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You are here: Home / Open Threads / “DeSantis terrifies me.”

“DeSantis terrifies me.”

by MisterDancer|  August 28, 202210:18 am| 244 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Floriduh Man

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American Democracy needs Charlie Crist to beat Ron DeSantis and become Governor of the State of Florida. I’m convinced this is a critical race, on many levels. Maybe I’ve learned the wrong lessons from reading Betty Cracker; I’ll accept that.

This started with me pondering how Jim Crow developed. How Southern states, in the US, used terror attacks and “we all hate Negros” and “Brother versus Brother!” and the sheer exhaustion of our Civil War’s aftermath to break what goodwill existed for equality. From that lens? DeSantis terrifies me.

For example, here’s one of many key issues:

DeSantis has taken over all three branches of government in Florida. There is nobody in the state willing and able to hold him accountable. The Miami Herald editorial board calls it “unchecked one-man rule.”

Trump is a Trumpist. But DeSantis is a fascist. (Emphasis Mine — MD)

I see in him the capacity to build a modern Jim Crow system of perpetually abusive and fascist governance. No “Gilead” babble, this time. Just straight-up “here’s how we abuse people to hold power“ in our modern era. And yes, that’s different from using a mess of ad hoc asshole attacks for petty gains.

What gives me hope? We, as a Country, are in a position to break the back of that effort. At least, for a time.

DeSantis is not smart. Yet neither were most of the architects of Jim Crow. Like them, DeSantis is fairly methodical. He’s also clearly ruthless, and beyond any norms of morality or empathy. He’s also patient, willing to play a somewhat long game.

I’ve worked for a “patient racist,” briefly, in Strom Thurmond. I never want to fight one in the White House — and neither do you, I’m sure.

Worse: Abbot and others wish they were like DeSantis, I suspect. DeSantis emboldens the rest of these assholes, even more than they already are! His ambitions — and the support he’s getting for them — are where my opinion that he needs stopping now comes from.

Stopping DeSantis’ rise now sends the strongest possible signal, next to controlling all of Congress, that America is rejecting even warmed-over Trumpism. It’s a rejection that even the worst of the bothsiderism-addicted media cannot ignore. It allows us some small space to work on breaking apart the normalization of fascism he’s driving, right now, in our national media and elsewhere.

And his defeat signals other states, can cool their eagerness to follow down this dark road.

Now, I’ll close by saying the fight doesn’t stop there. Nixon rose back, as did…others. DeSantis losing will actually inflame some elements. Others will be eager to climb to power over his presumed political corpse. I don’t pretend this one act will Save Democracy.

But it’s a hell of a lot easier to keep ’em down, than to stop them once they get real fame and power.

(NOTE: I know Trump’s an issue, yet he’s an issue we talk a lot about. I’m concerned about who we aren’t looking hard enough at right now. Cool?)

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Reader Interactions

244Comments

  1. 1.

    MagdaInBlack

    August 28, 2022 at 10:22 am

    It’s cool. He scares crap out of me too. Definitely worthy of concern.

  2. 2.

    bbleh

    August 28, 2022 at 10:32 am

    Yeah he’s definitely in the top 2 or 3 most dangerous right now.  But one thing that gives me some hope is, he’s personally really unlikeable, and it comes across immediately whenever you see or hear him.  He frowns and he whines and he oozes hostility.  The Fascists are beyond hope — they like some of that, and they’ll project their Übermensch ideal onto the rest of him no matter how he appears — but a lot of Normies when they first see him won’t like him.  I don’t think he would fare well at all against Smilin’ Joe in a debate (which makes me think that, if it comes to it, there’s a good chance he’d refuse to participate), and sooner or later he’d have to make personal appearances beyond carefully orchestrated TV ads.  And the other thing that gives me a little hope is, Trump will work to take him down, and Trump has a lot of money, and a deeply pathological need not to be #2 to anyone.  Bring that one on, please, and I’ll root for injuries!  (I also recall Chris Christie, and before him Pete Wilson, who seemed toweringly dangerous while they were still in their home states and then failed miserably on the national stage.  It’s a big country, and what plays to a combination of Deep South, cranky retirees, and angry expats in Florida won’t necessarily play elsewhere.)

  3. 3.

    Shalimar

    August 28, 2022 at 10:34 am

    DeSantis is smart.  Don’t underestimate him because he has chosen a boorish idiot public image.  He’s a functioning sociopath on a level Trump can never be.

  4. 4.

    Elizabelle

    August 28, 2022 at 10:38 am

    I will write some postcards.

    DeSantis is worse than Trump, no doubt.

  5. 5.

    FastEdD

    August 28, 2022 at 10:38 am

    Yes I worry we are spending so much energy trying to rid ourselves of the Orange Pustule that Baby Fascist will try to ooze in to fill the void.

  6. 6.

    Baud

    August 28, 2022 at 10:40 am

    Go Crist!

  7. 7.

    zhena gogolia

    August 28, 2022 at 10:43 am

    @bbleh: This is basically my take too. He doesn’t have TFG’s pre-fab TV image, and the image you get is really a turnoff.

    But I’ve been wrong before!

  8. 8.

    HinTN

    August 28, 2022 at 10:46 am

    @Shalimar: You make the criticism I was winding up to make. I agree that he’s not at all personable but he is most definitely smart. That’s the scary part. The next one in line will have more personality, too. This shit never stops, it must be stopped.

  9. 9.

    Scout211

    August 28, 2022 at 10:49 am

    I see DeSantis as the front-runner right now, not F-POTUS.  I posted an article last week that named a few GOP mega donors who are starting to contribute more to DeSantis now than F-POTUS. One of those mega donors is the owner of the SF Giants, so it made news here in NorCal.

    Gavin Newsom agrees that DeSantis needs to be defeated.

    CNN)California Gov. Gavin Newsom is sending money across the country to help Rep. Charlie Crist defeat Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis this November.

    The California Democrat on Thursday tweeted that he was pledging $100,000 to make DeSantis a “one-term governor” and he called on his supporters to donate to Crist, who won the Democratic nomination to be Florida’s governor on Tuesday.

    Asked about the donation during a Los Angeles event, Newsom said he was compelled to donate to Crist because “I don’t like bullies.” Newsom pointed to DeSantis’ verbal assault of Dr. Anthony Fauci at a rally Wednesday, during which the Republican leader said of the country’s top infectious disease expert, “Someone needs to grab that little elf and chuck him across the Potomac.”

    “To call someone pejorative terms because they’re short — who the hell raised these guys?” Newsom said. “What kind of people are they? I know all of us had to sit there and suck it up and take (Donald) Trump’s demonization but not everybody has to act like him. I mean, literally, I remember growing up and folks would have their mouths washed out with soap if they talked like this. I got four kids; I don’t want these guys being models.”

  10. 10.

    Geminid

    August 28, 2022 at 10:50 am

    I hope DeSantis will debate Crist, and more than once. Crist has a good TV presence, and has shown no reluctance to hit DeSantis hard.

    An Impact Research poll was taken after the primary and featured by Florida Politics. It showed DeSantis leading Crist 51-46%, within the poll’s 3.5% margin of error.

         “…when voters were educated about DeSantis’ positions on property insurance, abortion…and his treatment of broadly popular entities like Disney and the Special Olympics, enough voters moved to turn the Governor’s race into a tossup.”

    Property insurance is a very big issue for Floridians now. Crist was probably alluding to this in his primary night speech when he said:

         “[DeSantis] only cares about the White House. He doesn’t care about your house.”

  11. 11.

    Mike E

    August 28, 2022 at 10:51 am

    @Shalimar:

    @HinTN:

    This. Us being “smart” gets us to where we are now; what we need to be to defeat these fascists is “effective”.

  12. 12.

    Elizabelle

    August 28, 2022 at 10:51 am

    @Scout211:  I wonder if massively publicizing DeSantis’s donors would help.

    He’s appalling, and they are deplorable.  Sunshine would be advised for all of them.

  13. 13.

    raven

    August 28, 2022 at 10:55 am

    Jamie Harrison didn’t balk at Biden’s “semi-fascist” characterization! “Let’s call it what it is”!

  14. 14.

    Scout211

    August 28, 2022 at 10:55 am

    @Elizabelle: Here is the article.

    Johnson is one of a handful of wealthy conservative donors to have possibly jumped ship. Billionaire Walter Buckley gave more than $1.5 million to Trump Victory prior to the 2020 election; since Nov. 2021, he’s given $1.25 million to DeSantis. Billionaire businessman John W. Childs dispersed six-figure checks to both Trump and DeSantis prior to the 2020 election, but has only recently given another big donation to DeSantis ($200,000 in March 2022). And Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, who held a controversial Trump fundraiser in 2019, gave $100,000 to DeSantis in April 2022. None have donated to Trump since 2021.

  15. 15.

    Elizabelle

    August 28, 2022 at 10:59 am

    If anyone has a link for how best to write postcards to Florida voters, please share it in this thread.

    Many thanks.

    @Scout211:   Thank you.  Not on twitter, but publicizing DeSantis’s donors would be a good reason to join…  Shame them.

  16. 16.

    Cameron

    August 28, 2022 at 10:59 am

    I consider DeSantis far more dangerous than Trump, if for no other reason than that Trump is incompetent pretty much across the board.  I tried to think of something that DeSantis has done for Florida and Floridians, and I can’t think of a single thing.

  17. 17.

