… And so it will come to pass, as many refused to believe.
Tomorrow, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis will follow a sequence of events to launch the Sea Island billionaire strategy for a 2024 Republican nomination bid. This plan has been constructed for several years; that’s how I was able to predict the organization of the effort ten months ago and the exact date of the launch six months ago.
The sequence of the launch also tells a story. The sequence of tomorrow is priority driven. Each group is assisting in the launch sequence based on their importance to the Ron DeSantis campaign. That’s how this GOPe stuff rolls.
(1) DeSantis will first meet with the billionaire donors at the Four Seasons Hotel for an exclusive campaign launch (the donors). (2) Then DeSantis we be hosted by Twitter CEO Elon Musk for an exclusive Twitter Spaces announcement (social media, influencers). Then DeSantis will participate in a first of many Fox News promotions, hosted by Trey Gowdy in the 8pm hour formerly occupied by Tucker Carlson (Rupert Murdoch). Immediately following the Fox News interview, DeSantis will be hosted by Mark Levin at 8:30pm (the Israeli lobby).
Sea Island, Social Media influencers, Murdoch then Israel. That’s the background of the DeSantis coalition as it relates to the priority of their role in the campaign. These are the groups behind the management team of Ron DeSantis {Go Deep}.
As you can see above, Elon Musk and Rupert Murdoch were together in February coordinating the big picture. Musk and Murdoch participating in the details of the RdS launch is not accidental. Murdoch has paid for DeSantis (book advance via Harper Collins) and is using his media platforms (NY Post, WSJ and Fox News Corp) to assist. Elon Musk is using his influence and platform to assist. This provides scale to the financial interests in 2024. Machiavelli would blush.
Elon Musk is to Ron DeSantis in 2024 as Bill Barr was to Robert Mueller in 2019.
Let me start the rest of this analysis with the good news. Ron DeSantis will fail in his effort to win the 2024 nomination – with one caveat – as long as Donald Trump is in the race. Despite what the professional political class will say, Ron DeSantis cannot beat Donald Trump, period! The only way DeSantis can win the nomination is if Donald Trump is not in the race; that’s the caveat.
It is important to remember, the goal of the professional Republican apparatus is not to help DeSantis win; the goal is to remove Donald Trump.
The professional Republican club hate Donald Trump because he represents the base voters of the Republican Party, and the GOPe hate the base of the party much more than they hate Democrats. Exponentially more.
At a local level, many professional Republican club members hate the MAGA base. At the state level most professional Republican club members hate the MAGA base. At the national level, the entire apparatus of the RNC and the business end of Republican politics hate the MAGA base. They hate MAGA with as much, if not more, intensity than they hated the Tea Party predecessor.
The GOPe hate Donald Trump because he represents a coalition inside the American electorate that stands against the interests of the professional Republican class.
You can put any other smaller detail or nuance to it, but that larger dynamic is the reality. Every professional political institution on the Republican side of the UniParty hates Trump because he represents, We The People.
Professional Republicans will support Democrats before they permit MAGA to take over the Republican Party. The billionaire Sea Island donors synergize with the professional Republicans on this key and consequential point. Getting rid of Donald Trump is job #1; winning the election in 2024 is irrelevant to them. Both the GOPe and the donors who fund them are ambivalent to the 2024 outcome beyond the removal of Trump.
This reality is why it is more important for MAGA to defeat the professional Republicans than defeat Democrats. The GOPe must be defeated first, then the confrontation with the Democrats can commence.
The good news is the base of the Republican Party now know this. It has been a painful period of acceptance, but a solid majority of the Republican voters now understand we are abhorred by the people who are funding Ron DeSantis to destroy us. When The Last Refuge was formed, this reality was only understood by a few. Now, we are the majority, and we have the awakening that Donald Trump brought to our nation to thank for that.
Additionally, I hope you can see why I spent so much time laying the groundwork for this conflict. When you know what the GOPe are going to do, the best way to defeat them is to pour sunlight on the agenda before they trigger the outcomes. There is no other way to awaken people as fast, as to predict what seems bizarre and then watch it unfold exactly as described. The tripwire approach is what brings people to the understanding and more painful acceptance. [August 2022 Outline]
The people behind Ron DeSantis have been preparing this 2024 landscape for several years. Everything about the DeSantis campaign is built upon a foundation of lies, manipulation and fraud. The teams that have assembled to support DeSantis are financed and paid well for their efforts. There are trillions at stake, and DeSantis will have more money than any political candidate in the history of U.S. politics. Again, this is a reference point for the scale of our corrupt state.
