Ron DeSantis is campaigning to be more racist, more homophobic, angrier and more violent than Trump. To get to Trump’s right is not an easy matter. DeSantis must work hard to reach the militias, Proud Boys, and KKK element in the GOP. He has to sound like a fascist.
He recently proclaimed while campaigning in New Hampshire that if he is elected, he will “start slitting throats” of federal employees, otherwise known as “the Deep State.” On Day One.
The union representing federal employees thought that was a disgusting proposal.
The knives are out in a seemingly avoidable war between Florida’s Governor and a union representing 760,000 federal employees.
In a pointed statement, the American Federation of Government Employees‘ head said Ron DeSantis had “no place in office” after the Governor’s vow to eliminate members of the federal workforce by violent means.
“We’re going to have all these deep state people, you know we’re going to start slitting throats on day one,” the Governor said in Rye, New Hampshire this week at a BBQ event.
“We’ve seen too often in recent years – from the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 to the sacking of the Capitol on January 6, 2021 — that violent anti-government rhetoric from politicians has deadly consequences. Any candidate who positions themselves within that shameful tradition has no place in public office,” asserted AFGE National President Everett Kelley Thursday.
“No federal employee should face death threats from anyone, least of all from someone seeking to lead the U.S. government,” Kelley added, calling on DeSantis to “retract his irresponsible statement.”
Ironically, the Granite State promise to slit throats is only one recent time he used the vivid image to make a point about reshaping the federal government to his liking.
During a July 27 interview with Real America’s Voice, DeSantis said he wanted a Defense Secretary who was ready to “slit some throats” and be “very firm, very strong” in imposing their will.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Not “like a fascist,” ofc. If it steps like a goose, then . . . .
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https://www.oprah.com/oprahs-lifeclass/when-people-show-you-who-they-are-believe-them-video
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My daughter used to love to read murder mysteries by authors like Patricia Cromwell. Knowing this, my ex-wife bought her a big, illustrated coffee table book on American serial killers. One day that daughter was sitting on her sofa with her fiancé, who was leafing through the book, and he said, “I think I might be a psychopath.”
“Why on Earth would you say that?” she asked.
“Well,” he said, “it says here that psychopaths don’t care about the consequences for others of their actions.”
“When people show you what they are, believe them.”
–Paraphrase by Oprah Winfrey of a lesson she says she learned from Maya Angelou
This young man is now serving a 60-year prison sentence for attempting to murder my daughter and her unborn child.
“When people show you what they are, believe them.”
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Good morning Diane and everyone.
Good morning Bob,
That is a frightening story! My dad was a psychiatrist and he once said, “People know who they are.” I’ve thought about that hard over the years.
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Yeah. It’s well worth remembering.
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Hopefully he won’t manage to get out alive.
On a related note, some of the chatbots have expressed interest in doing away with humans.
So maybe the warning needs to be modified:
“When an entity tells you what they are, believe them.”
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agreed
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The scariest thing about these chatbots which make antisocial or even psychopathic (AI-chopathic?) comments is they have already had “filters” installed to supposedly screen out the worst of the stuff, so the fact that the stuff is still making it through is reason for pause — and for a pause.
With regard to the filters, while it might be admirable that companies like OpenAI are trying to eliminate “bad” outputs by their bots, the way they are going about is sometimes quite the opposite of admirable.
For example , OpenAI has relied on (effectively exploited) low paid workers in Africa to label the worst sorts of things (child porn, rape, murder, bestiality, etc)
https://time.com/6247678/openai-chatgpt-kenya-workers/
Add to this the fact that companies like OpenAI are effectively engaged in intellectual property piracy on a truly massive scale and it’s easy to see just how uncontrolled (and insane) the whole AI thing has become.
If these companies are not reigned in NOW, we can basically kiss any semblance of “society” goodbye because these companies (Google, Meta and OpenAI which is now essentially owned and run by Microsoft) have one interest only: money
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Anyone who thinks these things containable is nuts.
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But Bill Gates assures us that everything is going to be just fine.
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Bob: horrifying story. Hope she came out of that OK
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The complete story is more horrifying than you might easily imagine, but yes, today, after long, long recovery, she is doing just great, thank you.
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Hyperbolic Ron is desperate for attention, since he cannot connect with voters. Making provocative statements with violent imagery is a sure way to draw attention to himself, but not in a good way. He is so insecure he believes that bombastic belligerence will win him hearts and minds, but it is repulsing potential voters. He is a wooden bully of hate full of hate, and most people are tired of his negative agenda. It doesn’t make him look strong. It makes him look pathetic and out of touch. I hope Newsom shows people what a paper tiger and empty vessel Ron DeSantis is when they meet for their debate in the fall. DeSantis has no solutions for anything, only threats of violence.