    Josie

    August 28, 2022 at 11:00 am

    @Elizabelle: ​
     Yes, the donors should be publicized with emphasis on what they hope to gain from his win. People need to see that he is not interested in making their lives better. I saw Crist allude to this in an interview, and I think it is a good way to present the facts.

  18. 18.

    MagdaInBlack

    August 28, 2022 at 11:01 am

    @Scout211: One of our local Chicago billionaires, Ken Griffin, decamped to Florida because he couldn’t buy a Governor here

    Eta: He went to Boca Raton HS, so….back to his roots.

  19. 19.

    Leto

    August 28, 2022 at 11:04 am

    Defendants targeted in DeSantis’ voter fraud crackdown were told they could vote

    DeSantis suspends four Broward County School Board members, appoints replacements

    DeSantis now has appointed five of the nine board members, as he appointed Daniel Foganholi to the board on April 29 after Osgood stepped down. Foganholi did not run for the District 5 seat in Tuesday’s election; his term runs through November. School board members normally are elected, not appointed by the governor. The suspended board members are all women. The appointees are all men.

    ‘UN-AMERICAN AND UNDEMOCRATIC’

    DeSantis’ suspensions drew sharp criticism from two of the suspended board members and a former board chair. “What country is this? What Governor DeSantis did is un-American and undemocratic,” Rich Levinson, the board chair suspended by the governor, said in a written statement emailed to the Herald. “He doesn’t care about democracy and overturned the will of the voters.”

    Broward School Board Chair Laurie Rich Levinson, who was suspended Friday by Gov. Ron DeSantis. Miami “Because you may disagree on local policy decisions is not a reason to remove someone from elected office,” added Rich Levinson, who served on the board for 12 years. “This is all about political retribution for not firing Superintendent Runcie. It’s about blaming the Superintendent, and any School Board Members who supported him, for the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting. Governor DeSantis impaneled a Grand Jury, under the guise of school safety, as a pretext to remove School Board Members who did not fire the former Superintendent. Do future Board Members need to pre-clear their votes with DeSantis? Could future Democratic Governors now remove locally elected Republicans?”

    And for the trifecta:

    Ron DeSantis replaced elected attorney with one bringing back “Biking while Black” policy

    Leaders in the African American community in Florida are speaking out after Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) replaced a pro-trans state attorney with a lawyer who wants to bring back what has been called the “Biking while Black” policy.

    Earlier this month, DeSantis said that he fired Hillsborough County state attorney Andrew Warren (D), even though Warren is an elected official. DeSantis said that Warren has spoken out against bans on transgender youth getting gender affirming medical care – the state of Florida does not have such a ban – and that he said signed a letter opposing the criminal prosecution of people seeking an abortion. Warren also criticized the state’s Don’t Say Gay law.

    Now people are speaking out because DeSantis picked Susan Lopez to replace Warren last week. Lopez issued a memo immediately to employees of the state attorney’s office that said, “Effective immediately, any policy my predecessor put in place that called for presumptive non-enforcement of the laws of Florida is immediately rescinded. This includes the bike stop and pedestrian stop policy.”

  20. 20.

    Elizabelle

    August 28, 2022 at 11:04 am

    @Josie:   Let’s do it.

    Perhaps we could organize it via Balloon Juice.

    With any name other than “Actual Citizens United.”  I hate that one.  It’s derivative.  We can do better.

    I will have to learn to use social media.  Alas.

  21. 21.

    sdhays

    August 28, 2022 at 11:08 am

    @Leto: Why the fuck are these positions “elected” if the governor can just dismiss them and appoint replacements?

  22. 22.

    Leto

    August 28, 2022 at 11:08 am

    @Cameron:

    I tried to think of something that DeSantis has done for Florida and Floridians, and I can’t think of a single thing.

    Here’s a quick 5 point list.

  23. 23.

    MisterDancer

    August 28, 2022 at 11:09 am

    @Elizabelle: Peeking at Postcards To Voters, their Facebook says they are working on local races in FL (among places). I don’t know if they have plans with Crist.

  24. 24.

    Leto

    August 28, 2022 at 11:09 am

    @sdhays: That’s the part I don’t understand, the legality of it. But authoritarians/fascists don’t give a shit about the law except how they can use it to inflict harm to their enemies.

  25. 25.

    Elizabelle

    August 28, 2022 at 11:10 am

    The Miami Herald (quite a good paper) has launched an Elections 2022:  Facts and Fiction electronic newsletter.  In English and Spanish.

    You should sign up for it.

    https://t.news.miamiherald.com/webApp/mccSignUp?newsletter=miamiherald_election_2022_newsletter&ac_cid=DM690191&ac_bid=762704119

  26. 26.

    Scout211

    August 28, 2022 at 11:10 am

    From Open Secrets.

    Amid rumblings of a potential 2024 presidential bid, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ (R) political operation raised $165.6 million since 2019, the year he took office. DeSantis already set a new record for gubernatorial fundraising without candidate self-financing and is about $11 million away from raising more money than any gubernatorial candidate in recent decades as of Aug. 5.

    During the first seven months of 2022, DeSantis’ campaign raised nearly $22 million a new OpenSecrets analysis of campaign reports filed Aug. 12 found. His state-level PAC, Friends of Ron DeSantis, brought in about $67.2 million during the same period. While DeSantis’ campaign and PAC are technically two different political committees, they are two halves of the same war chest.

    In addition to the Republican Governors Association’s nearly $17.4 million in contributions to his PAC, the Florida governor’s PAC has drawn millions of dollars in contributions from GOP megadonors. Budget Suites hotel mogul Robert Bigelow contributed $10 million to DeSantis’ political operation this cycle, and Ken Griffin, CEO of the hedge fund Citadel, gave $5 million. GOP megadonor Richard Uihlein, billionaire founder of the shipping and business supply company Uline, and his wife contributed over $1.2 million.

    Former Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner (R), a prodigious self-financer who gave almost $95 million to his own 2014 and 2018 gubernatorial campaigns, also gave $660,000 to DeSantis’ PAC this election cycle.

    DeSantis’ campaign has also received over $4.2 million from the Florida Matching Funds Program, which matches campaign contributions from individuals giving $250 or less but bars participating candidates from contributing more than $25,000 to their campaigns. The program also caps contributions from “national, state, and county executive committees of a political party” at $250,000. To get around this, the Florida Republican party gave $7.6 million in “in kind” donations including campaign staff, consulting and research to his campaign.

  27. 27.

    MisterDancer

    August 28, 2022 at 11:11 am

    @sdhays: Why the fuck are these positions “elected” if the governor can just dismiss them and appoint replacements?

    I suspect the original intent was to quickly replace people who aren’t doing a good job, ala impeachment.

    DeSantis abuses the process to install yes-people.

  28. 28.

    Baud

    August 28, 2022 at 11:11 am

    @raven:

    👍

  29. 29.

    Scout211

    August 28, 2022 at 11:12 am

    nevermind. Thanks for the rescue from moderation. 😊

  30. 30.

    Josie

    August 28, 2022 at 11:13 am

    @Elizabelle: ​
     I really don’t want to use social media. I am definitely interested in using the post cards to voters if there is an organization for Florida. I just recently learned of a program by Beto’s organization for writing letters to voters in Texas. I plan to join them soon.
    https://act.betoorourke.com/go/LetterWritingHub
    If anyone has a link for a Florida organization, please post it here.

  31. 31.

    oatler

    August 28, 2022 at 11:16 am

    He’s using the old “destabilize, cause chaos, and  in the middle of civil disorder, move in.”

  32. 32.

    Ruckus

    August 28, 2022 at 11:17 am

    @Shalimar:

    This.

    I think death santa gets along in FL because of the nature of the state.  A lot of retires with a smidgen of money who seem to me to have been a bit more conservative than liberal. The type that doesn’t understand why they need to pay for public education or public health care, they did fine, they are taken care of so why should they support those who can’t support themselves just because the world has changed a tad in the last 50-60 yrs, after all they got along fine and live in nicely maintained closed housing developments. And along with them is a wide range of people with many types of jobs, living in a beautiful state, (and yes I’ve been there and have known people that live there in days gone by)

    However. death santa has decided that he is going to be the next step in the development of a conservative, white, stupid country. I believe that the bigger stage will make his attempt to outdo SFB in his boorish, garish, stupidity fall flat. I believe that what Joe is doing will far outweigh that persona that death santa is bringing to the stage. People have seen what stupid racist hate gets a country this size, and while many will be drawn into that stupid racist hate whirlpool, at the end of the day that whirlpool always sucks in those not smart, nor human enough to move beyond their own hate and stupidity, and it drowns them with same. We can be better, we outnumber them, they are the asshole of humanity, the rest of the body is bigger and doesn’t smell as bad.

  33. 33.

    Barbara

    August 28, 2022 at 11:18 am

    @MisterDancer: ​When I write postcards the focus is usually the local races but we are also instructed to include something about the statewide races as well. So it’s a ground up kind of thing, starting at the district level, but incorporating statewide races. Turnout for locally competitive races also helps statewide races.

  34. 34.

    Suzanne

    August 28, 2022 at 11:22 am

    DeSantis isn’t the embodiment of the shitty low-potential white man’s id in the same way that Trump is. He’s like if you bought TFG off of Wish.

  35. 35.

    Cameron

    August 28, 2022 at 11:22 am

    @Leto: My fault – I should have specified anything useful.

  36. 36.

    CaseyL

    August 28, 2022 at 11:23 am

    It also helps DeSantis that the Florida Lege is stacked with RW nutjobs who won’t oppose anything he does, like Trump’s first 2 years when the GOP controlled the Senate.

