The rise of new anti-Semitism: How threatened are Florida’s Jews?

*Gov. Ron DeSantis enters Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust museum during a 2019 visit to Israel. (Photo: State of Florida)*

April 6, 2023 by David Silverberg

For Jews, Passover is a holiday commemorating danger but also liberation.

It memorializes the night that death came for Egypt’s first-born but spared the Jews, who fled slavery the next day for freedom and, ultimately, the Promised Land.

Passover this year was particularly poignant but also especially relevant for the Jews of Florida.

Florida may not be the Jewish promised land but, as for all Americans, it has been an attractive place to retire, to prosper, raise families and pursue happiness.

But in the past few weeks there has been a new and increasingly dangerous trend. As political turmoil and tensions roil the state, its two most prominent political figures are using ancient anti-Semitic tropes for political purposes.

It is one thing when anti-Semitism is expressed in isolated incidents of vandalism, leafletting and demonstrations at the grassroots. But it is far more threatening and orders of magnitude worse when scapegoating and ancient smears come from a top official using the power of his bully pulpit—and that’s what’s happening in Florida.

Causes for concern

The political drama consuming the United States right now is the prosecution of former President Donald Trump for numerous alleged crimes. However justified, this prosecution has raised the country’s emotional temperature and inflamed political passions.

It has also resurrected the classic anti-Semitic technique of scapegoating a whole people based on a stereotype of a single, supposedly cunning and manipulative individual.

Of the many villains and demons in his universe, Trump is aiming his increasingly desperate ire at George Soros, a Jewish billionaire and contributor to democratic and Democratic Party causes. (More about Soros in the sidebar below.)

Because a Soros-funded political action committee contributed to the campaign of New York District Attorney (DA) Alvin Bragg, Soros’ name has become an epithet that is always linked to Bragg in the Trumpist and Make America Great Again (MAGA) mythos.

Typical was the Monday, April 3, Trump fundraising message to his followers.

“What liberal billionaires like George Soros and the globalist cabal fear most is YOU,” his message stated. “…YOU – alongside more than 74 million of your fellow patriots – PROVED that even a corrupt billionaire like Soros and his puppet D.A. are no match for the sheer will and collective might of our MAGA movement.”

As Kurt Braddock, a public communication professor at American University, told USA Today of the messages: “They’re loaded with anti-Semitic language, some of which has been used in the past to validate violence against Jews. There’s no other way to describe it — he’s using anti-Jewish stereotypes and historical hatred to raise money.”

Trump’s hatred, prejudice and rage is inclusive and diverse in the sense that it encompasses all his perceived enemies, regardless of their race, religion or color. Most thinking people are unlikely to take his attacks on Soros any more seriously than they take his attacks on anything else.

However, when Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), a shadow candidate for president, decided to defend his rival for the nomination, he chose to scapegoat Soros and use the same tropes as well.

“The weaponization of the legal system to advance a political agenda turns the rule of law on its head. It is un-American,” DeSantis stated in a March 30 tweet. “The Soros-backed Manhattan District Attorney has consistently bent the law to downgrade felonies and to excuse criminal misconduct. Yet, now he is stretching the law to target a political opponent.”

He continued: “Florida will not assist in an extradition request given the questionable circumstances at issue with this Soros-backed Manhattan prosecutor and his political agenda.”

DeSantis continued his scapegoating at a speech last Saturday, April 1, in Harrisburg, Pa., in which he stated “And I can tell you this: these Soros DAs are a menace to society, a menace to the rule of law.”

These accusations are in a different category altogether because they come from the lips of the highest elected official in Florida.

An ugly rising tide

*A swastika and cross are projected onto a building in Jacksonville, Fla., in January of this year. (Photo: Jim Urquhart for NPR)*

For some time now anti-Semitism has been a rising problem in Florida as well as throughout the United States.

On March 23, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a New York City-based Jewish organization that tracks and fights anti-Semitism, released its Audit of Antisemitic Incidents 2022, a comprehensive look at anti-Semitism nationwide.

It found that last year saw a 36 percent rise in anti-Semitic incidents.

The Audit stated: “In 2022, ADL tabulated 3,697 antisemitic incidents throughout the United States. This is a 36% increase from the 2,717 incidents tabulated in 2021 and the highest number on record since ADL began tracking antisemitic incidents in 1979. This is the third time in the past five years that the year-end total has been the highest number ever recorded.

“Incidents increased in each of the major Audit categories: antisemitic harassment increased 29% to 2,298; antisemitic vandalism increased 51% to 1,288 and antisemitic assaults increased 26% to 111. The vast majority of antisemitic assaults (107 out of 111) were perpetrated without the use of a deadly weapon. There was one fatality. Notably, visibly Orthodox Jews were targeted in 53% of the assault incidents nationally. This year, no assaults perpetrated against the Jewish community resulted in mass causalities.”

In Florida, there was a rise in propaganda-based incidents like leafletting and banner displays. As the Audit put it:

“The activities of several newly formed white supremacist groups in 2022 also contributed to the rise in propaganda incidents. These new groups – the Texas-based Aryan Freedom Network, Florida-based NatSoc Florida, the Iowa-based Crew 319, the Southern California-based Clockwork Crew (aka Crew 562), Florida Nationalists and the short-lived, New York-based Aryan National Army – were responsible for seven percent (or 62 incidents) of the antisemitic propaganda distributions in 2022.

“As in previous years, extremists used fliers, posters, stickers, banners and graffiti to share their antisemitic views. In Florida, NatSoc Florida and GDL [Goyim Defense League] used laser projectors to cast antisemitic messages on buildings on at least seven occasions. Individuals associated with GDL, Crew 562 and Crew 319 drove around in moving vans draped with antisemitic propaganda.”

In Florida, Jacksonville has been the particular focus of anti-Semitic activity, with laser images of swastikas projected on buildings.

In Southwest Florida anti-Semitic activities included defamatory leafletting related to COVID prevention mandates in Fort Myers and online posting of an anti-Semitic video by Katie Paige Richards, at the time the campaign manager for Collier County School Board candidate Tim Moshier.

However, some of the incidents involved vandalism and destruction of property.

On Jan. 31, 2022 Rabbi Mendel Greenberg’s mailbox in Bonita Springs was destroyed, his car window smashed, and his sidewalk defaced with the word “Jew’s” in big red letters. The vandalism was committed by two teenagers, Tucker Bachman, 17, and a 14-year old accomplice who were swiftly caught by the Lee County Sheriff’s Office. The vandals were charged with hate-crime felonies and in March they were sentenced to probation.

On March 11 of this year a man threw bricks at the glass entrance doors at the Chabad Jewish Center of Cape Coral while worshippers were inside. The vandal also toppled an image of a menorah and smashed a car window.

(The individual was described as a man in his 50s wearing a white shirt and tan pants. Police said he was about 6 feet tall, 200 pounds, with glasses and thinning gray hair. He remains at large and anyone with information on his identity or whereabouts is encouraged to contact Cape Coral police at (239)-574-3223 or email at CCPDtips@capecoral.gov. Anonymous phone tips can be submitted by calling Crime stoppers at (800) 780-TIPS. Please reference Case Number 23-006123).

Both these attacks were directed at Chabad houses. These are centers of worship and community activity for the very orthodox Lubavitcher Chasidic sect and movement. The buildings prominently displayed Jewish symbols. In keeping with biblical commandments and Jewish tradition the rabbis in both centers were very traditional in appearance. They had full beards, always wore yarmulkes (skullcaps) and generally dressed conservatively in black and white clothes, with the tassels of prayer shawls showing from beneath their shirts.

In other words, they fit traditional Jewish stereotypes and so were targeted.

The incidents above and those detailed in the Audit show the kind of low-level, fragmented anti-Semitic activity now taking place at street level.

But when the sentiments being expressed in vandalism and leafletting are given high government sanction and encouragement, the threat goes to a whole new tier.

The consequences of calumny

*The monument, menorah and eagle sculpture at the entrance to Ramat Trump on the Golan Heights in Israel. (Photo: Jerry Jude, Wikimedia Commons)*

Both Trump and DeSantis would likely deny any anti-Semitism given their past extravagant shows of support for the State of Israel.

While he was president, Trump made a great display of supporting Israel, among other things ordering the movement of the US embassy to Jerusalem, a move Israelis had been urging practically since the founding of the state in 1948.

For his part, Israel’s prime minister at the time, Benjamin Netanyahu, played up to Trump while he was in office and even founded a city with his name, Ramat Trump, in the Golan Heights.

(In 2020 their friendship ended when Netanyahu officially congratulated President Joe Biden 12 hours after he was declared the winner of the election. Trump reportedly responded: “He [Netanyahu] was very early — like, earlier than most. I haven’t spoken to him since. F–k him.”)

Netanyahu was also happy to welcome DeSantis, who took an entourage of Jewish Floridian donors to Israel in May 2019 on a business mission to build trade ties. At the time he vowed to be “the most pro-Israel governor in America.” In Israel, among his other activities, he visited Yad Vashem, the Israeli Holocaust memorial.

Both men’s pro-Israel gestures no doubt played well with Jewish political contributors. But for Floridians at the grassroots, their rhetoric has very different consequences.

That’s because it’s the scapegoating, stereotyping and anti-Semitic dog whistles that are filtering down to their grassroots supporters.

So far, there has not been any anti-Semitic violence against Jews in Florida like the Oct. 27, 2018 shooting of 11 Jewish worshippers in the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pa.—the same state where DeSantis made his most recent attack on George Soros.

But the lies, smears and conspiracy theories are circulating and the more these politicians play to them, encourage them and repeat them, the more likely that physical violence will follow.

Trump in particular more than offset whatever pro-Israel sentiment he expressed and whatever Jewish family ties he possessed (his daughter Ivanka converted to Judaism and his son-in-law Jared Kushner is Jewish) by the whole aura of “hatred, prejudice and rage”—and violence—that he projected both as a presidential candidate and then as president. His statement in 2017 that there were “very fine people on both sides” of the clashes in Charlottesville, Va., opened the door to social acceptance of neo-Nazism and far right prejudice.

Trump probably did not realize the full implications of what he was saying at that time. Even after four years in the presidency he remains an astonishingly ignorant man, virtually oblivious to history. In 2017 he didn’t have a clue—but he doesn’t seem to have learned much since.

DeSantis, however, is a different case. Not only did he have an Ivy League education (Yale, Harvard) and serve in a military that cannot and does not tolerate racism and prejudice in its ranks, he is at least passingly familiar with the Holocaust thanks to that visit to Yad Vashem.

He is also renewing his Israeli ties. On March 28 The Jerusalem Post newspaper and a new Museum of Tolerance Jerusalem announced that DeSantis will again visit Israel to deliver the keynote address on April 27 for an event titled “Celebrate the Faces of Israel.”

The Museum of Tolerance Jerusalem in particular, is a new institution whose mission is to “encourage democracy, combat the roots of anti-Semitism and extremism, and promote regional stability, global harmony, human dignity and a love of Israel.”

So given his knowledge of history and his familiarity with the Holocaust and the events and factors leading to it as well as his association with an institution devoted to preventing their recurrence, DeSantis’ Soros scapegoating and use of anti-Semitic tropes has no excuse. In fact they express forethought and conscious intent—and DeSantis should know better.

Moreover, given his repetition of his Soros scapegoating at his campaign-style appearances outside the state, it looks like he’s taking this anti-Semitic show on the road and will be repeating these smears throughout the country in the months ahead as he campaigns for president.

Analysis: A fraying consensus

The American consensus against overt expression of anti-Semitism and Nazism had its origins in World War II and the revelation of Nazi death camps and genocidal extermination efforts. It’s worth remembering that prior to America’s entry into the war, anti-Semitism was a widely accepted sentiment and actively promoted by prominent Americans like Henry Ford, Charles Lindbergh and Father Charles Coughlin, a radio-broadcasting priest.

However, the Holocaust was so horrific, so inhuman and so extreme that since the liberation of the camps it has been viewed as the nadir of human behavior. Even in popular entertainment, Nazism became synonymous with evil.

To prevent a recurrence, the Holocaust has been commemorated, taught in schools, academically examined and been the focus of institutions like museums. Nazi exterminators have been hunted down, prosecuted and deported even when they were in their 90s.

