people-from-florida

"Now, Kasky aims to bring his efforts to the halls of Congress, focusing his campaign on promoting an unabashedly progressive agenda. Those goals include passing Medicare-for-All, focusing on affordability, abolishing the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, fighting the AI oligarchs and ending all U.S. funding to Israel, among others. The young progressive's agenda appears aligned with the moment for many on the left—particularly within New York City. Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani just won a significant upset victory in the nation's largest city's election, resoundingly defeating former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo first in the Democratic primary and then again in the general election last month. That victory came after a staunchly progressive campaign focused on affordability, taxing the wealthy and criticizing Israel's war in Gaza, with millions in billionaire money spent against him to prop up his opponent. "The people in this district want progressive leadership in the country, and that is my agenda," Kasky told Newsweek. As is the case with many Democratic voters, Kasky believes the party needs to reprioritize and change strategy to meet the moment."

"At 25 years old, Cameron Kasky is certain that he’s too young to be dealing with the back pain he’s been feeling. But the Democratic socialist and activist, who is announcing on Tuesday morning that he’s the latest entrant in a crowded primary to replace the 78-year-old representative Jerrold Nadler in New York’s 12th Congressional District, also thinks that the circumstances of his arrival in politics “fast-forwarded my aging a little bit.” At 17, Kasky, a survivor of the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida, cofounded the gun-violence prevention group March for Our Lives. The work brought him to Capitol Hill to meet with lawmakers; it also led to his being swatted and doxxed."

"Cameron Kasky is a fighter. He knows what it’s like to be failed by the American political system. In 2018, Cameron survived the massacre at his high school in Parkland, Florida that killed 17 human beings. Faced with unspeakable tragedy, he united his classmates and led March For Our Lives, one of the largest movements in U.S. history. As a teenager, he stood up to Marco Rubio and the Republicans bought off by the gun lobby, and worked with legislators in Washington to pass life-saving gun safety legislation. But it’s not just about taking on MAGA: it’s about disrupting the system where both parties have paved the way for Trump’s regime. In the face of rising authoritarianism, Cameron is ready to take the fight back to Capitol Hill and represent progressive values for the greatest city in the world."

"As a school shooting survivor, I began my life calling for an end to the mass murder of innocent children and adults using weapons manufactured by the United States. Witnessing the ongoing genocide in Gaza has served as a haunting, serious reminder that it is my life’s purpose to advocate against violence everywhere. My classmates had the right to a future they never got. The countless Palestinians our weapons continue to slaughter have the same rights. Human beings deserve healthcare, jobs, housing, and all the rights our country systematically withholds. It is my mission to fight for our fellow human beings’ right to live in dignity and prosperity."

"Cameron Kasky could become the youngest member of Congress if he pulls off a win in the crowded race to replace New York's retiring 12th District Democratic Representative Jerrold Nadler, 78, next year. But despite being in his mid-twenties, the longtime political activist is no stranger to the spotlight and taking bold action to push for change.< As a survivor of the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, which killed 17 people and injured 18, Kasky went on to co-found the student-led group Never Again MSD, advocating for stricter gun regulations to prevent future violence. Kasky also helped organize the nationwide March for Our Lives demonstration in March 2018. While that experience gave him a national profile and allowed him to meet people across the country, the 25-year-old said it also made him lose hope for a time. "I had to watch so many people burst into tears right before my eyes and tell me that I gave them hope. But I had lost hope myself," Kasky, who identifies as a democratic socialist, told Newsweek in a Wednesday Zoom interview. But from that experience of becoming jaded, he's now emerged determined to continue the fight. "I lacked the understanding that change takes longer than we thought it would," he said."

"Parkland school shooting survivor Cameron Kasky is running for New York’s open congressional seat. Kasky, 24, filed his candidacy this week, according to Federal Election Commission records. His move comes a month after Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler said he would retire in 2027. The activist, who did not respond to requests for comment, nodded to his run by changing his Instagram bio to “politician” on Tuesday and adding a link to his donation page. “All I can say at the moment is that the next generation of Democratic leaders will fight big tech, work to abolish ICE and hold immigration enforcement accountable, and reject money from organizations operating solely in the interest of right wing nationalist foreign governments,” he wrote. In high school, Kasky co-founded the gun violence prevention group March for Our Lives, which later faced funding shortfalls and internal turmoil. Like his would-be predecessor, the Florida native attended Columbia University before withdrawing to pursue activism full-time. He is now a contributor at The Bulwark and an MSNBC pundit. The race for New York’s 12th District is shaping up to be crowded—and possibly star-studded—with Jack Schlossberg, John F. Kennedy’s grandson, also exploring a run."