    My Mom (who lives in Pompano Beach, after most of her adult life spent in Miami Beach) says the northern part of Florida is divvied up into many, many small counties – all of them very GOP/RW – while in the bluer areas in the southern part of the state, where most of the population lives, the counties are drawn to be huge.  Since the state Lege is county-based in terms of representation, the tiny northern counties can always be counted on to outnumber the southern counties.  It’s basically gerrymandering on a county level, and it’s permanent.

  37. 37.

    Obvious Russian Troll

    August 28, 2022 at 11:24 am

    @zhena gogolia: Scott Walker was once thought to be a front runner in the 2016 primaries. That worked out really well. I’m also not convinced that DeSantis will end up as the nominee.

    Having said that, whoever ends up as the Republican nominee will almost certainly be both terrible and terrifying.

  38. 38.

    Frank Wilhoit

    August 28, 2022 at 11:25 am

    @HinTN: Smart?  I don’t see it.  DeSantis has not done anything that shows me imagination or resourcefulness, only brute-force domination.  I think his bag contains very few other tricks.  In this, I think he is exactly like Trump.  The affect is different, but that is only because New York.  (Florida is famously inhabited, even today, by carpetbaggers: where is DeSantis from?  I get a little bit of an Indiana/Kentucky vibe from him.)

  39. 39.

    Baud

    August 28, 2022 at 11:26 am

    I was out and sitting next to me were a group of very loud white people from Florida.

    And they HATED DeSantis!

    Anecdatum. But nice anecdatum.

  40. 40.

    Citizen Alan

    August 28, 2022 at 11:28 am

    @Scout211:

    Can anyone name a single billionaire who’s not evil in some way?

  41. 41.

    Ruckus

    August 28, 2022 at 11:29 am

    @Cameron:

    death santa doesn’t do anything for Florida. He does everything for death santa, which of course makes everything far worse for everyone other than death santa. Now SFB is similar except for one part. And that is that death santa is a tad smarter. He’s no more nor no less racist. His tad smarter gives him a better/worse launching pad for being a member of the worst human segment. The only saving grace is that because even though he’s smarter than SFB, and therefore more dangerous, he’s also even more of a racist fuck and therefore his hate and racism is far more obvious. Which of course seems impossible. But it is a pivot point for anyone opposing him and it should lose him wide support.

  42. 42.

    Baud

    August 28, 2022 at 11:29 am

    @Citizen Alan:

    Illinois’s governor.

    I’m not sure William Buffet is evil.

    Bill Gates gave us better 5G reception.

  43. 43.

    Lyrebird

    August 28, 2022 at 11:37 am

    @MisterDancer: DeSantis abuses the process to install yes-people.

    And when his idea of a good soldier is one like his press secretary, ginning up violence against teachers, parents, kids…

    I am scared of him too.

  44. 44.

    Ruckus

    August 28, 2022 at 11:38 am

    @Frank Wilhoit:

    death santa is smarter than SFB. That does not make him less evil, it makes him more. It means he won’t step on his own dick as often, it doesn’t mean he never will. SFB at least tried to focus some of his stupidity on making money rather than making racists. death santa is more focused, thinks more about how to get, well not ahead, his only gear is reverse but he thinks more about how to hate. SFB had to split his limited brain power between getting money (not making it – getting it) and pure racist hate. death santa gets support for focusing on racism and hate. And that is why he is more dangerous.

  45. 45.

    MisterDancer

    August 28, 2022 at 11:38 am

    @Ruckus: His tad smarter gives him a better/worse launching pad for being a member of the worst human segment.

    There’s a few reasons I used terms like “methodical” and “patient” to describe DeSantis.

    One of them is that “smart” is a stupidly broad term in a lot of ways. There are too many ways to succeed for smart to mean much.

    The example I give are the people who seem to lack any awareness or interest in anything. But bring up their favorite sport, and their deep memory, attention to detail, and data analysis will blow your mind!

    DeSantis, to me, is dangerous in part because he knows how and when to strike to cause maximal harm, while courting the rich people we’re talking about. That doesn’t take a ton of IQ, but it does take a focus and presence of mind we need to be, well, mindful of.

    This isn’t an IQ test, in my mind, and debating it as such risks missing exactly how he’s approaching enabling his Fascist approach.

  46. 46.

    Brachiator

    August 28, 2022 at 11:38 am

    @Scout211:

    Johnson is one of a handful of wealthy conservative donors to have possibly jumped ship. Billionaire Walter Buckley gave more than $1.5 million to Trump Victory prior to the 2020 election; since Nov. 2021, he’s given $1.25 million to DeSantis. Billionaire businessman John W. Childs dispersed six-figure checks to both Trump and DeSantis prior to the 2020 election, but has only recently given another big donation to DeSantis ($200,000 in March 2022). And Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, who held a controversial Trump fundraiser in 2019, gave $100,000 to DeSantis in April 2022. None have donated to Trump since 2021.

    A side note. I don’t know who these businessmen are, or how they earned their money,  but they all clearly seem to want an ugly America. DeSantis and Trump share some bad character traits. They both seem to thrive on ignorance and sullen resentment. They both enjoy hurting those who defy them.

    The plutocrats who donate to DeSantis must be some screwed up individuals.

  47. 47.

    Geminid

    August 28, 2022 at 11:39 am

    @Frank Wilhoit: I think DeSantis’ mother was from the Youngstown, Ohio area.

  48. 48.

    zhena gogolia

    August 28, 2022 at 11:40 am

    @Baud: Nice.

    He is so repulsive. Hard to be more repulsive than TFG, but if you squint while looking at TFG, you see this big powerful blonde guy with a red tie. No squinting helps with DeSantis. And he can’t carry off the “elf” type insults with the same brio as TFG.

    My husband scared me when he first saw TFG, back when he was sparring with Megyn Kelly and saying blood was coming out of her everywhere. I was showing it to him to show him how ridiculous TFG was, but he said, “He’s very effective,” in an apprehensive voice. He thinks DeSantis won’t get anywhere. I hope he’s right, as usual.

  49. 49.

    zhena gogolia

    August 28, 2022 at 11:41 am

    @Baud: But that phrase “in some way” covers a lot of ground. Gates is evil “in some way.” I can’t think of any billionaires who aren’t evil “in some way.”

    But maybe that’s true of all humans.

  50. 50.

    Geminid

    August 28, 2022 at 11:41 am

    @Ruckus: I think the principal difference between DeSantis and trump is DeSantis is not as lazy.

  51. 51.

    Alison Rose 💙🌻💛

    August 28, 2022 at 11:41 am

    @Ruckus:

    death santa is smarter than SFB

    the lowest of low bars

  52. 52.

    Brachiator

    August 28, 2022 at 11:42 am

    @Citizen Alan:

    Can anyone name a single billionaire who’s not evil in some way?

    Oprah.

     

  53. 53.

    hells littlest angel

    August 28, 2022 at 11:43 am

    DeSantis does have Mussolini’s squinty piggy eyes.

  54. 54.

    JPL

    August 28, 2022 at 11:43 am

    IMO Youngkin is another that might run.   He’s more appealing than DeSantis, but his policies are the same.

  55. 55.

    Baud

    August 28, 2022 at 11:44 am

    @zhena gogolia:

    But maybe that’s true of all humans.

     
    True.

  56. 56.

    Ruckus

    August 28, 2022 at 11:44 am

    @Cameron:

    death santa never does anything that he doesn’t think will help him hate more. He is pure racist hate. Which is why he is more dangerous than SFB. SFB is like a racist mayor of a small town. death santa is more like an ignorant Hitler.

  57. 57.

    hells littlest angel

    August 28, 2022 at 11:45 am

    @Citizen Alan: I can’t think of a single human being who isn’t evil in some way.

  58. 58.

    Baud

    August 28, 2022 at 11:45 am

    Is DeSantis someone who would be under the thumb of foreign adversaries?

  59. 59.

    JPL

    August 28, 2022 at 11:45 am

    Nikki Fried just posted this

    I may have lost my primary, but at least I’ve never put on a fighter pilot costume to pretend I was Tom Cruise without the looks, charm, or skills.

  60. 60.

    oatler

    August 28, 2022 at 11:46 am

    The ABC show is on now, and the headline theme  is DEMS DIVIDED. Christie is opining on Mar-a-Lago.

  61. 61.

    bbleh

    August 28, 2022 at 11:46 am

    @sdhays: @Leto: @MisterDancer: I think state law actually specifies that people who hold many (all?) of those and similar positions can be removed for cause by the Gov.  And it would appear that right now DeSantis is using “I don’t like it and I can make it seem at least temporarily politically unpopular” as “cause.”

  62. 62.

    Baud

    August 28, 2022 at 11:47 am

    @JPL:

    👍

  63. 63.

    Baud

    August 28, 2022 at 11:48 am

    @oatler:

    What are we divided on?

  64. 64.

    bbleh

    August 28, 2022 at 11:49 am

    @zhena gogolia: Good point: the TV history is another thing, and one that is too often overlooked when it comes to TFG.  I’m reasonably comfortable saying that in 2016 most of what most people thought they knew about TFG was directly from, or built around or spun off from, his Apprentice persona.  DeSantis ain’t got that.

    (And along the same lines, I think that’s what the Republicans are trying with Oz and to some extent with Walker — count on celebrity to win the election — and so far it doesn’t seem to be working nearly as well.)

  65. 65.

