In death at 92 Portland's iconic drag queen Darcelle XV gets headline coverage in local news. Take that anti-woke warriors..

 By Hal Brown

If you aren't familiar with Portland, Oregon and its LGBTQ+ scene you may not know who Darcelle XV is so you may want to look at Wikipedia here.

CC 2.0 on Wikipedia

I am often overwhelmed and always dismayed by the news about the anti-woke warriors like Ron DeSantis who thinks drag represents a toxin riskier than ricin, the book burners, and people like this.

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These feelings are mitigated at times when I realize that there are really good people holding the line against the anti-woke mob. I am hopeful when I read an article like this, coincidentally published in Salon today: 

The GOP is becoming more unhinged about LGBTQ people — which will only make them more unpopular

New research shows most Americans side with RuPaul and Kevin Bacon against Christian nationalists

While Portland's Darcelle XV dying isn't a call for celebration, living a full and fulfilling life until the age of 92 is.

This was in my email last night:

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I looked at the local TV news websites this morning and noted that this story was the top story on two of the three of them. One was KATU, a station owned by the far-right Sinclair corporation.

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This is what KGW looked like:

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This a morning it wasn't the lead on KOIN online but it might have been when it was posted late last night:

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This is a Google News search for Darcelle XV:

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Before yesterday Darcelle XV was featured in these articles:

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Here's the Gigantic Brewing story:

Click link for story, click above to enlarge image.

All of this news coverage highlights the fact that here in progressive Portland by far the majority of us, including those in our newsrooms, are woke. Whether we are a member of the LGBTQ+ community or not we are proud to be wonderfully woke.

I feel for progressive in red states and experience a weird tinge of something akin to guilt, but not really guilt, that I live where I do. I have friends in Florida who moved there decades ago never anticipating what it would become, and like many in similar situations there and in other irredeemably red states, can't relocate to a blue state.

Addendum:

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Not being boring is the Trump and DeSantis challenge, but are they about to jump the shark?

 By Hal Brown

Read my related Mar. 15 blog here.

My version

I read this in Salon...

The real image

Double duds: Jim Jordan's and Tucker Carlson's lazy conspiracy theories bore MAGA

GOP propagandists believe MAGA buys whatever they're selling, so why put any effort into spinning lies?

... and I thought that the article could just as easily be referring to both Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis. You can see how I changed the illustration.

Just about everything that Amanda Marcotte writes in her article about Jim Jordan and Tucker Carlson, with some modification, could describe what might happen with Trump and DeSantis. 

Jumping the shark (see Wikipedia) of course originated with an episode of the popular TV show "Happy Days" where Fonzie was on water skis and jumped over a shark. After that the popularity of the series gradually declined but the term has expanded to mean a stunt meant to be a wowza which turns out to have been be a dud.

Consider how Trump is now hysterically warning that only he is capable of preventing World War III. DeSantis wants you to wet yourself in terror at the woke warriors who want to turn your children into "perverts".

Marcotte calls Jordan and Tucker's conspiracy theories lazy. I'd call them desperate. As far as I'm concerned the same goes for Trump and DeSantis. 

Jordan and Tucker are actors. This is from Marcotte's article (emphasis added):

Both Carlson and Jordan have become famous and powerful by dint of their effectiveness at spreading conspiracy theories. Carlson gets paid $6 million a year, strictly due to his acting chops, whether he's pretending to care about the sexiness of M&Ms or to believe in the intelligence of Donald Trump. Similarly, Jordan rose high in the ranks of House Republicans because he's talented at faking outrage. Yet both these men are showing less passion for conspiracy theories these days than your average unpaid and anonymous QAnon troll. It must be tiring, looking forward to the rest of their lives spent trying to feign zeal over fake culture war fights or made-up controversies. Not that they deserve your pity, of course. Being professional liars is the path they chose for themselves, and they're clearly stuck following it to the end. 

Not that I have to point out the obvious, but Trump and DeSantis are professional liars.

Their political fortunes depend on keeping their lying fresh and entertaining. Here's the 30 Second World War III possible shark jumper from Trump tweeted by Junior.

  Here's a slightly longer version of Trump warning that only he can prevent World War III.

Here's the longer video of Trump's warning. Ask yourself whether this could be looked back at him having jumped the shark.

I don't have a comparable example from Ron DeSantis. The one thing he has in his advantage is that he always comes across as dull. 