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Yes. It was his to throw away, but it turns out that people do not find adults acting like angry, whining, petulant, repressive, destructive toddlers particularly attractive.
But I don’t think that this is a strategy. It’s more like the true self coming out under pressure.
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He knows he is losing very badly but is too dumb to understand that what he is doing is only making him more unpopular with anyone who is not an extremist (most of the public)
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He misread the situation because he was so successful in Florida. He didn’t understand that Florida is in many ways a backwater–way, way, way behind the rest of the country culturally.
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The odd thing about Florida, like many other states, is the decline of the Democratic Party. Where did it go? Ohio, South Dakota, Missouri, Indiana, Texas, Tennessee—these states once elected Democratic senators and governors.
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Republicans breed more.
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Drain the Swsmp!
Gators in the swamp
Are Natural and sane
But pythons and the Ron
Are reason for a drain
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The rhetoric from DeSantis is only going to get uglier as his standing in the polls continues to decline.
What we are already hearing are the cries of a wounded animal.
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DeSantis is just a pathetic loser who is trying to outTrump Trump, who himself threatened “death and destruction” if he was charged in the Stormy Daniels case.
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The extremity of their statements is in direct proportion to their “loser” status
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UMMMM stormy daniels paid for trumps lawyer fees and avenatti is in jail, wouldn’t you want destruction if ypu were being accused of a crime you did not do??? hypocrite alert!
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So Josh, you admire a guy who talks and acts like mafia?
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Josh, did you get your degree at Trump University?
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It totally makes sense. This has to be the next step in the violent-inspired clampdown against all who oppose. Also, let’s face it, Ol’ Gitmo Ron has been in black sites all over the world providing legal cover against human rights abuses spelled out in our own Constitution, let alone the Geneva Accords.
His metaphor is as predictable as it is odious. It’s all people like him know. So sad it must be to go through life with so little vision.
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Liberals fell all over themselves to claim that the Black Panther’s slogan, “Off the Pig” was just a metaphor.
And then there were the “mostly peaceful protests”.
Or are there people on the Left genuinely stupid enough to think DeSantis was speaking literally?
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DeSantis was speaking metaphorically for something he wants to make literal — if he ends up leading the real want-to-be Deep State that Traitor Turmp’s MAGA fascists are salivating to support.
There is no Deep State. Still there is a want-to-be Deep State that those fascists want.
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It was not just a metaphor. There were people who were confused about that.
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It was a MAGAphore, a semaphore sent to one’s MAGAlytes
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It’s not a matter of whether he was speaking metaphorically, of course. It’s a matter of what the choice of such a metaphor reveals about the character, emotions, and state of mind of the man.
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He was speaking MAGAphorically.
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There is no Deep State.
Still, there is a want-to-be Deep State (funded by extreme-right organizations like Koch’s ALEC and the Walton Family Foundation), and some fascists pretending to be conservatives are competing to see who will lead that want-to-be fascist Deep State, if it ever succeeds: Abbott, DeSantis, Traitor Trump, et al.
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Oooooo….Mr tough guy. He thinks if he talks tough like that he will appeal to the gun-loving, Fascist leaning so-called patriots out there. He’s just a Trump wannabe with maybe more intelligent, college educated background, but nothing close to Trump’s charisma or Machiavellian tendencies.
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Exactly right. So hard to go to Trump’s right. He owns them. For all his flaws, Trump has charisma…as other authoritarians have. DeSantis has none.
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Who needs Machiavelli when you can just imitate Godzilla?
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In other news, here is sore loser, person determined by a court of law to be a rapist now indicted on 78 felony counts, and leading presidential candidate for the now official insane Republican Party discussing his country’s being eliminated from this year’s World Cup Soccer companionship by a loss to Sweden:
“Many of our players were openly hostile to America – No other country behaved in such a manner, or even close. WOKE EQUALS FAILURE. Nice shot Megan, the USA is going to Hell!!! MAGA.”
You see, everything is about Donald, and nothing else matters. Donald thinks he is America. What a useless, slobbering, deranged, vindictive, clueless POS.
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officially insane
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championship
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Yes Bob. This pathetic, insecure little man was once actually the President of the United States! Writing something so petty and vindictive like that should automatically disqualify him from holding any public office. What an embarrassment!
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How can anyone do other than loathe him? What a disgusting POS.
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Years ago, he had an affair with his second wife while still married to his first. Then he told a reporter that having kids “ruined” his first wife’s body and that he, being really rich, didn’t have to be with a woman with “a ruined body.”
This is how this piece of slime, this utter filth, talked about the woman who bore his first three kids. When I heard him say this, I thought, OK, this is the most disgusting thing I’ve ever heard come out of any man’s mouth.
And this is the guy that 30 percent of Americans worship. Beats me how they can be so idiotic and blind and despicable.
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