    Geminid

    August 28, 2022 at 11:50 am

    @JPL: I have a hunch Youngkin will bide his time and lay the groundwork for a run in 2028. But you never know when it comes to ambitious politicians.

  66. 66.

    Alison Rose 💙🌻💛

    August 28, 2022 at 11:50 am

    @Brachiator: I wouldn’t call her evil but she did give us Oz and Dr Phil, so……………..she’s not NOT evil.

  67. 67.

    Baud

    August 28, 2022 at 11:51 am

    @Geminid:

    He’ll have to wait until 2032 if a Republican wins in 2024.

  68. 68.

    bbleh

    August 28, 2022 at 11:51 am

    @Baud: It is our intrinsic nature, you see.  It is written in the Book of Narratives (Chapter 2).

  69. 69.

    Brachiator

    August 28, 2022 at 11:53 am

    @Baud:

    Is DeSantis someone who would be under the thumb of foreign adversaries?

    Interesting question. I only have an image of DeSantis as a small town, or state political boss. I wonder if there are good stories about his rise to power in Florida.

  70. 70.

    kalakal

    August 28, 2022 at 11:53 am

    DeathSantis is potentially far worse than TFG as he’s smarter and more focused ( a low bar, but still). OTH he comes across terribly in person. For MAGAts who see TFG as ‘like them’ & ‘not a politician’ he’s hopefully not that appealing. He’s just a whiny man in a suit. TFG has some weird charisma, can’t see it myself , but millions vote for him, get fired up by him. No one is going to get fired up by the personal charisma of Ron, the I-Speak-Your-Weight- Machine, DeathSantis. He scares the hell out of me and in any sane world would lose by a mile.

  71. 71.

    Baud

    August 28, 2022 at 11:53 am

    @bbleh:

    I thought it might be about our deep division over whether Republicans are semi-fascist or full frontal fascists.

  72. 72.

    bbleh

    August 28, 2022 at 11:54 am

    @Citizen Alan: @Baud: @zhena gogolia: @Brachiator: @hells littlest angel: MacKenzie Bezos seems to be doing okay so far, but maybe that’s cuz she didn’t have to do evil things to get the billions.

  73. 73.

    Jager

    August 28, 2022 at 11:55 am

    @Baud:

    We stayed at the Sheraton in Honolulu on vacation last week. We rode down on the elevator one morning with a cranky white couple, the guy had on a MAGA hat and a scowl on his face. We ended up following them out of the hotel. As we strolled through the concourse, several other guests actually told the guy to “fuck himself”. I’m sure he had a wonderful vacation. I would guess Hawaii’s diversity was making him very nervous.

  74. 74.

    Alison Rose 💙🌻💛

    August 28, 2022 at 11:57 am

    @bbleh: Well, she did have to fuck Jeff Bezos…

  75. 75.

    Baud

    August 28, 2022 at 11:57 am

    @Jager:

    Hahaha.  His feelings were fucked.

  76. 76.

    Omnes Omnibus

    August 28, 2022 at 11:59 am

    @Obvious Russian Troll: ​
      I agree with you, z-g, and bbleh. He may be dangerous and the front-runner for 2024, but a lot of these people do not scale up well. They are formidable in their states, but cannot make the leap to national politics. I have yet to see how DeSantis differs from such previous behemoths as Christie and Walker. Or Rubio and Cruz for that matter.

  77. 77.

    Geminid

    August 28, 2022 at 11:59 am

    @Baud: That is true. But 2024 will be a a shitshow on the Republican side that Youngkin may want to avoid. He’s a shrewd guy and might not see 2024 as a good year for Republicans. And he could easily wind up in the second spot on the 2024 ticket anyway.

    Paul Ryan is another Republican who is laying back and probably waiting for 2028. But if DeSantis gets knocked out by Crist the field will be reshuffled. I think Christie and Pompeo are running for sure.

  78. 78.

    bbleh

    August 28, 2022 at 11:59 am

    @Baud: “Democrats are deeply divided over whether to use the ‘F-word’ at all.  Here to discuss the matter are (1) a professor of linguistics, who will attempt to describe the origins and meaning of the word until interrupted by one of our Republican panel members, (2) a professor of history, ditto, (3) a Republican who will argue fiercely that it’s actually Democrats who are Fascists because Obama something Hillary something Vince Foster emails PC cancellation school loan forgiveness, and (4) a Republican who will ask Serious Questions about whether being a Fascist is really such a bad thing anyway.”

  79. 79.

    Elizabelle

    August 28, 2022 at 11:59 am

    @Jager:

    several other guests actually told the [MAGA hat] guy to “fuck himself”.

    More of this.

    They want to wear the swastika, they get the blowback.

    Germany didn’t do that.  We can.  Ukraine shows the way.

  80. 80.

    Omnes Omnibus

    August 28, 2022 at 12:00 pm

    @Citizen Alan: Bruce Wayne.

  81. 81.

    Elizabelle

    August 28, 2022 at 12:00 pm

    @oatler:   Seriously?  Have you emailed or called them about it to register a complaint?

  82. 82.

    JPL

    August 28, 2022 at 12:01 pm

    @oatler: From what I gather the shows were highlighted Biden’s spending spree.   It’s possible that we have the biggest national security scandal ever, and they let it go.

  83. 83.

    Baud

    August 28, 2022 at 12:02 pm

    @bbleh:

    A diverse array of voices from across the political spectrum.

  84. 84.

    Elizabelle

    August 28, 2022 at 12:04 pm

    @JPL:   If you weren’t telling me what the Sunday “public affairs” shows were doing, I would never know.

    They’re for Republicans and defense contractors.

    Do you think younger people watch them?  Other than the MSM masturbating each other, do they have any effect?

  85. 85.

    trollhattan

    August 28, 2022 at 12:04 pm

    @Brachiator:
    Franklin Templeton. Charlie is the founder’s son, showing yet again that inherited wealth creates the Bestest Americans. His giving patterns reveal a deeply cynical individual.

    Johnson is one of the largest donors to Republican and Tea-Party-backed political campaigns.[12] Since 2000, he has contributed over $900,000 to the campaigns of Mitt Romney, John Boehner, and Ben Quayle. In 2015, Johnson donated $1 million to a Super PAC supporting the presidential candidacy of Jeb Bush.[13] From 2017 through 2018, Johnson and his wife Ann ranked 14th among the largest donors to Republican causes and candidates, donating over $4.58 million during this period.

    In 2018, Johnson and his wife, Ann, each donated $2,700 to the campaign of Cindy Hyde-Smith who is a Republican U.S. Senator from Mississippi in a runoff election against Mike Espy, an African-American democratic candidate. On the campaign trail, Hyde-Smith was criticized when a video surfaced showing her tell a local rancher, “If he invited me to a public hanging, I’d be on the front row.” The basis for such wide criticism came as the state has dealt with a history of African Americans being lynched. Nine days after such controversial video surfaced, Charles Johnson and his wife Ann Johnson each donated $5,400 to the Hyde-Smith campaign which sparked further criticism of Mr. and Mrs. Johnson.[15]

    Later in the same year [2018], Johnson donated $1000 to Black Americans for the President’s Agenda, a super PAC that supports President Trump’s policies and conservative candidates, according to the group’s financial disclosures. The superPAC released an allegedly racist ad, which forced Johnson to release a statement saying “I had absolutely no knowledge that this donation would be used in this manner and I, like the Giants organization, strongly condemn any form of racism and in no way condone the advertisement that was created by this entity.”

    Johnson also donated to the campaign of Lauren Boebert which sparked controversy after Boebert appeared to be aiding rioters in the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.[18] In addition to Boebert, Johnson donated to at least 11 other Republican congressional candidates, including Tommy Tuberville, Tom Cotton, and Kelly Loeffler.[19] After scrutiny of his donations to Boebert and others, Johnson stated that he would request a refund from Boebert and some other candidates, and that he would “do my part in helping to heal our nation and restore peace and respect in our democratic system.” However, shortly after releasing this statement, it was reported that Johnson continued to donate to conservatives, specifically donating $5,000 to the political action committee Elbert Guillory’s America.

    Not to worry, there are six Johnson kids to carry on the legacy.

  86. 86.

    satby

    August 28, 2022 at 12:05 pm

    @Citizen Alan: Pritzker, Governor of IL.

  87. 87.

    NeenerNeener

    August 28, 2022 at 12:09 pm

    @Brachiator: Oprah gave us John of God, Dr. Oz and Dr. Phil, among other nasties. She’s got some explaining to do when she meets her maker.

  88. 88.

    Mike in NC

    August 28, 2022 at 12:09 pm

    Many people are saying DeSatan is Trump with a brain.

  89. 89.

    Scout211

    August 28, 2022 at 12:13 pm

    My sister lives in Orlando and is a Democrat, but is a normie. She always calls DeSantis an idiot, but she lives in “deep blue” Orlando and somehow feels insulated and protected living there. Orlando just re-elected Jerry Demings mayor of Orange County and she was happy about that.

    But she also told me that this was the first election since moving to Florida 30+ years ago that she studied each and every state and local race on the ballot and voted on all of them. As insulated as she feels, she is more engaged this year than she ever has been.

    She is only one person, but retired people in Florida are not always Republicans.  Many of them could be normies like my sister.  Hopefully, the Democrats have a strategy to reach out to them and help them get engaged in the election this fall.

  90. 90.

    Baud

    August 28, 2022 at 12:14 pm

    @Scout211:

    👍

  91. 91.

    trollhattan

    August 28, 2022 at 12:16 pm

    Meanwhile, Saudia Arabia continues to bring fifteenth century values into the current one.

    DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A Saudi court has sentenced a doctoral student to 34 years in prison for spreading “rumors” and retweeting dissidents, according to court documents obtained Thursday, a decision that has drawn growing global condemnation.
    Activists and lawyers consider the sentence against Salma al-Shehab, a mother of two and a researcher at Leeds University in Britain, shocking even by Saudi standards of justice.
    So far unacknowledged by the kingdom, the ruling comes amid Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s crackdown on dissent even as his rule granted women the right to drive and other new freedoms in the ultraconservative Islamic nation.
    Al-Shehab was detained during a family vacation on Jan. 15, 2021, just days before she planned to return to the United Kingdom, according to the Freedom Initiative, a Washington-based human rights group.
    Al-Shehab told judges she had been held for over 285 days in solitary confinement before her case was even referred to court, the legal documents obtained by The Associated Press show.
    The Freedom Initiative describes al-Shehab as a member of Saudi Arabia’s Shiite Muslim minority, which has long complained of systematic discrimination in the Sunni-ruled kingdom.
    “Saudi Arabia has boasted to the world that they are improving women’s rights and creating legal reform, but there is no question with this abhorrent sentence that the situation is only getting worse,” said Bethany al-Haidari, the group’s Saudi case manager.

  92. 92.

    RaflW

    August 28, 2022 at 12:21 pm

    @Leto: I don’t understand what authority the governor has to remove these people. I read the article about the school board and it just says he did it, and relied on the grand jury report for justificaiton.

    But justification is not the same as legal authority. I suppose the FL Supremes are as bought-and-paid-for GOP operatives as the scrotus six and would just ‘find’ the ability of DeSantis to run roughshod over any elected underling.

    But it’s f’ing shocking.

  93. 93.

    Jackie

    August 28, 2022 at 12:25 pm

    @Alison Rose 💙🌻💛:

    Was just going to post exactly that!👍🏻

  94. 94.

    Amir Khalid

    August 28, 2022 at 12:26 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Bruce Wayne’s intentions might not be consciously evil. But his/Batman’s obsession with bringing down every bad guy in Gotham City frequently leads him into morally questionable territory.

  95. 95.

    Cameron

    August 28, 2022 at 12:26 pm

    I don’t know about the rest of the state, but wingnuts ousted moderates from both the school and health boards in Sarasota county.I was a little surprised by that.

  96. 96.

    Mike in NC

    August 28, 2022 at 12:26 pm

    The thing is, in 2000 George W Bush cast himself as a bogus “compassionate conservative”, but by 2016 the Republican base wanted no more of that crap. Nobody going forward will get nominated as GQP candidate unless they prove on a daily basis that they are angry, hateful assholes. Remember that awful woman in Floriduh, working at some prison, who complained that the Fat Orange Clown wasn’t hurting the people he needed to hurt. Nice.

  97. 97.

    Baud

    August 28, 2022 at 12:29 pm

    @Mike in NC:

    Nobody going forward will get nominated as GQP candidate unless they prove on a daily basis that they are angry, hateful assholes.

     
    They will put on any face they need to to win elections.

  98. 98.

    Violet

    August 28, 2022 at 12:30 pm

    @Brachiator: I’m waiting for her apologies for Dr. Oz and Mr. Phil

  99. 99.

    artem1s

    August 28, 2022 at 12:31 pm

    @bbleh:

    who seemed toweringly dangerous while they were still in their home states and then failed miserably on the national stage.

    weird how many of the state level GQP fascists who seemed dangerously unbeatable were completely destroyed by their own party in 2016. Christie, Giuliani, Cruz, and most especially JEB! all passively let TFG cake walk thru the primaries because they thought they could take him out at the end after the rest had been voted off the island. DeSantis’ biggest challenge in 2024 will be surviving whatever primary scrum Faux News and the GQP decides to cook up to keep the MAGAt and Kochs entertained. I haven’t seen enough of DeSantis to tell how effective he would be during a debate at cowing the other candidates. But I have seen enough to think he probably not entertaining enough, especially if Fox is running interference to keep TFG or one of the other batshit loonies on stage as long as possible.

  100. 100.

    Brachiator

    August 28, 2022 at 12:31 pm

    @Amir Khalid:

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Bruce Wayne’s intentions might not be consciously evil. But his/Batman’s obsession with bringing down every bad guy in Gotham City frequently leads him into morally questionable territory.

    Richie Rich?

  101. 101.

    Amir Khalid

    August 28, 2022 at 12:31 pm

    Hmmm.

  102. 102.

    Mike in NC

    August 28, 2022 at 12:37 pm

    @Scout211: Why is it that so many right-wing billionaires own football teams?

  103. 103.

    bbleh

    August 28, 2022 at 12:49 pm

    @Baud: well, for a MSM network perhaps. Faux wouldn’t bother with any ee-leetist “professors” or their dumb ol’ “facts.”

  104. 104.

    Kent

    August 28, 2022 at 12:51 pm

    @Cameron:I tried to think of something that DeSantis has done for Florida and Floridians, and I can’t think of a single thing.

    I can think of a whole lot of things….

    Oh wait…you meant GOOD things.

  105. 105.

    geg6

    August 28, 2022 at 12:53 pm

    @Brachiator:

    Au contraire!  She brought us Dr. Oz, Dr. Phil and Marianne Williamson.  Fuck that shit.

  106. 106.

    Amir Khalid

    August 28, 2022 at 12:53 pm

    @Mike in NC:

    Let’s see.

    • There are only a few NFL teams, so to own one is to be a member of a small, exclusive club
    • Getting into that club is insanely expensive and thus proof of great wealth
    • The team’s fans will worship you — personal affirmation!
    • You can hold your city hostage by threatening to move elsewhere unless they build your team a huge billion-dollar stadium with all the associated city infrastructure! MWAHAHA!
  107. 107.

    Ruckus

    August 28, 2022 at 12:54 pm

    @MisterDancer:

    I don’t disagree with you at all. This is a hate fest, not an IQ test.

    Both of these assholes hate, both with a passion. To me the difference is as you point out death santa is worse because he is more focused. Yes I think he’s smarter but I do think that smarter is focused on pure hate, that makes death santa a bigger threat. SFB is always trying to “get ahead,” death santa is trying to hate with more passion and a better understanding of his focus and how to obtain his goals.

    I don’t think we disagree, I think we are just looking from different perspectives.

  108. 108.

    Kent

    August 28, 2022 at 12:56 pm

    @trollhattan: It is honestly shocking to me that people still think they can be public dissidents against countries like Saudi Arabia and Iran and then go back home and visit and expect no consequences.   What the Saudis are doing is horrific, but it is nothing if not predictable.

  109. 109.

    Baud

    August 28, 2022 at 12:57 pm

    @Amir Khalid:

    • The team’s fans will worship you — personal affirmation!

    So this part doesn’t actually happen.  They worship the right wing Quarterback maybe, but not the owner.

  110. 110.

    Dangerman

    August 28, 2022 at 12:59 pm

    @Citizen Alan: I’m going to modify that; can anyone name any legacy billionaire (i.e. family money like Koch, Walton, Trump) that isn’t evil in some way?

  111. 111.

    Another Scott

    August 28, 2022 at 12:59 pm

    I agree that we need to take his threat seriously and work to defeat him and his enablers.

    I haven’t seen this mentioned above:

    BlackEnterprise.com:

    A Florida judge blocked Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Stop WOKE Act, which restricts race-based conversation, analysis, and education, calling it unconstitutional.

    NBC News reports U.S. District Judge Mark Walker determined the Stop WOKE Act violates the First Amendment and the Fourteenth Amendment’s due process law. Walker also denied a stay that would have kept the act in effect during an appeal.

    “Recently, Florida has seemed like a First Amendment upside down,” Walker wrote in his 44-page ruling.

    “Normally, the First Amendment bars the state from burdening speech, while private actors may burden speech freely,” the Obama-appointed judge continued.

    “But in Florida, the First Amendment apparently bars private actors from burdening speech, while the state may burden speech freely.”

    […]

    The rest of our system needs to do its job as well.

    And elected people need to be brave enough to stand up:

    MiamiHerald:

    Two weeks after he was suspended from office, ousted Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warren fired back with a federal lawsuit against Gov. Ron DeSantis, citing free speech rights and prosecutorial discretion in his fight to get his job back. The lawsuit states that the courts get to say what the state Constitution means — “not whatever DeSantis needs it to mean to silence his critics, promote his loyalists, and subvert the will of the voters.” “The bottom line is everyone should follow the law, even the governor,” said Warren’s Tampa lawyer, David Singer. “We’re going to ask a court to make sure that happens.”

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  112. 112.

    West of the Rockies

    August 28, 2022 at 12:59 pm

    I live in California and no little about Florida politics.   What exactly has DeSantis gone that is good or positive for Florida, or is his popularity just about hurting and humiliating the right (wrong) people?

  113. 113.

    Jager

    August 28, 2022 at 1:00 pm

    @Mike in NC:

    The owner’s share of the national TV contract covers the workers, the operating costs, and management. They get all the rest, tickets, concessions, merchandise, parking, and local media. If they don’t spend up to the salary cap, they keep the money. The teams split all the national advertising partnerships. Of course, many teams have gotten the local governments to pony up the cash for their stadiums too. Seems like it’s the perfect system for rich guys.

  114. 114.

    Kent

    August 28, 2022 at 1:00 pm

    @Baud:So this part doesn’t actually happen.  They worship the right wing Quarterback maybe, but not the owner.

