White Supremacy and Nazis, what in the hell is going on in Florida? Members of two White Supremists groups were marching this Labor Day weekend in Orlando. They were raising the Nazi salute and yelling “Heil Hitler and “White Power”. The Anti-Defamation League had warned this was going to happen. They warned that two extremist groups the “Goyim Defense League” and the “Blood Tribe” were planning to gather in Florida for a joint demonstration they were calling the “March of the Redshirts”. The Goyim Defense League is described as a “loose network of individuals, connected by their anti-Semitism with the goal of expelling all Jews from America”. The Blood Tribe, led by White Supremists Christopher Poklaus as “a growing neo- Nazi group that claims to have chapters across the United States and Canada”. By calling the march the “March of the Red Shirts” I guess it is their way of imitating the actual “Brown Shirts” that marched for Hitler. The groups were yelling “Jews will not replace us” and “Jews get the rope” while marching with Swastika flags. I guess Pohlhaus led a portion of the march and would yell “Heil the Fuhrer” the groups response would be “Heil Hitler”. Pohlhaus spoke with reporters and said “We have just to start the fire. We’re the kindling. Once we set the fire, we get the fire hot, than we get the rest of our brothers blazing.” Reading the quote made me think of Charles Manson. He planned the Tate and the Labianca murders. His intention was to have the Blacks blamed for the murders and that would trigger a “Race War”. The more things change the more they stay the same.

Now, you would expect a Governor that is running for President would have immediately denounced the hate groups in his State. Well that didn’t happen. DeSantis’s press secretary, Christina Pushaw suggested that these marchers were a Democratic ploy against DeSantis. “Do we even know they’re Nazis?” in a now deleted tweet. These White Supremists marchers let it be known that they were strong Ron DeSantis supporters. I must also point out that this is just a week after a White Supremists walked into a Jacksonville General Dollar and murdered three Black people. The fact that there are White Supremists here should come as no surprise to anyone that knows anything about Florida. I live here and it doesn’t surprise me at all. The problem that I have is it is getting worse and not better. We are becoming a State of intolerance not tolerance.

What is it about the DeSantis message that would attract White Supremists? Well where do I start?  How about I start with his “Don’t Say Gay”. Talk about a policy that just oozes with hate that a White Supremists would just cling to. This policy brings nothing but hate to the table. It is not protecting children and in fact it may be harming children that are struggling with their sexual identity. This policy is also making it sound like it is teachers that are grooming our kids to be Gay, which is ridiculous. Our schools should be a safe place for a child that is struggling with their Identity. Teaching tolerance is not grooming children. What intolerance is doing is teaching hate and that is what much of DeSantis’s message is, Hate!  Bullying is a major issue that happens in our schools and I would think that a child that is struggling with his sexual identity would be one of the more bullied children in any school. So are teachers not supposed to be able to deal with that bullying? Do they just let that child be tormented? Florida has been the scene of one of the worst mass shootings against the Gay Community seven years ago at the “Pulse”, a Gay night club, in the very same city that the Nazis were marching this weekend. What is DeSantis’s record with the Gay Community? I read more than one article that said it was worse than Trump’s. He has belittled and demonized the Gay Community. It is part of his campaign and his identity that endears him to the far right factions of the Republican Party and with the White Supremists groups around the country.

His attack on Black education is another thing that has attracted much attention of the far right base of the Republican Party. He says that he eliminated the teaching of Critical Race Theory in Florida Schools even though it was never taught in the schools in the first place. What he has eliminated was teaching of Black History period. He is trying to erase that word Black from our history books like discrimination and slavery never happened. He has even stated that there were Black people that benefited from slavery like it was some sort of apprentice program. Our teachers are afraid to teach anything that a parent would deem making their child uncomfortable with their own race. He has enabled the suppressor to be able to act as victims. He has enabled the bigotry and racism to flourish even more in a State that was bad before he took office.  From the shooting of Trayvon Martin to the shooting at the Dollar General Florida has become a dangerous place for minorities to live. He has taken asylum seekers and put them on planes and sent them to other States at the taxpayer’s expense to make a political statement on being tough on illegal immigration. White Supremists love this stuff.  Asylum seekers are not illegal immigrants and should not be treated like they are. It just goes well with DeSantis’s message of hate that plays so well with these White Supremists. We has had 3 hurricanes in less than a year and we have had tens of billions dollars of damage. Florida does not have enough workers to deal with everything that has happened. We had a labor shortage before the hurricanes and DeSantis has just made it worse. I know that DeSantis tries to take advantage of these weather crises by looking like he has everything under control but these crises do not last for a few days they last for years and they are continuing to happen more frequently. What is he doing to speed up the recovery? Any recovery needs workers and that is who DeSantis is actually chasing away. His message of hate toward immigration just hurts Florida and there is no benefit in return.  

We live in a very diverse country and world. Things like diversity, tolerance and inclusion should be part of our everyday language. DeSantis has turned those words into swear words in Florida. He has deemed those things as racist. He has tried to eliminate diversity and inclusion training everywhere in the State of Florida. Every good international business should be very well versed in diversity and inclusion. It is especially necessary for a business like Disney World that attracts millions of people from all over the world to Florida. Not only are their visitors very diverse but so must their workers be trained in that diversity. Needless to say if you have been following the news you know that Disney did the right thing and came out against the DeSantis policies of “Don’t Say Gay” and his “anti diversity and inclusion” campaigns. His stance against Disney has cost the State of Florida billions of dollars and has affected multiple businesses that benefit from all the tourism that flocks to Disney from all over the World. DeSantis’s message of hate and bigotry is just the opposite from what the image of Disney needs to project to be a successful business. The White Supremists and neo-Nazis just eat up that message of hate.

DeSantis is a bully and a wants to be a dictator. His “my way or the highway” type of attitude hurts the State of Florida and it actually hurts the country. He removes elected officials ignoring the will of the people if he doesn’t like them. He tries to destroy businesses that question his racism and bigotry. He takes credit for the hard work of the people that came before him who built our great Emergency Response Team. He tries to get boosts from our crises while actually passing laws that make our recovery harder. DeSantis does not put the State of Florida first or the Country first. With his attitude on climate change he doesn’t even put his family’s future first. Who is first for DeSantis is DeSantis and he will sacrifice all of us to get what he wants.