"I am part of the Mass Shooting Generation, and it's an ugly club to be in."

"The progressive shift comes as current Democratic Party leaders are historically unpopular, according to multiple recent polls, as many progressive voters look for major reforms and changes. Meanwhile, November polling by Data for Progress showed that Medicare-for-All, long maligned by critics as far-left and socialist, is backed by nearly two-thirds of voters, including a majority of independents and nearly half of Republicans. And poll results published by Gallup in September showed favorable views of socialism hit a new high of 66 percent among Democrats."

"On 14 February 2018 a former pupil entered Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland Florida armed with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle. After six minutes and 20 seconds of carnage, three teachers and 14 of Cameron Kasky's fellow students lay dead. The geography teacher Scott Biegel, whom Kasky had known well, died protecting his students from gunfire. When the shooting broke out, Kasky had been rushing to pick up his younger brother from a special needs class. Hustled into the nearest classroom, the brothers spent the remainder of the attack hiding in the dark, not knowing if the door would be opened by the shooter or a rescuer."

"He is currently applying for college and plans to revive a podcast series, Cameron Kasky Knows Nothing - "my journey towards understanding folks who disagree with me" as he put it in the trailer. But what does he hope the legacy of the movement he co-founded will be? "I think the thing that March For Our Lives did for this country was, we told a whole generation of kids, 'We need to start working together, we need to start thinking. And just because we are little, does not mean we are inadequate when it comes to being part of the conversation.'""

"Starting the night of the attack, Kasky and a handful of his classmates took to social media, demanding stricter gun control laws and the right to be able to go to school without the fear of being killed. As they typed and posted, the hashtag #NeverAgain went viral. "I found myself frantically Facebook posting. It was what I knew how to do," he says. "The next morning I was getting all these calls from reporters." The same thing happened to his friends. As well as doing broadcast interviews, Kasky wrote online comment pieces and - a week after the attack - he took part in a televised town-hall event. Standing in front of a large crowd of his peers and neighbours, he confronted Republican Florida Senator Marco Rubio over the money he had received from the National Rifle Association. "Senator Rubio can you tell me right now that you would not accept a single NRA donation in the future?" he demanded. The room exploded into chants and cheers. Kasky looked stunned and overwhelmed. He had just put one of the nation's most prominent politicians on the spot, live on national television. As momentum gathered behind the young campaigners, Kasky co-founded the group March For Our Lives and set about organising a demonstration in the nation's capital. Six weeks after the attack, on 24 March 2018, hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Washington DC for the March For Our Lives protest. The Parkland students demanded a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, and stricter background checks for those wishing to buy guns."

"Genuine objective journalism not only gets the facts right, it gets the meaning of events right. It is compelling not only today, but stands the test of time. It is validated not only by 'reliable sources', but by the unfolding of history. It is journalism that ten, twenty, fifty years after the fact still holds up a true and intelligent mirror to events."

"I see my job as just sort of keeping the trains on the tracks and running on time here, so that the subject matter experts, and particularly the president and the vice president can do what they need to do to fix the country"

"Some clinical psychologist that knows one million times more than I do will dispute what I'm going to say. But high-functioning alcoholics or alcoholics in general, their personalities are exaggerated when they drink. And so I'm a little bit of an expert in big personalities. [... Trump has] an alcoholic’s personality. [He functions with] a view that there's nothing he can't do. Nothing, zero, nothing."

"I think he's a better leader now [...] I don’t know that I had anything to do with that, but I think the country benefits from it."

"He’s been through so much: the lawfare, having been the leader of the free world, having had an assassination attempt. He’s a different person than he was."

"If you are in Trump world, you are hyper‑competitive. You want to win."

"[On Elon Musk] He is a complete solo actor [...] The challenge with Elon is keeping up with him [...] He's an avowed ketamine [user]. And he sleeps in a sleeping bag in the EOB [Executive Office Building] in the daytime. And he's an odd, odd duck, as I think geniuses are. You know, it's not helpful, but he is his own person."

"The 2020 election. Coming to him after the 2020 election … and telling him what he thought was the circumstance wasn’t — which is how I got into all this."

"I cannot stress teamwork and mutual support enough. ... It's not magic — set goals and timelines for me and the team and then work to exceed them. Simple, yes, but this worked quite nicely on the campaign."

"Trump doesn't depend on anybody."

"Be smart with hiring. Remember what President Trump promised the American people he would do: Set goals and then exceed them in every area, with every staff member."

"[On Trump appearing to snooze] He's not asleep. He's got his eyes closed and his head leaned back ... and, you know, he's fine."