But now it is 78 years since Nazi Germany surrendered. That’s nearly four generations and the memory is fading. A generation of people like Katie Paige Richards is coming of age, with no knowledge of the past and a susceptibility to outlandish conspiracy theories and fantasies. Even in education, Holocaust studies are eroding. In Florida’s Martin County, the Holocaust-themed novel The Storyteller was banned from the local school district’s library due to a parent complaint.

Throughout America and especially in Florida, the consensus against anti-Semitism is being treated as one more “politically correct” taboo, one more “woke” prohibition among many that are being dismantled and discarded.

The crumbling of this consensus can be traced to that one particular moment on Aug. 15, 2017 when Donald Trump said that there were “very fine people on both sides” of the conflict in Charlottesville, Va.

Coming from the mouth of a President of the United States, Trump appeared to be saying not only that neo-Nazis could be “very fine people” but that Nazism and anti-Semitism could be “very fine” too—whatever other caveats he might have expressed at that moment,.

Even if the sensible world recoiled in horror, even if it inspired a former Vice President to run for president at the age of 74 and fight for the “soul of America,” as Joe Biden has said it did, Trump’s words nonetheless opened a box of demons that had been kept tightly sealed for the previous 72 years.

In Florida the governor, who aspires to be President of the United States, is crusading against “wokeness,” hoping to ride a segment of the population’s resentment of public prohibitions against racism, misogyny, discrimination—and anti-Semitism—to the White House. But the unacceptability of anti-Semitism was perhaps the first “woke” taboo of the modern era and he’s determined to smash them all.

His rival, Trump, who is struggling in the grip of the law like a feral pig in the coils of a Burmese python, is similarly using every trope, stereotype and bias to escape justice.

Jews have known situations like this before. They’ve seen the outcomes of this kind of turmoil. They’ve faced this kind of “hatred, prejudice and rage” many times, even at the dawn of their history. Now, presumably, they know better than to just paint their doorposts with blood and hope the Angel of Death will pass over them.

In the past they’ve been victims. They’ve also been victors—but they’ve only been victorious when they’ve actively defended their inalienable right to exist.

_______________________

Sidebar: Who is George Soros and why is he so hated?

*George Soros at an academic award ceremony in 2019. (Wikimedia Commons)*

George Soros, 92, was born Aug. 12, 1930 in Hungary to a secular Jewish family.

Hungary had a tradition of anti-Semitism and during the 1930s that was expressed in its native fascist movement. The country joined the Axis powers in 1940 and was occupied by Nazi Germany in March 1944. Hungary’s Jews were rounded up and deported but because this occurred so late in the war, more survived than in other occupied countries.

His name was changed from Schwartz to Soros, which in Hungarian means “next in line” or “successor.” He survived the Nazi occupation by disguising himself as a Christian with forged papers and left Hungary at the age of 17, first for Paris, then for Britain. There, he worked as a waiter and railway porter but also put himself through the London School of Economics, where he earned bachelor and master degrees.

He chose merchant banking as a career and began work at the bottom rung, as a clerk. In 1956 he moved to New York and while working in arbitrage developed a theory of investing that he called “reflexivity,” which argued that markets were more driven by often-false ideas rather than rational economic principles.

He worked in a variety of banks and funds before founding his own Soros Fund Management in 1970. It was subsequently renamed the Quantum Fund and was an early hedge fund.

Soros burst into prominence on Sept. 16, 1992 when his fund shorted $10 billion worth of British pound sterling, a day also known as Black Wednesday. In a complex currency transaction the Quantum Fund made $1 billion in an afternoon and Soros became known as “the man who broke the Bank of England.” It’s a feat that hedge fund managers have aspired to ever since. However, it also brought him a reputation as a currency manipulator.

Soros confined himself to business activities until 2004 when he donated over $23 million to various Democratic Party groups to defeat incumbent US President George Bush. He also began donating to charities, in 2009 providing New York State with $35 million to feed poor, hungry children.

Ever since then, Soros has significantly donated to promote democracy and inclusiveness through the Center for American Progress and his Open Society Foundations. He contributed to the election campaigns of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and a wide variety of Democratic Party efforts.

Forbes magazine estimates Soros’ current net worth at $6.7 billion.

Given his political contributions and humanitarian largesse, Soros has been turned into a right-wing bogeyman. He’s portrayed as a crafty, manipulative Jewish Globalist engineering every conservative setback, as Donald Trump’s and Gov. Ron DeSantis’ attacks attest. (A very good account of the rise of Soros as a threatening phantom is the 2019 article “The George Soros Conspiracy Theory at the Heart of the Ukraine Scandal,” from the website of the magazine Mother Jones. More about Soros can be found in his Wikipedia entry.)

On July 31, 2022 Soros explained his support for reformist prosecutors in a Wall Street Journal op-ed titled “Why I Support Reform Prosecutors: Justice or safety? It’s a false choice. They reinforce each other.”

“The funds I provide enable sensible reform-minded candidates to receive a hearing from the public. Judging by the results, the public likes what it’s hearing,” he wrote. “I have done it transparently, and I have no intention of stopping.”

Liberty lives in light

Help defend democracy in Southwest Florida—donate here!

Jennifer Edwards, Collier County Supervisor of Elections, announces retirement

*Collier County Supervisor of Elections Jennifer Edwards, holding a copy of Florida’s election laws. (Photo: Author)*

April 4, 2023 by David Silverberg

Jennifer Edwards, for 23 years Collier County’s Supervisor of Elections, has announced her retirement from the position and nominated Melissa Blazier, her chief deputy, as her successor.

Edwards, 74, informed Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) of her intention in a March 31 letter that was made public yesterday, April 3.

Her retirement date is set for April 28.

“The time has come for me to move to the next chapter of my life, spending more time with my husband and family,” she wrote.

Blazier has worked in the Supervisor’s office for the past 17 years. She is both a Master Florida Certified Elections Professional and a Certified Elections/Registration Administrator.

Although there has never been a scandal or challenge to Edwards’ administration of elections during her tenure, local Trumpers nonetheless targeted her for defeat next year.

Jennifer Edward’s letter to Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Liberty lives in light

Help defend democracy in Southwest Florida—donate here!

Editorial: Collier County should honor its healthcare heroes and remember its COVID victims

*A doctor and nurse attend to a COVID patient during the height of the pandemic. (Photo: US Navy)*

April 3, 2023

During the worst moments of the COVID-19 pandemic, Collier County’s healthcare heroes, its doctors, nurses, medical professionals, first responders and support staff, labored heroically to serve, save and treat those who suffered from the disease.

They worked under very difficult circumstances and at great risk to their own health and wellbeing.

Now that the worst of the crisis has receded and the pandemic seems to be over, Collier County, Florida should honor these heroes in a tangible way, with a monument that pays tribute to their efforts and remembers those who passed through no fault of their own.

It would be very fitting in a community with as robust and capable a medical and healthcare establishment as Collier County.

How many people died from COVID? Estimates of COVID deaths in Collier County during the course of the pandemic range from 551 to 1,175 people.

In Florida, an estimated 86,850 people died, according to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center. Some 1,125,366 people are estimated to have died in the United States, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The World Health Organization estimates that the global cost was 6,887,000 people worldwide.

These lost lives should not be forgotten or reduced to mere statistics. They were friends, neighbors, parents and children, brothers and sisters. A single death from COVID was one too many.

The temptation to move on and forget this painful episode in American history is very strong. But it should not be buried. A local memorial would inspire future efforts toward disease prevention, research, treatment and public health protection, both in Collier County and worldwide as well as provide comfort and closure to those who experienced loss.

Similar memorials have already gone up or are being planned.

The Collier County memorial should be placed on county land, in a prominent and accessible spot. An open competition could be held to determine its design, size, shape and inscription.

The Heroes of Healthcare memorial in Collier County could be supported by a partnership of the county and private donors. It takes time to pull something like this together. There’s much to organize and many choices to be made. However, if there’s a will and determination to do it, approval of the concept and determination of the location and design could be completed by the end of the year.

*A planned memorial to COVID victims in Long Beach, Calif. (Art: City of Long Beach)*

*Artist’s conception of a memorial to COVID victims in Baltimore, Md. (Art: Lake Roland Nature Council)*

*The planned memorial to COVID victims in Frederick County, Md. (Art: County)*

*The memorial to the victims of COVID in Olimpia, Brazil. (Photo: City of Olimpia)*

*Memorial to the victims of COVID in Union City, NJ. (Photo: Union City Police Dept.)*

A draft resolution for such a memorial has been submitted to the Collier County Board of Commissioners. (The full text is below.) If you would like to urge the Board to consider it at its next meeting on April 11, the commissioners can be contacted at their email addresses or by phone, with individual, personalized messages.

Chair, District 1: Rick.LoCastro@colliercountyfl.gov — (239) 252-8601
District 2: Chris.Hall@colliercountyfl.gov — (239) 252-8602
District 3: Burt.Saunders@colliercountyfl.gov — (239) 252-8603
District 4: Dan.Kowal@colliercountyfl.gov — (239) 252-8604
District 5: Bill.McDaniel@colliercountyfl.gov — (239) 252-8605

______________________

Draft resolution honoring Heroes of Healthcare and Remembering Victims of COVID-19

WHEREAS, the pandemic phase of COVID-19 is now widely regarded as being over, and

WHEREAS, over 86,000 Floridians and over 500 residents of Collier County died as a result of the disease, and

WHEREAS, Collier County’s doctors, nurses, healthcare professionals, first responders and support staff labored heroically under very difficult circumstances and at great risk to their own health and wellbeing to serve, protect and treat those who suffered from the disease, and

WHEREAS, their extraordinary efforts deserve praise, recognition and honor, and

WHEREAS, the victims of this disease should be respected and never forgotten, and

WHEREAS, recognition of these heroes of health and the toll of COVID-19 will inspire future efforts toward disease prevention, research, treatment and public health protection, both in Collier County and worldwide,

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that Collier County, Florida, should establish on county property, in a prominent and accessible location to be determined, a fitting memorial honoring the Heroes of Health and remembering the victims of the COVID pandemic, of a design, size, type and material to be determined by open competition, with county support and private donations, the approval and determinations of said memorial, location and design to be completed no later than Dec. 31, 2023.

Liberty lives in light

Anti-vaxx ordinance to be put on Collier County agenda; resolution vote postponed

*Collier County commissioners vote to put an anti-vaxx ordinance on the county’s agenda for full debate. (Image: CCBC)*

March 29, 2023 by David Silverberg

The Board of Commissioners of Collier County, Florida, voted unanimously yesterday, March 28, to advance an ordinance prohibiting mandated COVID-19 vaccines, masking and documentation and put it on the county agenda for full debate and a vote.

While the date was not yet officially announced, the next meeting of the Board is scheduled for April 11.

The ordinance, titled the “Collier County Health Freedom Bill of Rights Ordinance,” will impose unspecified penalties on entities that mandate COVID vaccinations, vaccination documentation, masks, and quarantines or impose other public health restrictions.

The commissioners voted to continue discussion of an accompanying resolution—an expression of official opinion without the force of law—titled the “Collier County Health Freedom Resolution.” It was sent back to its sponsor, Commissioner Chris Hall (R-District 2), for revision and future reconsideration, likely when the ordinance is considered.

“It is not a document that in its totality exudes leadership,” said Board Chair Commissioner Rick LoCastro (R-District 1) of the resolution. He argued that it was angry, accusatory and largely a list of past complaints arising from the experience of the pandemic, with questionable statements of fact. Citing a positive experience of the commissioners at the state capital of Tallahassee, he disagreed with its assertion that “the United States and Florida State Constitution is no longer being upheld” in Collier County.

He also characterized it as “less than professional,” “more personal than it needed to be,” and “not worth the paper it is written on,” during discussion of its adoption. He said he could not believe in it as written and did not want to put his name to it.

Commissioner Bill McDaniel (R-District 5) also expressed concern about some of its establishment clauses, calling them “accusatory,” “conjectural” and violent. Commissioner Dan Kowal (R-District 4) agreed with LoCastro.

