(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . DeSantis is Building a "Personal Militia" [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-07-16 A Florida state guard established by the rightwing governor, Ron DeSantis, under the guise of a civilian disaster relief force is instead being trained as an armed, combat-ready militia under his personal command, according to military veteran recruits who have quit the program. This is based on Jul 14 story from the Miami Herald: Veterans quit as training, mission for DeSantis’ State Guard turn militaristic Over 30 days in June, teenagers out of high school and retired military veterans came to Camp Blanding, the National Guard base near Jacksonville. Many were told they would volunteer for a revived State Guard with a non-military mission: help Floridians in times of need or disaster. Instead, the state’s National Guard trained the volunteers for combat. Khakis and polos were replaced by camouflaged uniforms. Volunteers assured they could keep their facial hair were ordered to shave. And they were drilled on how to rappel with ropes, navigate through the woods and respond to incidents under military command. [emphasis added] DeSantis’ general in charge didn’t even deny it: DeSantis’ office referred questions to Major General John D. Haas, Florida’s adjutant general overseeing the Florida National Guard. In a statement, Haas said the State Guard was a “military organization” that will be used not just for emergencies but for “aiding law enforcement with riots and illegal immigration.” This is not the National Guard, which can answer to the federal government: Unlike the National Guard, State Guard members can’t be deployed by the federal government. They answer only to the governor. DeSantis and his tame legislature know what they’re doing: That month [March], state lawmakers and the governor revealed that they wanted to assign the State Guard $89 million to buy boats, planes and helicopters. They wanted a specialized unit within the guard to have police powers and the ability to carry weapons. And they wanted to boost the State Guard to 1,500 members. Instead of being activated only during emergencies within Florida, they could be sent to any state to “protect and defend the people of Florida from threats to public safety.” [emphasis added] DeSantis has already sent troops to Texas to “protect” the border, as well as shipping undocumented immigrants from there to “librul” destinations. Now he’s building a private army that he claims he has the power to send anywhere, any time. We live in San Francisco. And DeSantis hates Newsom. Think of his thugs on the streets of the most liberal city in America defending “innocent” Floridians from the “degenerates” on Castro St. Godwin’s Law notwithstanding, the comparison to Hitler’s Brown Shirts is almost inescapable. I’ll let the Guardian have the last words: On the governor’s shopping list were helicopters, boats, police powers and reportedly even cellphone-hacking technology for a force outside of federal jurisdiction, and accountable directly to him. “The program got hijacked and turned into something that we were trying to stay away from: a militia,” Brian Newhouse, a retired navy veteran with 20 years’ experience, told the reporters. And. . . Democrats expressed fear in 2021, when DeSantis first proposed to reactivate the state guard dormant since the second world war, that it would eventually become a paramilitary force beholden only to Florida’s authoritarian leader. “No governor should have his own handpicked secret police,” said Charlie Crist, the losing Democrat candidate when DeSantis was re-elected in November. I have to add a final thought: The way he’s going, DeSantis doesn’t need to win the White House (and he may be admitting that’s not going to happen). He is laying the foundation for a separate country (in fact, if not in name) under his personal control. And though I hate to interject someone’s religion into this, DeSantis is a Catholic, and very much a traditional one. This isn’t just a dictatorship he’s working on; it’s a theocratic one. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/7/16/2181544/-DeSantis-is-Building-a-Personal-Militia Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/