This is from The Washington Post opinion piece How much does charisma matter? DeSantis is putting it to the test. by Paul Waldman published today: 

He is “reserved and dry” and has a challenge “forging connections with people.” He’s “pinched and humorless.” He “just doesn’t have the charisma to command a national political stage.” He “has the charisma of a pair of cargo shorts.”

He wisely doesn't try to out-Trump Trump in feigning outrage. He depends on using a dry presentation of the dire consequences of woke policies. I don't know what latest policy announcement could, in retrospect, be seen as him having jumped the shark. I expect it could just the a straw the breaks the camels back executive order.

Both of the top contenders for the GOP nomination depend on not being boring. They are very different in this respect from Mike Pence and Joe Biden. Both of them are naturally low-key. You could call them boring in how they present their ideas and policies. When Biden is particularly animated, or expresses anger, more than usual people take notice, for example:

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Neither Pence nor Biden have to worry about boring MAGA-world since residents of this land of won't vote for them anyway. It's Trump and DeSantis who have to worry about boring the denizens of MAGA.

Addendum

I was curious about this...

so I looked it up:

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Trump can try to gin up hysteria about a nuclear attack but does he really care about the rest of Americans when his house has three bomb shelters? None can withstand a direct hit but why would Putin want to take out Mar-a-Lago when Trump is his pal?

Please scroll down to the comments link and let readers know what you think. Sharing on social media, also through the links below, is appreciated.

"WAH" indeed, Daily Beast beats Raw Story with DeSantis title

 by Hal Brown

Here's the Raw Story title for the same story about Ron DeSantis saying he will boycott NBC and MSNBC until they apologize for something Andrea Mitchell said:

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The Daily Beast was more creative in their title. 

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I was particularly struck by the red " | WAH |  " in the lower left. Positioned where a subtitle would generally go it wasn't exactly a subtitle. I'd call it more an "aside" meant to convey an editorial comment with a word which suggests the sound of DeSantis having a tantrum.

The editors could have used "Boo-hoo" instead to convey the same thing but "wah" is a word that sounds like someone having a hissy fit, literally a tantrum. "Wah" is derived from "wah-wah" which is a musical effect achieved on brass instruments by alternately applying and removing a mute and on an electric guitar by controlling the output from the amplifier with a pedal.

 

What a political world, eh? From the two top contenders to be the GOP  presidential candidate to the likes of Marjorie Taylor Greene we have individuals who seem to have anger control problems and when they are offended express their feelings either by literally screaming during a session of Congress, making posts on social media, or hurling threats.

I don't know what would cure whatever is wrong with them. Perhaps meditation or yoga would be the prescription. Psychotherapy might be helpful. The basic message these people need to heed would be along the lines of what the hippies used to tell people who were overwrought or too full of themselves and is now a common meme (click here):

Addendum

Yesterday's blog was about Trump's blatantly self-aggrandizing visit to E. Palestine. It is still in the news. This Salon story photo shows how shameless and insensitive this man is. I thought giving out Trump branded bottled water was bad enough, but giving out Trump hats is beyond the pale.

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Ron DeSanctimonious may be Trump's best insult yet

 Ron DeSanctimonious may be Trump's best insult yet

By Hal Brown

Trump is known for coining insults to use to against his enemies. He often tries them out at his rallies to gauge audience response. Most of them are juvenile, although the mental midgets at his rallies will cheer anything. He may have applause meters to see which one's are the best.

Only kidding. He'd doesn't need an electronic gadget to discern which insulting appellations elicit the loudest and most energetic cheers and of course boos from his audience. For Trump, the louder the better. 

Today Trump referred to Ron DeSantis as Ron Desantimonious as he has been doing for several months. This got me to thinking that to give begrudging credit where it is due, this a damn good insult.

This is from 

Trump attacks “globalist” Ron DeSantis over COVID response in late-night Truth Social meltdown

 

 

 

EXCERPT: Trump lashed out at the group and DeSantis in a Truth Social post shortly before 1 am on Monday.

"The Club for No Growth is a GLOBALIST group that I have been taking to the cleaners for years," Trump wrote, adding that "Ron DeSanctimonious, who I made Governor in BOTH the Primary & the General, is also a Globalist, & so are his donors."

"Jeb 'Low Energy' Bush was next to him last week," Trump wrote, referring to his old 2016 GOP primary foe. "Check PAST!"

The name he is called Ron DeSantis may be his best yet. True, Trump throwing the term "globalist" in there is a distraction since most of his cult members don't know it means a person who advocates the interpretation or planning of economic and foreign policy in relation to events and developments throughout the world. They do know it's "bad" and believe it's anti-American.