The vote on the ordinance and postponement of the resolution followed public comment that saw 30 speakers weigh in on the matter. Most spoke in favor, while those opposed argued that it was inappropriate for Collier County.

(Full disclosure: This author spoke against the legislation as unnecessary given already-enacted state laws prohibiting mandated vaccinations, documentation and quarantines.)

LoCastro characterized the ordinance as “the meat on the bone” of the matter and said “I would rather burn brain cells on that.”

When next considered, commissioners will hear public comment, debate and vote on the ordinance and may consider a revised resolution.

_______________________

(For a fuller discussion of the ordinance and resolution as well as their full texts, see Collier County may consider anti-vaxx ordinance and resolution package on Tuesday, putting public health at risk.)

A full video of yesterday’s 3-hour discussion is available on the Collier County Board of Commissioners live TV website beginning at time 1:25 and concluding at 4:06.

During yesterday’s discussion, LoCastro complained that while he received numerous e-mails about the ordinance and resolution, many did not provide full explanations of their positions, contain real names and sometimes consisted of just pasted-in text. He requested that any e-mails on the matter provide the sender’s information and a full explanation of his or her recommendations.

To contact the commissioners:

Chair, District 1: Rick.LoCastro@colliercountyfl.gov — (239) 252-8601
District 2: Chris.Hall@colliercountyfl.gov — (239) 252-8602
District 3: Burt.Saunders@colliercountyfl.gov — (239) 252-8603
District 4: Dan.Kowal@colliercountyfl.gov — (239) 252-8604
District 5: Bill.McDaniel@colliercountyfl.gov — (239) 252-8605

Liberty lives in light

Help defend democracy in Southwest Florida—donate here!

Collier County may consider anti-vaxx ordinance and resolution package on Tuesday, putting public health at risk

*A Collier County, Florida resident receives the second shot of the Moderna COVID vaccine in February 2021. (Photo: Author)*

March 26, 2023 by David Silverberg

Collier County, Fla., could take itself out of the modern, global public health and disease prevention system if its Board of Commissioners approves a package of two proposals being called the “Collier County Health Freedom Bill of Rights Ordinance” and the “Collier County Health Freedom Resolution.”

On Tuesday, March 28, at its regular meeting, the Commission is scheduled to discuss whether to put the proposed package on the county’s agenda for full debate and discussion. The item is numbered 10A on the March 28 agenda and was placed there at the request of Commissioner Chris Hall (R-District 2).

If approved by the commissioners, the county would set a date for a debate on final approval of the measures and advertise that date. (The full text of the package follows this article.)

The ordinance

The proposed ordinance is a law that prohibits vaccine mandates and prevents businesses from requiring vaccine documentation (also known as “vaccine passports”). County employees could not be required to show vaccine documentation unless approved by a unanimous vote of the Board. Mask mandates and quarantines would also be prohibited unless unanimously approved by the Board. Violations would incur penalties, although the ordinance doesn’t state what they would be.

It also states that: “Unless compelled by Federal or State law, Collier County does not recognize any authority by the World Health Organization or any other international body to impose any health mandates or directives within Collier County.”

As the executive summary of the proposed ordinance puts it: “Numerous County residents have expressed their concerns to the Board of County Commissioners (“Board”) over the federal government’s and the World Health Organization’s attempts to impose public health mandates and limit an individual’s healthcare freedoms and rights. This Ordinance seeks to address the concerns of Collier County residents and prohibit COVID-19 vaccine mandates, mask mandates, quarantines, vaccine passports, and rejects health directives by the World Health Organization and other international bodies. The Ordinance also adopts state statutes, which have codified many of these protections, into local law and allows for Code Enforcement to enforce the Ordinance.”

The resolution

The resolution is an expression of official opinion and is more explicit in its complaints about the current state of affairs. As it argues it in its establishment clauses (the “whereas” sections), “federal and state health agencies have demonstrated a clear inability to be truthful, transparent and consistent in protecting the citizens of Collier County.”

It also states that the “constitutional rights of Collier County citizens were violated through discrimination based on vaccine status” and that “global organizations such as the World Health Organization (“WHO”) and World Economic Forum (“WEF”) work to subvert the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Florida.” It then cites a number of national and state constitutional provisions it alleges were violated during the pandemic.

It argues that the US Constitution and county residents’ rights were violated during the pandemic and that the national and state constitutions are “no longer being upheld and as a result Collier County citizens are being harmed.” It also complains that the US Food and Drug Administration no longer requires animal testing on new medications (i.e., that full safety protocols were not followed).

It argues that doctors were not allowed to speak freely about treatments other than vaccines and that residents were not provided with information about such treatments. It also alleges interference from third parties like WHO and WEF.

It then puts forward ten “rights” against public health measures. Among these are a right not to be subject to medical mandates or quarantines and a right not to suffer discrimination as a result of personal healthcare decisions (i.e., refusing vaccines). It argues that people have the right to the care of their choice, not to face discrimination on the basis of those choices, and not to be refused care. It also asserts a right to a mental health review and to not be held for more than 72 hours for mental health reasons without judicial review. It states that citizens have a right to a medical advocate when admitted to a hospital and can leave a hospital’s care if they choose.

Analysis: What’s going on here?

The proposals are a delayed reaction against the COVID-19 vaccines, protection measures and mandates applied during the worst days of the pandemic. Essentially, these measures constitute the revenge of vaccine opponents (anti-vaxxers) against scientific and medical measures to fight the spread of COVID.

During the pandemic, the small group of local Collier County anti-vaxxers of perhaps a few hundred to 1,500 people felt they were being discriminated against by doctors, epidemiologists, scientists, the federal government and the whole national effort to get the entire population vaccinated against COVID. They didn’t like the vaccines, being vaccinated, masking or any form of compulsory protective measures. They felt that businesses and government agencies requiring vaccine documentation were discriminating against them.

They also felt discriminated against by doctors and hospitals who rejected such unproven or demonstrably ineffective solutions as Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin and refused to administer those drugs despite the anti-vaxxers’ insistence. And they felt they were being labeled as crazy, hence the proposed right to a mental health review and a 72-hour limit on mental health confinement.

They also felt that they shouldn’t be prohibited from travel or movement if they preferred (even if they were deemed infectious) and that hospitals shouldn’t have refused them visits from friends, family members or lawyers while being treated. During the high points of the pandemic, hospitals of necessity quarantined patients and refused visitation to prevent spread of the disease, especially during its earliest, most deadly phases.

The Collier County anti-vaxx package seeks to take authority away from doctors and hospitals so that even the most infectious patients can depart at will. This is an outgrowth of the belief by some anti-vaxxers that the whole COVID pandemic was a sham and hoax. Given their argument that COVID never existed, the Collier anti-vaxx package establishes that they shouldn’t face any restrictions.

Anti-vaxxers also felt at the mercy of the federal government, its agencies and global organizations like the WHO, so they’re arguing that WHO and WEF shouldn’t have any authority in Collier County. However, WHO, WEF and other international bodies have no authority to impose any measures on Collier County or anywhere else in the United States. Their roles are entirely advisory.

The thinking behind the Collier County anti-vaxx package expressed in the executive summary and the establishment clauses of the resolution reveal a rejection of any federal government role at all in protecting public health. Its advocates argue that public health measures are unconstitutional and, basically, illegal. Indeed, it rejects all science.

Why is this being proposed now? Last year’s election put commissioners Chris Hall and Dan Kowal on the Commission. Both were backed by the Citizens Awake Now Political Action Committee headed by conservative grocer and anti-vaxx activist Francis Alfred “Alfie” Oakes III. During the height of the pandemic, the five-member Board of Commissioners voted 3 to 2 to impose mask mandates on Collier County businesses, including Oakes’ Seed to Table market. This past November the commissioners who voted for the mandates were ousted and with Hall and Kowal seated, the conservative-majority Board is more likely to approve the anti-vaxx package.

Additionally, the state enacted anti-mandate measures on Nov. 18, 2021 when Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed Florida House Bill 1-B prohibiting all the mandates included in the Collier anti-vaxx package. This makes the Collier anti-vaxx package unnecessary. DeSantis has called for making the bans permanent in the current legislative session.

If passed in its current form the Collier County anti-vaxx package would just further hinder and prohibit science-based, public health measures and precautions within county boundaries. If there’s a new COVID variant or another epidemic, it would remove the tools and authorities county doctors and hospitals rely upon to halt the spread of a contagion, treat it effectively, and stop bogus, fraudulent and potentially harmful treatments.

____________________________________________________________

To contact Collier County commissioners:

Chair, District 1: Rick.LoCastro@colliercountyfl.gov — (239) 252-8601
District 2: Chris.Hall@colliercountyfl.gov — (239) 252-8602
District 3: Burt.Saunders@colliercountyfl.gov — (239) 252-8603
District 4: Dan.Kowal@colliercountyfl.gov — (239) 252-8604
District 5: Bill.McDaniel@colliercountyfl.gov — (239) 252-8605

_______________________________________________________________________

The full text of the Collier County anti-vaxx package.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Recommendation to direct the County Attorney to advertise and bring back for a public hearing an Ordinance establishing the Collier County Health Freedom Bill of Rights, and to adopt the Collier County Health Freedom Resolution.

OBJECTIVE: To establish an Ordinance safeguarding the healthcare rights and freedoms of Collier County residents, and to adopt the Collier County Health Care Freedom Resolution.

CONSIDERATIONS: Numerous County residents have expressed their concerns to the Board of County Commissioners (“Board”) over the federal government’s and the World Health Organization’s attempts to impose public health mandates and limit an individual’s healthcare freedoms and rights. This Ordinance seeks to address the concerns of Collier County residents and prohibit COVID-19 vaccine mandates, mask mandates, quarantines, vaccine passports, and rejects health directives by the World Health Organization and other international bodies. The Ordinance also adopts state statutes, which have codified many of these protections, into local law and allows for Code Enforcement to enforce the Ordinance.

If this item is approved, the proposed ordinance will be advertised and brought back to the Board for a public hearing.

The Collier County Health Freedom Resolution is intended to create a broader expression of the Board’s position on these matters, which are not suitable for an ordinance.

FISCAL IMPACT: Advertising fees are estimated to be $600. The future fiscal impact is unknown if additional Code Enforcement staff is necessary to administer.

GROWTH MANAGEMENT IMPACT: There is no Growth Management impact.

LEGAL CONSIDERATIONS: This item has been reviewed by the County Attorney, is approved as to form and legality and requires majority vote for approval. -JAK

RECOMMENDATION: To direct the County Attorney to advertise and bring back for a public hearing an Ordinance establishing the Collier County Health Freedom Bill of Rights, and to adopt the Collier County Health Freedom Resolution.

Prepared by: Chris Hall, Commissioner District 2

ATTACHMENT(S)

Ordinance Health Care Bill of Rights 3-21 (numbered) (PDF) [EDITOR’S NOTE: This version is not included here.]
Ordinance Health Care Bill of Rights 3-21 (clean) (PDF)
Resolution Health Freedom Final (PDF)

Item Number: 10.A

Doc ID: 24612

COLLIER COUNTY

Board of County Commissioners

Item Summary: Recommendation to direct the County Attorney to advertise and bring back for a public hearing an Ordinance establishing the Collier County Health Freedom Bill of Rights, and to adopt the Collier County Health Freedom Resolution. (Sponsored by Commissioner Hall)

Meeting Date: 03/28/2023

Prepared by:

Title: Legal Assistant – County Attorney’s Office Name: Wanda Rodriguez

02/07/2023 9:59 AM

Submitted by:

Title: Commissioner District 2 – Board of County Commissioners Name: Chris Hall

02/07/2023 9:59 AM

Approved By:
Review:
Office of Management and Budget County Attorney’s Office County Manager’s Office	Wanda Rodriguez Level 3 OMB Gatekeeper Review Jeffrey A. Klatzkow Level 3 County Attorney’s Office Review Amy Patterson Level 4 County Manager Review	Skipped Completed Completed	02/07/2023 9:59 AM 03/21/2023 4:40 PM 03/22/2023 10:56 AM

Board of County Commissioners Geoffrey Willig Meeting Pending 03/28/2023 9:00 AM

ORDINANCE NO. 2023 –

AN ORDINANCE OF THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF COLLIER COUNTY, FLORIDA, ESTABLISHING THE COLLIER COUNTY HEALTH FREEDOM BILL OF RIGHTS; PROVIDING FOR CONFLICT AND SEVERABILITY; PROVIDING FOR INCLUSION IN THE CODE OF LAWS AND ORDINANCES; AND PROVIDING FOR AN EFFECTIVE DATE.