"And the vice president, who’s been a conspiracy theorist for a decade."

"Now Alwyn Cashe will be the first African American to be awarded the Medal of Honor in the wars following the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001. "He is not just a black soldier who earned the right to the Medal of Honor," his sister says. "He's a soldier who happens to be black." She joins me at the December 2021 ceremony, delayed because of the January 6 riots. Alwyn is one of the three soldiers awarded the medal. Because it's the military, everything is planned out- be here at this hour, there at that hour. Soldiers and their families typically have a meal with the President, but because of COVID that doesn't happen. Instead, we briefly meet President Biden and his wife right before the ceremony. They're very nice- the ceremony is nice- and I'm thinking of Alwyn, wishing he were here."

"It's taken sixteen years, but it's not for lack of trying. Alwyn's battalion commander, Gary Brito, started the recommendation process months after he learned the full details of Alwyn's selfless actions. Unfortunately, Brito ran into roadblocks. Certain key details were lost during the chaos of that night given that most of the soldiers Alwyn rescued were in critical condition and couldn't provide firsthand details before they died. Brito, though, didn't give up and embarked on a second application packet. While he worked on obtaining sworn statements from soldiers, Mills- one of the soldiers my husband rescued- and my sister-in-law embarked on a public campaign. They, along with Alwyn's fellow soldiers, commanders, and two high-ranking generals, broadcast my husband's valor."

"If Alwyn had gotten out of the Army, he would have become a game warden, something like that. He loved hunting and fishing. He also loved helping animals as much as he loved helping people. One time I came home to find a deer in my bathtub. The year Fort Benning had an overabundance of wild pigs, I found one in our backyard standing in the back of his parked truck. With Alwyn, you never knew."

"I'm doing the job I was trained to do. I have to take care of my boys."

"Sergeant First Class Alwyn C. Cashe distinguished himself by acts of gallantry above and beyond the call of duty while serving as Platoon Sergeant with Company A, 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division in Salah Ad Din Province, Iraq, on October 17th, 2005. While on a nighttime mounted patrol near an enemy-laden village, the Bradley Fighting Vehicle which Sergeant First Class Cashe was commanding was attacked by enemy small-arms fire and an improvised explosive device, which disabled the vehicle and engulfed it in flames. After extracting himself from the vehicle, Sergeant First Class Cashe set about extracting the driver, who was trapped in the vehicle. After opening the driver’s hatch, Sergeant First Class Cashe and a fellow soldier extracted the driver, who was engulfed in the flames. During the course of extinguishing the flames on the driver and extracting him from the vehicle, Sergeant First Class Cashe’s fuel soaked uniform, ignited and caused severe burns to his body. Ignoring his painful wounds, Sergeant First Class Cashe then moved to the rear of the vehicle to continue in aiding his fellow soldiers who were trapped in the troop compartment. At this time, the enemy noted his movements and began to direct their fire on his position. When another element of the company engaged the enemy, Sergeant First Class Cashe seized the opportunity and moved into the open troop door and aided four of his soldiers in escaping the burning vehicle. Having extracted the four soldiers, Sergeant First Class Cashe noticed two other soldiers had not been accounted for and again he entered the vehicle to retrieve them. At this time, reinforcements arrived to further suppress the enemy and establish a Casualty Collection Point. Despite the severe second-and third-degree burns covering the majority of his body, Sergeant First Class Cashe persevered through the pain to encourage his fellow soldiers and ensure they received needed medical care. When medical evacuation helicopters began to arrive, Sergeant First Class Cashe selflessly refused evacuation until all of the other wounded soldiers were evacuated first. Sergeant First Class Cashe’s extraordinary heroism and selflessness above and beyond the call of duty were keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the United States Army."

"Don't go over there playing a hero. You learn how to duck and come home."

"I have really learned the back roads."

"It means a lot more than the glamor of being elected. Once you’re elected it means getting things done. It means representing people that have not been part of the process."

"Former Congresswoman Brown chose greed and personal gain over the sacred trust given to her by the community that she served for many years."

"If they’re going to take down my words for telling the truth, that’s OK."

"Brown attributed these successes to hard work, persistence, and a thorough understanding of the appropriations process."

"Former Congresswoman Brown took an oath year after year to serve others, but instead she exploited the needs of children and deceived her constituents to advance her own personal and political agendas"

"While she would prefer a faster pace, Loranne is doing her best to slow down and let her body heal. We remain hopeful that Loranne will make a full recovery."

"She is a fixture in our community here. We are all hoping for her complete recovery."

