• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

Books are my comfort food!

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

Giving in to doom is how we fail to fight for ourselves & one another.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

Text STOP to opt out of updates on war plans.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

All hail the time of the bunny!

The low info voters probably won’t even notice or remember by their next lap around the goldfish bowl.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires Republicans to act in good faith.

People are complicated. Love is not.

The fight for our country is always worth it. ~Kamala Harris

The willow is too close to the house.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

America is going up in flames. The NYTimes fawns over MAGA celebrities. No longer a real newspaper.

People identifying as christian while ignoring christ and his teachings is a strange thing indeed.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

“Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on.”

Mobile Menu

  • Seattle Meet-up Post
  • 2025 Activism
  • Targeted Political Fundraising
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • COVID-19
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • 2025 Activism
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • Targeted Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Running the Gauntlet

Running the Gauntlet

by @heymistermix.com|  April 4, 201010:55 am| 34 Comments

This post is in: Daydream Believers, Good News For Conservatives

FacebookTweetEmail

My last post on unemployment came from a News Hour piece on Florida’s unemployment system. The beast has been well and truly starved there: Florida pays about 50% of those eligible for unemployment, they use a computer system installed during the Nixon administration to do it, and if you do get benefits, the rate is the fifth lowest in the country.

Florida’s schools are “consistently ranked in the bottom 25 percent” nationwide. Adoption by gay couples is still banned, and they’re close to having a referendum on an abortion-banning “personhood” amendment. And you’re less likely to have employer-provided health insurance.

So, in this conservative paradise, losing your job or getting sick is a bigger risk. If you want to have children, you can’t be gay, and you need enough money to send them to private schools. And, speaking of kids, you’d better be good with the birth control, since it looks like abortion isn’t going to be an alternative.

In short, you need to be really fucking lucky to live there.

I’m not trying to single out Florida — I’m sure this is the general state of affairs for most states where tax cutting and bible banging have dominated politics for decades.

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « Free markets, bitches!
Next Post: A Weird Way To Look at Things »

Reader Interactions

34Comments

  1. 1.

    RedKitten

    April 4, 2010 at 11:00 am

    So, how’s that Bible-y, conservative-y thing working out for them?

  2. 2.

    raff

    April 4, 2010 at 11:01 am

    In short, you need to be really fucking lucky to live there.

    I live in Canada. I feel really fucking lucky. Every fucking day.

  3. 3.

    Zifnab25

    April 4, 2010 at 11:04 am

    Florida followed the Texas model. Lower taxes into the dirt and draw in more and more business from out of state. Then, use the increased revenue from business growth to fund what would otherwise be an unsustainable deficit in spending versus income.

    Texas and Florida both have a history of running over budget and making up the difference by slashing services. GOoPers hold them up as models of success, because they have continuous business growth. But only at the expense of their northern neighbors. Like China or Mexico, they can only exist with richer countries feeding them customers and money. Without a positive trade deficit, they crumble.

  4. 4.

    Undercover FBI Agent DougJ

    April 4, 2010 at 11:05 am

    So, how’s that Bible-y, conservative-y thing working out for them?

    I like this.

  5. 5.

    beltane

    April 4, 2010 at 11:05 am

    If you’re old and very, very rich, Florida is not such a bad place to live. But even the moderately well-off elderly who become incapacitated enough to require services, often find that Florida is not the paradise they expected.

    Coincidentally, most of the health care/insurance horror stories in my circle of acquaintance originated in Florida. things are better in the Northeast; they really are.

  6. 6.

    Keith G

    April 4, 2010 at 11:08 am

    I’m not trying to single out Florida

    Why not? It’s a great example. Greed and stupidity are every where, but Fla has more than most. It’s one place that climate change will definitely improve.

  7. 7.

    Julia Grey

    April 4, 2010 at 11:08 am

    Plus, by offering so much low-tax business incentive, Florida has exacerbated its fresh water problems to crisis levels, and has no income to meet that crisis. Long-term, they’re burying themselves even deeper.

  8. 8.

    Derelict

    April 4, 2010 at 11:15 am

    Like Arizona, Florida’s economic model is based on non-stop development. When development stalls, everything else comes to a screeching halt.

    Remember Jeb Bush? Remember how he spent his time jamming Xtianity down everyone’s throat in every aspect of government? Everything from Bible Camp Release program for prisoners to state funding for Xtian schools.

  9. 9.

    eric

    April 4, 2010 at 11:15 am

    There is a sense that the Washington Consensus has been largely discredited as an economic “model” (really a course of destruction) for the third world development, except in the US. How is that racy-to-the-bottomy thingy working for ya? Also, too.

  10. 10.

    Jager

    April 4, 2010 at 11:25 am

    When my old company expanded into Florida, the VP of Finance came back from a due diligence excursion to our new outpost and said, when asked about Florida, “a lot of shit washes up on the beach”

  11. 11.