WHEREAS, numerous County residents have expressed their concerns to the Board of County Commissioners (“Board”) over the federal government’s and the World Health Organization’s attempts to impose public health mandates and limit an individual’s healthcare freedoms and rights; and

WHEREAS, the State of Florida has recognized these concerns and in November of 2021, Governor DeSantis signed into law Senate Bill (SB) 2-B and its companion House Bill (HB) 1- B,1 as well as HB 3-B/SB 4-B, 2, now codified in Chapter 381, Florida Statutes, in large part prohibiting the ability of private employers to impose a COVID-19 vaccination mandate amongst other protections; and

WHEREAS, the State of Florida further protects its residents’ health related rights and freedoms through Section 381.026, Florida Statutes, the Florida Patient’s Bill of Rights and Responsibilities, which promotes the interests and wellbeing of patients of healthcare providers and healthcare facilities; and

WHEREAS, the Board wishes to address the concerns of Collier County residents and adopt the foregoing State Statutes into local law, as well as to expand upon them.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT ORDAINED BY THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF COLLIER COUNTY, FLORIDA:

SECTION ONE: Title

This Ordinance shall be known and cited as the “Collier County Health Freedom Bill of Rights” Ordinance.

SECTION TWO: Purpose and Intent

The purpose of this Ordinance is to safeguard the healthcare rights and freedoms of Collier County residents.

SECTION THREE: Definitions

The terms used in this Ordinance shall be defined as outlined in Chapter 381, Florida Statutes, as may be amended from time to time.

SECTION FOUR: Applicability.

This Ordinance is applicable and limited to unincorporated Collier County.

SECTION FIVE: COVID-19 vaccine documentation prohibited.

A business entity within Collier County, as defined in Florida Statutes Sec. 768.38, may not require patrons or customers to provide any documentation certifying COVID-19 vaccination or postinfection recovery to gain access to, entry upon, or service from the business operations in Collier County. This subsection does not otherwise restrict businesses from instituting screening protocols consistent with authoritative or controlling government-issued guidance to protect public health.
Collier County will not require anyone to provide any documentation certifying COVID-19 vaccination or postinfection recovery to gain access to, entry upon, or service from Collier County’s operations.

SECTION SIX: Private employer COVID-19 vaccination mandates prohibited.

A private employer within Collier County may not impose a COVID-19 vaccination mandate for any full-time, part-time, or contract employee without providing individual exemptions that allow an employee to opt out of such requirement on the basis of medical reasons, including, but not limited to, pregnancy or anticipated pregnancy; religious reasons; COVID-19 immunity; periodic testing; and the use of employer-provided personal protective equipment. For purposes of this section, the term “COVID-19” means the novel coronavirus identified as SARS- CoV-2; any disease caused by SARS-CoV-2, its viral fragments, or a virus mutating therefrom; and all conditions associated with the disease which are caused by SARS-CoV-2, its viral fragments, or a virus mutating therefrom. Employers shall use forms adopted by the Department of Health, or substantially similar forms, for employees to submit exemption statements.
If an employer fails to comply with subsection (A) and terminates an employee based on the employee’s noncompliance with a COVID-19 vaccination mandate, the terminated employee may be eligible for reemployment in addition to any other remedy available to the employee.
An employer may not impose a policy that prohibits an employee from choosing to receive a COVID-19 vaccination.

SECTION SEVEN: Vaccination mandates for Collier County employees.

Unless required by law, Collier County shall not impose any vaccination mandate for any Collier County employee without the unanimous vote by the Board.

SECTION EIGHT: Mask Mandates and Quarantine

Unless required by law, Collier County shall not impose a mask mandate, or issue a quarantine order, without the unanimous vote by the Board.

SECTION NINE: Vaccine Passports

Unless required by law, Collier County shall not require a Vaccine Passport as a condition of entry without the unanimous vote by the Board.

SECTION TEN: Directives from the World Health Organization and Other International Bodies

Unless compelled by Federal or State law, Collier County does not recognize any authority by the World Health Organization or any other international body to impose any health mandates or directives within Collier County.

SECTION ELEVEN: Florida Patient’s Bill of Rights and Responsibilities.

Collier County hereby adopts in its entirety the Florida Patient’s Bill of Rights and Responsibilities, as codified in Florida Stat. Sec. 381.026, as may be amended from time to time.

SECTION TWELVE: Penalties.

To the extent not inconsistent with Florida law, violations of this Ordinance shall be punishable as provided by law for the violation of county ordinances.

SECTION THIRTEEN: Conflict and Severability

In the event this Ordinance conflicts with State or Federal law, State or Federal law shall apply. If any phrase or portion of the Ordinance is held invalid or unconstitutional by any court of competent jurisdiction, such portion shall be deemed a separate, distinct and independent provision and such holding shall not affect the validity of the remaining portion.

It is the intent of this Ordinance to mirror State law. Accordingly, this Ordinance shall be automatically amended upon any amendment of Chapter 381, Florida Statutes, or any other relevant State law.

SECTION FOURTEEN: Inclusion in the Code of Laws and Ordinances

The provisions of this Ordinance shall become and be made part of the Code of Laws and Ordinances of Collier County, Florida. The sections of the Ordinance may be renumbered or

relettered to accomplish such, and the word “ordinance” may be changed to “section,” “article,” or any other appropriate word.

SECTION FIFTEEN: Effective Date

This Ordinance shall become effective upon filing with the Secretary of State.

PASSED AND DULY ADOPTED by the Board of County Commissioners of Collier County, Florida, this day of , 2023.

ATTEST: BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS

CRYSTAL K. KINZEL, CLERK COLLIER COUNTY, FLORIDA

By:

, Deputy Clerk Rick LoCastro, Chairman Approved as to form and legality:

Jeffrey A. Klatzkow, County Attorney

RESOLUTION NO. 2023 –

A RESOLUTION OF THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF COLLIER COUNTY, FLORIDA, TO ENACT THE COLLIER COUNTY HEALTH FREEDOM RESOLUTION.

WHEREAS, our federal and state health agencies have demonstrated a clear inability to be truthful, transparent and consistent in protecting the citizens of Collier County; and

WHEREAS, constitutional rights of Collier County citizens were violated through discrimination based on vaccine status; and

WHEREAS, immunity protection provided to hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, medical professionals coupled with medical mandates leave Collier County citizens subject to death and injury with little recourse; and

WHEREAS, many doctors of Collier County are no longer allowed to speak freely, treat patients with personalized care and have access to and treat with proven repurposed medications; and

WHEREAS, Pfizer’s clinical data revealed 1223 deaths, 42,000 adverse cases, 158,000 adverse incidents, and approximately 1,200 side effects and this data is being widely censored from the Citizens of Collier County; and

WHEREAS, global organizations such as the World Health Organization (“WHO”) and World Economic Forum (“WEF”) work to subvert the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Florida; and

WHEREAS, our United States and Florida State Constitution is no longer being upheld and as a result Collier County citizens are being harmed; and

WHEREAS, the FDA no longer requires pharmaceutical companies to conduct animal testing first before introducing a new drug to the public; and

WHEREAS, the 4th amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides Collier Citizens: “the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated”; and

WHEREAS, the 5th amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides Collier Citizens: “nor shall be deprived of life or liberty without due process of law”; and

WHEREAS, the 9th and 14th amendments to the U.S. Constitution provides Collier Citizens: “certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people”; and

WHEREAS, the 4th amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the Florida State Constitution, Art 1 sect 2, provides Collier Citizens with inalienable rights, among which are the right to enjoy and defend, life and liberty, to pursue happiness; and

WHEREAS, Article. 1 section 23 to the Florida State Constitution provides Collier Citizens: “The right to be let alone and free from government intrusion into the person’s private life”; and

WHEREAS, extraordinary times require extraordinary measures, and due to the failings of our federal, state, and local governments and healthcare institutions, which are directly causing harm, including death, to its citizens, the Collier County Board of County Commissioners hereby adopt this Resolution to be known as the “Collier County Health Freedom Resolution.”

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF COLLIER COUNTY, FLORIDA, that:

Right to No Medical Mandates: No State or Federal executive order can override the rights provided in our State and Federal Constitution. It is unlawful in any circumstance to mandate any medical protocol, experimental drug, medical procedure, medication, device, biological agent, toxin, radioactive exposure or medical treatment on any patient or citizen in Collier County.

Right to no discrimination: It is against the law to discriminate against any patient or citizen in Collier County based on their medical or healthcare decisions.

Informed consent without interference: The moment information is intentionally or unintentionally withheld violates informed consent. Doctors take an oath to first do no harm. Hospitals and doctors are prohibited from using coercion, fear tactics, various means of compensation to entice a patient into any medical treatment. Intentionally or unintentionally withholding informed consent subjects doctors and their hospitals, institutions and companies to criminal and civil prosecution, as provided by law.

Right of personalized care: Doctors and patients have the right to use any and all legally available therapies for treatment without reprisal or punishment. No legal, standard or alternative treatments should be denied by any third party.

Right to exclude third party interference: Human rights are given to us by God and these rights are protected by the U.S. and Florida State Constitution. The 9th amendment and the 10th amendment to the U.S. Constitution and Article 1 Section 1 of the Florida State Constitution protects these healthcare rights and as such, these rights cannot be restricted or infringed by United States and foreign bodies such as but not limited to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (the “CDC”), the National Institutes of Health (the “NIH”), United States Department of Health and Human Services (the “HHS”), National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (the “NIAID”) , the World Health Organization (the “WHO”), the World Economic Forum (“WEF”), corporations and the United Nations.

Right to not be refused care: No pharmaceutical or medical institution can mandate a person’s vaccine or health history status as a pre-condition to admittance, treatment or right to intervention/therapy.

Right to mental health review: With regard to mental health, no person in Collier County can be held for more than 72 hours without a judicial remedy in a court of law in front of a jury of your peers.

Right of free movement: Health/Vaccine Passports are prohibited in Collier County. Citizens cannot be denied entrance based on medical status. Travel cannot be restricted in Collier County based on Health/vaccine status.

Right to medical advocate: Citizens/patients have the right to a medical advocate of their choice. Hospitals must recognize power of attorney documents outlining the patient’s wishes. Citizens/patients have the right of advocate visitation, family visitation and personal doctor visitation if and when admitted into a hospital. If patient, their advocate, their healthcare proxy desire to leave the hospital against medical advice (AMA), the hospital must immediately release the patient.

Right to forego unlawful quarantine: It is unlawful to force quarantine on any Collier County Citizen without a judicial remedy in a court of law in front of a jury of your peers.

THIS RESOLUTION ADOPTED after motion, second, and majority vote favoring same, this day of , 2023.

ATTEST: BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS CRYSTAL K. KINZEL, CLERK COLLIER COUNTY, FLORIDA

By:

, Deputy Clerk Rick LoCastro, Chairman

Approved as to form and legality:

Jeffrey A. Klatzkow, County Attorney

_______________________________________________________

Liberty lives in light

Help defend democracy in Southwest Florida—donate here!

No state for young people: Florida after DeSantisication

*Watching the Florida legislature in session.*

March 22, 2023 by David Silverberg

The Florida being shaped by the proto-presidential campaign of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and a state legislature whose members are competing with each other every day to be more radical, more extreme, and more totalitarian is shaping up as no place for young people—meaning anyone under the age of 65.

Nor is it going to attract young families in the future. This is going to have serious long-term consequences.

Perhaps the new state motto should be: “Unless you’re gray, stay away.”

Why? Let us count the ways.

No state for women

Women of child-bearing age will not have legal access to abortion after six weeks of pregnancy under anti-abortion bills (House Bill (HB) 7 and Senate Bill (SB) 300) now making their ways through the legislature.

The prohibition looks likely to pass and be signed into law.

