I traditionally have a thread heading to the election, here we go.
Get out the popcorn for this one.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is expected to formally announce next week he is running for president in 2024, NBC News reported Thursday, citing two sources familiar with the matter.
The governor's official entry into the Republican primary field will put him head-to-head with former President Donald Trump, the party's current frontrunner for the nomination. Trump has already spent months treating DeSantis as his primary campaign rival, thrashing him with torrents of criticism over his gubernatorial record, his political skills and his personality.
Chatter I heard past 2 days watching TV and cable news shows was that Trump did not prepare properly to staff his incoming administration --- explains his "poor candidates" mantra. Remember that he threw out Chris Christie's transition book?
Well Republican power brokers are preparing Project2025: Presidential Transition Project which can be used by ANY Republican that wins nomination as "Preparing Political Appointees to be Ready on Day One". The Washington, D.C. Heritage Foundation is behind this effort.
The former president and his backers aim to strengthen the power of the White House and limit the independence of federal agencies.
I'd really love to listen in while they talk to God while he's explaining their rights:) Is it a conference call so that everyone in the party gets the same message? Is this conversation transactional? These people are nuts.
When TMB called DeSantis an authoritarian, I wanted to know more and found this op ED pieces. Repeat: op ED
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Authoritarian, in the political-science sense of the word, usually refers to two broad kinds of political action within democracies such as the United States. The first is antidemocratic politics, where a politician attacks the institutions, principles, or rules of democracy. The second is personalized rule, in which the leader uses their power to target specific groups or individuals, persecuting their enemies while protecting their allies.
Wooden rather than magnetic, DeSantis doesn't engage in the impulsive, stage-based showman authoritarianism of Donald Trump. His antidemocracy politics are calculated and disciplined. In Florida, he has engaged in legislative authoritarianism, replacing rule of law with rule by law. His playbook is now familiar to Floridians: He uses attention-grabbing stunts or changes formal policies to target individuals, groups, or companies he doesn't like. Then he holds a press conference to tout his ability to take on all the people the Republican base loves to hate.
DeSantis provides no alternative to Americans who fear rule by an authoritarian strongman. DeSantis and his Florida allies have waged war on the freedom to learn, purged elected officials who deviated from his ideological agenda, signed bills that smeared LGBTQ people as threats to children, unleashed a new police force to destroy the lives of people who honestly believed a voter-passed constitutional amendment had returned their right to vote and used the power of government to harass and punish private businesses that fail to fall in line with his efforts.
DeSantis is eager to bring his power-abusing ways to the White House. He told Fox viewers over Memorial Day weekend that he would use the power of the presidency to "destroy leftism in this country.” He told Fox News host Trey Gowdy that the Justice Department and FBI should not be considered independent of the president and said in a separate interview with Glenn Beck that he will be "spitting nails" right out the gate to assert his dominance over the executive branch. He told a group of religious right activists in Iowa, "It is time we impose our will on Washington.”
Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.
NJ just over the Delaware River from me. Watched Chris Christie's 8 years in office -did decent job, so became one of his 40,000 contributors across 20 states to watch his RNC debate theatrics --made the cut.
Seven Republican presidential candidates have, as of Sunday, met the polling requirements to appear on the August debate stage following new polling from Fox Business in Iowa and South Carolina.
Former President Donald Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former Vice President Mike Pence, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie have each reached 1% or higher in at least two qualifying national polls and two qualifying state polls from separate states, which is a requirement set by the Republican National Committee....
Pence has yet to meet fundraising requirement while former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and former Texas Rep. Will Hurd missed national polling.
We don't like to think about authoritarians having control of our government, but the GOP has definitely decided that authoritarians aren't really that bad.
The report from V-Dem, out of Sweden academia, is only 4 pages and describes the trends. This was interesting;
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• Both parties use more populist rhetoric – anti-elitism and citizen-
centrism – than typical parties in democracies, but the Republicans
clearly more so.
• The five indicators capturing cultural issues place the Republicans
consistently to the right of the center. Democrats also fare to the
right of the median party in democracies in this millennium in
terms of the role of religion in politics, immigration, and support of
state measures to enhance the equal participation of women in the
labor market. They fare to the left of the spectrum when it comes to
support for LGBT equality and opposing the idea of cultural superi-
ority of particular group or nation.
• V-Party's data places the Democratic Party to the left of typical
parties in democracies in terms of economic issues and the Repub-
lican Party to the right.
Specializes in NICU, PICU, Transport, L&D, Hospice.
NRSKarenRN said:
NJ just over the Delaware River from me. Watched Chris Christie's 8 years in office -did decent job, so became one of his 40,000 contributors to watch his RNC debate theatrics --made the cut.
Wondering if George W. Bush and Dick Cheney doing anything behind the scene in today's GOP. .
HEALTH CARE
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The largest expansion ever of Medicare took place under Bush's watch with the addition of a prescription drug benefit that eased the financial burden of millions of seniors and the disabled. At the same time, the ranks of the uninsured grew from 38.4 million in 2000 to 45.7 million in 2007.
I am SO grateful for a Medicare prescription drug plan.
Thirty day supply of just 2 of my essential meds:
Generic Restasis: $184
Mybetriq: $325.00
Need next administration to keep lowering drug prices.
Trump getting some interesting support from African Americans bothered by Florida's new education policy of saying slaves gained skills that benefited them.
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"It raises eyebrows,” said Diante Johnson, president of the Black Conservative Federation, who is supporting Donald Trump's presidential campaign. "Ron DeSantis is not the candidate for Black conservatives and that's what [he] constantly, constantly exhibits to us.”
Specializes in NICU, PICU, Transport, L&D, Hospice.
Tweety said:
Trump getting some interesting support from African Americans bothered by Florida's new education policy of saying slaves gained skills that benefited them.
It's kind of interesting that they don't support Tim Scott or William Hurd.
Trump has the support of white supremacy folks, so it's interesting they don't back someone else. Hurd was booed in Iowa for criticizing Trump. I'll never understand it.
Continued lack of support by African Americans as a convention predicted to bring a couple of million to Florida is canceled. (No worries, I'm sure some conservative convention will come.)
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The nation's oldest intercollegiate Black fraternity will not be meeting in Florida as scheduled in two years due to what they said is the state being 'hostile' to the Black community.
Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.
An interesting birthday gift for me ----
Here's the format for the first RNC debate 8/23/23 @ 9PM ET hosted by Fox News in Milwaukee. Pence announced he will attend as made 40,000 unique donors with a little help from AN posts I hope.
Debate set to run for around two hours. Candidates will not be allowed to give an opening statement, though they will have 45 seconds for closing remarks. Throughout the debate, they'll be given one minute to answer a question and an additional 30 seconds for "follow-ups.”
Some of the questions will "involve sound or video, including pre-taped questions submitted by students" via the Young America's Foundation, debate partner.
The eight presidential candidates qualifying for this first debate: Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, Mike Pence, Tim Scott, Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, Chris Christie, and Doug Burgum. However, Trump not expected to be present as of today's news pundits.
subee, MSN, CRNA
1 Article; 6,139 Posts
I'd really love to listen in while they talk to God while he's explaining their rights:) Is it a conference call so that everyone in the party gets the same message? Is this conversation transactional? These people are nuts.