The DeSantis management and branding team have been designing this rollout for years. As an example, many of the events RdS attended in the past three years were intentionally produced to gather file footage video that you will see in 2024 campaign commercials that have yet to be broadcast. I will point them out as they surface.
Fox News is going to be ugly! That entire operation is going to use dark arts to manipulate those who still have not awakened to the nature of the real enemy.
Another positive sign that DeSantis will fail stems from the more recently created plan B and plan C from the Sea Island group. Brian Kemp (GA) and Glenn Younkin (VA) are two very recent examples of the shift. If the professional Republicans were confident, they would not create insurance policies. Just keep following the money and you will see it.
Remember, watch the Republican Governors Association (RGA) and their moves. This approach will be new to political followers, as the RGA will join in the attack against Trump and the MAGA base. The RGA is funded by the same donor activity as the Republican National Committee. Both groups will attempt to walk the fine line of attack, without looking like they are attacking – but it will be obvious. Consider this a major tripwire.
Team DeSantis will have every strategic point on paper in their favor, and they will have a lot of money; but they do not have the truth. Their campaign is built upon a foundation of lies.
I would not be me if I did not say, be angry – but be strategic with that anger and do not worry.
Do not listen to the dark whispers on your shoulder. Foreboding sucks. Don’t let anyone steal your peace of mind. Live your best life while pushing back against the manipulations and schemes. We are the majority. We are MAGA. We are a broad and diverse coalition of solid working class people who are comfortable in our skin, comfortable in our faith, comfortable in our beliefs and unwavering against all pressure.
Internally and externally be fearless against the lies. Don’t let lies and fraud pass without confrontation. Our strength is in the truth of our position. We have no pretenses and no reason to fear sunlight. Those who manipulate, scheme and use deception as a political strategy carry the weaknesses that stem from it.
Ron DeSantis will not win the nomination if we continue to spotlight the truth. Just remember to stay right with a loving God, and live your best life while doing it. Also, forgive yourself if you get a little salty at times; it happens.
No matter how much everyone’s gushing for DeSantis, we cannot erase the following facts from his background.
After high school, DeSantis attended Yale University to earn a degree in history. He joined the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity.
In 2001, DeSantis received a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors and honors from Yale University.
After spending a year as a history lecturer at the Darlington School, he earned a Juris Doctor degree with honors from Harvard Law School. He received this degree in 2005.
In 2004, while DeSantis was in the middle of his sophomore year at Harvard Law School, he was honored to be enlisted as an officer in the United States Navy and given a position in the Navy Judge Advocate General’s Corps (JAG). 2005 was the year he graduated from the Naval Justice School. Later that year he received orders to serve as a prosecutor in the JAG Trial Service Office Command South East, located at Naval Station Mayport, Florida.
In 2006 he was awarded the rank of Lieutenant after being promoted from the position of Lieutenant Junior Grade. He was employed by the Commander of Joint Task Force Guantanamo (JTF-GTMO) and his duties included direct contact with inmates at the Guantanamo Bay Joint Detention Facility.
In 2007, DeSantis reported to the Naval Special Warfare Command Group in Coronado, California. There he was assigned to SEAL Team One and deployed to Iraq in 2007 as Legal Advisor to SEAL Commander, Special Operations Task Force-West in Fallujah. He served in this capacity for the duration of the troop surge.
In April 2008, DeSantis returned to the United States and shortly after his return was assigned to the Naval Region Southeast Legal Service. His appointment as Special Assistant United States Attorney to the United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida was made possible by the United States Department of Justice.
2010, DeSantis served as a defense attorney until discharged from that capacity. At the same time, he agreed to accept a reserve rank in the US Navy Reserve as a lieutenant in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps.
The Bronze Star Medal, the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal and the Iraq Campaign Medal are just a few of the honors DeSantis has received throughout his service.
As of 2022, he was still serving in the United States Navy Reserve.