Currently, Florida prohibits abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. In the immediate wake of the Republicans’ resounding election in 2022, there was considerable agitation for a complete abortion ban. DeSantis, although ostensibly “pro-life,” never endorsed that more extreme option.

Asked about the abortion bills at a Feb. 1 press conference, he replied: “I urge the Legislature to work, produce good stuff, and we will sign.”

As the anti-abortion bills demonstrate, though, the legislature has been far less restrained.

Unmentioned in anti-abortion propaganda is that access to sanctioned, legal abortions is a safe option for all pregnancies in the event of medical complications. Removing that option is a blow against women of an age to be planning families.

No state for education

The governor and legislature are waging an all-out assault on public education, which is being equated with “woke” indoctrination. They are creating a state whose public schooling option is completely unattractive—even repulsive—to parents and families who seek to put school-age children in quality public schools.

Instead they are advancing expensive private schooling to as great an extent as possible. Even with tax vouchers being promoted by Florida House Speaker Rep. Paul Renner (R-19-Flagler County), private and charter schools are expensive and out of reach for many parents. HB 1 and SB 202 would provide all parents—regardless of income—tax vouchers worth an estimated $8,000 per student to go to non-public schools.

While the state estimated that the overall cost of the program would be $210 million in the first year, the Florida Policy Institute, a state-focused think tank, argued the real cost would be $4 billion.

“If the state does not increase revenue to cover the costs of students already in private education, then the reallocation of state aid to vouchers will leave school districts with significantly less revenue to fund their remaining public school students,” it argued in a paper on the program’s impact.

Sadaf Knight, the Institute’s head, put the consequences starkly: “Florida public schools cannot afford to have their budgets decimated after years of under-investment.”

In addition to the financial blows to public schools, legislators are attempting to control the content of public education in Florida. Bills HB 999 and SB 266 require schools to eliminate majors or minors in critical race theory and gender studies. They also prohibit schools from using diversity, equity or inclusion criteria in spending or hiring decisions.

Legislators are even trying to regulate speech among students. HB 1069 will prohibit “instruction in acquired immune deficiency syndrome, sexually transmitted diseases, or health education” before the sixth grade—and would even prohibit students younger than the sixth grade from discussing their menstrual periods.

To emphasize: this bill not only regulates curricula, it prohibits girls from discussing menstrual cycles in conversations among themselves.

These restrictions come on top of legislation already passed and signed into law. The 2022 Stop WOKE (Wrong to Our Kids and Employees) Act, places limits on the way race is taught, and the Parental Rights in Education Act, nicknamed the “Don’t say gay” law, prohibits discussion of sexuality in the earliest grades.

“Following woke indoctrination in our schools, that is a road to ruin for this country,” DeSantis said in a press conference last year. “And we’re not going to let it happen in Florida.” (Enforcement of The Stop WOKE Act has been stopped by court injunction based on arguments against its free speech infringements.)

The suspicion and hostility toward teachers among Florida legislators found expression last year when Rep. Bob Rommel (R-81-Naples and Collier County) argued that teachers were so dangerous to children that they should be monitored in the classroom by video at all times and introduced a bill to that effect. (The bill never went anywhere and died in the last session.)

Additionally, there is a proposal in the legislature to politicize school board races by making them partisan. In the past, education was considered above party politics and candidates were always unaffiliated. However, under House Joint Resolution 31 by Rep. Spencer Roach (R-79-Ft. Myers) and its companion Senate Joint Resolution 94, candidates would have to be party affiliated. A likely impact of this is that education will be politicized as well, so students would receive partisan, one-sided instruction, particularly in history.

On top of this are local book bans, where DeSantified school boards and MAGA activists attempt to banish discomforting ideas.

These measures are not going unnoticed in the rest of the country’s higher education institutions. As a result of them, administrators and admissions officers may view Florida’s secondary school graduates as inadequately educated and not ready for real universities. The graduates may face steep admission obstacles when they apply to college.

Of course, they can remain within the Florida university system, which will be shackled by political restrictions, ideological constraints and muzzled professors. That, in turn, raises the question whether graduates will be prepared for a diverse, competitive, technologically advanced world and whether a Florida education will be an employment asset outside the state.

As a result of all this political intrusion, Florida is emerging as a warped educational wasteland for primary school students and state university graduates—not an attractive prospect for young parents trying to raise school-age children.

No state for health

Florida’s surgeon general, Dr. Joseph Ladapo, continues to stubbornly defend his anti-COVID vaccination stance in the face of an overwhelming scientific consensus but in keeping with DeSantis’ political priorities.

Ladapo, who is up for Florida Senate confirmation this year, has urged men between the ages of 18 and 39 not to get vaccinated.

On March 10, Drs. Robert Califf, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, and Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, sent what amounted to a public cease-and-desist letter to Ladapo.

“The claim that the increase of VAERS [Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System] reports of life-threatening conditions reported from Florida and elsewhere represents an increase of risk caused by the COVID-19 vaccines is incorrect, misleading and could be harmful to the American public,” they wrote.

Ladapo fired back from Florida at a press conference called to mark the third year of the COVID pandemic. “The media, they work overtime to rewrite reality, to make people believe that what is happening isn’t actually happening. These vaccines have a terrible safety profile. At this point in the pandemic, I’m not sure anyone should be taking them, and that is the honest truth,” he said.

In keeping with his anti-vaxx efforts, in November 2021 DeSantis signed legislation prohibiting private employer mask mandates, or proofs of vaccination by private companies, government agencies, school districts and educational institutions, under penalty of fines.

In January, DeSantis called for legislation to make the bans permanent. In Lee County his initiative was endorsed by a resolution of the local Republican Party.

In DeSantis’ Florida public health practices are being built on wishful thinking and political convenience. People just starting families and parents and men in general between the ages of 18 and 39 must be aware than any efforts by institutions like schools or employers to protect the health and wellbeing of themselves or their children will be punished by the state.

No state for tolerance

DeSantis’ cultural crusade in Florida is ostensibly driven by his battle against a “woke mob,” evoking a counter-image of the MAGA mob that attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

However, what is really emerging in Florida is an intolerant, discriminatory regime that will not accept anything other than its legislated norms, which go beyond traditional, legally-sanctioned behavior.

When it comes to LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual and questioning) individuals the governor and legislature are clearly out to put as many restrictions as possible on them and their community.

HB 1423 would allow the state to fine or suspend the licenses of businesses that admit children to “adult live performances” depicting or simulating “nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement, specific sexual activities,” and more.

SB 1320 is an amendment to the Stop WOKE Act that forbids teachers from asking children their preferred pronouns and forbids teaching about sexual orientation or gender identity before the eighth grade.

SB 254 allows courts to stop gender-reassigning care for patients under 18 years of age.

HB 1421 restricts gender-reassigning therapies and surgeries and prohibits birth gender from being changed on a birth certificate.

No state for safety

Florida has suffered from repeated mass shootings. In June 2016 there was the massacre at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando when 50 people were killed, including the shooter. In February 2018, 17 students and teachers were killed and 17 injured at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.

That mass shooting gave rise to bipartisan efforts to control gun purchases, which passed in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Act.

Since then Florida politicians have been attempting to roll back those protections and make gun ownership easier and more ubiquitous. In the current legislative session SB 150 and HB 543 would allow permitless concealed carrying of weapons, or “constitutional carry” as its advocates prefer to call it.

DeSantis endorsed permitless carrying last year, saying in December: “Basically, this was something that I’ve always supported. The last two years, it was not necessarily a priority for the legislative leadership… and it’ll be something that will be done in the regular session. That puts us in line with the majority of states that have done that… so we’ll get that done.”

Permitless carrying has legislative support and the endorsement of the National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action, although it doesn’t go as far as open carrying—being allowed to openly display weapons in public—as some advocates prefer.

But regardless of the terms of any gun displays, any young parent will have to worry that in Florida they and their children will be in an environment saturated in guns, whether openly brandished or legally concealed.

No state for innovation

DeSantis’ war with the Disney Corp., is well known and has been extensively covered. When Disney management formally took issue with the Anti-WOKE Act, DeSantis retaliated by stripping Disney World in Orlando of its special tax and governance status and leading a public crusade against the corporation.

DeSantis and the current legislature are also pursuing a variety of measures against corporations that make efforts to adhere to responsible environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices.

“By applying arbitrary ESG financial metrics that serve no one except the companies that created them, elites are circumventing the ballot box to implement a radical ideological agenda,” DeSantis announced in January in an effort to “protect” companies and consumers from these practices.

Accordingly, on Feb. 23, Rep. Bob Rommel (R-81-Naples and Collier County) introduced HB 3 to prohibit ESG-based investing. Its Senate counterpart is SB 302.

Companies seeking to promote a culture of social and environmental responsibility in Florida will face penalties and state retaliation. Given that these are some of the most innovative, entrepreneurial and forward-thinking companies in the country, with predominantly young workforces, these restrictions and penalties will likely keep them from entering Florida, which is otherwise billing itself as a business-friendly state.

No state for immigrants

Florida was once one of the most welcoming states in the country for immigrants, whether seeking opportunity and prosperity or refugees fleeing oppression in Cuba, Haiti or elsewhere. Indeed, Florida has historically actively sought new residents to build its population and economy.

Florida’s openness made Miami in particular a cosmopolitan, internationally-oriented city and America’s gateway to South America.

Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant racism and rhetoric represented the backlash against traditional American openness and acceptance and it spread it throughout the state. He brought that prejudice with him when he retired to Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach. DeSantis apparently shares Trump’s hatred of immigrants and foreigners and made his own attitude explicit with his September 2022 stunt of deliberately flying 50 Venezuelan asylum-seekers from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts.

To continue the practice of migrant transport, this year SB 6-B appropriated $10 million to continue state-sponsored transportation of migrants, known as the Unauthorized Alien Transport Program. The bill was passed by the House and Senate and signed into law by DeSantis on Feb. 15.

To prevent unsanctioned transportation of undocumented migrants, the legislature is considering SB 1718 (and HB 1617), which makes it a criminal offense to “knowingly and willingly” transport them.

Immigrants and migrants, both documented and undocumented, were instrumental in building the Florida economy, agriculture and industry. Many of Florida’s newcomers, whatever their national origins, are young, vigorous and entrepreneurial. The current anti-immigrant legislative wave in the legislature—even if directed only against undocumented migrants and asylum-seekers—will serve to dry up that youthful wellspring of talent and energy.

Analysis: The new-old Florida

The bills discussed here are precisely that—bills, not laws. They are proposals amidst the avalanche of ideas that are offered in a legislative session. Few, in fact, will make it all the way to the governor’s desk and be signed into law.

Nonetheless, the state emerging from these proposals and ideas is one that is extremely reactionary, oppressive and sclerotic. It is hostile to new ideas, innovation, science, creativity and enterprise. If all the legislation is enacted it will result in an intellectual and entrepreneurial wasteland repulsive to anyone not of retirement age—and many seniors as well.

All this is the result of the governor and legislature playing to the biases of an aging, white, MAGA base and overlooking—indeed, seeking to repress—the qualities and values and people that once made Florida great.

Politically, in Florida there are currently no checks or balances on this course of governing and legislating. The supermajority Republican legislature is completely subservient to DeSantis—when its legislative politicians are not pursuing their own extreme agendas. Now, in the judicial branch, Florida Supreme Court Justice Ricky Polston announced his retirement on Monday, March 20, which will give DeSantis another justice to appoint, the fifth of the seven that sit on the court.

The DeSantis lock on power is so complete that one politician, Sen. Blaise Ingoglia (R-11-Citrus, Hernando and Sumter counties) is seeking to effectively outlaw the Democratic Party (SB 1248) and make Florida a one-party state along the lines of North Korea.

None of this bodes well for young people considering migrating to, launching careers in or starting families in Florida. In addition to the factors above there they also face the extremely high price of insurance and the lack of decent housing in the low-to-middle “affordable” starting range that favors young families. Less-than-affluent families cannot expect to put their children in a public school system that will give them an effective, modern education all the way up to college. And every Floridian is at physical risk from a delusional public health establishment and a surfeit of guns in the hands of all kinds of people in all kinds of mental states.