    Mike in NC

    April 4, 2010 at 11:27 am

    For college, the wife attended some party school in Fort Lauderdale and had a great time. She immediately ruled out us retiring to Florida after the last few visits. Too much crime, pollution, congestion, and crazy old people on the roads.

  12. 12.

    Linda Featheringill

    April 4, 2010 at 11:29 am

    Keith G:

    I know other people who are looking forward to the effect that rising sea levels will have on Florida – with about a third of it under water by mid-century and staying that way for the next thousand years or more.

    And, of course, if the current estimates of how high the water will get is on the low side, we might lose even more of the state.

  13. 13.

    Whackjob Militia Leader soonergrunt

    April 4, 2010 at 11:29 am

    I’m still up for that company job in Florida as far as I know. I should hear more this week.
    Florida sounds like a great place to live as long as your income is sourced outside the state. Luckily, that will be the case if I get the job.

  14. 14.

    RedKitten

    April 4, 2010 at 11:34 am

    @Undercover FBI Agent DougJ: I knew you would.

    ‘Tis true, though. Florida is a prime example of what happens when conservatives get to run the show…and it DOES NOT WORK.

  15. 15.

    stickler

    April 4, 2010 at 11:35 am

    “Really fucking lucky?”

    No. Try “eligible for Medicare.” And voting accordingly: “I got mine, Jack, so fuck you.”

  16. 16.

    jcricket

    April 4, 2010 at 11:40 am

    So here’s what I wonder. It basically seems like there’s going to be three “types” of states in the future:

    1) States with higher taxes and high services – largely “blue” (see WA state, as an example). Lots of jobs at the high-end and low-end, maybe less in the middle.

    2) States, with low taxes and low services – largely “red”, and probably large amount of low-wage jobs here. Also with little environmental regulation, lax labor laws, etc.

    3) Declining states (population, jobs, etc.) – mixture of rust belt and midwest/deep South states not capable of making #2 work.

    So the real question is does #1 work, or #2? And for how long? They really are two different visions for America. Note there’s no place for the middle class in either scenario.

  17. 17.

    SiubhanDuinne

    April 4, 2010 at 11:47 am

    @Zifnab25:

    Texas and Florida both have a history of running over budget and making up the difference by slashing services

    Texas and Florida were both governed by two of Poppy Bush’s charming and oh-so-competent sons. Coincidence?

  18. 18.

    Kristine

    April 4, 2010 at 11:53 am

    My folks moved from NY State to the west coast of Florida in the mid-60s. Up to that point, my mom had earned very good money as a bookkeeper/timekeeper for largish companies. In Florida, she was forced to take a job where she made less in a month than she used to make in a week in NYS. Wages were known to be well below average there, and employee health insurance was rare. Sounds as though things haven’t changed much.

  19. 19.

    Citizen_X

    April 4, 2010 at 12:04 pm

    Meh. Whole damn state’s going to be underwater in a couple of hundred years. I won’t miss it.

  20. 20.

    Scott H

    April 4, 2010 at 12:09 pm

    what stickler said. the state’s great if you’re retired and living off the socialist teat provided by the feds.

  21. 21.

    SiubhanDuinne

    April 4, 2010 at 12:23 pm

    @Citizen_X: I lived in Florida for six of the longest years of my life (well, I thought that until I moved from Tampa to Flint-by-god-you’d-better-smile-when-you-say-Michigan, and thence to Battle Creek). I don’t miss anything about Florida. I’ve been back exactly four times since 1975, every one of them a business trip, and if I never set foot in the state again it’ll be too soon. I’ve thought for decades that they should just perforate the Florida-Georgia border, give the peninsula a little tug, and cast the whole damned state adrift in the Atlantic.

  22. 22.

    PurpleGirl

    April 4, 2010 at 12:25 pm

    Friends moved to Florida in the mid-90s. Since he worked for IBM and it was an internal job change, his salary stayed at its former level from NYS. But she had to find a new job and found the salaries there were not commensurate with salaries in NY. They tried to get me to move to Florida but when I looked at administrative assistant jobs, I found that I was already making at least 10K more in NYC than I could in Florida. In Florida I was above the maximum salary offered even though in NYC I was only in the low to mid-range for my experience level. When he said “but Florida has no state income tax”, I laughed and told him that even adding NYS/NYC’s income tax wouldn’t come close to closing the salary gap at my level.

  23. 23.

    Alan

    April 4, 2010 at 12:56 pm

    Yeah, conservatism has run a muck down here. Don’t get me started on property insurance. The big companies can cherry pick who they want to insure. So the state set up a nonprofit which forces every policy to be privatized to some fly-by-night D- rated company that has no money. It’s a great set up for a free-market, game-the-system crook.

  24. 24.

    WereBear

    April 4, 2010 at 1:27 pm

    From spending a chunk of my growng up years there, I concluded that Florida’s attitude is: You’re not a tourist? F u.

  25. 25.

    Gozer

    April 4, 2010 at 1:30 pm

    I was watching a documentary yesterday on another fab aspect of FL. Apparently there’s no tracking of prescription drugs in the state so it’s the number one source of such drugs for other states, particularly OH, WV, and KY.

