Tag: florida

US Deploys Sub Hunter P-8 Poseidon Off Florida Coast To ‘Shadow’ Russian Flotilla

According to Newsweek, multiple open-source intelligence analysts have said the US has deployed air and naval assets off Florida’s eastern coast to ‘shadow’ Russian warships. This comes as Russian warships are expected to arrive in Cuba this week ahead of military drills in the Caribbean.

Open source intelligence (OSINT) analysts on Tuesday posted updates showing the CG Stone coastguard vessel, the USS Truxtun and USS Donald Cook destroyers, and the Royal Canadian Navy frigate HMCS Ville de Quebec travelling southwards down the Florida coast, purportedly following the Russian ships headed to Cuba. Above them, at least one US Navy P-8A Poseidon appeared to be conducting surveillance. -Newsweek

OSINT analysts on X weren’t clear which of Russia’s four-ship grouping, made up of the Gorshkov frigate, the nuclear-powered submarine Kazan, the fleet oil tanker Pashin, and the rescue tug Nikolai Chiker, were transiting in international waters off the coast of Florida. Still, they posted flight tracking data that showed at least one Boeing P-8 Poseidon circling above. 

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U.S. Government PSYOP Needs to be Zeroed Out and Re-started Under Constitutional Principles

Special Operation Forces Week in Tampa is the premier gathering event for all things related to Special Operations.  On May 9, 2024, at the most recent event in Tampa, there was a session on “Operations in the Information Environment (OIE) Symposium”.  This title is simply another name for Psychological Operations (PSYOP).

Having been to the PSYOP Course at Ft. Bragg (now Ft. Liberty) in 1984, this panel caught my attention.  The name, functional areas, doctrine and tactics have evolved a bit since PSYOP was first introduced in the 1950s to fight Soviet Communism that was on a post-World War II rampage to topple the Western System.  The Doolittle Report, the founding strategy and document for the CIA roles and missions, emphasized the need for methodologies and capabilities to tell the American story and defeat the aggressive Soviet propaganda efforts.  PSYOP was key to the early CIA and the nascent American military special operations community.  It was quite effective in those early and heady days of a battle for survival against Communism.

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Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz wants Congress to OK killing rare whale

Of all the movies ever made in Florida — “Body Heat,” “Cocoon,” and “Spring Breakers,” to name a few — the one with the oddest concept was “The Truman Show.”

Jim Carrey plays a man with a sunny disposition who has no idea that secret cameras are recording every moment of his life for the entertainment of millions.

“Good morning, and in case I don’t see ya, good afternoon, good evening, and good night,” he’d cheerfully tell his neighbors, not realizing they were actors.

This movie was filmed in a seaside Florida town named Seaside. The town is real, not a movie set. I know someone who grew up in the house that Carrey’s character occupied in the movie, and so do you. His name is Matt Gaetz, and he’s the pompadoured U.S. congressman representing a chunk of the Panhandle.

Lately, though, Gaetz, R-Venmo, seems to be copying a much dourer fictional character. He’s been styling himself after Captain Ahab from “Moby Dick.”

He’s set a course to take out a whale. Or several.

Not a white whale, of course. No, he wants to harm the rarest whale on earth.

The Rice’s whale is the only one that lives entirely in the Gulf of Mexico. The species, discovered only recently, is definitely endangered. Scientists estimate that there are fewer than 100 of them — maybe as few as 51.

And Gaetz wants Congress to OK the military bombing the heck out of them.

Even though the military doesn’t want to do that.

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Florida Marijuana Legalization Campaign Releases New Statewide Ad Warning Of Dangers Of Unregulated Cannabis

The campaign behind a marijuana legalization ballot measure in Florida released a new ad in support of Amendment 3 this week, arguing that cannabis currently available on the state’s illicit market is dangerously unregulated.

“Most Florida marijuana is illegal, produced by criminals and can be laced with dangerous drugs like fentanyl,” a woman says, described in a campaign press release as “a Florida mom and voter who believes adult Floridians deserve the individual freedom to consume safe, tested adult-use marijuana.”

Titled “Fact,” the 30-second ad is set to air statewide “across broadcast, cable, streaming, radio and digital platforms,” according to the campaign, Smart & Safe Florida.