Trump posted this on Truth Social

The Club For No Growth is a GLOBALIST group that I have been taking to the cleaners for years. We worked together for a period, but they couldn’t get away from China, Europe, Asia, and part’s unknown. They know I won’t play that game, I am America First all the way. That’s the ONLY way we will MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN. Ron DeSanctimonious, who I made Governor in BOTH the Primary & the General, is also a Globalist, & so are his donors. Jeb “Low Energy” Bush was next to him last week. Check PAST!

Trump  writes "I am America First all the way." He could have come up with a new insult with the opposite of Make America First, that is Make America Last, and called these enemies "make America lasters" - I sure hope he never uses that since I don't want to think I may have provided him with an effective insult.

Back to the insult of the day:

This is from a web search of the name Ron Desantimonious:

There were mixed reviews for this name, for example (red arrow) NY Magazine called it low energy. This being said, his merely trying out this nickname got himself a lot of publicity.

For example Fox News:

I think this is actually one of, if not his more effective insulting nicknames for someone he thinks is an enemy. While not a word many, if most, of Trump's screamers and booers could define exactly, i.e., someone who makes a show of being morally superior to other people, they could tell you that it means someone who was obnoxious and acts superior.

Trump acts like he has the biggest brain and is superior to everyone but members of his cult believe he has every right to do so because all this is true. They never find him obnoxious.

What counts here is that, first, it is a "big word" showing how smart Trump is for using it, and equally important, it fits well enough with Ron DeSantis to make it resonate. It's almost but not quite a rhyme. 

The website The Focus took a deep dive into Trump's using this nickname.

Excerpt:

As soon as Donald Trump uttered the two words “Ron DeSanctimonious,” the nickname took over Twitter. In fact, on October 25, a Twitter user speculated over what nickname Trump would give Ron DeSantis, receiving more than 1,000 likes and hundreds of responses in the comments.

CNN senior commentator David Axelrod tweeted Trump’s play on words was “Kind of brilliant.”

Alex Salvi from Newsmax disagreed, writing: “Former Pres. Trump refers to Florida Gov. DeSantis as “Ron Desanctimonious.” Probably not the united messaging the GOP wants three days before the midterm elections. 

I wouldn't be surprised if Trump is the only person to have a Wikipedia page devoted just to the nicknames he has used to insult and describe people.

In scanning the list the only one that I think comes close to Ron Desantimonious is Sleepy Joe. While it is hardly clever it does play to his base effectively as depicting President Biden as someone persistently dozing off because he's too old and lacking in the energy needed to be president as opposed to Trump, the young and vital energetic macho-man he likes to portray himself as. At present DeSantis is Trump's biggest rival for the nomination. Should he run against Biden I think he'll have to do better than "Sleepy Joe" to insult him. I have a few ideas but I am not about to share them.

Trump used the word "little" (or "Liddle' " for Adam Schiff) 23 times as insults. These include Little Marco and Little Rocket Man (for Kim Jon Un). The later is probably the best of his "little" insults since it is used with "rocket man." Otherwise he's just making fun of someone's height. Of course he never called the 5' 7" Putin Little Vlad.

Below, read more with links to articles about Trump calling DeSantis Ron DeSantimonius:

Is there anything left to say about the DeSantis culture war?

Is there anything left to say about the DeSantis culture war?

By Hal Brown

My version of the image below

This is a quote from Gov. Ron DeSantis: “I think we are showing that Florida welcomes debate and that the cure for an idea that you disagree with is to point out why that idea is wrong.” Really. I couldn't make that up.

Currently the governor of Florida is often pictured happily standing behind a sign that suggests he has his own definition of the word education.

.

Perhaps he can get his definition added to the dictionary.

DeSantis likes his podium signs:

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At least he stood behind a State of Florida seal when he made this hypocritical speech:

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Excerpt:

 A campaign about free speech on Florida college campuses – a hot-button issue across the nation – is being backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis and public university presidents, who signed a resolution vowing to welcome all types of debate unless they promote “true threats or defamation.”

At the request of the governor, all 12 university presidents signed the resolution late last week. It says institutions will not “stifle the dissemination of any idea,” even when individuals find that speech to be “abhorrent.”

“It permits the freest expression of views before students, trusting to their good sense in passing judgment on those views. Only in this way can we best serve American democracy,” said John Thrasher, president of Florida State University, where DeSantis appeared Monday.

Once upon a time Florida was known as The Sunshine State. While Florida ranks last on the list of the 10 sunniest states I won't quibble about their use of this slogan. 

