Last week, the media confused us with their 'coverage' of an interview Ron DeSanits gave to CNBC. And then, they 'reported' again an it made a little more sense.
Let's start with the last attempt at 'reporting.' Bess Levin (VANITY FAIR) regurgitated:
If recent polls -- or commentary from his allies -- are anything to go by, Ron DeSantis does not have a shot in hell at winning the GOP nomination for president, despite effectively being declared the future of the party approximately nine months ago. That turn of events can probably be chalked up to a combination of (1) the chokehold Donald Trump maintains on millions of Republican voters, even the ones who believe the ex-president is a criminal, (2) the Florida governor’s hateful policies back home, which he refuses to stop talking about, and (3) DeSantis's overwhelming awkwardness.
How awkward are we talking? So awkward that The Washington Post wrote an entire article about people who, while being fully transparent about how much they think DeSantis sucks, say they see a lot of themselves in the governor -- because they too find it near impossible to interact with other humans. That article is titled "Awkward Americans see themselves in Ron DeSantis," and if you're wondering, Wait, could this somehow be a good thing for the Florida governor's candidacy? -- the answer is very much no.
And that it explained it.
"Awkward Americans see themselves in Ron DeSanits"? That's what was going on -- the press was seeing itself in Ronald and this identification was preventing them from doing their damn jobs.
The short little creep gave an interview to CNBC that CNBC chopped up and wrongly portrayed in their own coverage and all the crap-ass media in the country played along with.
Why did CNBC do such an intentionally lousy job? Maybe the reason could be found in text media where they do actual disclosures -- like this one to a CNBC article: "NBCUNIVERSAL IS THE PARENT COMPANY OF UNIVERSAL STUDIOS AND CNBC." That's right, they aren't a neutral party, they are a party that sucks up to DeSantis and that, very much, benefits from strife between DISNEY (which owns the big Florida tourist attraction) as they struggle along hoping that, say, "Visit the home of PYSCHO!" will someday have the same cachet of the tea cup "It's A Small World After All Ride" that DISNEY has. Our own disclosure? We know and like Bob Iger.
Stocky, middle-aged Brian Sullivan showed up billed as "CNBC SR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT." SR CORRESPONDENT? He came off like Rona Barrett fawning over Lucille Ball in that sad 1985 ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT interview. That's not fair -- to Rona, that's not fair. He wishes he could fit into Rona's pantyhose.
Let's start by referencing because Brian Sullivan provided none.
DISNEY and DeSantis are engaged in lawsuits and counter-lawsuits. (Ronald tried to pretend it has nothing to do with him, it's just the state of Florida. It is Ronald's policies and he is the governor of Florida.) Back in April, Anna Wilder (POLITICO) explained:
The yearlong battle between Gov. Ron DeSantis and Disney will be fought in federal court.
The California-based entertainment giant filed a lawsuit in federal court Wednesday alleging that DeSantis and his hand-picked board retaliated against the company and violated Disney’s First Amendment rights, among other claims. Disney filed the lawsuit just minutes after a board appointed by the GOP governor voted to invalidate agreements giving Disney authority over its Florida-based theme parks.
[. . .]
The lawsuit repeatedly claims that DeSantis targeted Disney and is
punishing the company for speaking out against the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
Ronald DeSantis has repeatedly insisted that this is not the case, it was just about fairness (equal playing field for all businesses in Florida).
That's the lens you look through. Who is telling the truth? If this wasn't retaliation towards DISNEY then there is no lawsuit.
Now let's go to the interview.
RONALD DESANTIS: At the end of the day, this is just about an issue about the kids. You know, we're going to stand up for our kids. You know I think they made a big mistake by getting involved in this. But as a parent of a 6, 5 and a 3-year-old, I understand -- and parents understand -- kids should be able to go to school, watch cartoons, just be kids without having an agenda shoved down their throat. When you start telling a first grader that they can switch their gender and all of that --
BRIAN SULLIVAN: When did DISNEY have to do with it?
This is followed by cross talk until Sullivan comes back with, "At this point, I'm having a hard time remembering what the original beef was?"
RONALD DESANTIS: So we-we had a bill that basically said in elementary school, we're not going to have any of the sexual curriculum, we're going to focus on math reading, all that. Basically doing school the way it had been done all of American history until like, what, two weeks ago? So they came in, opposed the bill, tried to tank it, which is their right to do, that's fine. I signed the bill and then they put out a statement saying that they were going to devote their-their company's resources to seeing The Parents' Rights repealed or seeing it overturned in court. And it's like, okay, first of all I don't think that's consistent with their fiduciary duty to have taken that position. They did. But then we're in a position where it's okay they have been given this special arrangement by Florida many decades ago, so that's like subsidies -- they're being subsidized. So then they're going to turn those subsidies against our state policies.