"Loranne is blessed to have such a strong support system and such an outpouring of love from friends and family. Thank you for all of the thoughts, prayers, and cards. She has a long road ahead, and Loranne gains strength from the uplifting messages she receives."

"One day, I got a call to come into General Arnold's office. He said, "What do you know about the B-26?" I said, "I don’t know a thing except the scuttlebutt that it’s a so-called hot airplane." The men were saying that they were willing to be killed in war, but they wouldn't fly the B-26. ... I flew the plane and didn't see any thing so difficult about it. I came back and said to General Arnold, "I can cure your men of walking off the program. Let's put on the girls.""

"Earthbound souls know only the underside of the atmosphere in which they live. But go up higher — above the dust and water vapor — and the sky turns dark until one can see the stars at noon."

"To live without risk for me would be tantamount to death."

"When you're playing in standard tuning all the time, you're sounding pretty...standard."

"Tonight I am going to defecate on stage because I think that is the only way to express the nature of my soul according to rock and roll."

"Slipknot: ‘Oh we’re going to take you guys out man, we’re going to take you guys out dude.’ Yeah, blow me. That’s what I say to you. F—ing blow me Corey Taylor and all you f-gs. OK. ‘Oh we’re going to take Deicide out on tour with us and blah blah blah.’ Blowing air up our asses, back in the day. You know what, you never did a f—ing thing for us. You introduced us at a show once. Great, thanks. How about a f—ing tour? How about f—ing helping us out a little bit? I mean we’ve only been doing this for several years. You guys were like, ‘Dude you were what got me started.’ Well you know what, return the f—ing favor. You know what I mean?"

"When you don't have the original singer, then you are the official cover band. You wanna make yourself look even more stupid than you already do, by all means, go ahead. [...] We've done wondrous things since their departure — we don't have the problems of canceled tours and missed performances and things like that. This thing runs smooth, everybody gets along, everybody's happy, there's no ill will. It's just like a bad... When you're in a bad marriage, it just ain't working out. So people have to go on their way."

"Those two are a couple of idiots, man. I hate Eric and Brian Hoffman more than anything in this world, and I will not rest until I put shit straight with the fans. Up 'til now, everybody thinks I kicked them out of the band, but nobody kicked anybody out. They quit on their own, and I wanna set the record straight in regard to those two fuckin' pricks. [...] It's real simple: Eric Hoffman has a fucking steroid problem, and he's bi-polar. Brian married some young broad who's running his life for him. What initially happened is that when our publishing deal ended with Roadrunner, and our new deal started with Earache, we put them on notice that our publishing was no longer gonan be split four ways — it's gonna be based on who writes what. That's the industry standard. Brian writes one song for the album, Eric writes two songs and they wanna get paid for all the songs Steve [Asheim, drums] wrote. That's not fuckin' fair. And I wrote all the lyrics, so I'm entitled to 50% of the publishing. Why should I give those two money? They've been losing thousands of dollars for me and Steve for ten years now. If it was one of those things where they showed up and did their jobs, we wouldn't have a fucking problem. That's why the deal we signed [with Roadrunner] in '90 was set up like that. Back then, everybody wrote and contributed and it was a fuckin' group effort. But now me and Steve are the Lennon and McCartney of the band, doing all the writing, and those two wanna get paid for our hard work. Fuck that. [...] When they got their first publishing checks and didn't get paid for all the songs me and Steve wrote, they fucking quit. And now we gotta deal with Eric threatening Steve, driving to his house and screaming outside his window at 10:30 at night, making threatening phone calls, talking shit on Blabbermouth about Steve's dad dying, and all this other bullshit. Eric knows better than to come over here, though — he knows I shoot first and ask questions later."

"He's just filled with disgust for Christian hypocrisy and things of that nature. He draws from personal experience, anger and resentment for his lyrical subject matter."

"After what happened when Glen Benton fucking took scars royalties for 20 years and all Deicide merchandise, I will find you and hunt you down like the animal you are. I have no label and did my last album for the fans out of my own savings and will do it again with without label. I now pronounce curse on his hair piece Glen Michael Benton you will be history soon and Steve will hire new singer. Also remember this, I am Deicide. You are a disgusting individual that doesn’t care about anyone but [themself]. Glen your Amon, not now, you’re not good enough. I drew the logo [and] came up with the name. Unbelievable. I am Amon. Suck it Glen, we will meet again."

"Glen Benton is a fucking character, and his unwavering dedication to shitting all over Christianity and everything its iron grip has wrought upon the world is not always the smartest or most nuanced approach, but you can’t argue he gets his point across."