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Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Truckling to MAGA ended in humiliation for Santa Ono
Century Tower on the Gainesville campus of the University of Florida. (Photo by Jay Waagmeester/Florida Phoenix) A few days ago, the University of Florida was all ready to welcome a brand-new president. They'd gotten rid of the useless (yet expensive) Ben Sasse and chosen a single finalist, a scientist called Santa Ono, former head of the University of Michigan. The trustees liked him; Ron DeSantis liked him, especially since Ono, who was once all-in on diversity at UM, recently pulled a 180, loudly recanting his climate change-admitting, student protest-allowing progressive ways and parroting the governor's War on Woke nonsense like a DeSantis Bot. It wasn't enough: The state university Board of Governors refused to give him the job. Poor old weathervane Ono fell victim to a nasty social media campaign against him, led by such intellectual giants as Don Trump Jr., who squawked 'WTF!' on the twixter; New College trustee Christopher 'They're eating the cats!' Rufo; Sen. Rick Scott; and the congenitally absurd Rep. Byron Donalds, who allowed as how while he didn't know Ono, the man didn't sound like he 'comported with the values of the state of Florida.' Au contraire, congressman. Given that Ono was prepared to abandon the principles of free speech, inclusion, and academic independence, I'd say he perfectly comports with the values of the state of Florida. Especially when it comes to higher education. DeSantis and his UF allies may have lost the Ono battle (more on the politics involved later), but he's committed to the larger war: Florida may soon be celebrated in the MAGA-sphere as the first state to lay waste to its universities. The full-scale assault started in 2023, when DeSantis wrecked New College and took to installing ideologically aligned hacks as presidents and appointing university boards so bent on destruction they'd shame a Visigoth. Former politico Richard Corcoran was not educationally, temperamentally, or administratively qualified to be president of the state honors college, yet there he is, DeSantis' boy, drawing a huge salary and inviting accused rapists to speak on campus in Sarasota. FIU and FAU got landed with dead-enders former Lt. Gov. Jeannette Nuñez and Republican state Rep.-turned private prison company vice president Adam Hasner. Now the governor has turned his lizardy eye upon the universities of West Florida and Florida A&M with a view to undermining academic freedom, student opportunity, and scholarly rigor. DeSantis, who loves to call Florida 'free,' doesn't want institutions of higher education to be free: He wants them cowed, cramped, and compliant. In April, DeSantis claimed — with no evidence, mind — UWF was some kind of 'indoctrination camp' run by 'Marxist professors' and warned those crazy Pensacola lefties to 'buckle up.' Big changes were coming. To that end, he appointed a noisome bouquet of trustees, several proudly hostile to book-learning. Three of them were either rejected by the Florida Senate or else slunk off before they could be officially sent packing. Adam Kissel, a fellow at the Heritage Foundation and one of the discarded candidates, seemed puzzled by the snub. In an interview with UWF's newspaper 'The Voyager,' he claimed he'd been brought down by a 'disinformation narrative' partially based on his comments lamenting the GI Bill's negative effect on American society. That would be the GI Bill that has enabled millions of veterans to get a college degree and join the middle class. Kissel also complained about the general milieu in blood red Escambia County, claiming, 'Cancel culture is still alive in Pensacola.' After these embarrassing rebuffs, you might think DeSantis might rethink his approach but, of course, you'd be wrong. His newest trustee pick, another Heritage Foundation luminary, pitched a hissy fit about UWF students putting on a Halloween drag show in 2019. (Halloween — you know, when people dress up in all sorts of outlandish ways?) Zack Smith, a Pensacola native and former assistant U.S. attorney in the Northern District of Florida, told UWF's then-president Martha Saunders he had 'concerns' (most of which seem to involve gay people asserting equal rights or Black people calling out systemic racism in America), including such outré actions as inviting one of the founders of Black Lives Matter to speak on campus (she's an 'avowed Marxist'!) as well as the UWF librarian suggesting Ibram X. Kendi's 'How to Be an Antiracist' as a good read for Black History Month. God forbid students might encounter a critique of capitalism or an important and provocative exploration of race during Black History Month. Pro tips for Project 2025 zealots: Capitalism is not beyond criticism. I refer Heritage True Believers to Mark 10:25 (the camel/rich man/eye-of-needle thing) and Matthew 6:24 (the God and Mammon thing) as well as analyses of our economic system, many written by those embedded in it. Marxism is a political philosophy. Like any other philosophy, it should be studied in universities. Merely hearing about it does not rot your very soul. Ibram X. Kendi is a distinguished scholar, a graduate of Florida A&M University who has gone on to win a National Book Award and a MacArthur Fellowship. Reading his work will not infect you with the Woke Mind Virus. But — agree or disagree with what Kendi says — his