Here's a headline, you definitely didn't need to close out the week.
Ron DeSantis is forming his own private paramilitary organization.
But apparently it sort of is true the force of 200 selected
volunteers would quote, not be encumbered by the federal government.
Let me just say that anything that Ron DeSantis gets involved with,
I wanna be heavily encumbered by the federal government.
But anyway, it's a $3.5 million plan and if it goes ahead, it's not guaranteed at
this point, Florida would gain a state run force alongside its national guard,
which is jointly funded by the federal government in the state.
The bulk of the funding would fund the construction of three additional armories,
as well as expansion of a readiness center.
The armories would collectively house more than 1,500 troops, which seems like
a lot if the force is gonna be 200 people, so that none of that is good.
And Ron DeSantis is a super questionable guy, I would put him very high on the list
of people I do not want having their own private security force.
But that said, this is not wholly unique,
Florida has previously created a State Guard back in 1941 to fill in for
national guard members who are fighting the Second World War.
But the unit was disbanded shortly thereafter in 1947.
Florida would become the 23rd State with a State Guard and for
an example of how the State Guards can be used in recent history.
Texas has one and back in 2015, Greg Abbott,
the Republican governor used the State Guard there to monitor federal military
exercises that we're at that point going on in Texas.
Because there was a conspiracy theory going around that this was the launching
point for complete military takeover of Texas and possibly the entire country.
I remember us covering this at the point it was Jade, Scorpion, Jade fire,
Jade Sniper, I don't know, something like that.
But Alex Jones was talking about it quite frequently and
this was useful to tie together republican State government and
the conspiracy theories of the right wing media.
And now Ron DeSantis might have one.
What do you think?
>> Okay, so I need people understand that Florida,
as with every state already has state police, they have local police,
then they have state police, and then they have the national guard.
So, they're covered in 18,000 different ways.
So, if you've got a security issue, you would use state police.
If you have an emergency like Hurricanes etc, you use the national guard.
They have many times.
So, then literally, what do you need a State Guard for?
Well, it is for, exactly what John pointed out in that example and
think about how dangerous that is.
Where the Texas State Guard goes to keep watch over the United States and military.
What are they gonna do, start shooting at one another.
I mean, do you see the insanity of what's happening here?
The right wing is convinced their voters that
the government is tyrannical in every way.
Now they have the deep state.
They have, yesterday, we found out through Linwood and Doug Carlson, and
Bongino that there's a very, very deep state.
Okay, I didn't know that.
And so they've told everyone that government is super evil.
And the on Cawthorne has talked about if anybody shows up at your door from
the government, that's what your Second Amendment rights are for.
So by the way, the Post Office,
post band shows up at your door every day from the government.
Please don't shoot him.
Okay.
But they're not gonna send a dentist to your door.
They're gonna send a cop or the military if you've done something wrong, right?
Military is very, very, very, very unlikely.
Most likely it's gonna be a cop, right?
And they're telling people to shoot them.
And by the way, in polling now, one poll had a 28%.
Another poll had a 40%,
saying that of Republican voters saying it might be time for violence.
So, now they do this basically vigilante State Guard in different red states and
I you don't need it for the hurricanes, that's what the National Guard is for.
And that's what local police, fire department at center is for.
So, that is obviously not why you're doing it.
This is an incredibly dangerous development where we have.
Like now, kind of militias and vigilantes backed up by right wing,
what I would argue or fascist Republican politicians trying
to get their own armed forces to use against God knows who.
Yeah, Charles.
>> Jone, you took a huge piece of what I was thinking about this story and
basically, brilliantly laid it out.
What you have is the leader of local government telling
people that they can't trust the government and
the absurdity of it in Ron DeSantos quest to make America Florida again.
It is beyond alarming, because what we're
seeing here is a thinly veiled attempt to appeal
to a base that is on the fringes of American
society as is this is not someone who has not
thought about who these volunteers are.
What their backgrounds are, what their political affiliations are going to be,
what their ideologies politically are going to be,
what their political leanings are going to be.
He is appealing to them in a way that is getting them closer and
closer to the establishment.
What do you have when you do that?
What do you get when you do that?
I will tell you what you get, you get January six,
all over again only they're more successful.
Because they've had more opportunity and they've had like basically
government license to watch over what's going on in terms of the operations.
So, they know the layout better than the people on January six who also got support
from the government, it appears and knew the layout as well.
But my point is this is inviting an element that is very,
very dangerous to mix and normalizing that element being a part of it.
And I will be the one to say it.
I don't know how anyone has missed this.
It's also the cornerstone of fascism, like how you get to
this point where you are now sort of grooming this August,
military force that is able to enact and support violence or
at least defense against.
Or stave off violence or potentially, be the aggressor of violence
against that, that exists outside of established government.
But sort of answers to this one, dude who also, by the way, happens to be running
the government that you all seem to be needing to pay so much attention to.
So, it is the height of absurdity.
But it's also very, very dangerous and can head down,
a problematic road very, very quickly.
And I think that, you talk about state governments like Florida,
you talked about State governments like Texas.
People are watching this and if he is able to successfully pull this off,
it's going to basically encourage copycats in other
cities in other states, in other local governments.
And then we're gonna be looking at bedrooms and
I don't wanna be the conspiracy theorists or the harbinger of doom and gloom.
But what I have to point out is when you look at the people who are gonna be
most vulnerable when these things continue to pop up in states.
Across the country, it's communities that don't necessarily right now have
the ability to have the ability to protect themselves
in the ways that they would need to if this and when this goes left.
>> Yeah, and I wanna add one last thing to that Sandra Day O'Connor was
Republican and she wound up on the Supreme Court.
So, and in almost 20 years ago now and the Bush Cheney years, she started talking
about the erosion of the rule of law being pushed by the right wing her side.
Right?
And she said at the time, we should avoid those beginnings.
So, we could avoid those ends.
And she was referring to fascism.
She warned nearly 20 years ago that it was, it had begun,
we are no longer at the beginnings.
And we are now near the end that Donald trump,
had a three hour meeting after he lost the election with
a certifiable lunatic Michael Flynn inside the White House.
About whether they should declare martial law, have military law rule in America and
redo the election, but only conducted by the military.
And now then when that didn't,
come to fruition because literally everyone else threatened to quit.
Then they went to it full out riot to try to decertify an election
in a way that makes no sense according to the rule of law and
they nearly killed the politicians there.
Now not only do we have disorganized vigilantes that Trump and
the right wing has have encouraged like January six.
We now are starting to have organized State Guards that are unaccountable
except to individuals that is definitely near the end of fascism.
When trump gets reelected and he forms his own federal version of this.
Do you think it'll be a scandal for like two days, half day and a half, and
then we'll move on, but they'll still be around in the background.
>> Yeah.