DON’T SAY GAY, SAY GAMBLE – How Florida Becomes Iraq

Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn recently attacked Disney over their position on Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law. Blackburn’s statements included “You know, one of the things that we have looked at with Disney World is I say people go there to walk the yellow brick road and have a day in fantasy land. They’re not going there to walk on eggshells. They’re not going there to have their kids go through some kind of nightmare.” Rather than talk about the issue – rather than sell her side – Blackburn chose to attack a supporter of the issue, a private business.

Blackburn could have made a big-government argument. She could have said we would love if schools could help gay students. But in the real world, it is not likely to turn out any better than government fact-checking political speech, or the post office. Blackburn could have argued children should not be trained to define themselves based on their sexual impulses. Being gay is not, as asserted by Biden agent Jen Psaki, the same as wanting to become a doctor or fireman. But Republicans do not actually have morals or philosophies, which they could then sell. They are power seekers who run to the front of a mob.

There are many governance issues in Florida. It is widely recognized that Florida prosecutors who are locally elected and not regulated by anybody, do not prosecute local VIP’s who sexually abuse children. At the same time when Republicans across the country were calling Supreme Court Nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson soft on pedophiles, DeSantis resisted any reform to a Florida system designed to condone pedophilia by political VIP’s. DeSantis passed a law to stop teachers sexualizing children, but participated in a coverup of members of his own party sexualizing children.

Before Florida politicians passed a law to protect children from being led down a misguided path of sexual indulgence, they passed a law to create new casinos in Florida. At the same time they were coming up with a new body to oversee and regulate casinos, DeSantis was appointing a man to lead the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation who has since come under investigation by the FBI for corruption, Halsey Beshears. This is not a philosophy. This a group of men who want to make profits off gambling and don’t want their sons to be gay. They will use their power to advance their own interests regardless of the law.

DeSantis says he is for law and order. But when I filed a complaint with the Florida Inspector General over politicians abusing their office to arrest me with an affidavit that contained perjury, DeSantis sent six sheriffs to detain and threaten me, admittedly under false pretense and without probable cause, and telling me I would not be allowed to go before a judge. Florida Statute 837.02 makes perjury a crime. But DeSantis does not care about crime, he cares about doing what he wants to advance his power and protect his cronies. After I sued him, Florida Attorney Genera Ashley Moody wrote in a court filing, that the Governor of Florida legally has the power to use police to attack people at whim outside the law.

You may have noticed, Iraq under Saddam Hussein was not an oasis of business investment. I knew an Iraqi whose father owned a rare large business in Iraq. When Saddam fell and all his neighbors were running around with gold-plated rifles and other loot from Saddam’s stashes, and literally becoming millionaires overnight, the businessman father ordered his son do not dare touch so much as a single coin of Saddam’s treasures. Because the businessman had been conditioned to act like he owed his business, and his very life, to Saddam Hussein. Only those so loyal and controlled by Saddam, and whose businesses were run for the benefit of Saddam, were allowed to exist.

If DeSantis realized his ambition to directly enact the will of the mob majority through police, without regard to courts or rights or laws, we would quickly find out he is not the pro-business moderate he once was, before being corrupted by ambition. The mob has never liked wealthy businessmen, and Republicans in recent years have reversed historical positions and started advocating taxes on billionaires. Businesses in DeSantis world would only be permitted to do business, to the extent they are useful to DeSantis.