DeSantis Signs Law That Strips Illegal Aliens of Their Drivers Licenses; Leftwing #Resistance Media Shrieks That Minorities Are Terrified of DeSantis

So let's get this out of the way.

DeSantis just signed a law that has illegals worried and the leftwing #ResistanceMedia shrieking.

Axios:

An undocumented 22-year-old woman sat on her bed in Tampa last week and called her mother, listening to the ringing tone, hoping for another option. When her mother answered, the sound of her soft voice reminded the woman there weren't any.

"We have to leave Florida," the woman said.

What's happening: A new law that Gov. Ron DeSantis signed this month to tighten restrictions on Florida's undocumented community is driving immigrants out of the state.

The legislation voids out-of-state driver's licenses for those without proof of citizenship, bars municipalities from using state money to issue identification cards for undocumented immigrants and requires most companies in Florida to verify the immigration status of new hires, among other restrictions.

It also repeals a state law that allowed some undocumented immigrants to obtain a license to practice law in Florida.

[...]

State of play: Some undocumented workers in South Florida are not coming to work or they are leaving job sites because of the law -- which will come into effect July 1, CBS Miami reports.

CNN cries that blacks, Hispanics, and LGBTQ+ers aren't "safe" in Florida and should flee the state in terror!

Minorities, immigrants and now members of the LGBTQ community are being warned of the risks of visiting Florida after the nation's largest LGBTQ advocacy group issued a travel advisory following newly passed laws and policies that may be harmful to people in those communities.

On Tuesday, the Human Rights Campaign in partnership with Equality Florida, a state LGBTQ advocacy group, issued an updated travel notice outlining potential impacts of six bills that were recently passed, many of which have already been signed by the state's Republican governor, Ron DeSantis.

"While not a blanket recommendation against travel nor a call for boycott, the travel advisory outlines the devastating impacts of laws that are hostile to the LGBTQ community," the advocacy group said in a statement.

Over the weekend, the NAACP issued a travel advisory for Florida "in direct response to ... DeSantis' aggressive attempts to erase Black history and to restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in Florida schools." And days earlier, LULAC -- the League of United Latin American Citizens -- issued its travel advisory after DeSantis signed a new immigration law that will go into effect in July.

...

LULAC and the NAACP have said actions under the DeSantis administration are "hostile" to their communities.

Tuesday's Human Rights Campaign and Equality Florida notice outlines updates made to a previously issued travel warning "to detail the impacts of laws that are hostile to the LGBTQ community, restrict access to reproductive health care, repeal gun safety laws and allow untrained, unpermitted carry, and foment racial prejudice."

The advisory highlights policies DeSantis has signed into law like new restrictions on gender-affirming treatments for transgender minors, drag shows, bathroom usage and which pronouns can be used in school.

LGBTQ advocates in the state criticized the legislation as a larger effort to erase them from Florida schools and society.

One measure prohibits transgender children from receiving gender-affirming treatments, including prescriptions that block puberty hormones or sex-reassignment surgeries. Under the law, a court could intervene to temporarily remove a child from their home if they receive gender-affirming treatments or procedures, and it treats such health care options, which are supported by the American Medical Association, the same as it would a case of child abuse.

DeSantis also signed a provision restricting teachers, faculty and students from using the pronouns of their choice in public schools. That bill declares that it must be the policy of all schools that "a person's sex is an immutable biological trait" and "it is false" to use a pronoun other than the sex on a person's birth certificate. It also affirmed that sexual orientation and gender identity cannot be taught in schools through eighth grade, codifying a state Board of Education decision to block such topics in all grades, from Kindergarten through 12th grade.

OnlyTrumpers keep insisting that this is all a Long Con and that the moment DeSantis gets the nomination, he'll "betray" us. This makes no sense. If you've spent five years building up your Italian restaurant into a huge success and finally secure financing to turn it into a national chain, you don't suddenly take that money and open a string of hot-dog restaurants. No, you do what made you successful, and what you've built your brand on.

Why would a successful politician throw away that which has made him a success, just to "betray" Republican voters?

This is what the kids call "a cope." It's fairy tale people tell themselves to cope with the truth that DeSantis is the real deal, and even if you prefer Trump -- fine, but please stop with the conspiratorial nonsense about a "Long Con." DeSantis' record is exemplary, and one tires of lie after lie about it. He at least has earned enough respect to be treated as a Worthy Adversary, and not constantly smeared as a very strange kind of long-form conman who just wants the nomination so that he can "betray" conservatives.

Oh, and by the way: If you say "other politicians betrayed us." No, wrong. Not like this. Other politicians offered you lip service with no action backing it up, mere words, mere promises that were immediately detectable as insincere when uttered.

Rudy Giuliani, for example, almost immediately revealed himself as a pawn of the open borders corporate conspiracy when he said he would not build a wall, but instead would create a "virtual wall" of drones and electronic monitoring.

Even the lip service offered by the open borders corporate conspirators has to be extracted from them under duress, because they so hated to even have to offer the Racist Promise of cracking down on illegal immigration.

Name one politician who offered this much actual legislative and executive power action -- acts, not words -- and then "betrayed" people by then suddenly reversing himself and doing the exact opposite when elevated to a new office.

You can't. No such examples exist. In all of human history, there are zero examples of this crazy scenario unfolding.

