Ron DeSantis

During the mid-2000s, some far-right culture warriors were raging against the ankle-length peasant skirts or gypsy skirts that were popular at the time. But in 2023, Republicans in the Florida House of Representatives are worried about skirts they think are too short rather than too long. And the Miami Herald’s editorial board, in a blistering editorial published on January 27, slams those Republicans for playing “fashion police” with female employees, wondering, "Is this 2023?"

“The Florida House, not content with creating an election police force, banning books in schools or regulating women’s bodies when it comes to pregnancy, has apparently taken on yet another enforcement role: fashion police,” the Miami Herald editorial board argues. “Women, say goodbye to your sleeveless tops ‘when members are in the building.’ The sight of your upper arms is too much for the hallowed halls of the (Florida State) Legislature to bear, it seems. And short skirts? We can’t believe you even asked.”

Florida House Speaker Paul Renner announced a new measure this Monday that would removing state requirements for a permit and training to carry a concealed gun, the Orlando Sentinel reports.

Since “Florida led the nation in concealed carry," it will now remove the “government permission slip to carry,” Renner said.

A Florida pastor vows to teach Black history at his church in defiance of the limits Gov. Ron DeSantis wants to place on classroom instruction.

The Republican governor sparked backlash by rejecting an Advanced Placement course on African American studies as part of his high-profile campaign against teaching so-called "critical race theory" and forbidding teachers from discussing LGBTQ issues, and Pastor Andy Allen told CNN he would offer those courses at Allendale Methodist Church.

A right-wing group thinks it has hit upon a legal loophole that it can use to force Michigan public schools to "erase" any sign of openly LGBTQ people from classrooms, reported Judd Legum for his Popular Information blog on Monday.

"The effort, organized by the Great Schools Initiative (GSI), seeks to exploit a Michigan statute that allows parents to opt their children out of sex education," reported Legum. "Michigan law allows schools to offer courses in sex education. The nature of this instruction is quite traditional" — stressing the benefits of abstinence alongside the other course information — "Nevertheless, the law also allows students or parents to request to be excused from sex education classes. Schools must grant any such request 'without penalty or loss of academic credit.'"

Former President Donald Trump's potential Republican challengers for the 2024 presidential nomination are unwilling to attack him directly — and Republican insiders longing for an alternative to the former president are increasingly frustrated over it, reported The Atlantic on Monday.

"Aside from his most blinkered loyalists, virtually everyone in the party agrees: It’s time to move on from Trump," wrote McKay Coppins. "But ask them how they plan to do that, and the discussion quickly veers into the realm of hopeful hypotheticals. Maybe he’ll get indicted and his legal problems will overwhelm him. Maybe he’ll flame out early in the primaries, or just get bored with politics and wander away. Maybe the situation will resolve itself naturally: He’s old, after all — how many years can he have left?"

A Black professor was fired from his position at Indiana University Northwest based on "racist tropes," and without an adequate opportunity to defend himself, argued a report from the American Association of University Professors, as detailed by Inside Higher Ed Monday.

The professor, former IUN chief academic officer and communications professor Mark McPhail, was accused in 2021 by the university of saying “words to the effect that ‘the only way to end racism is to kill all the white people,’” according to the report, although McPhail disputes he ever said anything to that effect.

Longtime Republican pollster Frank Luntz on Monday reiterated his belief that former President Donald Trump was blowing his comeback bid to retake the White House in 2024 and he said he's apparently forgotten what made him so successful in 2016.

Appearing on CNN, Luntz panned the former president for having campaign speeches that centered on his own personal grievances rather than the problems facing ordinary Americans.

Former President Donald Trump early on Monday morning took a shot at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, whom polls have shown is his toughest rival for the Republican presidential nomination.

Writing on his Truth Social platform, Trump said DeSantis owed his entire political career to his endorsement in the 2018 governor's race, and accused him of being a plant for the Republican establishment.

When Ronald Reagan campaigned at South Carolina's statehouse in 1980, some 10,000 enraptured supporters showed up for a man who would become an icon of conservatism unrivaled in modern US history.

Donald Trump -- who spoke at the same building Saturday as he attempts to reboot his faltering bid for another four years in the White House -- might lack Reagan's everyman appeal, but his admirers are every bit as ardent.

On Saturday, Donald Trump made stops in New Hampshire and South Carolina for the first major campaign events in his 2024 presidential bid, finding opportunities to make remarks against main competitor, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), even before exiting his aircraft and making way to the podium.

In an interview with reporters aboard his plane to South Carolina on Saturday, Trump said "Ron would have not been governor if it wasn't for me, and that's okay . . . then when I hear he might run, I consider that very disloyal."

In a discussion about Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), MSNBC host Ayman Mohyeldin suggested that he might be stuck in some kind of hostage situation for Donald Trump world.

"I don't know if it's just me, but does Graham look like he's being held hostage there?" the host asked after rolling footage of one of the recent Trump events. "Should we say, hey, Lindsey, blink twice if you need help? This is the same Lindsey Graham who repeatedly disavowed Trump both before he was elected, and after the Jan. 6th insurrection."

Donald Trump's first two speeches touting his 2024 Republican Party presidential bid before smaller crowds in New Hampshire and South Carolina ended up being a rehash of old complaints and with a few lines that garnered applause but his demeanor was lacking the usual fire once seen at his raucous rallies.

On the morning after the speeches, MSNBC host Katie Phang shared clips of the president speaking and noted the lack of enthusiam from the former president when one considers how important the first foray into public in 2023 was to his third presidential bid with Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) and a bevy of GOP lawmakers nipping at his heels.