    You have clearly not spent time in Dallas around Cowboy fans.  They love them some Jerry Jones.  It is kind of like the Trump cult, and many of the same people.

    Now that piece of human garbage who owns the team in Washington DC?  That’s a different story.  I’m not sure he is very popular except among the most hard-core sex-offender MAGAts.

  115. 115.

    James E Powell

    August 28, 2022 at 1:00 pm

    I may be too cynical & ignorant about the Florida electorate, but I expect both DeSantis & Rubio to win by comfortable margins. I confess that I do not understand it. Obama won twice, so it’s not like it’s Alabama or even Texas.

    What it takes to unseat an incumbent is usually at least two serious claims against that are easily understood and widely believed. It can be one if it’s huge (economic collapse or major scandal), but it usually takes more than one.

    Question for people in or familiar with Florida, what would be those claims against DeSantis? What would you say to try to convince a low information voter that he should not be governor anymore?

  116. 116.

    Ruckus

    August 28, 2022 at 1:03 pm

    @Geminid:

    @Alison Rose 💙🌻💛:

    I think we all agree, both SFB and death santa are shit, nothing more.

    I think SFB works as hard as he is capable of and thankfully that was not horribly hard – but he did have help, and death santa is yes, more focused and not as lazy. And yes both are the lowest of low bar humans. death santa seems more dangerous to me, because he is more focused and less of an idiot.

  117. 117.

    geg6

    August 28, 2022 at 1:05 pm

    @Amir Khalid:

    The Rooneys are the exception to these rules, thank FSM.

  118. 118.

    Ruckus

    August 28, 2022 at 1:07 pm

    @Baud:

    We are all capable of the same emotions and traits.

    How we grew up, how we react to things, how we use or abuse our traits and experiences, how we use our intellect, how we view other people, those are where we are different, where we have choices, to be better humans, or worse.

  119. 119.

    Scout211

    August 28, 2022 at 1:08 pm

    @James E Powell: this is a big issue.

    ETA:  Crist is hammering away at DeSantis on this, effectively, IMHO.

    TALLAHASSEE — Florida’s crumbling homeowners insurance market is exposing one of the state’s long-running flaws: its reliance on a single company to certify the majority of the state’s insurers.
    For the last few weeks, state regulators and Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration have been scrambling to contain the fallout after the state’s primary ratings agency, Ohio-based Demotech Inc., warned of downgrades to roughly two dozen insurance companies, according to the state.
    The downgrades would have triggered a meltdown of the state’s housing market, a pillar of Florida’s $1.2 trillion economy. Without the ratings, a million Floridians could be left scrambling to seek new insurance policies, possibly triggering a housing crisis in the middle of hurricane season and months before the November election.
    . . .
    The drama is just the latest problem as the state experiences its biggest insurance crisis since Hurricane Andrew in 1992.
    In the last two years, more than 400,000 Floridians have had their policies dropped or nonrenewed. Fourteen companies have stopped writing new policies in Florida. Five have gone belly-up in 2022 alone. The record, set after Hurricane Andrew’s devastation, is eight in one year.
    The latest casualty was Coral Gables-based Weston Property & Casualty, which leaves 22,000 policyholders — about 9,400 in South Florida — scrambling to find new insurance companies.

  120. 120.

    Kent

    August 28, 2022 at 1:13 pm

    @Dangerman:@Citizen Alan: I’m going to modify that; can anyone name any legacy billionaire (i.e. family money like Koch, Walton, Trump) that isn’t evil in some way?

    I would suggest it is virtually impossible to earn a billion dollars in this or any other country without making morally egregious decisions along the way.

    On the other hand, to answer your question.  I would suggest that MacKenzie Scott, the former wife of Jeff Bezos, seems to be decent person who is doing a lot of good giving away her legacy billions.  I’m not sure she is evil in any obvious way.

  121. 121.

    Brachiator

    August 28, 2022 at 1:13 pm

    @Amir Khalid:

    You can hold your city hostage by threatening to move elsewhere unless they build your team a huge billion-dollar stadium with all the associated city infrastructure!

    And then they can still move the team if it suits their purposes.

  122. 122.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    August 28, 2022 at 1:13 pm

    @James E Powell:

    Obama won twice, so it’s not like it’s Alabama or even Texas.

    In 2018, DeSantis won by less than .5%. Scott beat Nelson– who was apparently a nightmare of a candidate by just about every measure– by about .2%, about 10K votes out of 8M.

  123. 123.

    bbleh

    August 28, 2022 at 1:17 pm

    @Amir Khalid: @Brachiator:  And kudos to SF for telling the 49ers organization to get stuffed.  (They did much the same thing to the Giants too, except it was a loan that was paid back.)

  124. 124.

    citizen dave

    August 28, 2022 at 1:18 pm

    The thing about DeSantis that I think is not given attention by people, and the media, is that the guy BARELY won in 2018.  49.59% to 49.14%.  Around 33K votes.  Yet once in office he consolidated power and is treated by the media as a “rising star”, etc., and essentially the dictator of Florida.  It’s bullshit.

    I could see it he were POPULAR.  Our longtime Senator Richard Lugar won with wide margins (until he was primaried by a nut), like in 2000, 66.6% to 31.9%; and in 2006, the Dems didn’t even have a candidate, and Lugar had 87.4% of the vote.  Now that’s a popular politician.

  125. 125.

    Ruckus

    August 28, 2022 at 1:19 pm

    @kalakal:

    “He scares the hell out of me and in any sane world would lose by a mile.”

    Since when has this been a sane world? Not in my nearly 3/4 of a century.

    It has at times been saner than others and at times far less sane. We all have the same emotions, many of us let some of those emotions run wild and rule our lives. I believe that because of how many of us there are, we can no longer let the less sane run the place. That means conservatives, who think that going back to a time when getting their hate on was good times. We could never afford that, but now, given our world population we can afford it far less. We have to learn to live together, in a more crowed world or most/all of us won’t survive. I don’t have a great amount of time left, but humanity can, if it could learn to grow the hell up, rather than act like too many fucking kids on a playground, with guns and bombs and zero vision for what comes next other than more hate.

  126. 126.

    Martin

    August 28, 2022 at 1:29 pm

    @Mike in NC: What part of ‘I want to own sweaty men that fight each other for sport and serves as a massive tax shelter’ doesn’t scream ‘Republican billionaire’ to you?

  127. 127.

    lowtechcyclist

    August 28, 2022 at 1:29 pm

    @oatler:

    Figure I should say upfront that the following invective is aimed at ABC (and the media-industrial complex generally), not at you.

    The ABC show is on now, and the headline theme is DEMS DIVIDED.

    In what alternate universe are these people living??  We just passed a bunch of new laws, which meant that practically every Dem House member voted for each one (and I think the ‘practically’ could be dropped in most cases), and EVERY SINGLE DEM U.S. SENATOR voted for them.

    This is the most UNdivided I’ve ever seen the Democratic Party. It’s a fucking miracle, is what it is.  WTF are these media loons saying we’re divided about??

    Our so-called ‘liberal media.’  What a bunch of worthless schmucks.  I’d just laugh at them, except the way they present things has a lot to do with how many Americans perceive the state of our politics.

    Christie is opining on Mar-a-Lago.

    Along those lines, who the Sam Hill gives a good goddamn what Chris Christie thinks? He’s not remotely close to being a Democrat, and Republicans don’t pay any attention to him. But somehow he’s become one of those media go-to people.

  128. 128.

    Another Scott

    August 28, 2022 at 1:32 pm

    @Kent:

    At the base of every great fortune there is a great crime. – (simplified) Honoré de Balzac.

    Gates was a monster. Ford was a monster. Rockefeller was a monster.

    Taxes on the 0.1% and above need to be much, much higher.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  129. 129.

    Jackie

    August 28, 2022 at 1:36 pm

    @artem1s:

    “I haven’t seen enough of DeSantis to tell how effective he would be during a debate at cowing the other candidates.”

    From what I’ve seen of him recently, every sentence he utters will include “the WOKE LEFT” in it, with spittle flying out of his mouth.

  130. 130.

    Ruckus

    August 28, 2022 at 1:38 pm

    @lowtechcyclist:

    “He’s not remotely close to being a Democrat, and Republicans don’t pay any attention to him. But somehow he’s become one of those media go-to people.”

    He is, for the media, the perfect political person. He’s not an either or. He’s nothing. The media gets to put out more crap, they seem to not be on either side, and the only way to do that is someone that everyone likes or no one likes.

    Who fills that first part, everyone likes?

    Who fills the second part, no one likes?

    It’s the no one side, Christie, that wins this one.

  131. 131.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    August 28, 2022 at 1:40 pm

    @lowtechcyclist: I assume Christie is still in NJ, which means he’s in the NYC area. That makes him an easy go-to for interviews.

  132. 132.

    janesays

    August 28, 2022 at 1:40 pm

    I see DeSantis as the front-runner right now, not F-POTUS.

    If DeSantis ran in a primary against Cheetolini, he would get absolutely annihilated.

    DeSantis is clearly the 2024 frontrunner… in any scenario in which TFG isn’t running.

    It’s still the mango fascist’s party.

  133. 133.

    oatler

    August 28, 2022 at 1:43 pm

    @lowtechcyclist:

    please understand my “Dems in disarray” quote was meant to mocking of ABC.

  134. 134.

    mrmoshpotato

    August 28, 2022 at 1:46 pm

    @Baud:

    Illinois’s governor. 