Christina DeSantis, Ron Desantis’ 30 year old sister, died in 2015 from completely unforeseen causes. Although more than five years have passed since her death, her family has not commented further on the circumstances of her death.
Much More on Christina DeSantis:
Ron DeSantis was a Congressman at the time of 30 year old Christina DeSantis’s death in 2015. Strangely, there was virtually zero media coverage of the death of the sister of a U.S. Congressman.
Christina DeSantis’s Linked-In lists her employer at the time of her untimely death as KPMG Volcker Solution. Volcker Wikipedia:Paul Adolph Volcker Jr. (September 5, 1927 – December 8, 2019) was an American economist who served as the 12th chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1979 to 1987. During his tenure as chairman, Volcker was widely credited with having ended the high levels of inflation seen in the United States throughout the 1970s and early 1980s.[citation needed] He previously served as the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from 1975 to 1979.
Coutts Bank: is a London-headquartered private bank and wealth manager. Founded in 1692, it is the eighth oldest bank in the world. Today, Coutts forms part of NatWest Group‘s wealth management division.[3] In the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, Coutts Crown Dependencies operates as a trading name of The Royal Bank of Scotland International Limited. Money laundering rule breaches: In March 2012 Coutts was fined £8.75m for breaches of money laundering rules after “serious” and “systemic” problems in handling the affairs of “politically exposed persons“, customers entrusted with a prominent public function, requiring money-laundering checks.[29] The Financial Services Authority (FSA) fined Coutts because of an “unacceptable risk” that the bank could have been handling the proceeds of crime for a three-year period up to November 2010 after failing to properly deal with “politically exposed” customers.[29] Following an industry-wide review in 2010, the FSA found that Coutts was not conducting robust-enough checks on such high-risk customers and was not monitoring relationships with them properly. The FSA reviewed a sample of 103 high-risk customer files, and identified deficiencies in 73 of them.[29] The FSA’s acting director of enforcement and financial crime, Tracey McDermott, said that “Coutts’s failings were significant, widespread and unacceptable. Its conduct fell well below the standards we expect and the size of the financial penalty demonstrates how seriously we view its failures”.[29] Coutts’s bonus system rewarded bankers for opening accounts, providing an incentive to bring in new business without too much scrutiny, and the bank’s anti-money laundering team, required to identify high-risk customers, failed to identify enough “politically exposed persons”.[29] In two cases reviewed by the FSA, bankers did not conduct appropriate checks on the customers, and failed to identify serious criminal allegations against them. There were five cases where sources had provided “adverse intelligence” such as allegations of criminal activity, but all the accounts had been approved by Coutts.[29]A spokesperson for Coutts said that there was no evidence that money laundering took place as a result of its deficient controls, and said that “We recognise our systems weren’t totally adequate in the past and we’ve taken steps to improve these”. Coutts would have been fined £12.5m if it had not agreed to settle at an early stage in the investigation.[29]
Ron Desantis Was A Member of St. Elmo Society
DeSantis was a member of St. Elmo Society, a secret society at Yale University. It was founded in 1889 as an independent entity for seniors within the nationally chartered fraternity, Delta Phi (&Delta &Phi), Omicron Chapter (1889-1925).
St. Elmo is a non-profit organization that provides supplementary education to its members through various activities and interactions. It is the hope that these methods will inspire new meaning to the students’ Yale education. In return, the delegation must commit itself to by-laws, rules, and guidelines set forth by the Corporation’s Board of Governors.
The name “St. Elmo” was first used in 1889 at the Omicron Chapter of Delta Phi at Yale University, and was based on the historical interconnection of St. Elmo and the Knights of Malta. The cross of the Knights of Malta had been adopted as the emblem of Delta Phi in 1833.
The Badge of The Delta Phi, pictured above, has been worn by members of The Delta Phi Fraternity continuously since its adoption in 1833. This badge, based on the Maltese Cross worn by the Knights of St. John (later, the Knights Hospitaller and finally the Knights of Malta), has many symbolic meanings to members of the fraternity. This design was also to give birth to one of the most enduring traditions of Delta Phi: the use of the name St. Elmo in association with the fraternity.