    You can walk into a “pain clinic” and get 300-1000 pills of percocet, oxycontin, etc. for a few hundred dollars (all legal). People then sell them illegally for 3 to 10 times the price at the dispensary (including old men and women who usually sell illegally to younger folks).

  26. 26.

    MaximusNYC

    April 4, 2010 at 1:33 pm

    I grew up in Florida, and fled for NY 10 years ago. Everything said above is true.

    In theory, it’s a purplish state. But the GOP always seems to have the edge.

    For my whole life (I’m in my late 30s), the FL Dems have been weak and disorganized. Aside from Bob Graham and Lawton Chiles, they have almost always fielded weak, forgettable candidates.

  27. 27.

    Mo's Bike Shop

    April 4, 2010 at 1:34 pm

    In the case of Florida, you really do have to include the influence of millions of retirees who think they paid at the door.

    Careful with the schadenfreude, the max altitude for our nuke plants is five feet above sea level.

  28. 28.

    Jason

    April 4, 2010 at 4:42 pm

    Low-wage laborer/immigrant to Florida here. Of my family of four (parents, brother, myself), my parents are relying on unemployment to keep our house and their church’s food ministry to keep our pantry stocked. My brother and I have minimum wage service jobs and help a little with bills.

    If I can get through school I’ll get the fuck out of here.

  29. 29.

    Carol

    April 4, 2010 at 6:01 pm

    All of this is why if I retire to somewhere warm, its going to be Cuba, where the third world conditions are combined with third world prices and first world humanity. Unless the post-Castro world goes truly insane, things may upgrade to a southern Sweden pretty quickly.

    While the last crazy teabagger Republicans and global warming devour the Florida, Cuba will be trying to upgrade to the 21st century, and won’t mind taxing business to do it.

  30. 30.

    Ruckus

    April 4, 2010 at 6:23 pm

    SiubhanDuinne@17
    Texas and Florida were both governed by two of Poppy Bush’s charming and oh-so-competent sons. Coincidence?

    Not even close.
    The output of that family has severely screwed the US for decades. Maybe longer. And the “credibility” conservatives gained by this family being placed in positions of power has hastened the demise of any real, legitimate political power that conservatives may have had. Unfortunately it won’t end the illegitimate political power they use to wreck havoc on us.

  31. 31.

    frankdawg

    April 4, 2010 at 6:24 pm

    I lived in Fla for a few years – it is a toilet with palm trees. The schools were an abomination the public facilities (libraries, parks & stuff) non-existent. It lives on tourists and federal handouts.

    If we cut it free it would be a third world banana republic in 6 months.

    And every experience I had with the medical system was a nightmare.

  32. 32.

    Kiril

    April 4, 2010 at 11:00 pm

    gantlet

    /grammarnazi

  33. 33.

    Shawn

    April 4, 2010 at 11:40 pm

    Isn’t FLA also the headwaters of the Oxy Hiway because they have no system to track doctor shopping pill gatherers. Probably take tax money to do that…

  34. 34.

    John S.

    April 5, 2010 at 8:02 am

    Speaking as a Floridian (for 25 years), this is about the dumbest post full of stereotypes I have ever seen. I particularly love the drive-by commentary of people that visited for a week or lived here in the 70s and know exactly everything about what it means to live here.

    But I guess we can’t blame the ignorance of the commenters for following mistermix’s lead. After all, despite having performed rather poorly in education rankings for quite some, Florida public schools ranked 8th in the nation according to Education Week.

    Anyway, keep up the misinformation and stay the fuck out. Florida is much nicer with less assholes from up North in it.

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

On The Road - Albatrossity - Flyover Country Spring 2
Image by Albatrossity (5/18/25)

Recent Comments

  • Baud on Sunday Morning Open Thread (May 18, 2025 @ 9:53am)
  • New Deal democrat on Sunday Morning Open Thread (May 18, 2025 @ 9:52am)
  • suzanne on Sunday Morning Open Thread (May 18, 2025 @ 9:51am)
  • Matt McIrvin on Sunday Morning Open Thread (May 18, 2025 @ 9:48am)
  • comrade scotts agenda of rage on Sunday Morning Open Thread (May 18, 2025 @ 9:47am)

PA Supreme Court At Risk

Donate

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
War in Ukraine
Donate to Razom for Ukraine

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Meetups

Upcoming Ohio Meetup May 17
5/11 Post about the May 17 Ohio Meetup

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)
Fix Nyms with Apostrophes

Hands Off! – Denver, San Diego & Austin

Social Media

Balloon Juice
WaterGirl
TaMara
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
DougJ NYT Pitchbot
mistermix

Keeping Track

Legal Challenges (Lawfare)
Republicans Fleeing Town Halls (TPM)
21 Letters (to Borrow or Steal)
Search Donations from a Brand

PA Supreme Court At Risk

Donate

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2025 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!