It was also known as the state where northerners went to die. Now it has become the state where eduction has been put on the critical list.

This photo was reproduced in various stories similar to this article and the one below:

The faces of the children recruited to stand behind him show they have no compression of why they are there. One could say this is a form of abuse.

Then there's this:

Gov. Ron DeSantis announced launching his new book titled The Courage to Be Free in February 2023, and the media was quick to slam the upcoming release, claiming hypocrisy because of Florida’s decisions on banning certain books.

The most recent news about the Florida governor and the presidential wannabe's war on Woke is his making school teachers liable for books in their classrooms deemed to be breaking Florida law. If convicted of the third degree felony he is making it having these books in their classroom libraries they could be imprisoned for up to five years. Examples of third degree felonies include aggravated stalking, theft of a vehicle or firearm, and trespass while armed. They also face losing their teaching license.

DeSantos is shoehorning what he calls "woke" into a law which emphasizes obscene and pornographic material:

847.012 Harmful materials; sale or distribution to minors or using minors in production prohibited; penalty.—

(1) As used in this section, “knowingly” means having the general knowledge of, reason to know, or a belief or ground for belief which warrants further inspection or inquiry of both:

(a) The character and content of any material described in this section which is reasonably susceptible of examination by the defendant; and

(b) The age of the minor.

(2) A person’s ignorance of a minor’s age, a minor’s misrepresentation of his or her age, a bona fide belief of a minor’s age, or a minor’s consent may not be raised as a defense in a prosecution for a violation of this section.

(3) A person may not knowingly sell, rent, or loan for monetary consideration to a minor:

(a) Any picture, photograph, drawing, sculpture, motion picture film, videocassette, or similar visual representation or image of a person or portion of the human body which depicts nudity or sexual conduct, sexual excitement, sexual battery, bestiality, or sadomasochistic abuse and which is harmful to minors…

His announcement is making the news, for example in this article:

This article on Judd Legum's website Popular Information article includes reactions from Manatee County teachers. Here's an excerpt from that article:

The Parental Rights In Education Act prohibits all instruction on "sexual orientation or gender identity" in K-3 classrooms and instruction in other grades that is "not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate." But the law applies only to "[c]lassroom instruction by school personnel or third parties" — not library books. Similarly, the Stop WOKE Act is limited to classroom instruction. 

The teacher training approved by the Florida Department of Education, however, does not inform librarians that the Parental Rights in Education Act and Stop WOKE ACT do not apply to library books. Rather, librarians are told: "There is some overlap between the selection criteria for instructional and library materials." One slide says that library books and instructional materials cannot include "unsolicited theories that may lead to student indoctrination." 

A subsequent slide provides a list of "unsolicited theories that may lead to student indoctrination," which includes information about "sexual orientation or gender identity." It also includes a variety of topics related to race, including "Critical Race Theory" and material that might make someone feel "guilt, anguish, or other forms of psychological distress" as a result of their race. The training instructs librarians to "err on the side of caution." 

...

This interpretation of the law runs directly counter to the arguments the DeSantis administration is making in court. In federal court filings, lawyers representing DeSantis insist that the Parental Rights in Education Act does not apply to library books. Nevertheless, the DeSantis administration, through its media specialist training, is encouraging a much more expansive interpretation of the law. 

I am not sure what to make of his exempting librarians from this aspect of his war on Woke. The law he is using is already on the books. If there was a similar law about libraries I suppose he might use that too. It's also possible he believes librarians and public libraries are insignificant. He may have been told how well organized the American Librarians Association is and was informed that a well-funded lawsuit would be leveled against him if he attempted to target them. I doubt that since he was willing to take on Disney. For him it isn't about winning or losing in court. It is about ginning up publicity for his war on Woke.

Is there a vaccine to inoculate America against the smart and sane fascist anti-woke Ron DeSantis?

Is there a vaccine to inoculate America against the smart and sane fascist and anti-woke Ron DeSantis? The hypocritical culture warrior, fascist, and overall  P.O.S.  just did a 180 on Covid.

By Hal Brown

Archives on Right >

Why I was banned from Daily Kos

Posting now on Mastodon - see right column there 

Preface: A big thanks to DonkeyHotey

The caricaturist who goes by the name DonkeyHotey (pronounced Don Quixote) has already provide writers with numerous illustrations for articles about the man who is looking like he will be the GOP candidate to president in 2024.

