Friday, January 19, 2024 9:47:28 PM
In Florida, DeSantis, as Trump with McConnell's and others' help in America, was able to foster corruption all the way up to the Supreme Court. And when you are thinking about the slice to the right in conservative right-wing American politics don't ever leave out a guy we know well on this board, Leonard Leo: See:
"Mike Johnson fucking sucks" Mike Johnson, theocrat: the House speaker and a plot against America "
[...]
The Constitutional Convention itself shows how little support there is for the view that America started from a dogma-soaked worldview. During debates, Benjamin Franklin proposed bringing in a member of the clergy to guide them with prayer. Only three or four out of 55 framers agreed. The matter was dropped.
P - Less than a decade ago, it looked like the religious right had lost the culture wars. The turning point seemed to be the decision in Obergefell v Hodges in 2015, which established same-sex marriage as a constitutional right. “It’s about everything,” Focus on the Family’s James Dobson mourned .. https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.advocate.com/marriage-equality/2015/12/03/watch-focus-family-founder-says-we-lost-entire-culture-war__;!!IBzWLUs!WO2rSudt5vtMMNc2lhegTLQRW7PwsUikUnJ1dKUsFR94j8XEr_834WkGpT_pQL0omT1_vIFjvsrELrETVCeoiL5WsqAd5wNN$ , “We lost the entire culture war with that one decision.”
[...]
But instead of surrendering, the truest believers vowed to supplant democracy. They doubled down on furiously grabbing political power, to force everyone else to live their religious lives. Led by the likes of Leonard Leo, a reactionary Catholic theocrat who is chair of the Federalist Society’s board of directors, Dobson and many other Republicans, including the then little-known Mike Johnson .. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/mike-johnson .. remade the supreme court and instituted stringent religious litmus tests for Republican candidates. Unable to control the culture, they have mounted a legal-political crusade against all who refuse to embrace their religious worldview. .. https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=173266069
That to remind of Leo. These to your Florida corruption situation, and one other on Leo:
DeSantis Stacked Florida’s Supreme Court With Cronies Who Wage His War on Wokeness — or Else
Of all the flunkies Gov. Ron DeSantis installed across the state, the longest lasting effects will come from his total takeover of Florida’s Supreme Court.
Akela Lacy
July 3 2023, 5:00 a.m.
Republican presidential candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during a town hall meeting in Eagle Pass, Texas, on June 26, 2023. Photo: Eric Gay/AP
Shortly after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis took office in 2019, the state Supreme Court threatened to dissolve the Florida Bar Association if it didn’t get rid of its diversity programs.
The court had taken a sharp right turn after DeSantis selected three new justices with the help of Federalist Society board co-chair Leonard Leo .. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/04/17/the-conservative-pipeline-to-the-supreme-court . Leo led a secret panel of advisers .. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/06/20/gov-ron-desantis-used-secretive-panel-flip-state-supreme-court/ .. that vetted DeSantis’s judicial nominees before he took office.
The revelation came on the heels of a slew of news stories on conservative donors buying influence on the U.S. Supreme Court — where Leo, again, was among the conservative legal activists who helped to install a conservative majority. The top federal court has since made landmark rulings against abortion rights and in favor of business interests .. https://www.scotusblog.com/2018/08/empirical-scotus-the-big-business-court/ . And Leo isn’t done yet: He funnels money to a network of right-wing organizations .. https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/investigations/leonard-leo-federalists-society-courts/ .. orchestrating key Supreme Court cases on red-meat conservative issues.
In Florida, Leo was working to overturn a 40-year status quo of judiciary balance and restraint. The state Supreme Court had fostered an image of independence after corruption scandals that forced two justices to resign in the early 1970s. When DeSantis took office, concerns about improprieties disappeared. The governor has a long history with the Federalist Society — he was a member at Harvard Law School — and his judicial nominees are backed by the group.
The ideological project DeSantis is pushing Florida is no secret. He unabashedly appoints political allies to posts across the state. Such picks have shown up in the judiciary, nonpartisan election officesOpens in a new tab, and state boards that oversee public schools and colleges, medical practices, business, and real estate.
DeSantis’s appointments, budget decisions .. https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2023/06/21/gov-desantis-veto-list-puts-payback-first-floridians-and-environment-last-editorial/ , and fundraising tactics .. https://theintercept.com/2023/05/03/ron-desantis-insurance-industry/ .. have come under heightened scrutiny since he announced a presidential run last month. None of the appointments, however, eclipse the lasting change of his state Supreme Court takeover. DeSantis has named five of the court’s seven members, all of whom are members of the Federalist Society.
[...]