    Actual billionaire JB Pritzker.  Best governor in the country (ya, I said it, California!).

  135. 135.

    cckids

    August 28, 2022 at 1:46 pm

    @Frank Wilhoit: In this, I think he is exactly like Trump.  The affect is different, but that is only because New York.

    This, plus he’s apparently purposefully remaking himself, physically, in Trump’s image – the navy suits, the overlong red ties, the fat/padding – even the weird stance and all the hand movements. So bizarre, and I cannot see who it’s appealing to.  And so entirely mockable.

  136. 136.

    evodevo

    August 28, 2022 at 1:51 pm

    @Kent: Yeah…that was my first  thought…why did you even go back there?  That’s just a stupid move…..and what didn’t she get about universal accessibility of social media?

  137. 137.

    Brachiator

    August 28, 2022 at 1:51 pm

    @lowtechcyclist:

    Along those lines, who the Sam Hill gives a good goddamn what Chris Christie thinks? He’s not remotely close to being a Democrat, and Republicans don’t pay any attention to him. But somehow he’s become one of those media go-to people.

    TV shows depend on rolodex punditry.  They like to book people who can easily show up, speak coherently and fill the time until the commercial break.

    Hugh Hewitt began his TV career doing this kind of thing on the PBS TV station in Los Angeles. He could quickly appear as a scheduled or fill in guest and spew bullshit about any political or legal topic.

  138. 138.

    Kent

    August 28, 2022 at 1:52 pm

    @mrmoshpotato:Actual billionaire JB Pritzker.  Best governor in the country (ya, I said it, California!).

    I’ll raise you a Jay Inslee who is most definitely NOT a billionaire.  We can compare WA and IL on whatever metric you want to use.

  139. 139.

    James E Powell

    August 28, 2022 at 2:01 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Like I said, Obama won twice, but I think those days are gone forever. Do you expect this year’s elections, specifically DeSantis & Rubio, to be that close?

    In 2016, Rubio promised not to run for re-election, did so anyway, entered the race late, and won 52-44.3%

    I’m expecting a similar outcome this time around.

  140. 140.

    Jinchi

    August 28, 2022 at 2:04 pm

    I knew DeSantis was evil when his reaction to Charlottesville was to legalize vehicular homicide.

    I just don’t understand how anyone outside the klan can vote for these people.

  141. 141.

    lowtechcyclist

    August 28, 2022 at 2:06 pm

    @Geminid:

    But 2024 will be a a shitshow on the Republican side that Youngkin may want to avoid. He’s a shrewd guy and might not see 2024 as a good year for Republicans. And he could easily wind up in the second spot on the 2024 ticket anyway.

    Paul Ryan is another Republican who is laying back and probably waiting for 2028. But if DeSantis gets knocked out by Crist the field will be reshuffled. I think Christie and Pompeo are running for sure.

    Youngkin will pass on 2024 because he needs more time to build up a reputation as someone who will stick it to the MAGAts’ enemies, especially after a campaign where he had to come across as a nice guy.  The 2024 primaries will start just over 2 years into his term, and he’s been handicapped by a Dem-controlled state Senate.

    Paul Ryan and 2028: you wait too long in politics, and nobody gives a damn about you.

    I remember chatting with some of my students on the campus BBS back in 1995 when Dan Quayle decided to wait until the 2000 cycle, and I said that by then, someone else will have taken over the political space that Quayle was in.  Who, they asked. I don’t know, I replied, but by then someone will. Turned out to be GWB, of course, and Quayle got about zero traction in 2000.

    Ryan’s already a has-been.  Same with Christie, really, though he’s at least keeping himself in the media.  His problem is that there aren’t a lot of Republicans looking for someone who’s both a semi-sane Republican and an obnoxious blowhard.

    I’ve got no sense of what Pompeo’s base would be.  He strikes me as one of those pols who has a good inside game, but I’ve never heard of him getting a crowd all worked up.

  142. 142.

    James E Powell

    August 28, 2022 at 2:07 pm

    @citizen dave:

    DeSantis doesn’t need to be popular. He only need more votes than the Democrat. And in a national election, he doesn’t even need that.

    Trump never had majority popularity.

  143. 143.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    August 28, 2022 at 2:07 pm

    @James E Powell:

    Like I said, Obama won twice, but I think those days are gone forever. Do you expect this year’s elections, specifically DeSantis & Rubio, to be that close?

    No, just pointing out you don’t have to go back to 2012 to see FL as flippable.

  144. 144.

    James E Powell

    August 28, 2022 at 2:08 pm

    @Another Scott:

    Taxes on the 0.1% and above need to be much, much higher.

    Are you ruling out the tumbrels?

  145. 145.

    FelonyGovt

    August 28, 2022 at 2:08 pm

    @Baud: Further anecdata- in a brief car trip this morning here in Southern California, I noticed 4 Florida license plates, and I’ve been seeing more and more lately. Visitors, or just people fleeing?

    I don’t know what happened to Florida, though. I’ve stopped hoping their voters will come through for us.

  146. 146.

    Jinchi

    August 28, 2022 at 2:14 pm

    @James E Powell: DeSantis only won the 2018 election by 0.4% , but incumbency is a powerful thing and the Rs have had a long run of winning very close races there.

    The margins always seem pretty purple but the final tallies make the state look deep red.

  147. 147.

    Kristine

    August 28, 2022 at 2:15 pm

    @mrmoshpotato:

    Actual billionaire JB Pritzker. Best governor in the country (ya, I said it, California!).

    He really is.

    I confess I wasn’t optimistic. I voted for him, even as I thought ‘another damned billionaire’ as I filled out the ballot. But he’s been great. Really hoping he can hold of the Trumpy idiot running against him.

  148. 148.

    Geminid

    August 28, 2022 at 2:16 pm

    @James E Powell: Rubio’s 2016 election margin is an outlier among recent Florida Senate and Governor races. The 2018 races were decided by less than .5%. The 2010 and 2014 Governor races were decided by less than 70,000 votes out of more than 5 million votes cast.

  149. 149.

    Cacti

    August 28, 2022 at 2:19 pm

    @mrmoshpotato: Actual billionaire JB Pritzker.  Best governor in the country (ya, I said it, California!).

    Jay Inslee doesn’t live in Illinois or California, so I’m not sure what you’re talking about.

  150. 150.

    Omnes Omnibus

    August 28, 2022 at 2:21 pm

    @Another Scott: Not what Balzac wrote, but I suppose since that your simplified version is the one that gets all attention it no longer matters.  Maybe we could quit attributing it to Balzac though.

  151. 151.

    Jinchi

    August 28, 2022 at 2:22 pm

    @FelonyGovt: I noticed 4 Florida license plates, and I’ve been seeing more and more lately. Visitors, or just people fleeing?

    Maybe people who want to live in California, but pretend to live in Florida for tax reasons.

  152. 152.

    UncleEbeneezer

    August 28, 2022 at 2:22 pm

    @MisterDancer: It is said to be fairly well established that Down-Ballot voting is nowhere nearly as effective as Up-Ballot voting.

    IE- voters who are sold on Dem candidates at the local level will reliably pick a Dem for whichever Gov/POTUS candidate is at the top of the ticket, whereas convincing someone to vote for a Dem at the top is no guarantee that the voter won’t pull some Biden/Collins fuckshit.  So if PC2Voters is working on FL Dem campaigns, they are already helping Crist’s chances.

  153. 153.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    August 28, 2022 at 2:23 pm

    @mrmoshpotato: as I recall, Pritzker campaigned on creating a public option in the state. Did anything ever come of that? any bill or program? not slagging him if not, just curious/interested about how difficult it is to enact any kind of health insurance reform, much less single payer

  154. 154.

    Cacti

    August 28, 2022 at 2:24 pm

    @Jinchi: Maybe people who want to live in California, but pretend to live in Florida for tax reasons.

    Florida will always be the poor man’s California.

  155. 155.

    mrmoshpotato

    August 28, 2022 at 2:31 pm

    @Kristine:

    I confess I wasn’t optimistic. I voted for him, even as I thought ‘another damned billionaire’ as I filled out the ballot. But he’s been great. Really hoping he can hold of the Trumpy idiot running against him. 

    I didn’t like having a billionaire running against a billionaire either, but I would’ve voted for whomever won the Democratic nomination.  (Damn you, Blago!  Fuck you, Blago!)

    Regarding Republican gubernatorial nominee Darren Bailey, he can fuck off back to whatever hellhole he came from.  And he can go fuck himself too.

  156. 156.

    Donatellonerd

    August 28, 2022 at 2:35 pm

    who is SFB, please ?

  157. 157.

    mrmoshpotato

    August 28, 2022 at 2:35 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Not sure.

  158. 158.

    mrmoshpotato

    August 28, 2022 at 2:38 pm

    @Donatellonerd:

    who is SFB, please ?

    Shit For Brains – it’s Ruckus’s shorthand for the orange shitstain.

  159. 159.

    Amir Khalid

    August 28, 2022 at 2:38 pm

    @Donatellonerd:

    Shit For Brains, a.k.a TFG a.k.a. Donald Trump.

  160. 160.

    Skepticat

    August 28, 2022 at 2:38 pm

    DeInsanity terrifies, disgusts, frustrates, discourages, and infuriates me. Apart from that, he’s probably fine.

  161. 161.

    Jinchi

    August 28, 2022 at 2:39 pm

    @Donatellonerd: Haven’t seen “SFB” used before, but based on Ruckus’s comments it’s Trump (aka TFG, DJT). I’m guessing it stands for “stupid fat bastard” but Ruckus can confirm.