And for good reason -- because this is literally an insane thing to do, and people who keep insisting that this is a likely outcome are talking up insane nonsense as a cope.

Screwing over your voting base only makes any sense if there is some larger base with which you can replace the one you're abandoning. Given all of what DeSantis has done on pronouns, on banning CRT and gender theory in public schools, on ending DEI majors at Florida universities, at busing illegals to blue cities, on cancelling illegal's drivers licenses -- what liberal/moderate base could DeSantis possibly appeal to after he executes his Long Con and "betrays" the right?

What does "betraying" conservatives actually get DeSantis?

DeSantis has burned every bridge with the media and the NeverTrump/neocon contingent. They're now praising Trump in order to attack DeSantis.

David Frum @davidfrum

"Failure to Launch"
The Ron DeSantis story

Can we please stop with the lies? It's extremely disrespectful to not only lie to someone, but to keep telling the exact same lies to someone.

DeSantis just said he'd review J6 convicts for a pardon starting Day One:

Clay Travis @ClayTravis

Florida governor @GovRonDeSantis says on @clayandbuck if he's elected president that on his first day in office he will consider pardoning any January 6th defendant he believes was politically prosecuted from a member of the public all the way up to President Trump himself.

Before anyone calls that "weak" because he didn't promise pardons without preconditions -- neither did Trump.

"I am inclined to pardon many of them," Trump said at a town hall hosted by CNN at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire. "I can't say for every single one, because a couple of them, probably they got out of control."

He added that "most likely" he would pardon "a large portion of them."

"And it'll be very early on," Trump said.

"Inclined to pardon many of them," a "large portion of them."

Just stop with the inevitable "But DeSantis didn't pass the J6 Test!" or whatever's coming next.

It's like when Trump and DeSantis answered Tucker Carlson's questionnaire about Urkaine. DeSantis called Ukraine a "territorial dispute" he wasn't sure the US had an interest in.

European allies "should be paying far more than we are, or equal." DeSantis told Carlson, "While the U.S. has many vital national interests… becoming further entangled in a territorial dispute between Ukraine and Russia is not one of them."

He also said this:

"We cannot prioritize intervention in an escalating foreign war over the defense of our own homeland," wrote DeSantis, who hasn't yet announced a 2024 campaign.

Then a couple of days later he changed the wording of his "territorial dispute" answer, and Trump's supporters claimed he was "weak" for "backtracking" and was secretly a Ukraine War supporter.

Except none of Trump's supporters bothered to check what Trump said. They were only interested in nitpicking DeSantis' answer -- and just assumed Trump was "strong' on the question.

He wasn't.

Trump also was "weak" on the question, and also refused to rule out support for Ukraine:

"Start by telling Europe that they must pay at least equal to what the U.S. is paying to help Ukraine. They must also pay us, retroactively, the difference," Trump said. "Next, tell Ukraine that there will be little more money coming from us, UNLESS RUSSIA CONTINUES TO PROSECUTE THE WAR. The President must meet with each side, then both sides together, and quickly work out a deal."

In case you're about to say "He didn't mean what he said," he decided to clarify that yes he means exactly what he said. He will continue funding Ukraine -- he just wants Europe to pay "more or equal" to what we pay.

When asked if opposing Russia in Ukraine is a critical U.S. national strategic interest, Trump said, "No, but it is for Europe. But not for the United States. That is why Europe should be paying far more than we are, or equal."

This is not a Shermanesque declaration that we will stop funding Ukraine. This is Trump quibbling about Europe paying more to fund Ukraine.

So he's going to give money to Ukraine, except in the case -- which will not happen -- that Russia stops prosecuting the war. If Russia stopped prosecuting the war, of course, Ukraine would not need our aid.

So he just committed to supporting Ukraine until and unless Russia abandons the war.

I don't really fault Trump or DeSantis for their positions. But what is driving me crazy is the claim from OnlyTrumpers that if DeSantis says anything less than "No money for Ukraine, not a dime more" he's a sell-out, but when Trump straight-up says he will continue funding Ukraine until Russia stops supporting the war, OnlyTrumpers claim that this is a really "strong" statement that the limp-wristed pansy who probably had affairs with men is too cowardly to make.

OnlyTrumpers apparently didn't bother reading Trump's actual response to the questionnaire, because the next day I was reliably informed that DeSantis was "weak" on the question, and Trump was "strong."

Well he certainly was "strong" in committing us to funding Ukraine until Russia gives up the war, I guess.

There's just a weird thing going on where DeSantis' actual accomplishments are dismissed as part of "the Long Con," whereas Trump's failures -- or his deviations from what his supporters thing a Strong Trump Policy should be -- are also dismissed. Trump gets credited for being "strong" whether he's weak or strong. His words are just rejected out of hand -- "We know what he really meant," OnlyTrumpers say.

Well, if you're giving yourself the latitude to edit Trump's words to make them align perfectly with your own policy preferences -- then why not provide the same service to DeSantis' words? Edit DeSantis' words like you edit Trump's words to make them say what you want them to say.

Of course, what someone says actually isn't even important. What they do is important. What they say is just hot air.

So I really don't care how "strong" Trump's f***ing Tweets or statements at rallies are. I'm going to insist on grading him by what he actually did, and failed to do, not what he said he would do.

posted by Ace at 01:07 PM

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