Culturally, DeSantis’ Florida is proving hostile to any norms and mores that have evolved since 1900—indeed, since the discovery of vaccines—lumping them together as “woke.” And, as DeSantis accurately said, he is making his state the place “where woke goes to die.” He is waging a cultural war whose victory will leave Florida boundless and bare, where the lone and level sands stretch far away.

This is the model that DeSantis hopes to ride to the presidency in 2024. Fortunately, while it may play well with an elderly MAGA core in The Villages, it is not likely to be the kind of regime the rest of the country will accept in 2024. And it is certainly out of touch with everyone from millennials to Generation Y, to Generation Z.

There is a comfort, however: old generations die off and imposition of the most extreme biases of Florida’s MAGA baby boomers cannot last. After all, as DeSantis himself has said, “Florida is God’s waiting room.”

But waiting for that to happen will take 40 years of wandering in a sun-scorched, dystopian, DeSantian desert—unless Floridians decide to make a change themselves and do it sooner rather than later.

Liberty lives in light

Help defend democracy in Southwest Florida—donate here!

Donalds, Steube re-pledge allegiance to Trump; Diaz Balart mum on arrest possibility

*Byron Donalds embraces President Donald Trump at a 2019 awards ceremony in South Carolina. (Image: Donalds campaign)*

March 20, 2023 by David Silverberg

Southwest Florida congressional Reps. Byron Donalds (R-19-Fla.) and Greg Steube (R-17-Fla.) rushed to support former President Donald Trump following his unverified claim that he might be arrested tomorrow, Tuesday, March 21.

As of this writing, Rep. Mario Diaz Balart (R-26-Fla.) had not weighed in on the possible arrest.

Trump alleged that he was going to be arrested in a posting on his Truth Social network on Saturday, March 18. “THE FAR & AWAY LEADING REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE & FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK,” he wrote in all capital letters. “PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!”

Trump is under investigation in a wide variety of venues for numerous possible crimes and infractions. While in office he was impeached twice for misconduct, including inciting a riot on Jan. 6, 2021 aimed at overturning the election, overthrowing the US government and attacking his vice president.

Donalds, who also has an arrest record and who voted to overturn the 2020 election, built his congressional career on loyalty to Trump. He issued a lengthy statement on Sunday, March 19, denouncing the possible arrest.

“Unfortunately, our nation is increasingly mirroring the practices of authoritarian regimes and blatantly neglecting the Rule of Law established in our Constitution and the liberties long enshrined in the bedrock of our Republic,” he said in his statement. “Following recent reports of the imminent arrest of former President Donald J. Trump, it is clear that there is no light between the beacon of freedom in the world and the most oppressive regimes in history.”

Steube, who has been sidelined from Congress since his home accident on Jan. 18, issued a tweet on March 18: “Once again, the Left is weaponizing the government for their own political motivations,” he wrote. “They never learn. The American people will rally behind President Trump. We see right through it.”

To date there has been no verification of Trump’s impending arrest claims from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose office has been investigating whether Trump’s 2016 payment of $130,000 to porn star Stormy Daniels violated campaign finance laws.

In an e-mail sent to staffers and obtained by a number of media outlets, Bragg told staff that ““we do not tolerate attempts to intimidate our office or threaten the rule of law in New York.”

He continued: “Our law enforcement partners will ensure that any specific or credible threats against the office will be fully investigated and that the proper safeguards are in place so all 1,600 of us have a secure work environment.” He stated that the office was coordinating with the New York Police Department and Office of Court Administration to maintain security and added that “as with all of our investigations, we will continue to apply the law evenly and fairly, and speak publicly only when appropriate.”

Liberty lives in light

Help defend democracy in Southwest Florida—donate here!

Reps. Donalds and Diaz Balart vote to allow pollution of SWFL waters

*Fish killed by red tide on the beach in Naples, Fla., on March 6, 2023. (Image: NBC2 News)*

March 14, 2023 by David Silverberg

Last Thursday, March 9, Southwest Florida congressional representatives voted to roll back protections and allow increased pollution, which would have a direct impact on the region’s waters.

The vote was on House Joint Resolution (HJRes) 27, which passed by a vote of 227 to 198, largely along party lines.

The resolution changed the definition of the Waters of the United States (WOTUS) to potentially allow greater water pollution. It seeks to return to the status of regulation under former President Donald Trump.

Protecting the purity of water is a priority for Southwest Florida, which is currently suffering a major red tide bloom.

Both Reps. Byron Donalds (R-19-Fla.) and Mario Diaz-Balart (R-26-Fla.) voted for the resolution. Rep. Greg Steube (R-17-Fla.) did not vote, still absent due to an accident he suffered on Jan. 18. One Republican, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-1-Pa.) voted against the resolution. Nine Democrats voted for it.

Neither Donalds nor Diaz Balart issued statements explaining their votes. Donalds did not mention his vote in his weekly newsletter to constituents.

The House action is unlikely to take effect given Democratic dominance in the Senate and a pledge by President Joe Biden to veto the Republican House measure if it reaches his desk.

The water issue

The Clean Water Act of 1972 regulates US waters to prevent pollution, giving primary enforcement responsibility to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

In 2015, WOTUS was put in place under President Barack Obama to protect a variety of streams, rivers and wetlands that serve as sources for larger bodies of water, in an effort to reduce pollution. In particular, the rule covered water sources that run intermittently or underground. The rule particularly affected Southwest Florida whose streams and wetlands impact much larger bodies of water like the Caloosahatchee River and the Everglades.

In January 2020, President Donald Trump rolled back WOTUS with his own administration’s “Navigable Waters Protection Rule,” which eliminated many of the previous protections. Developers and industries were no longer required to get permits under the Clean Water Act before dumping waste and pollutants like pesticides and fertilizers into water sources like creeks and streams. Essentially, the Trump administration held that if a body of water wasn’t “navigable” anti-pollution measures wouldn’t apply.

“I terminated one of the most ridiculous regulations of all: the last administration’s disastrous Waters of the United States rule,” Trump boasted when he ended the protections. “That was a rule that basically took your property away from you.”

“This is a horrible setback for wetland protection in the USA,” wrote Bill Mitsch, a globally recognized wetlands expert and eminent scholar and director of the Everglades Wetland Research Park at Florida Gulf Coast University at the time. (Mitsch has since retired.)

“I have followed this tug of war for all these years between those who appreciate the many ecosystem services that wetlands provide, including cleaning our waters, sequestering and permanently storing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and providing the best habitat for hundreds of threatened and endangered species, and the industrial-scale agricultural, energy, and real estate giants” Mitsch wrote. “It has always been a David vs. Goliath [battle].”

In June 2021, President Joe Biden’s administration restored the previous anti-pollution restrictions of WOTUS. Both the EPA and the US Army Corps of Engineers made the announcement.

“It’s a good move,” Mitsch told The Paradise Progressive in an interview when the rule was reapplied. “I’m happy because it’s the right direction.”

Mitsch continued: “I’m delighted both agencies have stepped forward. This, in my view, is a good turn for Southwest Florida and especially the Everglades.”

With its vote last Thursday, the Republican-dominated US House voted to remove the Obama-Biden protections and allow Trump-era pollution.

Although the measure is unlikely to take effect, Southwest Florida’s waterways and wetlands remain under threat since the state took over the permitting process from the federal government in one of the Trump administration’s last acts.

“I’m very much afraid of Florida taking wetland management away from the feds. What the feds are doing is great but I’ve seen it before,” Mitsch said at the time. “There’s no question why [the state] wanted to take over water regulation; it was for development.”

Liberty lives in light

Help defend democracy in Southwest Florida—donate here!

Calling all bloggers: Time to stop a Florida assault on free speech

Florida Sen. Jason Brodeur’s bill would require bloggers to register with the state

*State Sen. Jason Brodeur explains his blogging registration bill. (Image: Twitter)*

March 8, 2023 by David Silverberg

Updated, Sunday March 12 with new contact information for Sen. Jason Brodeur.

A Florida bill requiring bloggers to register with the state if they cover or comment on the governor, Cabinet officers or state legislators is sparking alarm and outrage.

It needs to be stopped and bloggers in Florida and around the world should immediately raise their voices against it.

The bill was introduced by state Sen. Jason Brodeur (R-10-Seminole and Orange counties).

Titled “An Act Relating to Information Dissemination” (Senate Bill (SB) 1316), the bill was filed on Feb. 28 in advance of the state legislature’s general session. It was referred to three committees for consideration: the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Appropriations Committee on Criminal and Civil Justice, and the Committee on Fiscal Policy.

The Florida legislature convened yesterday, March 7, for a 60-day session during which the bill may be considered.

(Editor’s Note: The Paradise Progressive and this author have a clear and obvious interest in this bill and its consideration. Nonetheless, that interest does not preclude factual coverage, analysis or commentary of the bill, its sponsor or its progress. The Paradise Progressive, which is supported by its author and reader donations, will continue to provide coverage, analysis and commentary on politics, especially related to the governance, representation and elections of Southwest Florida and the state as a whole as long as the United States Constitution and its Bill of Rights continue in force in Florida and the United States generally.)

The bill

The bill has two parts. (The full bill as introduced is available for download at the conclusion of this article.)

The first part has nothing to do with blogging. It amends an existing law for court sales of property (“judicial sales”), usually to pay debts in bankruptcy cases, so that the sale is posted on the Web for a specified time period. The second non-blogging clause establishes conditions and procedures for government publication of legally required notices.

It is in its third, entirely new, section that it tackles blogging.

As with all legislation, it first defines its terms.

A “blog” “means a website or webpage that hosts any blogger and is frequently updated with opinion, commentary, or business content. The term does not include the website of a newspaper or other similar publication.” A “blogger” is anyone submitting “a blog post to a blog.” A “blog post” is defined as “an individual webpage on a blog which contains an article, a story, or a series of stories.”

(Just for historical context, the word “blog” is a contraction of “Web log” that took hold in the early 1990s as the Internet gained popularity.)

It defines “Elected state officer” as the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Cabinet officer, or any member of the Legislature.

The key provision of the bill is in its second section: “If a blogger posts to a blog about an elected state officer and receives, or will receive, compensation for that post, the blogger must register with the appropriate office, as identified in paragraph (1)(f), within 5 days after the first post by the blogger which mentions an elected state officer.”

The two offices mentioned in the paragraph are the Office of Legislative Services and the Commission on Ethics. If a blogger mentions a member of the legislature, the blogger reports to the first office; if the blogger mentions an executive branch official the report is to the second.

Under the legislation, once registered, the blogger must file a monthly report within 10 days of the end of the month, with exceptions for weekends and holidays.

The reports have to include the person or entity that paid for the blog post and how much the blogger was paid (rounded to the nearest $10) as well as the website and website address where it was posted.

If the reports are not filed on time the blogger is subject to a fine of $25 per day that has to be paid within 30 days of being assessed. If the blog post was about a member of the legislature, the money goes into the Legislative Lobbyist Registration Trust Fund; if about an executive branch official, the Executive Branch Lobby Registration Trust Fund. If about both, then the payment goes to both. Bloggers can get a one-time waiver of the first fine but must report within 30 days of the first infraction.

Bloggers can appeal their fines and the bill sets out the procedures for such appeals through the courts. However, if the blogger doesn’t pay a fine within 100 days, he or she is subject to court action.

This law takes effect upon passage.

Brodeur’s defense

“Do you want to know the truth about the so-called ‘blogger’ bill?” a defensive-sounding Brodeur wrote in a March 5 tweet. “It brings the current pay-to-play scheme to light and gives voters clarity as to who is influencing their elected officials, JUST LIKE how we treat lobbyists. It’s an electioneering issue, not a free speech issue.”

He elaborated in a 1-minute, 48-second video interview with the Florida’s Conservative Voice blog posted to Twitter.

The clip posted by Brodeur started in response to a question. It bears quoting in full.