Leonard Leo speaks at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C. on April 23, 2019. Photo: Michael Robinson Chavez/The Washington Post via Getty Image
He is not the first to award contracts to donors .. https://theintercept.com/2022/09/27/florida-ron-desantis-campaign-fund/ .. or administrative posts to political operatives, but DeSantis does it at an unprecedented scale .. https://theintercept.com/2022/09/21/ron-desantis-marthas-vineyard-republican-donor/ . The thoroughness of his cronyism has had a chilling effect in Florida: There is a perception among politicians and residents alike that nothing can get done if you’re seen a DeSantis foe, said Barbara Petersen, executive director of the Florida Center for Government Accountability.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Petersen said. Public servants are dismayed at what’s happening to their state, she said: “People are afraid of him.”
Much more - https://theintercept.com/2023/07/03/desantis-florida-supreme-court/
See also:
Who Is Leonard Leo’s Mysterious Dark Money King?
America needs to know who Barre Seid is, what kind of country he wants, and just how massive
an impact his $1.6 billion gift can have on our political discourse.
Illustration by Simon Prades
Nina Burleigh/May 16, 2023
A few months before the midterms, with pollsters spewing red wave predictions and post-Roe conservatives planning to force raped children to give birth, a bit of political news added to progressives’ gloom. A Chicago billionaire had gifted anti-abortion Supreme Court fixer Leonard Leo the largest known tranche of dark money .. https://www.propublica.org/article/dark-money-leonard-leo-barre-seid .. in U.S. history: $1.6 billion. The sum is staggering; it will finance at least a generation of extreme right-wing political proselytizing. And almost no one—except for the conservative cabal that bagged the whale—had heard of him.
The gift from nonagenarian electronics magnate .. https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/3612396-who-is-barre-seid-the-billionaire-who-donated-record-1-6-billion-to-conservative-group/ .. Barre Seid (pronounced Barry Side) is effective altruism in reverse: a fire hose of cash aimed at destroying .. https://newrepublic.com/article/166993/leonard-leo-christian-right-future .. American liberal culture through lawsuits and support for politicians challenging gay rights, unions, environmental protection, voting rights, and public education. The money will last a good long while. Philanthropic recipients usually follow a 5 percent rule: They try not to spend more than 5 percent of the endowment per year. Seid’s pile is so large that it could return an average $136 million a year, or north of $230 million on a good year, to influence U.S. law and policy. Without ever having to touch the nut. For a sense of how enormous that is, consider this. The Heritage Foundation and its affiliates spent about $86 million in 2021. Heritage is a huge, and hugely influential, conservative think tank. Leo could create two Heritage Foundations and one more sizable organization on the side—all, again, without having to dip into the principal at all.
Again, much more, and with many more links even in the just above -- https://newrepublic.com/article/172480/barre-seid-leonard-leo-dark-money-king
"Mike Johnson fucking sucks" Mike Johnson, theocrat: the House speaker and a plot against America "
[...]
The Constitutional Convention itself shows how little support there is for the view that America started from a dogma-soaked worldview. During debates, Benjamin Franklin proposed bringing in a member of the clergy to guide them with prayer. Only three or four out of 55 framers agreed. The matter was dropped.
P - Less than a decade ago, it looked like the religious right had lost the culture wars. The turning point seemed to be the decision in Obergefell v Hodges in 2015, which established same-sex marriage as a constitutional right. “It’s about everything,” Focus on the Family’s James Dobson mourned .. https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.advocate.com/marriage-equality/2015/12/03/watch-focus-family-founder-says-we-lost-entire-culture-war__;!!IBzWLUs!WO2rSudt5vtMMNc2lhegTLQRW7PwsUikUnJ1dKUsFR94j8XEr_834WkGpT_pQL0omT1_vIFjvsrELrETVCeoiL5WsqAd5wNN$ , “We lost the entire culture war with that one decision.”
[...]
But instead of surrendering, the truest believers vowed to supplant democracy. They doubled down on furiously grabbing political power, to force everyone else to live their religious lives. Led by the likes of Leonard Leo, a reactionary Catholic theocrat who is chair of the Federalist Society’s board of directors, Dobson and many other Republicans, including the then little-known Mike Johnson .. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/mike-johnson .. remade the supreme court and instituted stringent religious litmus tests for Republican candidates. Unable to control the culture, they have mounted a legal-political crusade against all who refuse to embrace their religious worldview. .. https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=173266069
That to remind of Leo. These to your Florida corruption situation, and one other on Leo:
DeSantis Stacked Florida’s Supreme Court With Cronies Who Wage His War on Wokeness — or Else
Of all the flunkies Gov. Ron DeSantis installed across the state, the longest lasting effects will come from his total takeover of Florida’s Supreme Court.
Akela Lacy
July 3 2023, 5:00 a.m.
Republican presidential candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during a town hall meeting in Eagle Pass, Texas, on June 26, 2023. Photo: Eric Gay/AP
Shortly after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis took office in 2019, the state Supreme Court threatened to dissolve the Florida Bar Association if it didn’t get rid of its diversity programs.