The name St. Elmo has been in use by some chapters of the fraternity for over 100 years (longer than many other nationals have existed). The practice started at Omicron (Yale), who sought a distinctive name for their home. Once again, hearkening back to the Knights of Malta, who were mariners, the men of Omicron appropriated the name of St. Elmo, the patron saint of mariners. The practice caught on and at many campuses the names Delta Phi and St. Elmo have become synonymous adding yet another layer of tradition to this unique story.
Delta Phi has remained an exclusive fraternity. Rather than engaging in the wholesale expansion policies that have marked the operation of other Greek letter fraternities, the brothers of Delta Phi choose to establish chapters only at the finest schools and usually with proximity to other chapters. It grants its chapters a substantial degree of local autonomy – allowing them to develop their own traditions and policies within the scope of a larger institution.
On Jun. 14, 2022 (Tuesday) DeSantis was listed as a member of St. Elmo Hall (secret society) at Yale, but the next day, Jun. 15, 2022 (Wednesday) his name disappeared.
DeSantis was listed on St. Elmo’s Wikipedia page last year: (see Wayback Machine)
In a speech in Doha on Monday, veteran New Yorker journalist Seymour Hersh alleged that the U.S. military’s Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) had been infiltrated by Christian fanatics who see themselves as modern-day Crusaders and aim to “change mosques into cathedrals.” In particular, he alleged that former JSOC head Gen. Stanley McChrystal — later U.S. commander in Afghanistan — and his successor, Vice Adm. William McRaven, as well as many other senior leaders of the command, are “are all members of, or at least supporters of, Knights of Malta.” What was he talking about?
Not exactly clear. There’s not much evidence to suggest that the Knights of Malta are the secretive cabal of anti-Muslim fundamentalists that Hersh described. (For the record, when contacted by Foreign Policy, McChrystal said that he is not a member.) But they are certainly an anomalous presence in international politics and have provoked their share of conspiracy theories over the years.
The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta is a Roman Catholic organization based in Rome with around 13,000 members worldwide. The group was founded in 1048 by Amalfian merchants in Jerusalem as a monastic order that ran a hospital to tend to Christian pilgrims in the Holy Land. At the height of its power, the order was also tasked by Rome with the additional military function of defending Christians from the local Muslim population. The Knights of St. John were just one of a number of Christian military orders founded during this period — including the fabled but now defunct Knights of Templar.
When the Sultan of Egypt retook Jerusalem in 1291, the Knights of St. John went into exile, settling in Rhodes 20 years later. In 1523 they were forced from Rhodes by the Sultan’s forces and settled in Malta, which they ruled until they were dislodged by Napoleon’s army in 1798. The order settled in Rome in the mid-19th century, where it remains to this day.
Despite its name, the Knights haven’t had any military function since leaving Malta. Instead, the order has gone back to its charitable roots by sponsoring medical missions in more than 120 countries.
When the order was founded, knights were expected to take a vow of poverty, chastity, and obedience upon joining. Nowadays, obedience is enough. Membership is still by invitation only, but you no longer have to be a member of the nobility. In recent years, the organization has become increasingly American in membership. The leader of the order, referred to as the prince and grand master, is elected for life in a secret conclave and must be approved by the pope.
Despite having no fixed territory besides its headquarters building in Rome, the order is considered a sovereign entity under international law. It prints its own postage stamps and coins — though these are mostly for novelty value — and enjoys observer status at the United Nations, which classifies it as a nonstate entity like the Red Cross. The Knights maintain diplomatic relations with 104 countries. The order does not have official relations with the United States, though it has offices in New York, for the United Nations delegation, and Washington, for its representation at the Inter-American Development Bank.
Because of its secretive proceedings, unique political status, and association with the Crusades, the order has been a popular target for conspiracy theorists. Alleged members have included former CIA Directors William Casey and John McCone, Chrysler Chairman Lee Iacocca, and GOP fixture Pat Buchanan, though none have ever acknowledged membership. Various theories have tied the Knights to crimes including the Kennedy assassination and spreading the AIDS virus through its clinics in Africa.
In 2006, a newspaper article in the United Arab Emirates claimed that the Knights were directly influencing U.S. policy in Iraq and Afghanistan, reprising their role in the Crusades. Following the article, Islamist websites in Egypt urged followers to attack the order’s embassy in Cairo, forcing the organization to issue a statement denying any military role.