Click image to enlarge

I have used his caricatures numerous times as have many well known websites. Here's a story about his best 2021 caricatures. 

DeSantis is in the upper right corner

Note the illustration he posted on Dec. 11th on Who, What, Why of Trump here.

You can follow DonkeyHotey on the sites below:

flickr.com/photos/donkeyhotey/
https://whowhatwhy.org/author/donkeyhotey/
https://twitter.com/DonkeyHotey
donkeyhotey.com

@DonkeyHotey@mastodon.coffee

About DonkeyHotey

Today's story

Ron DeSantis is Trump without the stupid red MAGA cap to cover up is male pattern baldness. He has full head of hair. He still believes that to make America great it has to go back at least 100 years.

We know DeSantis will take any position, and change any of them, if he thinks it will help him achieve his political ambition to be president. Here's an example from the news today.

This was then: DeSantis recommends getting vaccinated

Today: 

Democrats can't do a damn thing about which Republican ends up running. Most of them who I've read or heard believe Trump would be the easier candidate to defeat. They can wish Trump would be the candidate, but the various iterations of the saying "if wishes were fishes..."  applies here.

It will be interesting where never-Trump Republicans will come down if the candidate is DeSantis. By now it is a political trope to say that DeSantis is an intelligent and sane version of Trump. He's not about to cozy up to the likes of Ye and Fuentes. He won't tweet barely coherent paranoid rants.

Pundits are not only saying he is more likely to win against Biden or any other Democrat should Biden not run than Trump, but polls support this: 

My impression from reading and listening to never-Trump Republicans is that most of them want to see a tradition conservative run rather than someone who is waging culture warfare and wants to be an anti-woke autocrat.

Nicholas Kristof was on Morning Joe this morning discussing his NY Times column from Dec. 10th Trump Struggles but American is Still Feverish.

Excerpt addressing whether the defeat of Trump endorsed and Big Lie supporting Republicans means the fever has finally broken:

But I may be wrong — and I worry that it’s premature to argue that the national fever has broken. We as a nation still face arguably the greatest peril since the end of Reconstruction, for three reasons.

First, remember that this extremism goes beyond Trump and even beyond the United States. Italy has just installed a far-right prime minister whose party has its roots in neo-fascism, a reminder that the fever persists globally.

Second, even when Trump broke bread with Holocaust deniers and then urged a suspension of the Constitution, congressional Republicans mostly looked the other way. When leaders of one of our major political parties struggle to defend the Constitution or condemn neo-Nazis, America still feels feverish.

Third and most fundamentally, our political dysfunction is driven in complex ways by a broader economic and social dysfunction and despair, one that we fail to grapple with effectively.

If DeSantis runs, and wins, I think it will demonstrate that like the chicken pox virus does, it went dormant in the body and then emerged as a horrible case of shingles. 

There's a vaccine, Shingrix, to deal with that. It requires two doses several months apart to be effective. If you have had it or know anybody who has, you are well aware of how bad it is.

If we extend this metaphor, and I haven't met many metaphors I'm not willing to extend if they make sense, we can say that America got the first dose of anti-fascist conspiracy theory destroying vaccine to deal with the disease of Trumpism. Now they need the second dose to prevent infection with DeSantisism.

Update:

By every measure, Ron DeSantis’ newest Covid gambit is a tragedy

If Covid-19 were capable of feeling emotion, it’d likely be delighted by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' latest public health moves.

Excerpt: Imagine Covid-19, eager to infect as many people as possible, was able to hire its own lobbying team. Then imagine the dangerous contagion’s lobbyists, eager to help their client infect as many people as possible, began pressing politicians on what to say and do with regard to public health policy.

In this fanciful hypothetical, we could probably imagine what the politicians would be told to say and do by Covid’s lobbyists. Officials would be encouraged to, among other things, question the efficacy of vaccines, while rejecting the findings of public health authorities.

Or put another way, if Covid-19 could hire its own lobbying team, it’d be delighted by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his latest announcement.

Addendum:

Thanks to A. my partner and percipient proofreader for reminding me of this.

There is one outcome we can hope for, though we can't to anything to make it happen. This is that Trump loses the primary, whether to DeSantis or anybody else, and decides to run as an Independent. His psychopathology strongly suggests he would do this. He doesn't have any loyalty to the GOP or anyone in it with the exception of his dwindling number of sycophants. 

Doing this keeps him in the public eye until Tuesday, Nov. 7th 2023 when he splits the vote assuring an easy Biden win. He can have his rallies and spew his hate speech and paranoia to his cheering cult.