“The biggest thing that you pointed out is, it is for—only for—bloggers who are paid, compensated to influence or advocate on state elections. And this is really to get an electioneering thing and perhaps, I’m even open to it, even in the wrong place in the statute, because what we have out there today is a system by which someone can pay someone to write a story, publish it online and then use that in a mail piece as a site source when they’re making claims about an opponent. So what we want, is we want voters to be able to know—you can still do it, that is a mechanism by which candidates advertise. You can still do it, we just believe that voters have a right to know when somebody is being paid to advocate, like lobbyists. And so, if you believe, that we should have a state registry of lobbyists, so everybody knows who is trying to influence who, what is the difference between a paid blogger who writes about state government or a paid lobbyist who advocates for state government? One talks and one writes. And so my position on it would really be: ‘So look, listen, we’ll just get rid of the lobbying registration, then?’ Either way, I want to be consistent because if you’re being paid to advocate a position the public should be able to know who’s being paid and make a decision for themselves. So that’s all we’re trying to clean up, is really an electioneering issue.

“Now, what I think the media is getting wrong about it is—you know, I’ve gotten phone calls all day long about it, from Seattle to New York, literally—where people are going: ‘I hate you and you’re trying to ruin free speech, this is how Germany got everything wrong’—no, no, no, this is not a free speech issue, it’s a transparency issue and electioneering. It’s—so all I’m trying to do is say, ‘Treat paid bloggers just like you treat lobbyists.’ That’s it.”

Brodeur may be particularly sensitive to hostile blogging and media coverage and especially hidden funding because his initial, razor-thin 2020 election was clouded by the presence of a “ghost candidate,” a non-party-affiliated candidate whose campaign was secretly funded by the Republican Party in an effort to siphon votes from the Democrat.

As detailed in the Nov. 4, 2022 article “Ghost of 2020 hangs over Jason Brodeur, Joy Goff-Marcil contest in SD 10,” by Jacob Ogles on the website Florida Politics, the ghost candidate, Jestine Iannotti, sent misleading mailers to voters bearing a stock photo of a black woman and succeeded in gaining 5,787 votes.

That was enough for Brodeur to win a squeaker of a victory over his opponent, Democrat Patricia Sigman, by a hairsbreadth 7,644 votes.

As Ogles wrote: “This year, prosecutors brought charges against Iannotti, consultant Eric Foglesong and Seminole County Republican Party Chair Ben Paris, who notably works for Brodeur at his day job running the Seminole Chamber of Commerce.

“Paris was found guilty of a misdemeanor charge in September, and both Iannotti and former Seminole County Tax Collector Joel Greenberg both told investigators Brodeur knew about or was expected to support her candidacy. Brodeur has denied any knowledge of the scheme,” the article stated.

So apparently, when Brodeur discusses pay-to-play schemes and hidden funding, he knows whereof he speaks.

Reception and denunciation

The instant Brodeur’s bill came to light it attracted national media attention—and denunciation.

One of the first and most prominent people to react was former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who is currently a retired resident of Naples, Fla.

“The idea that bloggers criticizing a politician should register with the government is insane,” Gingrich tweeted on Sunday, March 5. “It is an embarrassment that it is a Republican state legislator in Florida who introduced a bill to that effect. He should withdraw it immediately.”

Brodeur’s bill didn’t get any love from the governor it might ostensibly protect, either.

Asked about the bill in a press conference following his State of the State address yesterday, March 7, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) distanced himself from the proposal.

“That’s not anything that I’ve ever supported. I don’t support it, I’ve been very clear about what we are doing,” DeSantis said.

He noted that “every person in the legislature can file bills” and “the Florida legislature, 120 of them in the House and however many, the 40 in the Senate, they have independent agency to be able to do things,” he said. “Like, I don’t control every single bill that has been filed or amendment, so just as we go through this session, please understand that.”

Uncounted and likely uncountable were the denunciations of the bill in online comments, tweets, postings and phone calls “from Seattle to New York” as Brodeur himself put it.

The National Review magazine, the venerable voice of conservative political reasoning, weighed in with a stinging headline that needed no elaboration: “Senator Jason Brodeur Is a Moron, but He’s a Solo Moron.”

“The bill is an unconstitutional, moronic disgrace, and the guy who wrote it, Senator Jason Brodeur of Seminole County, is an embarrassment to the GOP,” wrote Charles Cooke on March 2.

Other than Brodeur himself, defense of the bill was hard to come by, either online or as covered in the media.

Commentary: Putin would be proud

There are so many arguments to be made against SB 1316 that it’s hard to know where to begin.

SB 1316 is a clear and obvious attempt to suppress free speech in the state of Florida. It doesn’t just violate the First Amendment, it violates both its free speech and free press clauses.

In fact, Brodeur’s bill most closely resembles Russia’s “blogger’s law,” passed in 2014 and signed into law by President Vladimir Putin. That law requires any blogger with 3,000 or more followers to register with Roskomnadzor, Russia’s media oversight agency.

In American history it also harks back to the Sedition Act of 1798, which made it a crime for American citizens to “print, utter, or publish…any false, scandalous, and malicious writing” about the government. That law, along with Alien Acts aimed against immigrants, was largely directed against the new Democratic-Republican Party and Democratic-Republican newspapers were prosecuted under it. When Thomas Jefferson won the election of 1800 the acts were repealed or allowed to lapse and those prosecuted were pardoned. The whole period is considered a dark stain in American history and is often overlooked (and no doubt will never be taught in Florida schools).

SB 1316 walks in these notorious footsteps. Not only would it have a chilling effect on free speech, if it were to pass it would immediately be challenged in court where even a legal layman can see that it would lose.

But aside from railing against the bill itself, let’s take Brodeur at his own words that “It’s an electioneering issue, not a free speech issue.”

What Brodeur clearly doesn’t understand is that in a democracy every citizen has a right to electioneer and influence government, whether in person, in print or online. Brodeur apparently doesn’t see it this way. He thinks that advocacy occurs only among a paid lobbying class and that citizens expressing their opinions online are part of that class and need to be registered and regulated, regardless of the source of their funding.

He also doesn’t seem to understand the broader implications of his bill. At its most basic level it would give the state government a mechanism to suppress blogs—and all opinions—it didn’t like. This would apply to blogs and bloggers whether liberal or conservative, Democratic or Republican.

It would be nearly impossible to police and enforcement would be intrusive, unconstitutional and expensive. Even if intended only for paid bloggers, the bill’s restrictions would ineluctably affect all blogs on all topics. It would affect blogs used for commercial, non-profit or simply informative purposes, stuntng legitimate commerce and obstructing myriad blog-based enterprises.

Brodeur seems not to understand that he introduced his bill at a moment when people fear that civil liberties and democracy in his state are under unprecedented assault. In Florida a Republican super-majority state house has begun a session in which each legislator is scrambling to prove him or herself more ideologically extreme than the competition. A former president who incited an anti-government insurrection is fighting for a comeback. The governor, effectively running for president on an extreme right platform, is at war with the national media and explicitly wants to overturn the landmark 1964 New York Times versus Sullivan case. Bills are being introduced to make defamation suits against the media easier and the state is emerging as a laboratory for repression, reaction and regression.

Into this state house full of flammable fumes Brodeur casually tossed the match of SB 1316. Did he or any other carbon-based life form imagine that there wouldn’t be an explosion of fear, outrage and alarm? Apparently not.

Beyond its political implications, SB 1316 reveals Brodeur as a singularly inept politician, someone unable to think through the full consequences of a proposal on a policy, political or constitutional level. He clearly thought through the procedural and punitive aspects of his legislation but beyond that narrow vista he had no perspective. Moreover, he appears to lack an understanding of democracy, freedom and advocacy—as well as a simple ability to read the room.

He shouldn’t be surprised that people are calling “from Seattle to New York” to oppose his bill.

Editorial: To the keyboards, bloggers!

It’s worth pointing out that this isn’t just an obscure proposal in what appears to be the increasingly insane state of Florida. If passed, it would set up a government mechanism to suppress online independent thought and the expression of opinion, which could then be applied nationally, especially if DeSantis wins the presidency in 2024. That, in turn could become a global template for Internet censorship and repression.

If Brodeur doesn’t have the good sense to withdraw his bill, it should be defeated. Every blogger who loves freedom can play a role—not just in Florida but everywhere from Singapore to San Francisco, Seattle to Saint Petersburg.

At the very least, people should make their opinions known to the key Florida legislators on the referred committees who have received this bill.

This is one case when the flap of a butterfly’s wings really could bring on a hurricane.

Sen. Jason Brodeur himself can be reached by e-mail through his offcial website, https://flsenate.gov/senators/s10 and clicking the e-mail button in the left column. He can also be reached by phone at his Tallahassee office at (850) 487-5010, at his district office at (407) 333-1802 and at his campaign office by phone or text at 1-407-752-0258.

Other senators can be reached by going to the Florida websites and clicking on the “Email this senator” button in the left-hand column:

Senate Judiciary Committee

Chair: Sen. Clay Yarborough (R)
Democratic member: Sen. Lauren Book (D)

Appropriations Committee on Criminal and Civil Justice

Chair: Sen. Jennifer Bradley (R)
Vice Chair: Sen. Bobby Powell (D)

Committee on Fiscal Policy

Chair: Sen. Travis Hutson (R)
Vice Chair: Sen. Linda Stewart (D)

A 9-page PDF of the submitted bill can be downloaded here.

Liberty lives in light

From education to enrichment: Sweetheart deals, feeding frenzies and Florida’s war on learning

March 4, 2023 by David Silverberg

A disturbing pattern of cronyism and sweetheart dealing appears to be emerging from the war on education by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement in Florida.

While much of the public and media attention has been focused on issues of academic freedom and the DeSantis-MAGA anti-woke, anti-public education crusade, when it comes to practically implementing this agenda at the operational level, instances of lucrative deals for politically-connected, ideological loyalists of questionable qualifications seem to indicate a trend.

What is more, the trend is not confined to any single level of education. DeSantis is clearly attempting to bring the state’s higher education establishment to heel. In last year’s elections he also sought to dominate elementary and secondary education at the county level through school board endorsements.

The results on the ground have been questionable candidate searches, exorbitant salary bumps and an opportunistic feeding frenzy. Where at one time academia was seen as an ivory tower, in Florida it is becoming a feeding trough.

Three instances illustrate this trend and its consequences. One is at the premier state university level and the appointment of Ben Sasse at the University of Florida. Another is at the state college level, the ouster of the existing president and subsequent appointment of Richard Corcoran as president of New College. A third is at the county school board level and the appointment of James Molenaar as attorney for the Collier County Board of Education.

Ben Sasse and the University of Florida

*Then-Sen. Ben Sasse speaking at the Conservative Political Action Committee in 2015. (Photo: Gage Skidmore, Wikimedia Commons)*

Last November trustees voted to appoint Ben Sasse, former conservative Republican senator from Nebraska, as president of the University of Florida in Gainesville.

Sasse was the only announced finalist, although there were reportedly a dozen others. Trustees defended keeping the other candidates secret in compliance with a newly-passed state law allowing such concealment.

“The bottom line is if we had run a process that required more than one finalist to be publicly disclosed, none of the top 12 people we interviewed would have stayed,” trustee Chair Mori Hosseini told the publication Politico. “It’s that simple.”

Because of the secrecy there was no way to confirm that a dozen finalists had in fact been considered. University faculty held a vote of no confidence in the trustees’ personnel search.

According to Forbes magazine, Sasse’s 5-year contract provides a base salary of $1 million per year with annual 4 percent increases if he meets certain performance goals. He will receive an additional retention bonus of $200,000 per year if he stays the entire length of the contract. He will also receive annual 15 percent “performance bonuses,” contingent on meeting particular goals, including adoption of a strategic plan with short-term and long-term objectives.

Executive benefits include payment of moving expenses, a 15 percent retirement benefit paid by the university, tuition remission for any of his immediate family members who might enroll at the University of Florida, and health, life and disability insurance paid by the university. In addition, “reasonable business, travel and entertainment expenses (including professional dues and meetings) incurred in his capacity as President of the University shall be reimbursed.”

The contract requires Sasse to live in the Dasburg President’s House on the campus. The University pays “the cost of hazard and liability insurance, utilities (including internet service), housekeeping, home office facilities, equipment and services, landscaping, maintenance, and grounds-keeping, security, repair and maintenance of The Dasburg President’s House facility.”

The contract can be extended by mutual agreement and after its expiration Sasse will be eligible to work as a full time faculty member at the university.