book might make you think. Imagine that: college students thinking. Eye-wateringly stupid as Smith's complaints were, they had the intended effect: Martha Saunders resigned, allowing DeSantis to put his education commissioner in as interim president. The irredeemably unimpressive Manny Diaz Jr. has no higher ed experience, no terminal degree, and no business running what was, under presidents such as Judy Bense, a highly regarded archeologist, and Martha Saunders, an expert in communications theory, a university on its way up. Unfortunately for UWF, odds are Diaz gets the permanent gig: That's what happened at New College; that's what happened at FIU. DeSantis wants university presidents who realize they do not work for the institution, fostering knowledge, encouraging free inquiry, and serving education. He insists they work for him. They must do his bidding, battling villains such as faculty unions, student journalists, Pride Month celebrations, critical race theory, gender studies, and African American studies. Which brings us to FAMU. DeSantis and his higher ed henchpersons have, in the past, tread pretty carefully with Florida's only public HCBU. Maybe it's because FAMU is such a, well, let's call it a 'bargain.' In 2024-25, FAMU's enrollment was 9,980. New College's was 850. FAMU's appropriation was $50 million. New College got $52 million. Even those of us who went to school in Florida can do that math. Not that anyone should be surprised the state spends far more per student at predominantly white New College than at predominantly not-white FAMU. Can't be racism. Oh, no. Perish the thought. Even though on Planet DeSantis, the very existence of a majority-minority student body is DEI gone wild. At any rate, FAMU's no longer flying under the governor's radar. He just got to stick another of his favorites in the top job. The good part: FAMU's presidential search was unusually transparent, at least in comparison to the absurdly hermetic process at UF and other state institutions. The four finalists' names were publicly announced and students, faculty, and community members were invited to meet them. Three had solid-to-excellent qualifications. Contenders included the provost and vice president for academic affairs at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, the senior vice president for administration and finance at the University of Central Florida, and FAMU's own senior vice president and COO. The not-so-good part: Candidate Number Four. Marva Johnson appeared almost out of nowhere, rumored to be a late addition pushed by trustee Deveron Gibbons, a DeSantis appointee. As you'd expect, she has no higher education experience, but she has far more important qualities: She's a telecom company executive, a MAGA Republican, and a crony of Ron DeSantis'. FAMU has long been a leader in the fight for civil rights and remains the nation's top public HCBU, alma mater of politicians like former Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and U.S. Rep. Al Green, musicians Common and Cannonball Adderley, satirist Roy Wood Jr., Wimbledon champion Althea Gibson, and art collector Bernard Kinsey. Rattlers were horrified Johnson made the short list and held rallies protesting her candidacy. Movie producer, FAMU alum and big-time donor Will Packer said she might 'do irreparable harm to the university's relationship with its community and with its donor base.' Naturally, she got the job. And, like any self-respecting MAGA grifter, immediately demanded a salary of $750,000, nearly $300,000 a year higher than her predecessor. Of course, she won't make as much as the president of New College: He pulls in nearly a $1 million overseeing those 850 students. Taxpayers might wonder why, when legislators and the governor keep whining about the need to cut budgets and save money, there seems to be no problem paying a gaggle of under-qualified nonentities huge amounts to be university presidents. But universities in Florida and other MAGA-controlled states are no longer so much about education as they are about propaganda and power. Republicans want to control curriculum, censoring anything that upsets white folks — topics such as slavery, genocide, colonialism, gender, women's rights. You've seen how Trump is going after Harvard and other universities, cutting off funding, trying to control hiring and admissions, denying foreign students visas. Colleges in Utah, Ohio, Texas, Iowa, and (no surprise) Florida are being told to emphasize Western Civilization, the Constitution, and 'Great Books.' MAGAs might not like it if universities really focused on, say, the Constitution. Students might realize that the current regime regularly violates it. For Ron DeSantis, taming Florida's universities feeds his desperate need for relevance. Spurned by the voters during his disastrous presidential bid, ridiculed by onetime patron Donald Trump, defied by the Legislature, DeSantis figures at least he can run — or ruin — education. It's not quite as smooth a conquest as anticipated. The crash of Santa Ono's UF candidacy was about the Right's fear of DEI. But it was also about giving DeSantis a black eye. The crash of Santa Ono's UF candidacy was about the Right's fear of DEI — they truly do want to Make America White (and Christian and male-dominated) Again — and hysteria over hiring someone who, despite his pathetic attempts to demonstrate that he'd drunk the Trumpy Kool-Aid, clearly knew better. But it was also about giving DeSantis