To be fair, the Knights have been involved in their fair share of political intrigues. In 1988, the charge d’affaires at the order’s embassy in Havana confessed to being a double agent, reporting to both the CIA and Cuban intelligence. According to journalist Jeremy Scahill’s book Blackwater,Joseph Schmitz, a former executive at the company who also served as inspector general for the U.S. Department of Defense, boasted of his membership in the Knights in his official biography. The defense contractor now known as Xe’s chief executive, Erik Prince, reportedly espoused Christian supremacist beliefs, and its contractors in Iraq used codes and insignia based on the order’s medieval compatriots, the Knights of the Templar. However, there’s no evidence to suggest the Knights of Malta had any direct influence over the company.
So while the group is, for the most part, a charitable organization with little resemblance to the sinister portrait painted by its detractors, an image-makeover might be in order as it finishes off its 10th century.
In a speech billed as a discussion of the Bush and Obama eras, New Yorker journalist Seymour Hersh delivered a rambling, conspiracy-laden diatribe here Monday expressing his disappointment with President Barack Obama and his dissatisfaction with the direction of U.S. foreign policy.
“Just when we needed an angry black man,” he began, his arm perched jauntily on the podium, “we didn’t get one.”
It quickly went downhill from there.
Hersh, whose exposés of gross abuses by members of the U.S. military in Vietnam and Iraq have earned him worldwide fame and high journalistic honors, said he was writing a book on what he called the “Cheney-Bush years” and saw little difference between that period and the Obama administration.
He said that he was keeping a “checklist” of aggressive U.S. policies that remained in place, including torture and “rendition” of terrorist suspects to allied countries, which he alleged was ongoing.
He also charged that U.S. foreign policy had been hijacked by a cabal of neoconservative “crusaders” in the former vice president’s office and now in the special operations community.
“What I’m really talking about is how eight or nine neoconservative, radicals if you will, overthrew the American government. Took it over,” he said of his forthcoming book. “It’s not only that the neocons took it over but how easily they did it — how Congress disappeared, how the press became part of it, how the public acquiesced.”
Hersh then brought up the widespread looting that took place in Baghdad after the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003. “In the Cheney shop, the attitude was, ‘What’s this? What are they all worried about, the politicians and the press, they’re all worried about some looting? … Don’t they get it? We’re gonna change mosques into cathedrals. And when we get all the oil, nobody’s gonna give a damn.’”
“That’s the attitude,” he continued. “We’re gonna change mosques into cathedrals. That’s an attitude that pervades, I’m here to say, a large percentage of the Joint Special Operations Command.”
He then alleged that Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who headed JSOC before briefly becoming the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, and his successor, Vice Adm. William McRaven, as well as many within JSOC, “are all members of, or at least supporters of, Knights of Malta.”
Hersh may have been referring to the Sovereign Order of Malta, a Roman Catholic organization commited to “defence of the Faith and assistance to the poor and the suffering,” according to its website.
“Many of them are members of Opus Dei,” Hersh continued. “They do see what they’re doing — and this is not an atypical attitude among some military — it’s a crusade, literally. They see themselves as the protectors of the Christians. They’re protecting them from the Muslims [as in] the 13th century. And this is their function.”
“They have little insignias, these coins they pass among each other, which are crusader coins,” he continued. “They have insignia that reflect the whole notion that this is a culture war. … Right now, there’s a tremendous, tremendous amount of anti-Muslim feeling in the military community.””
Hersh relayed that he had recently spoken with “a man in the intelligence community… somebody in the joint special operations business” about the downfall of Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia. “He said, ‘Oh my God, he was such a good ally.’”
“Tunisia’s going to change the game,” Hersh added later. “It’s going to scare the hell out of a lot of people.”
Moving to Pakistan, where Hersh noted he had been friendly with Benazir Bhutto, the journalist told of a dinner meeting with Asif Ali Zardari, the late prime minister’s husband, in which Hersh said the Pakistani president was brutally disdainful of his own people.
Hersh described a trip he made to Swat, where the Pakistani military had just dislodged Taliban insurgents who had taken over the scenic valley, a traditional vacation area for the urban middle class. Hersh said he asked Zardari about the tent cities he saw along the road, where people were living in harsh, unsanitary conditions.