“Millions of Floridians use marijuana. It’s a fact,” it says. “Most Americans have access to legal marijuana that is regulated and tested for safety, but not Florida.”

Amendment 3, which will appear before voters in November, “gives adults access to legal, safe marijuana and the freedom to make their own choices while generating billions for schools and police,” it adds.

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‘An Embarrassing Mistake’: Neil Gorsuch Rails Into Florida’s Use of 6-Person Juries

The right to a trial by jury was designed to be part of “the heart and lungs of liberty,” enshrined into the Constitution to protect people “against being ridden like horses, fleeced like sheep, worked like cattle, and fed and clothed like swine and hogs,” according to John Adams.

It is, in theory, still supposed to do that. But the Founders would likely be dismayed by the ways in which the government has watered down that right since their passing.

Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch rebuked one such way today: the use of six-member juries, as opposed to the historical practice of 12-person panels.

His opinion was pegged to Cunningham v. Florida, a case concerning Florida woman Natoya Cunningham who was sentenced to eight years in prison after a six-person jury found her guilty of aggravated battery and retaliation against an informant to whom her nephew sold crack. Florida is one of six states—the others are Arizona, Connecticut, Indiana, Massachusetts, and Utah—that permits either six- or eight-person panels for such criminal trials.

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DeSantis Reportedly Plans To Veto Hemp Ban In Hopes Industry Will Help Defeat Marijuana Legalization Ballot Initiative

The governor of Florida is reportedly planning to veto a bill that would ban consumable hemp-derived cannabinoid products such as delta-8 THC, apparently because he’s hoping the hemp industry will help finance a campaign opposing a marijuana legalization initiative on the state’s November ballot.

As Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) prepares to step up his push against the legalization measure, officials close to the governor who spoke anonymously to CBS News say he’s plotting to leverage the hemp industry’s economic interest in participating in the intoxicating cannabinoid market to convince people to vote against marijuana reform.

DeSantis has made abundantly clear that he’s against marijuana legalization, arguing that the state shouldn’t go beyond the existing medical cannabis program and that broader reform would negatively impact the quality of life for Floridians.

But in the background, another cannabis battle has played out in the state legislature, with lawmakers in both chambers approving a bill to severely restrict consumable hemp products. It hasn’t been formally transmitted to the governor yet, but a source told the local news outlet that “he’s going to veto.”

“The marijuana people are furious,” they said, “and they are scrambling.”

Another source said there was “never a thought the governor would veto the bill,” but “they are now signaling that they are going to veto, and I think it would be fair to say he is leaning toward a veto.”

By vetoing the legislation, the governor is reportedly banking on hemp businesses returning the favor by aiding in his campaign to defeat the marijuana legalization initiative. It’s unclear if that would play out, but it is the case that certain leadership in the Florida Republican Party, which formally came out against Amendment 3 earlier this month, have close ties to the hemp industry.

The state party’s president and interim executive director, Evan Power and Bill Helmich, are both top lobbyists for the Florida Healthy Alternatives Association that represents hemp stakeholders.

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7,000-Year-Old Native American ‘Bog Burial’ Found Off The Coast of Florida

Archaeologists have uncovered a Native American burial site dating back 7,000 years off the coast of Florida. The site was found by an amateur diver in 2016 who was looking for shark teeth but stumbled on an ancient jawbone.

The 167 bodies discovered in a pond in Windover, Florida started to stir up excitement in the archaeological world only after the bones were declared very old, and not the product of mass murder. Researchers from Florida State University came to the site, believing that in the swampland some more Native American bones had been found.

They believed the bones were between 500 and 600 years old. But then the bones were dated with radiocarbon. It turns out that these corpses were between 6,990 and 8,120 years old. The academic community was then incredibly excited. Windover Bog has proved to be one of the United States’ most significant archaeological discoveries.

In 1982, Steve Vanderjagt, the man who made the discovered, was using a backhoe to demolish the pond to create a new subdivision between Disney World and Cape Canaveral. A large number of rocks in the pond confused Vanderjagt since the region of Florida was not considered to be particularly rocky.

Getting out of his backhoe, Vanderjagt went to investigate and almost immediately realized that he had unearthed a huge pile of bones. He called the authorities right away. It was only thanks to his natural curiosity that the site was preserved. After the medical examiners declared them ancient, the specialists from Florida State University were summoned (another brilliant move by Vanderjagt- too often sites are ruined because experts are not called).

