America’s blacklist culture: Republican in Florida proposes bill to regulate speech
Jason Brodeur: Republican politician in love with
restricting free speech
They’re coming for you next: The desire of people in our culture today to control and regulate the behavior of everyone else is not a partisan thing. Though the Democrats and their leftist allies have certainly led the way in blacklisting, censoring, and destroying anyone who disagrees with them, Republican politicians are just as likely to try to use their power to squelch opposition, and should never be trusted either.
Today we have a perfect example of this non-partisan lust for power. On March 7, 2023, Florida Republican state senator Jason Brodeur introduced a bill that would amend state law to require all websites to register with the government if they made any money reporting on government actions.
You can read the bill here. The underlined portions are the sections that Brodeur wishes to add to the law. The key paragraphs state the following:
If a blogger posts to a blog about an elected state officer and receives, or will receive, compensation for that post, the blogger must register with the appropriate office, as identified in paragraph (1)(f), within 5 days after the first post by the blogger which mentions an elected state officer.
Upon registering with the appropriate office, a blogger must file monthly reports on the 10th day following the end of each calendar month from the time a blog post is added to the blog.
The reports must reveal in detail the income the blogger obtained for any posts. If the blogger fails to provide this report on time he or she will be fined $25 per day per report for each day late, not to exceed $2,500 per report. This new rule only applies to the websites of bloggers, not newspaper or media websites.
The language of the bill, as well as statements by Brodeur, show that he thinks all bloggers are paid lobbyists, which he believes the state legislature has the right to regulate and control. Not only is he stupidly wrong, he is legally wrong. This law is unconstitutional on its face, violating the federal Constitution and its First Amendment as well as section 5 of Florida’s Constitution, which states unequivocally that:
Every person may speak, write and publish sentiments on all subjects but shall be responsible for the abuse of that right. No law shall be passed to restrain or abridge the liberty of speech or of the press. [emphasis mine]
The law also violates section 16 (paragraph 2) of the state Constitution, which guarantees the right of every Florida citizen “…to be free from intimidation, harassment, and abuse.” Brodeur’s law is clearly designed to squelch free speech, to intimidate free bloggers from writing whatever they want, regardless of how they make money from that writing.
Even if Brodeur was right in his claim that some blog posts are simply paid lobbying for specific issues or candidates, so what? His attempt to register such action is still an infringement of free speech and an attempt to intimidate. How can speech be “free” if you will be fined for not doing it exactly as the government dictates?
Not surprisingly, the left immediately latched onto this law as proof that the Republicans in Florida, led by Governor Ron DeSantis, are fascists who want to shut down free speech. And who can argue with them? They are right, except that the left will also refuse to see any of the innumerable examples of their own side smashing its boot into the face of others.
By definition, all politicians run for office because they desire power, and once obtained will quickly do whatever it takes to retain it. Since World War II Americans have forgotten this simple lesson, and have too often ceded power to the power-hungry. The result is our society today, where the rights of ordinary people is routinely squelched to satisfy the lust for control of those in power.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
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Jason Brodeur: Republican politician in love with
restricting free speech
They’re coming for you next: The desire of people in our culture today to control and regulate the behavior of everyone else is not a partisan thing. Though the Democrats and their leftist allies have certainly led the way in blacklisting, censoring, and destroying anyone who disagrees with them, Republican politicians are just as likely to try to use their power to squelch opposition, and should never be trusted either.
Today we have a perfect example of this non-partisan lust for power. On March 7, 2023, Florida Republican state senator Jason Brodeur introduced a bill that would amend state law to require all websites to register with the government if they made any money reporting on government actions.
You can read the bill here. The underlined portions are the sections that Brodeur wishes to add to the law. The key paragraphs state the following:
If a blogger posts to a blog about an elected state officer and receives, or will receive, compensation for that post, the blogger must register with the appropriate office, as identified in paragraph (1)(f), within 5 days after the first post by the blogger which mentions an elected state officer.
Upon registering with the appropriate office, a blogger must file monthly reports on the 10th day following the end of each calendar month from the time a blog post is added to the blog.
The reports must reveal in detail the income the blogger obtained for any posts. If the blogger fails to provide this report on time he or she will be fined $25 per day per report for each day late, not to exceed $2,500 per report. This new rule only applies to the websites of bloggers, not newspaper or media websites.
The language of the bill, as well as statements by Brodeur, show that he thinks all bloggers are paid lobbyists, which he believes the state legislature has the right to regulate and control. Not only is he stupidly wrong, he is legally wrong. This law is unconstitutional on its face, violating the federal Constitution and its First Amendment as well as section 5 of Florida’s Constitution, which states unequivocally that:
Every person may speak, write and publish sentiments on all subjects but shall be responsible for the abuse of that right. No law shall be passed to restrain or abridge the liberty of speech or of the press. [emphasis mine]
The law also violates section 16 (paragraph 2) of the state Constitution, which guarantees the right of every Florida citizen “…to be free from intimidation, harassment, and abuse.” Brodeur’s law is clearly designed to squelch free speech, to intimidate free bloggers from writing whatever they want, regardless of how they make money from that writing.
Even if Brodeur was right in his claim that some blog posts are simply paid lobbying for specific issues or candidates, so what? His attempt to register such action is still an infringement of free speech and an attempt to intimidate. How can speech be “free” if you will be fined for not doing it exactly as the government dictates?
Not surprisingly, the left immediately latched onto this law as proof that the Republicans in Florida, led by Governor Ron DeSantis, are fascists who want to shut down free speech. And who can argue with them? They are right, except that the left will also refuse to see any of the innumerable examples of their own side smashing its boot into the face of others.
By definition, all politicians run for office because they desire power, and once obtained will quickly do whatever it takes to retain it. Since World War II Americans have forgotten this simple lesson, and have too often ceded power to the power-hungry. The result is our society today, where the rights of ordinary people is routinely squelched to satisfy the lust for control of those in power.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
Robert,
This is an example of why I keep saying that the Republican Party is moving to the left. Republican voters nominated him for the ballot, and presumably Republican voters voted him into office. Several times in the Florida House of Representatives and recently in the Florida Senate. He has been in Florida politics for a little over a decade.
Even in Florida, the Republican Party is becoming less conservative.
Edward, this is common in the South.
Politicians there were never libertarian (DeSantis being something of an anomaly). Leaving aside the DixieCrats; more liberal Democrats in the South also moved to the Republicans wherefrom they voted for the same good-ol’-boy network and pork as they’d always voted. Shelby in Alabama is a classic example.
Brodeur reminds me of Lindsey Graham (another leftist who has burrowed into state-level Republican politics – a “lifelong bachelor”, also, fwiw). Graham tried for a national ban on abortion knowing that couldn’t work. It is widely murmured that Graham did this to tank the Republican ticket in purple districts 2022.