“Well, those people there in Swat, that’s what they deserve,” the Pakistani president replied, according to Hersh. Asked why, Hersh said Zardari responded, “Because they supported the Taliban.” (Note: Hersh’s conversation is not recounted in his 2009 New Yorker article on Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, presumably because it coudn’t be verified.)
The veteran journalist also alleged that the CIA station chief in Islamabad, who was recently recalled after his name surfaced in Pakistani court documents and in the lively Pakistani press, had actually been fired for disputing the plans of Gen. David Petraeus, who took over the Afghan war last summer after General McChrystal was summarily dismissed.
“When Petraeus issued a very optimistic report about the war in December that he gave to the president,” Hersh said, the station chief “just declared it was bankrupt… internally. He just said ‘This is completely wrongheaded. The policy’s wrongheaded.’ Off he goes. Out he goes.”
“I’ve given up being disillusioned about the CIA,” Hersh said. “They’re trained to lie, period. They will lie to their president, they will lie certainly to the Congress, and they will lie to the American people. That’s all there is to it.”
Hersh was speaking on the invitation of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, which operates a branch campus in Qatar.
The Knights of Malta ALL have diplomatic immunity. They can ship goods across borders without paying duty or undergoing customs check. Does that ring any bells? In any case, that is power.
The Knights of Malta is held up by a backbone consisting of nobility. Nearly half of the 10,000 members belong to Europe’s oldest and most powerful families. This cements the alliance between the Vatican and the “Black Nobility.” The Black Nobility is mostly the rich and powerful of Europe. The head of the Black Nobility is the family that can claim direct descendancy from the last Roman emperor. Maybe now you can see that things are beginning to fall into their proper place. Membership in the Knights of Malta entails obedience to one’s superior in THE ORDER and ultimately to the Pope. Therefore, a U.S. ambassador who is also a member of the Knights of Malta faces a conflict of interest. Why is this fact ignored? President Bush appointed Knight of Malta Thomas Melledy to the post of U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican.Bill Cooper / <cite>Behold A Pale Horse</cite>
The Knights of Malta is a world organization with its threads weaving through business, banking, politics, the CIA, other intelligence organizations, P2, religion, education, law, military, think tanks, foundations, the United States Information Agency, the United Nations, and numerous other organizations. They are not the oldest but are one of the oldest branches of the Order of the Quest in existence. The world head of the Knights of Malta is elected for a life term, with the approval of the Pope. The Knights of Malta have their own Constitution and are sworn to work toward the establishment of a New World Order with the Pope at its head. Knights of Malta members are also powerful members of the CFR and the Trilateral Commission.Bill Cooper / <cite>Behold A Pale Horse</cite>
It should also be noted that Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. is a Knight of
Malta.
Meet Ron DeSantis’ Media Guru, Christina Pushaw. She worked in the Nation of Georgia to get a George
Soros Sock Puppet elected President.
She then went to the United States and failed to register as a Foreign Agent, for many years. But, instead of being prosecuted as her contemporary was, the DOJ let her register with ZERO penalty. This DOJ.
So clearly, she is NOT their enemy, but rather a Friend of George Soros.
DeSantis’ press secretary registers as foreign agent, cites prior work for former Georgian president
About Pete Santilli
Pete Santilli is a talk show host, investigative journalist, consumer advocate and former U.S. Marine. Follow Pete @TRUTH: https://ift.tt/LVqRbfk Follow #SBN: https://ift.tt/HTvmdW5 Link Tree: https://ift.tt/mUKe8u6
This week Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida made a trip to Israel to sign HB 269, a bill that makes it a felony with up to five years in jail for passing out “offensive” flyers or pamphlets. This move has been widely criticized by free speech advocates and legal experts as a gross violation of the First Amendment. The bill states that anyone distributing “any material for the purpose of intimidating or threatening the owner” could be convicted of a felony “hate crime.” While we often write about the “hate speech” rules on Big Tech platforms, this is far worse. This is the state of Florida violating the First Amendment of the United States.
The legislation came about after activists from a group called the Goyim Defense League made headlines for several years for their activism efforts. The Goyim Defense League’s activism takes the form of distributing flyers that contain “uncomfortable truths” about the individuals who control the mainstream media in the United States. These flyers have been handed out across multiple states, including Florida, and have been met with mixed reactions from the public.