a black eye. Signs indicate Casey DeSantis will run for governor when her husband terms out. But she's got all kinds of political problems, not least an investigation into her dodgy charity, Hope Florida. Her husband is spewing spittle all over Tallahassee, accusing a 'jackass' in the Legislature (the rest of us know him as Rep. Alex Andrade) of taking documents which 'he dropped in a prosecutor's office,' and hollering 'that is not an organic investigation' and any accusation of money laundering is just a 'smear.' Then there's her likely primary opponent, Rep. Byron Donalds. He's been endorsed by Trump. It's no coincidence he led the MAGA campaign against Ono. Higher education has always been political. Governors and legislators have never approved of professors (liberals, mostly) or students (snotty-nosed kids protesting) or faculty (probably Marxists). But DeSantis has taken the politicization of universities to a whole new level of venality, pettiness, and dangerous repression. The 'Free State of Florida' isn't. As that famous novel (which could soon be on the banned books list) says: 'Freedom is slavery' and 'Ignorance is strength.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
The Hill
17-05-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
Trump shows signs of mounting frustration with Supreme Court
President Trump has displayed growing frustration with the Supreme Court as justices have stymied his approach to carrying out his agenda, particularly on immigration, since his White House return in January. 'THE SUPREME COURT WON'T ALLOW US TO GET CRIMINALS OUT OF OUR COUNTRY!' the president exclaimed Friday in one of multiple Truth Social posts penned after the court ruled 7-2 to temporarily block the administration's efforts to deport migrants with alleged ties to Venezuelan gangs largely over a technical issue. 'This is a bad and dangerous day for America!' he wrote in another post that also accused Supreme Court justices of 'not allowing me to do what I was elected to do.' Trump entered the White House five months ago with a more outwardly restrained approach to the High Court, which has a 6-3 conservative tilt that includes three Trump appointees from his first term. When justices unanimously upheld a federal law in January to shut down video-sharing app TikTok in the United States unless it cuts ties with its Chinese parent company, Trump, who had sought more time to hash out a TikTok resolution, responded online by saying he would try something else. 'The Supreme Court decision was expected, and everyone must respect it,' he wrote to his followers on Truth Social. He later again defended the panel of justices and accused the media of trying to 'create a divide between me and our great U.S. Supreme Court,' after some people highlighted his interactions with Chief Justice John Roberts and other justices who attended his joint congressional address in March. Trump stressed his respect for the judiciary but grumbled about the 'ridiculous situation we are in' after the court authorized a separate temporary hold on deportations on April 21. 'My team is fantastic, doing an incredible job, however, they are being stymied at every turn by even the U.S. Supreme Court, which I have such great respect for, but which seemingly doesn't want me to send violent criminals and terrorists back to Venezuela, or any other Country, for that matter,' he wrote. But his messages about the court have gotten more emphatic as Trump-linked cases mount —along with reposts of messages from other court critics. His latest hyper-critical messages directed at the court this week over immigration have reverberated throughout the MAGA-sphere. Trump early this week offered a tactic for his team to argue in favor of broad presidential powers when faced with resistance from Supreme Court justices: Tell them that he's the president and was elected to do what he wants. 'Our lawyers should state this FACT when going before the United States Supreme Court, and all other courts. I was elected in a landslide, won ALL SEVEN SWING STATES, 312 Electoral College Votes, Won 2750 to 525 Districts, and easily won the Popular Vote. I must be allowed to do the job that I was elected to do. If not, we won't have a Country anymore,' he wrote Sunday. He wrote in a post Friday: 'The Radical Left SleazeBags, which has no cards remaining in its illegal bag of tricks, is, in a very coordinated manner, PLAYING THE REF with regard to the United States Supreme Court. They lost the Election in a landslide, and with it, have totally lost their confidence and reason. They are stone cold CRAZY! I hope the Supreme Court doesn't fall for the games they play. The people are with us in bigger numbers than ever before. They want to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!' He followed that with another message stressing that the court was in the wrong when it ruled against him. 'THE SUPREME COURT IS BEING PLAYED BY THE RADICAL LEFT LOSERS, WHO HAVE NO SUPPORT, THE PUBLIC HATES THEM, AND THEIR ONLY HOPE IS THE INTIMIDATION OF THE COURT, ITSELF. WE CAN'T LET THAT HAPPEN TO OUR COUNTRY!' he wrote. Trump reposted a message Saturday from Mike Davis, a former Republican Senate and White House aide who now runs the Article III Project, an advocacy group that supports conservative jurists. Davis wrote that the court is 'heading down a perilous path.' 'The Supreme Court must come to the RESCUE OF AMERICA,' Trump added to the top of Davis's original post.