What does the above, DeSantis' own words, say? The words say DISNEY's correct. This was retaliation for the company being opposed to Don't Say Gay (Parents' Rights, insists liar Ronald). That is what he is saying is his 'Valley Girlish' answer.
That was the news value. If anyone in the media had paid one damn bit of attention, that was the news value.
Now before we go further we have to cover something else. It's about the words above.
Gay is not sexualization. You can argue against sex education -- which is education on how humans have sex -- but gay is not sex education. People are gay. They've been gay for longer than "two weeks." And having a gay character in a DISNEY film is not sexualization. Nor was it sexualization to have straight couples in DISNEY films since the start of DISNEY films.
Are we too damn stupid to grasp that?
This is not about protect the kids from sexualization. That's the garbage crackpot whores like Naomi Wolf serve up.
They want, as these haters infamously made clear earlier this year, to "eradicate" those they don't like. They were just talking about transgender with that public announcement. But now, in Florida, they've made it clear that it goes far beyond LGBTQ+ people and they now wish to "eradicate" all Democrats.
This isn't about education and it's not about sex.
They're not concerned that second graders are going to learn about blow jobs.
They are concerned -- flat out afraid -- that children might realize there's a whole world out there and it includes all kinds of people.
It's outrageous that straight people have let them get this far with it. (That includes us. We didn't start noticing what was going on until this extreme right-wing playbook was utilized at the end of September to try to destroy the film BROS.)
No one's saying Jane, a straight teacher in Florida, can't have a photo on her desk of her male husband. But if Terry, a gay teacher in Florida, has a photo on his desk of his male husband, suddenly, this is teaching sex to children.
That's not sex.
Now we get it, Ronald is a lazy lay -- he's got that Small Dick Energy. And he's confused and unclear on what sex is.
But those of who are adults know damn well that a photo of your significant other on a desk in your classroom is in no way a lesson in how people copulate.
Let's get back to the interview. In the Thursday "Iraq snapshot," one of us noted:
Mike called out the media on this in "ALTERNET flaunts the stupidity" while Marcia called out idiots in "Muddled idiot Krysten Sinema" -- Senator Krysten Sinema and Senator Tommy Tuberville. Krysten kept calling him "Coach." See, "Coach" is what little Tommy wants to be called. He's a US Senator. Senator is his title. But this man, who doesn't believe in respecting the pro-nouns others want used for themselves, think we should ignore his actual title and instead call him "coach."
We're all for calling people what they want to be called. That was one of the main points we were making last year in "Those fake ass 'religious' litigants (Ava and C.I.):"
We bring it up because Ron DeSantis, governor of Florida, isn't content with ruining businesses in Florida, he's not content with ruining school and universities, he's not content with enforcing racist teaching (the enslaved, he insists, benefited from slavery because it was like a really intensive trade school), he's not content with destroying the employment future of Florida's children as he bans classes on gender studies, on real history of what African-Americans have experienced in the US, on the real makeup of the US population (which does include -- and always has -- LGBTQ+ people) . . . On and on it goes. And even the drag it's put on his once promising campaign hasn't stopped him.
Last week, Virginia Chamlee (PEOPLE MAGAZINE) reported:
Florida students will now be required to get their parents' consent before using a nickname in schools, a move that critics say targets the LGBTQ+ community and could extend well beyond.
In an email sent Tuesday morning, parents and guardians of Seminole County students were advised that school districts in the state are now "required to develop a form to obtain parental consent to use any deviation or nickname from the child's legal name in school."
"If you would like for your child to be able to use a name aside from their legal given name on any of our campuses, we will ask for you to complete the consent form titled 'Parental Authorization for Deviation from Student's Legal Name Form.'"
Where's Ronald parental permission form? MORNING EDITION (NPR) reported on this two weeks ago:
DANIELLE PRIEUR: Judi Hayes has two kids in Orange County and calls the process frustrating. She says the school system has much bigger issues to solve, including a bus driver shortage.
JUDI HAYES: We're just wasting the school's resources. You know, we're wasting their time or wasting their energy with nonsense like, you know, having kids sign off on nickname forms.
PRIEUR: These nickname forms, as she calls them, came with this guidance from the Florida Department of Education. If Robert wants to be called Bobby, he needs a form. And if Robert, who's transitioning, wants to be called Roberta, she also needs a form. For Jen Cousins, who has four kids in Orange County schools, it's just another attack on LGBTQ kids. One of her children is nonbinary, and she worries about name shaming.
JEN COUSINS: Does it just take one bad person in a school to say, hey, I heard them using their nickname today or, you know, go report somebody? Nobody knows.
A bus driver shortage? It's these very real issues that are being ignored so that Ronald can 'eradicate' those he doesn't like. It's a shame so much of the media refuses to cover that story. But, then again, they're just "Awkward Americans" who identify with the socially inept Ronald.