Despite the controversy surrounding the flyers, it is worth noting that they contain no threats of violence or threatening language. Rather, they present what the Goyim Defense League sees as a reality about the individuals who control the mainstream media, and invite readers to consider a different perspective. While some might consider this information to be “offensive,” there is nothing inherently threatening or “intimidating” about the distribution of flyers with factual information on them. The flyers even have a statement on them noting that they are “distributed randomly without malicious intent.”
The First Amendment of the United States Constitution guarantees the right to freedom of speech, religion, press, assembly, and petition. This means that individuals have the right to express their opinions, even if those opinions are controversial or unpopular. The government cannot censor or punish individuals for their speech, unless it poses an imminent danger or threat to others.
HB 269, however, seeks to criminalize speech that is deemed “intimidating” by the state. This is an extremely vague and subjective standard, and it could be used to silence a wide range of speech that is protected by the First Amendment. It is important to note that the Supreme Court has repeatedly held that speech that some may find offensive is still protected under the First Amendment.
This isn’t the first time Ron DeSantis has signed anti-First Amendment legislation while in Israel. Governor Ron DeSantis signed HB 741, also known as the “Combating Public Disorder” bill, into law on May 14, 2019, in Jerusalem, Israel. The signing ceremony took place at the David Citadel Hotel, where DeSantis was joined by several prominent Jewish leaders and members of the Israeli government.
The bill aims to protect religious institutions and their members from discrimination and harassment. However, many have argued that it does much more than that, and that it represents a serious threat to free speech and civil liberties.
One of the main provisions of HB 741 is a requirement that all Florida public schools, colleges, and universities adopt a definition of anti-Semitism that includes certain forms of criticism of Israel. The definition in question is the one adopted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, which defines anti-Semitism as “a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews” and includes examples such as “denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination” and “applying double standards to Israel.”
Critics of HB 741 argue that this definition is overly broad and could be used to stifle legitimate criticism of Israel and its policies. They point out that the definition includes language that could be interpreted as equating anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism, even though the two are not the same thing. They also argue that the definition is not necessary, as schools and universities already have policies in place to address discrimination and harassment.
Another provision of HB 741 requires law enforcement agencies to conduct training on identifying and responding to anti-Semitic incidents. Many have raised concerns that this provision could be used to target legitimate forms of protest and dissent. For example, if a group of pro-Palestinian activists were to stage a peaceful demonstration outside an Israeli consulate or embassy, could they be accused of engaging in an anti-Semitic incident?
Perhaps most controversially, HB 741 creates a private right of action for people who believe they have been discriminated against on the basis of their religion. This means that individuals who feel that they have been the victim of anti-Semitic discrimination can sue the alleged perpetrator for damages. This is highly likely to be used to stifle free speech and dissent. For example, a professor who expresses a controversial opinion about Israel could potentially be sued by a student who disagrees with them and feels that their religious beliefs have been discriminated against.
The fact that Governor DeSantis flew to a foreign country to sign both of these bills is absurd. Florida is a state in the United States, and its laws should be signed within the state’s borders. The reality that Gov. DeSantis chose to sign these bills in Israel, a foreign country, raises serious questions about his priorities and commitment to upholding the Constitution for the citizens of the United States and his state of Florida.
The implications of HB 269 and HB 741 are deeply troubling. They could be used to silence political dissent, punish those who criticize government officials, or suppress speech that challenges the status quo. In short, it is a direct attack on the First Amendment and the principles of free speech that are so essential to a healthy society.
We must be willing to engage in open dialogue with those who hold different views, and to stand up for our rights even when it is uncomfortable or unpopular to do so.
This means supporting organizations and individuals who are working to protect free speech, like Gab, and advocating for policies that promote openness and transparency in government. It also means being willing to speak out against efforts to silence dissent or suppress speech even when they come from our own political allies.
The defense of our fundamental rights is not a partisan issue. It is a matter of basic human dignity and freedom and it requires all of us to stand up and be counted. We must remain vigilant in the face of attempts to suppress speech and dissent, and be willing to push back against these efforts wherever they arise. Only by doing so can we ensure that America remains free for generations to come.
Andrew Torba
CEO, Gab.com
Jesus Christ is King of kings