The court had taken a sharp right turn after DeSantis selected three new justices with the help of Federalist Society board co-chair Leonard Leo .. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/04/17/the-conservative-pipeline-to-the-supreme-court . Leo led a secret panel of advisers .. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/06/20/gov-ron-desantis-used-secretive-panel-flip-state-supreme-court/ .. that vetted DeSantis’s judicial nominees before he took office.
The revelation came on the heels of a slew of news stories on conservative donors buying influence on the U.S. Supreme Court — where Leo, again, was among the conservative legal activists who helped to install a conservative majority. The top federal court has since made landmark rulings against abortion rights and in favor of business interests .. https://www.scotusblog.com/2018/08/empirical-scotus-the-big-business-court/ . And Leo isn’t done yet: He funnels money to a network of right-wing organizations .. https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/investigations/leonard-leo-federalists-society-courts/ .. orchestrating key Supreme Court cases on red-meat conservative issues.
In Florida, Leo was working to overturn a 40-year status quo of judiciary balance and restraint. The state Supreme Court had fostered an image of independence after corruption scandals that forced two justices to resign in the early 1970s. When DeSantis took office, concerns about improprieties disappeared. The governor has a long history with the Federalist Society — he was a member at Harvard Law School — and his judicial nominees are backed by the group.
The ideological project DeSantis is pushing Florida is no secret. He unabashedly appoints political allies to posts across the state. Such picks have shown up in the judiciary, nonpartisan election officesOpens in a new tab, and state boards that oversee public schools and colleges, medical practices, business, and real estate.
DeSantis’s appointments, budget decisions .. https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2023/06/21/gov-desantis-veto-list-puts-payback-first-floridians-and-environment-last-editorial/ , and fundraising tactics .. https://theintercept.com/2023/05/03/ron-desantis-insurance-industry/ .. have come under heightened scrutiny since he announced a presidential run last month. None of the appointments, however, eclipse the lasting change of his state Supreme Court takeover. DeSantis has named five of the court’s seven members, all of whom are members of the Federalist Society.
[...]
Leonard Leo speaks at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C. on April 23, 2019. Photo: Michael Robinson Chavez/The Washington Post via Getty Image
He is not the first to award contracts to donors .. https://theintercept.com/2022/09/27/florida-ron-desantis-campaign-fund/ .. or administrative posts to political operatives, but DeSantis does it at an unprecedented scale .. https://theintercept.com/2022/09/21/ron-desantis-marthas-vineyard-republican-donor/ . The thoroughness of his cronyism has had a chilling effect in Florida: There is a perception among politicians and residents alike that nothing can get done if you’re seen a DeSantis foe, said Barbara Petersen, executive director of the Florida Center for Government Accountability.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Petersen said. Public servants are dismayed at what’s happening to their state, she said: “People are afraid of him.”
Much more - https://theintercept.com/2023/07/03/desantis-florida-supreme-court/
See also:
Who Is Leonard Leo’s Mysterious Dark Money King?
America needs to know who Barre Seid is, what kind of country he wants, and just how massive
an impact his $1.6 billion gift can have on our political discourse.
Illustration by Simon Prades
Nina Burleigh/May 16, 2023
A few months before the midterms, with pollsters spewing red wave predictions and post-Roe conservatives planning to force raped children to give birth, a bit of political news added to progressives’ gloom. A Chicago billionaire had gifted anti-abortion Supreme Court fixer Leonard Leo the largest known tranche of dark money .. https://www.propublica.org/article/dark-money-leonard-leo-barre-seid .. in U.S. history: $1.6 billion. The sum is staggering; it will finance at least a generation of extreme right-wing political proselytizing. And almost no one—except for the conservative cabal that bagged the whale—had heard of him.
The gift from nonagenarian electronics magnate .. https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/3612396-who-is-barre-seid-the-billionaire-who-donated-record-1-6-billion-to-conservative-group/ .. Barre Seid (pronounced Barry Side) is effective altruism in reverse: a fire hose of cash aimed at destroying .. https://newrepublic.com/article/166993/leonard-leo-christian-right-future .. American liberal culture through lawsuits and support for politicians challenging gay rights, unions, environmental protection, voting rights, and public education. The money will last a good long while. Philanthropic recipients usually follow a 5 percent rule: They try not to spend more than 5 percent of the endowment per year. Seid’s pile is so large that it could return an average $136 million a year, or north of $230 million on a good year, to influence U.S. law and policy. Without ever having to touch the nut. For a sense of how enormous that is, consider this. The Heritage Foundation and its affiliates spent about $86 million in 2021. Heritage is a huge, and hugely influential, conservative think tank. Leo could create two Heritage Foundations and one more sizable organization on the side—all, again, without having to dip into the principal at all.
Again, much more, and with many more links even in the just above -- https://newrepublic.com/article/172480/barre-seid-leonard-leo-dark-money-king
It was Plato who said, “He, O men, is the wisest, who like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing”
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