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Tucker Carlson Begs Trump to ‘Rescue' His Accused Rapist Friend
Tucker Carlson wants Donald Trump to 'rescue' Russell Brand from his sex crime charges—and he's imploring his followers to 'pray' Trump will step in the save him. Apparently, the British comedian is facing rape and sexual assault charges simply for being on team MAGA. Carlson wrote as much on X on Friday, in a post that portrayed Brand as a martyr to the right-wing cause. 'Russell Brand was once a famous leftwing actor, celebrated by the British establishment,' Carlson began, 'then he criticized the government for using Covid to turn the UK into a totalitarian state.' Brand, known for his roles in comedy films like Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Get Him to the Greek, is facing multiple counts of rape and sexual assault charges stemming from a year and a half-long investigation. But Carlson, who has hosted Brand on his post-Fox News podcast, says the government made it all up to get back at him for 'criticizing' it. Brand was first accused publicly in 2023 by four different women. Now, he is out on conditional bail, according to Sky News, and used a few seconds of his freedom to retweet Carlson's Friday post imploring Trump for help. Carlson goes on to insist that the British government is so outraged with the comedian's criticism that it fashioned decades of sex crime accusations against him using 'anonymous' witnesses from 'more than 20 years ago,' for a case he's classified as 'transparently political and absurd.' Brand has maintained his innocence and insisted that though he was 'very very promiscuous' his relationships were always 'absolutely, always consensual.' After the formal charges were filed this month, he denied the allegations again with a social media video in which he expressed his hope that fans could 'look at his eyes' and know he 'never engaged in non-consensual activity.' Carlson defended the former radio host fiercely Friday, as he argued that Brand is a model immigrant. 'Over the last few years, millions of foreigners have applied for asylum in the United States. Russell Brand actually deserves it,' he wrote. He also compared Brand's charges to those 'fake rape charges authorities brought against Julian Assange 15 years ago.' (Swedish prosecutors dropped a rape investigation into the WikiLeaks founder in 2019.) 'None of the charges are backed by hard evidence,' he claimed, wrapping up his image of Brand as a sacrificial lamb of the right wing with a nice concluding bow. 'Brand, whose youngest child is barely a year old, now faces life in prison. He has no shot at a fair trial, because Britain is no longer a free country... Say a prayer that the Trump administration comes to his rescue.' Carlson's 'prayer' may yet come true. Brand has become a fixture of the MAGA-sphere, pushing anti-vaccine conspiracy theories and portraying himself as having had a religious transformation since the rape and assault allegations emerged. This past December, he partied it up at Mar-a-Lago in December to celebrate Trump's second inauguration.
Yahoo
13-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Trump's Cringeworthy Cheryl Hines Snub Sparks MAGA Meltdown
President Donald Trump snubbed Cheryl Hines at a UFC event on Saturday—sending the MAGA-sphere into a tailspin. Footage from the evening's fight at Kaseya Centre in Miami shows the president approach Hines' husband, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., then hug him before airing the Curb Your Enthusiasm star's outstretched hand. The actress was unable to conceal her shock, frowning and sticking out her lip as she turned toward Kennedy, who smiled back blankly. 'Cheryl Hines getting blown off for a handshake by President Trump is just missing the Curb music,' one person wrote on X. Another added, 'Lmfao trump ghosted Cheryl Hines so hard.' A third user chimed in: 'Was that intentional?! Does anyone know why?' While Trump eventually circled back to greet her, the awkward episode shone fresh light on the rift between the pair. The actress has in the past made little secret of her disdain toward the president and, in particular, his attitude toward women. She previously took aim at Trump for his disparaging comments about Texas Sen. Ted Cruz's wife, referring to the president's statements as 'ridiculous and disrespectful.' While some online commentators revelled in the cringeworthy moment, others were quick to rush to the president's defense. 'This is for everyone pushing the 'He snubbed her' BS,' one person wrote. 'President Trump was simply distracted before shaking Joe Rogan's hand and immediately went back to shake Cheryl Hines hand.' 'Let's just face it? People who dislike President Trump, LOOK for anything & everything for criticism,' another added. 'I'm sure, Cheryl Hines criticism of President Trump IS BENIGN as compared to MSM, & Dems. Cheryl Hines will get over the 'SUPPOSED SLIGHT'.'
