4d ago

Online trolls take over Hope Florida virtual board meeting with slurs, hate symbols, and adult images

www.wuft.org /state-news/2025-04-17/online-trolls-take-over-hope-florida-virtual-board-meeting-with-slurs-hate-symbols-and-adult-images

Directors of the Hope Florida Foundation cut a Zoom board meeting short Thursday morning after online trolls began spewing racial slurs, Nazi symbols and pornographic imagery on the open call, derailing the foundation’s first public comment since its executive director stepped down Wednesday amid a slew of ongoing legislative controversy.

10 comments

weaning them off government assistance.
What a horrific way to state such a thing, and basically, fuck Florida for this anyway.
faith-based organizations
No seriously, fuck Florida.
I don't know whether to be on the trolls' side or not in this instance, because these people should just have access to their government assistance instead of this bullshit. I guess I'm not on their side though because getting in the way still hurts people in need. Ugh. Ugh. Fuck everything about all of this.
- There is no good side here

Hope Florida is run by DeSantis’s wife has been involved in shady dealings.
The meeting marked an attempt by the board to provide clarity as House Republicans probe a $10 million donation that Hope Florida, a charity and welfare program spearheaded by First Lady Casey DeSantis, received from a Medicaid settlement in October. Lawmakers are now investigating whether the foundation funneled those millions to political campaigns against the failed ballot referendum to legalize recreational marijuana.
The foundation’s executive director, Erik Dellenback, announced his resignation a day after legislators grilled the foundation’s leaders about the donation funds during a House budget committee meeting.
The Tampa Bay Times reported that Hope Florida split the $10 million evenly between Secure Florida’s Future and Save Our Society from Drugs — organizations that promptly poured a collective $8.5 million into Keep Florida Clean, a political action committee created to defeat Amendment 3 and run by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ then-chief of staff James Uthmeier.
From the Tampa Bay Times article:
Weeks after the DeSantis administration steered $10 million from a Medicaid settlement to a charity spearheaded by the first lady, the Hope Florida Foundation sent $5 million apiece to two separate organizations that gave millions to a political committee waging an anti-marijuana campaign championed by the governor.
- JustRepublicanThings

I thought everyone learnt during Covid not to have open zoom calls.
- Obviously not everyone learnt from the pandemic..
  
  Florida in particular.

idk guys i don't think harassments of people is cool

~~Online trolls~~
Russian bad actors
- Interfering with the Russian good actors trying to do their job.

10 comments