No Controversy Here

Ron I-am-not-a-racist DeSantis, Governor of Florida, has been carrying on about the content of the high school Advanced Placement course in African American Studies. He claimed that the original program “pushed an agenda” and was particularly concerned about topics like Black queer studies and movements for Black lives.*

And the College Board, which oversees the AP program, has just announced changes—a new course framework that eliminates some of DeSantis' concerns.

Unfortunately for the College Board, the State of Florida has pre-empted the CB’s move and developed its own AP examination in African American Studies. We here at drmormalvision with our secret spies have obtained an advanced copy of the examination.

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FLORIDA’S DECIDEDLY NON-PARTISAN, COMPLETELY OBJECTIVE TEST

INSTRUCTIONS:

Circle only one answer for each question

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1)  Clarence Thomas is most famous for

A—Dancing with Shirley Temple

B—Breaking Babe Ruth’s home run record

C—Serving for a long, long time on the Supreme Court

D—Having a great Afro

2)  Herschel Walker is famous for

A—Trombone solo on “Take the A Train”

B—Losing a Senate race

C—Writing songs for Motown

D—Having a great Afro 

3)  Michael Jordan did all but one of these:

A—Sold sneakers to Republicans

B—Dunked a basketball

C—Starred in "Mutiny on the Bounty"

D—Hawked underwear

4)  Diamond and Silk were

A—Brilliant political commentators

B—Excellent tap dancers

C—Antifa agitators

D—On sale at Macy’s

5)  Donald Trump did more for Black people than

A—Martin Luther King, Jr

B—Abraham Lincoln

C—Lyndon B. Johnson

D—All of the Above

6)  Black History Month celebrates

A—Boston Blackie

B—Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England

C—The Black and White Minstrels 

D—None of the Above

***

* https://www.politico.com/news/2023/02/01/african-american-studies-course-desantis-00080390

The Jokesters

A Belgian Man Has Been Pranked with Pizza Deliveries for 9 Horrible Years

https://www.foodandwine.com/news/pizza-delivery-prank-9-years-belgium

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Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott are real cards—producers of laugh-a-minute knee slappers, they have you rolling in the aisles. They also happen to be governors of two states of our union, Florida and Texas, respectively. Lately, when they need a rest from limiting women’s control over their bodies, banning textbooks, and other primary activities deemed necessary for the head of a backward political entity, they metamorphose into red state gagsters. Their shtick is to prank residents of other states by sending them unordered pizzas people. 

Abbott literally had two buses deliver immigrants to the doorstep of Vice President Harris. (There was no word whether they came bearing pepperoni or meatball pies.) DeSantis went one better (or worse) by chartering two planes to fly immigrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts. (Does any resident of Florida wonder why DeSantis is spending that state’s taxpayer money to transport people from Texas to Massachusetts, or are they all in on the gag?) 

Supposedly, the purpose of the stealth transportations was to produce a kind of neo-Candid Camera moment, in which the pranked liberal residents of the District of Columbia and of the Vineyard would be caught losing it over the arrival of the Latin American strangers. “Smile,” Greg and Ron would exclaim, “you’ve been revealed as hypocrites!”

Except things didn’t happen that way. To take the example of the Vineyard residents: they rushed to welcome the incomers bearing their meager belongings. According to the Vineyard Gazette,

A coalition of emergency management officials, faith groups, nonprofit agencies and county and town officials were organizing food and shelter for the migrants, who spent Wednesday night at St. Andrews Church in Edgartown. The Salvation Army, among others, was providing food. . . .

As word spread of the migrants' plight, a crowd of people — many eager to offer assistance — gathered outside the church. Edgartown Police Lt. Chris Dolby urged people not to deliver additional donations.

Speaking outside the parish hall Thursday morning, state Rep. Dylan Fernandes said the situation was under control “with local law enforcement jumping into action.”

“People were served breakfast this morning by the parish and served lunch by the school system. We are a community that helps one another and you can see that here,” he said.*

*

Perhaps the best summation of the transportation stunt is this headline in New York magazine:

DeSantis Tries to Prove Liberals Hate Immigrants As Much As He Does, Fails

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I have two final points to make:

1) When I finish this post, I’ll be writing a check to HIAS, whose motto is:

Welcome the stranger.

Protect the refugee.

2) For my next pizza, I won’t have it delivered; I’ll pick it up myself.

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*  https://vineyardgazette.com/news/2022/09/14/planeload-venezuelan-refugees-arrive-marthas-vineyard-airport

 

By The Numbers

About six weeks ago I published a blog post that cited George Orwell’s essay “Politics and the English Language,” which discusses the nefarious use of euphemism to cover up war atrocities (https://drnormalvision.blogspot.com/2022/03/special-cover-up.html). I wrote:

Putin’s war against Ukraine can serve as an object lesson in euphemism. For one thing, the word “war” has been outlawed in Russia; Putin has called his invasion a “special operation.” What can be vaguer than something called “an operation”? What exactly goes on in “an operation”? . . .

Meanwhile, shells are landing on civilian targets, millions are fleeing their homes, or hiding out in improvised shelters—and the death toll mounts.

In the latest issue of The Atlantic Anne Applebaum has an essay entitled “UKRAINE AND THE WORDS THAT LEAD TO MASS MURDER: First comes the dehumanization. Then comes the killing” (https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/06/ukraine-mass-murder-hate-speech-soviet/629629/). The essay enlarges upon the point I made in my blog, going into great detail on the history of Russian denigration of Ukraine and Ukrainians and the genocidal results therefrom. As Applebaum points out, “[W]hile not every use of genocidal hate speech leads to genocide, all genocides have been preceded by genocidal hate speech.”

I recommend reading her essay.

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I am sure that the following news will make you all breathe easier:

Florida governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill Monday to create a police force dedicated to pursuing voter fraud and other election crimes.*

The Guardian notes, however, 

Voter fraud is rare, typically occurs in isolated instances and is generally detected. An Associated Press investigation of the 2020 presidential election found fewer than 475 potential cases of voter fraud out of 25.5 million ballots cast in the six states where Trump and his allies disputed his loss to President Joe Biden.

Despite the fact that there are few cases of voter fraud, here are two cases that made the news. First, in Florida itself:

Two men from The Villages—a Florida retirement community known for its staunch support of former President Donald Trump—have pleaded guilty to voting more than once during the 2020 election.** 

Second:

Mark Meadows—a former chief of staff to President Donald Trump who was removed from North Carolina voter rolls earlier this month—is still a registered voter in two other states, according to officials and a published report.***

I can’t wait until DeSantis’ posse begins rounding up all those Republican election cheaters.

*

While we’re stuck in the swamp of Florida, let me clue you in on why the state has banned 54 math books. It’s looking to find one that claims that 74,216,154 votes are greater than 81,268,924. That’s Republican arithmetic.

***

* https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/apr/25/ron-desantis-florida-governor-bill-police-voter-fraud

** https://www.businessinsider.com/2-men-pro-trump-florida-the-villages-admit-voter-fraud-2022-4?inline-endstory-related-recommendations=

*** https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2022-04-22/mark-meadows-also-registered-to-vote-in-south-carolina