Sasse at least presented a variety of qualifications for the position: in addition to having served as senator he had a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and a doctorate from Yale. He previously presided over Midland University, a private Lutheran university in Fremont, Neb., that was home to about 1,600 students—in contrast to the University of Florida with 60,000 students.

Students, faculty and alumni protested the appointment when it was made and then demonstrated in person on the day it was implemented. On Feb. 6, the day he arrived on campus to take office, they presented a variety of demands that included protection of academic freedom, retention of tenure and support for inclusivity, equity and diversity.

*Students and faculty protest the appointment of Ben Sasse as president of the University of Florida on Feb. 6, his first day as president. (Photo: Xinyue Li/WUFT News)*

Richard Corcoran and New College

New College is a small, state-run liberal arts college of about 698 students and about 90 faculty, located in Sarasota.

In early January DeSantis appointed six new members to its 13-member board of trustees with a seventh new member appointed by the Florida Board of Governors. Most of the new appointees came from ideologically conservative or religious academic backgrounds.

On Jan. 31 at an online Zoom meeting, the board fired the existing president, Patricia Okker, and appointed Richard Corcoran as interim president.

Corcoran, a Republican, is a former Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives and represented the state’s 37th House District, covering Pasco County. He served as state Commissioner of Education from 2019 until last year.

*Then-state Rep. Richard Corcoran addresses the Florida House in 2011. (Photo: Meredith Geddings, Wikimedia Commons)*

Earlier in his career he also served in a variety of staff positions including as an aide to Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.). In that position his spending of Republican Party money drew criticism, including $400,000 on charter plane flights, $29,000 at the Capital Grille restaurant in Tampa and $1,000 for cufflinks.

In one memorable instance he dropped $8,000 on a single meal at a restaurant known as The French Laundry in Napa Valley, California.

Corcoran’s tenure as Commissioner of Education was not free of taint. Last January the Department of Education under Corcoran came under scrutiny from its own Inspector General when it apparently deliberately steered a $2.5 million consulting contract to a company linked to Corcoran. The bidding was open for only a week and only MTG Consulting, the company run by a Corcoran colleague, was pre-approved to bid on it. However, when two of Corcoran’s deputies and a member of the state Board of Education filed a competing bid, the contracting process came under investigation for a conflict of interest, the aides resigned and MTG was denied the contract.

The contract was to help Jefferson County get its schools in order and would have been paid for with federal COVID relief funds.

“I’m just going to be honest with you. It’s money,” Bill Brumfield, a Jefferson County School Board member told the Tampa Bay Times. “It’s money and it’s politics, and they are just trying to kick Jefferson County around again like a bunch of little country bumpkins sitting over there and knowing nothing.” Corcoran defended the contract and said his department had followed the letter and spirit of the law.

The DeSantis administration chose not to take further action on the matter after the aides resigned. The Inspector General did not rule on whether the bids were illegal or were conflicts of interest.

Corcoran’s own academic credentials consist of his dropping out of the University of Florida but receiving his bachelor’s degree from St. Leo University, a small, private Catholic university in St. Leo, Fla., and his Juris Doctor law degree from Regent University, a small, Christian school in Virginia Beach, Va.

The trustees’ firing of Okker, who has a doctorate and spent her career in academia, and hiring of Corcoran was done by a vote of 11 to 1 in a single, swift action before any other attendees at the meeting had a chance to speak or comment.

Under Corcoran’s contract he receives an annual salary of $699,000, which is $394,000 more than Okker’s $305,000. He also receives an $84,000 housing allowance, the top range of such allowances for people in the position in Florida.

James Molenaar and the Collier County Board of Education

*James Molenaar addresses the Collier County School Board on Feb. 13, 2023. (Image: CCPS)*

In Collier County, Florida, a MAGA-dominated School Board’s search for its own attorney resulted in a grab for a lucrative contract by a favored candidate and allegations of Sunshine law violations, improper communications, cronyism and misuse of documents.

On Election Day, Nov. 8, 2022, three MAGA candidates won election to the Collier County Board of Education, constituting a majority of the five-member board.

The new chair, Kelly Lichter, had served on the board from 2014 to 2018 during which she clashed with the school district’s sitting attorney, Jonathan Fishbane. She suggested that the School Board needed its own attorney, separate from the school district.

Accordingly, on Dec. 7, just before the Christmas and New Year holidays, the Board approved the idea, set out the duties, responsibilities and qualifications and advertised the position for only one week. It also established a salary of $180,000 per year for the position.

Four applicants responded: Cassius Borel, Michael Fasano, Kevin Pendley and James Molenaar. Pendley, with 32 years as a practicing lawyer, had the most school-related experience and was serving as the Volusia County School Board attorney.

Molenaar, with 27 years of experience, had served as senior legal counsel for the Collier County Clerk of Courts and Comptroller until 2020. That election year he filed papers to run against his boss, Crystal Kinzel, clerk of the courts. He was fired the day after filing and subsequent court cases revealed an illicit sexual relationship with a colleague. Ultimately, he lost the election despite being endorsed by conservative political activist and grocer Alfie Oakes.

During the Board’s search phase, Molenaar e-mailed three of the Board members, offering to meet privately, which Board member Erick Carter (District 4) thought might be a violation of a “cone of silence” period.

Molenaar submitted his own proposed contract to Lichter on Dec. 7, the day the School Board agreed to the idea of hiring its own attorney.

Instead of the $180,000 annual salary proposed by the Board, Molenaar proposed $195,000. He also proposed “a performance-based merit system through which the Employee [Molenaar] shall be eligible for a merit adjustment upon successful completion of measurable goals and objectives to be completed” of up to 10 percent of his base salary.

He would get a $650 per month ($7,800 per year) car allowance “to cover gas, mileage, and maintenance.”

In order to work at home, he would be provided “at the Board’s sole expense, at his choosing a laptop computer and a device(s) for scanning, copying, printing and faxing for use at his residence.” In addition, he would get $225 per month ($2,700 per year) for other technology materials including internet connections as he shall consider necessary to carry out his work as Employee.”

He would also get a cell phone “of the make and model of his choosing” and the service to support it.

The Board would agree to pay his professional dues and subscriptions, his business travel and car rentals outside the county, “travel associated with attending conferences, conventions, meeting[s]” and continuing education and “transportation fares, meals, mileage, lodging, taxi, or ride share fares, parking fees, and communication expenses.”

In order to join community and civic associations he would get an additional stipend of $1,500 per year.

With the additions—not including bonuses and benefits—Molenaar’s proposal came to $212,100 per year.

The night before the Jan. 23 meeting to decide on the attorney, Kelly Lichter’s husband, Nick, sent an e-mail to Board members:

“I am unable to make tomorrow’s meeting, and I can’t make a public comment related to this issue, so here you go. I have been watching the ‘fake news’ hysteria surrounding my wife and Jim Molenar [as spelled], a candidate for the attorney position. This is right from the left’s playbook. They falsely accuse people of doing the very things they themselves are guilty of doing. What is even more incredible, is the fact that the leftists are all pushing Kevin Pendley. Kevin Pendley has deep ties to local attorney Grant Fridkin, a local attorney who maxed out contributions to Jen Mitchell’s campaign in the most recent election. In looking into Kevin Pendley’s own campaign contributions, he has given money to Byron Donalds, the same person that tried to ‘crush’ my wife in this school board race.

“If you want the fox guarding the hen house, then hire Kevin Pendley. He may look good on paper, but he would be a disaster as your board attorney,” Lichter wrote.

(Jen Mitchell was the incumbent school board chairperson defeated by Kelly Lichter. Byron Donalds is Rep. Byron Donalds (R-19-Fla.), whose wife Erika has clashed with Lichter in person and in court.)

At the Jan. 23 meeting three candidates were interviewed, Fasano having dropped out. Each was asked the same 10 questions with no follow-ups or other questions allowed.

At the meeting School District attorney Fishbane stated that “There have been a lot of comments concerning the process that forms the foundation of this meeting.” This included questions concerning “Sunshine Law violations, back door communications, wrongful favoring of a particular candidate [i.e., Molenaar], and wrongful usage of documents.” However, said Fishbane, his review had revealed no improprieties.

About 20 members of the public spoke at the meeting, most favoring Pendley.

The Board then ranked the candidates and ultimately voted 3 to 2 to hire Molenaar.

With these proposals becoming public and opposition building to his appointment, on Feb. 2 Molenaar withdrew his application to be School Board attorney—sort of. He did it in an e-mail to Andrew Brown, the school district’s senior director of human resources and it became public on Feb. 6.

But then, on Feb. 10 he complained that the human resources director had rescinded his application without affording him due process. He accused Valerie Wenrich, the assistant superintendent of human resources, of abusing her authority, saying she had “wrongfully relied on the outcry made from a few vocal minority who do not support the agenda of the new majority school board members and our governor” in canceling his application.

On Feb. 13, in an address during the public comments portion of a School Board meeting he said he was waiting for the District to process his paperwork so he could begin work as the attorney the Board had voted to approve.

At this point it is unclear whether Molenaar is in or out, whether his hiring is being processed or a new search is about to begin. Some clarity may be shed at the next School Board meeting, scheduled for Tuesday, March 7.

(For excellent, detailed coverage of the Collier County School Board attorney controversy, from which most of this account is drawn, see Sparker’s Soapbox, an insightful local blog and its stories, “Collier School Board Attorney Search,” Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3. To see ongoing coverage and commentary on the county School Board in general, see Jen Mitchell’s Collier School Board Resource page on Facebook.)

Analysis: From education to enrichment

To date, in practical terms, the DeSantis-MAGA war on education in Florida and independent thought appears to have been expressed in hiring ideological loyalists.

However, this is likely only the beginning. The next phase is likely to be expressed in contracting.

The Florida educational establishment, at all levels, is a source of millions of dollars in purchased goods and services, ranging in everything from food, to textbooks, to operations, to maintenance to construction.

If the current apparent pattern of favoritism and financial reward holds, the next phase of the educational anti-woke war may be manifested in unbalanced contracting as education-related purchases go to favored, ideologically loyal contractors, vendors, friends and allies.

It is beyond the capacity of The Paradise Progressive to monitor every college and university or the state’s 67 counties.

But what can honest Floridians do in a non-election year? Concerned citizens, alert journalists and all Florida taxpayers should watch district schools and state universities for improper hiring and contracting and raise their voices against it when they see it.

In no particular order, improper practices include:

Making hires or writing contracts narrowly tailored to favor particular individuals or companies in what should be broad competitions.
Conducting proceedings, searches or evaluations in secret, possibly in violation of Florida Sunshine Laws.
Closing or excluding public comment in public proceedings like school board or trustee meetings, or delaying the public’s input until after a decision is made.
Allowing candidates or vendors to write their own contracts rather than using neutral, standardized contracts drafted by the hiring or contracting party.
Failing to provide reasonable time periods for hiring or contracting responses or making them suddenly or abruptly, especially at inconvenient or unreasonable times (for example, issuing a request for proposals after 5 pm on a Friday with a deadline of 9 am on a Monday so that only a single competitor who is already alerted can respond).
Providing favored applicants and contractors exorbitant or unusual compensation out of line with common standards or previous practice.
Abruptly dropping or disqualifying candidates or contractors from competing without explanation or justification.
Elevating obviously unqualified candidates and contractors over ones that have obviously superior qualifications and experience.
Using personal smears and ideological litmus tests against potential hires or contractors and basing awards on political loyalties.

Ultimately, Florida, its people and its schools will be the losers if these practices dominate—and Floridians will not just lose intellectually, they will lose financially as taxpayer money is siphoned off to cronies and co-conspirators.

As it is, the anti-woke jihad in education is an attempt to snuff out independent thought and free academic enquiry. It is an effort to legislate thinking rather than have freely expressed ideas compete in an open intellectual marketplace. In the past it was believed the best thoughts would win through reason and logic. That is not the DeSantis-MAGA approach and it already seems to be bringing cronyism and corruption in its wake.

Florida education is heading to “enrichment” but not the kind that enlightens minds—rather, the kind that just lines pockets.

Liberty lives in light

Help defend democracy in Southwest Florida—donate here!