to say it’s not just the racist rhetoric. The racist rhetoric and the culture wars and the hatred toward women, the hatred toward immigrants, the hatred toward the trans community is a form of deflection. And then the president run the record and show how the same person who’s spewing all of this division, guess what? He’s not addressing the issue of poverty in your state. He’s not addressing more than 40% of the people working for less than a living wage, even though the people voted for a living wage to happen in Florida. He’s not addressing the more than 2.5 million people that don’t have healthcare. In other words, connect the rhetoric not just to the deaths that are caused by someone like the young man who did what he did and creating the ethos of death, but actually show how they are failing in their roles as governors and legislators, and that’s why they want the division and the deflection and the deception, so that we don’t see how they’re also engaging in forms of policy violence and policy murder, which is hurting the lives of people. And it doesn’t have to be this way. Imagine if this same governor was bringing people together, was raising the minimum wage, was ensuring healthcare and those things. Florida would be a very, very different place. He does not want people to look at that, and so he’s posturing himself like the Dixiecrat governors of the old South.

And we need a new South to rise that’s not fooled by that, that brings Black people together, white people together, Brown people, Asians, Latinos, gay, straight — it doesn’t matter who you are — and says, “We’re not having it anymore. We’re taking back the mic. We’re mobilizing.” And we’re going to do it, because the fact of the matter is, Juan, if just 2 to 3% of poor and low-wealth voters in Florida who have not voted chose to vote an agenda, they could send any candidate home, including Ron DeSantis. Poor and low-wealth folk have the power. That’s what Bishop Frank Reid and others are saying. They understand. And why they’re calling for this is that there comes a time, as the Bible says, when the stone that the builders rejected have to rise up and become the cornerstone of a new reality. That’s what we’re going to launch on Thursday and beyond. It must happen, not just in Florida, but across the country. Take back this mic.

But people aren't flocking to Florida. People are moving out. Conventions are saying "Hell no" to having Florida as a destination. Ronald's just a cheap liar. Let's again note the editorial board of THE MIAMI HERALD:

These anti-Black, anti-LGBTQ, anti-trans, anti-immigrant actions have a financial price, too. Conventions have begun refusing to come to Florida — at least 10 have canceled in Broward County alone. Disney killed a $1 billion development planned for Central Florida after DeSantis attacked the company’s right to free speech. The NAACP issued a travel advisory in May of this year, urging people of color and LGBTQ individuals to avoid the Sunshine State, a move the governor derided as a “stunt.” That was three months before the Jacksonville shooting.

Other groups have cautioned about coming to Florida. The Florida Immigrant Coalition issued a travel advisory this year. So did Equality Florida, an LGBTQ civil-rights organization. As the group’s senior policy adviser, Carlos Guillermo Smith, told the Editorial Board, Florida has “rolled out the welcome mat for hatred and bigotry.”

There is a term for what DeSantis has been doing as he stokes resentments of immigrants and Black people and trans people. It’s called “othering” — when you turn the person you’re attacking into someone you keep at arm’s length. You don’t know them or understand them or care about them. You can impose all sorts of negatives onto that kind of a blank canvas. It’s the opposite of empathy. And it makes it easier to pass laws that target them. They’re the “other.”

What’s going on in Florida isn’t a left-versus-right thing. It’s a right-versus-wrong thing. Going after various groups of people to push them out of public life isn’t about liberalism or conservatism. It’s about denying them human dignity and human rights.

DeSantis, though, specializes in dread and fear. So far, he has been restricted to one state. Imagine what he would do if he exported his vision to the whole country.

In Florida, they're having to establish sanctuary cities because of Ronald. Giuseppe Sabella (PALM BEACH POST) reports:

Lake Worth Beach has solidified itself as a safe place for LGBTQ+ people in a move that may be the first of its kind in Florida.

Commissioners voted unanimously on Tuesday evening to declare the city a safe haven for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and asexual people, along with all other gender identities and sexual orientations.

“The City of Lake Worth Beach shall now and forever be considered a safe place, a sanctuary, a welcoming and supportive city for LGBTQ+ individuals and their families to live in peace and comfort," the resolution states.

Equality Florida reported in 2016 that dozens of Florida cities and townships have included protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity in their local ordinances, creating safe havens for LGBTQ+ people. The list included Boynton Beach, Delray Beach, Greenacres, Lake Worth, West Palm Beach, Haverhill, Tequesta and Wellington.

As we noted yesterday, the fright wing cheerleaders such as Matt Taibbi, Jonathan Turley, Glenneth Greenwald and others pretend to be about free speech as they amplify hate merchants but they aren't about free speech. Free speech advocates worry about censorship -- not about a Mother Tucker's pay check -- and these grifters are silent on attempts to censor books (in part because those censoring books are usually the core audience for Matt, Jonathan, Naomi Wolf, Glenneth . . .).

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