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Even If You Support Police, Don’t Ban People From Recording Them


Police, questioned over tactics and culturally besieged not too long ago, find themselves with renewed cachet amidst concerns over crime and campus chaos. That means leverage to win themselves leeway in how they go about their jobs—pushing, for instance, laws that restrict the public’s right to record cops making arrests, with Florida the latest jurisdiction to enact such a bill. That pleases fans of law enforcement, but it reduces accountability for an armed and often abusive arm of government.

Florida Proudly Supports Police Unaccountability

“I was proud to sign legislation today to ensure law enforcement officers can serve our communities without worrying about harassment from anti-police activists,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced April 12. “We will continue to take action to ensure Florida remains the friendliest state in the nation for law enforcement officers.”

The two bills DeSantis signed that day certainly go a long way towards making the state very friendly to cops. H.B. 601 guarantees that police departments will control oversight boards that investigate their conduct. S.B. 184, in line with “buffer” legislation in other states intended to impede recording of law-enforcement activity, lets police order members of the public to remain at least 25 feet distant under threat of arrest.

“We appreciate the importance of protecting first responders but are concerned that the bill prevents citizens from going near or filming first responders within 25 feet if told not to approach,” noted the state’s First Amendment Foundation, which urged DeSantis to veto the legislation. “This bill would undermine citizen journalists and could allow for undocumented police misconduct.”

Lawmakers and DeSantis made much of the threat posed by citizens who “harass” and “threaten” police, and indeed we’ve seen some of that at anti-Israel protests around the country. But agitators already blocking bridges or occupying buildings are unlikely to be deterred by yet one more law. The real targets will be people upsetting cops by recording them at inconvenient moments.

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Florida Becomes First State to Ban ‘Fake Meat’

Florida’s governor has signed a first-of-its-kind bill into law to officially ban lab-grown meat, in a bid to protect the Sunshine State’s cattle industry and its residents.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the legislation, SB1084, into law at a ceremony in Wauchula on May 1. The sweeping 81-page agricultural package officially bans “the manufacture for sale, sale, holding or offering for sale, or distribution of cultivated meat” in the Sunshine State.

The bill includes 22 additional measures, ranging from the preemption of federal regulations for electric vehicle stations in the state to a redefinition of the term. “hemp extract.” The ban does not include Impossible meat, which is a plant-based meat alternative.

Gov. DeSantis’ office said in a statement that Florida is “taking action to stop the World Economic Forum’s goal of forcing the world to eat lab-grown meat and insects.”

The World Economic Forum (WEF) describes insects as “an overlooked source of protein.”

Gov. DeSantis described the legislation as the state’s effort to push back against the plan by global elites to force the world to consume “meat grown in a petri dish or bugs to achieve their authoritarian goals.”

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DeSantis Frets About Florida ‘Reeking of Marijauna,’ Says He’ll Oppose Legalization

There may not be a more apt visual metaphor for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ past few years than his opposition to a proposed marijuana legalization ballot initiative—which he announced Tuesday while literally standing behind a sign celebrating “Freedom Month.”

“I don’t want this state to be reeking of marijuana,” DeSantis said, defaulting to one of the laziest arguments against pot freedom, but one that DeSantis has been using for years. “We’re doing fine. We don’t need to do that.”

How’s that for Freedom Month?

In fairness to DeSantis, the jarringly dissonant signage was celebrating the state’s sales tax holiday during May. Even so, the gap between DeSantis’ pro-freedom messaging and his actions as governor has become a recurring theme for the one-time presidential hopeful.

After all, this is the same guy who wrote a book titled The Courage To Be Free, but has made a name for himself in conservative politics by wielding state power against drag queens, student groups, and others who have had the courage to freely express their opinions. On the presidential campaign trail, DeSantis would talk up the importance of school choice and parental rights, then moments later promise stricter state control over school curriculums. He’s championed Florida’s status as a refuge for Americans fleeing poor government policies in other states, even as he’s tried to boot out migrants who are voting with their feet by coming to America for the same reason.

Freedom, for DeSantis, seems to mean that you can do whatever you’d please—but only if he approves.

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