  162. 162.

    FelonyGovt

    August 28, 2022 at 2:40 pm

    @Donatellonerd: I believe that is Ruckus’s term for the FPOTUS. Not sure what it stands for

    ETA or what mrmoshpotato, Amir Khalid, Jinchi said- I must type very slowly

  163. 163.

    Benw

    August 28, 2022 at 2:45 pm

    DeSantis is Bantha poodoo

  164. 164.

    Kent

    August 28, 2022 at 2:47 pm

    @Cacti:Jay Inslee doesn’t live in Illinois or California, so I’m not sure what you’re talking about.

    mrmoshpotato claimed that Pritzker was the best governor in the COUNTRY.  There are more than just two states in the country.

  165. 165.

    Cacti

    August 28, 2022 at 2:49 pm

    @Kent: But he directed his remarks to California about who is the best governor in the country.

  166. 166.

    Pete Mack

    August 28, 2022 at 2:49 pm

    Fix your wording. “DeSantis terrifies me” translates directly to “Vote DeSantis to own the libs” in Wingnut-speak.

  167. 167.

    prostratedragon

    August 28, 2022 at 2:54 pm

    @satby:  Yep. Couple of his relatives who are not in electoral politics,  from what I’ve heard, as well.

  168. 168.

    Gin & Tonic

    August 28, 2022 at 2:56 pm

    @Jinchi: Superfluous.

  169. 169.

    prostratedragon

    August 28, 2022 at 2:58 pm

    @Baud:  Warren Buffett? Yeah,  probably no more evil than average for the rest of us.

  170. 170.

    Donatellonerd

    August 28, 2022 at 2:58 pm

    @mrmoshpotato: thanks. I thought it must be TFG but i couldn’t figure out what it was an abbreviation for. appropriate although opaque. And thanks to the other responders.

  171. 171.

    AM in NC

    August 28, 2022 at 2:58 pm

    @Cacti: My problem with California is that the entire coastline is useless to me.  Why have an ocean that is too cold to swim in?

    I was so horrified that even in San Diego the Pacific was unswimmable (for me).  I love so much about Cali, but I could never live where the ocean serves only as a source of mockery!

  172. 172.

    FelonyGovt

    August 28, 2022 at 3:02 pm

    @AM in NC: It’s great for those of us who think the ocean is wonderful to look at, listen to, and be next to. In it, not so much (unless you’re into wetsuits).

  173. 173.

    MisterDancer

    August 28, 2022 at 3:04 pm

    @Pete Mack: “DeSantis terrifies me” translates directly to “Vote DeSantis to own the libs” in Wingnut-speak.

    I know my audience. This isn’t a column for a local paper. It’s in an explicitly partisan space, and every commenter so far got my meaning.

    I refuse to defuse my righteous emotional state to build a bridge those asshats’ll just burn as soon as they can.

  174. 174.

    Another Scott

    August 28, 2022 at 3:07 pm

    F = m * a

    is not intuitive.

    It looks funny but trust us when we say it works! https://t.co/zVSb92wuq3

    — Nujoud Fahoum Merancy (@nujoud) August 28, 2022

    Neato.

    (via nycsouthpaw)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  175. 175.

    patrick II

    August 28, 2022 at 3:08 pm

    @Obvious Russian Troll:

    My handicapping system for Republican races has changed.  My thoughts in the old days fit into the broader category of political races in which the best man will have the best chance to win.  Now, for Republicans, it is the worst man who has the best chance to win.  So,  I think DeSantis is the worst and therefore has the best chance to win.

  176. 176.

    Cameron

    August 28, 2022 at 3:12 pm

    @janesays: If Trump is indicted in Georgia, DeSantis will have a hand-picked detail of FHP to escort him to the state line.

  177. 177.

    Baud

    August 28, 2022 at 3:15 pm

    @Another Scott:

    Newton FTW!

  178. 178.

    cain

    August 28, 2022 at 3:16 pm

    @Lyrebird:

    What I’m more concerned about is putting in election officials that bear allegiance to De Santis. He’s going to steal the election again because he’s got one of his people doing the counting.

    He’s got the entire state legislature behind him. It’s going to be a shit show.

  179. 179.

    Kent

    August 28, 2022 at 3:16 pm

    @AM in NC:

    @Cacti: My problem with California is that the entire coastline is useless to me.  Why have an ocean that is too cold to swim in?

    I was so horrified that even in San Diego the Pacific was unswimmable (for me).  I love so much about Cali, but I could never live where the ocean serves only as a source of mockery!

    Cold water is far more productive than warm water.  That is why the biggest commercial fisheries in the country are in Alaska not the equatorial Pacific.  It is physics.  cold water can absorb more oxygen than warm water.

    The California coast is also cold due to upwelling in which the prevailing winds and currents bring nutrient-rich cold water up from the deep along the Pacific coast.    That is why places like the kelp forests along Monterey are among the richest and most diverse marine habitats on the planet.

    Find a swimming pool if you just want sterile warm water.  I will take the California coast over say the balmy warm Texas gulf coast any day.

  180. 180.

    Baud

    August 28, 2022 at 3:20 pm

    Photoshop.

    https://i.redd.it/nvad4pjb2hk91.jpg

  181. 181.

    Geminid

    August 28, 2022 at 3:21 pm

    @lowtechcyclist: I thought Ryan made a smart move when he stepped away from the House in 2018. He saw the trainwreck that was coming. It probably will continue through the 2024 cycle. He can step back into the fray in 2028 as the former Speaker and VP candidate who can put the train back on the track. If Ryan doesn’t have some gray in his hair by then he’ll get some put in.

    Pompeo’s base is billionaires. The Koch brothers sponsored his private sector and political career. Pompeo’s wealthy backers will see how far his national security “resume” can take him.

    I don’t think Christie can win the nomination, but Christie believes in Christie and he’s going to try. I could see him picking up delegates in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, maybe the Midwest too and even California. Blue states get delegates too, I believe in proposition to their Republican voters.

    One problem in handicapping the 2024 Republican candidates is that while they are all deficient in some way, someone has to win it. I think it will be DeSantis, but he has to beat Crist first.

  182. 182.

    Cameron

    August 28, 2022 at 3:21 pm

    @Jinchi: And he definitely got his bully cred in order by yelling at high school students who were wearing masks.  What an asshole.

  183. 183.

    Edmund Dantes

    August 28, 2022 at 3:21 pm

    @Kent: are people buying into the idea that she did nothing evil as she was a major executive company as it was growing? Do we just assume she was just along for the ride or should we actually understand she played an instrumental role in helping to build Amazon as has been told in several profiles?

  184. 184.

    Baud

    August 28, 2022 at 3:21 pm

    I will always dislike Bernie, but I believe in positive reinforcement, so good job on the messaging.

    https://i.redd.it/6ofd7iw2lgk91.png

  185. 185.

    cain

    August 28, 2022 at 3:22 pm

    @Jager: I’m sure his wife had a wonderful time with mr. McCranky Pissy Pants. I mean, nothing like taking a stroll and watching others tell her husband to go fuck himself – such a relaxing vacation – owning the libs!

  186. 186.

    cain

    August 28, 2022 at 3:23 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: In many ways, him getting out of FLorida to take his shit nationally and hopefully die there means that Florida would be rid of the asshat. Of course, he could come back and try to run for Senator or something.

  187. 187.

    Matt McIrvin

    August 28, 2022 at 3:24 pm

    @Kent: Bathwater-warm oceans are how you get lots and lots of hurricanes, too.

  188. 188.

    brantl

    August 28, 2022 at 3:24 pm

    De Santis is this little fistula of Gladys-Kravitz anger, wrapped around this fatass-white-guy machismo wannabe image that the Republicans take as sexy, because they don’t  have anyone in their own camp who are remotely like that. The last guy that they had who looked remotely manly was Schwarzenegger, and he’s basically jumped parties.

  189. 189.

    Matt McIrvin

    August 28, 2022 at 3:27 pm

    @UncleEbeneezer:

    IE- voters who are sold on Dem candidates at the local level will reliably pick a Dem for whichever Gov/POTUS candidate is at the top of the ticket, whereas convincing someone to vote for a Dem at the top is no guarantee that the voter won’t pull some Biden/Collins fuckshit.

    This seems counterintuitive to me but it’s probably because I grew up in the South when the remnants of the old Dixiecrat faction were still hanging around, and you had conservative Solid South Democrats who voted Democratic for local offices but always voted for Republicans for President.

  190. 190.

    West of the Rockies

    August 28, 2022 at 3:32 pm

    @brantl:

    You forgot to mention his Eddie Munster hairdo.

  191. 191.

    Cameron

    August 28, 2022 at 3:34 pm

    @FelonyGovt: Oddly enough, I see California plates on some cars here in Oldpeopleland, SW Florida.

  192. 192.

    UncleEbeneezer

    August 28, 2022 at 3:36 pm

    @Matt McIrvin: I don’t have any link to share but the hosts of SwingLeft’s How We Win podcast have mentioned it multiple times and both have pretty extensive experience working on GOTV campaigns for Dems.  Some voters will only vote for the candidate at the top of the ticket but leave down-ballot boxes blank.  The opposite (voting for local, state, House, Senator etc.) but NOT filling in the Governor/Potus, is extremely rare. Which makes sense when you think about how many people think POTUS is all that matters and don’t really care about (or understand) the importance of down-ballot races.

  193. 193.

    Baud

    August 28, 2022 at 3:40 pm

    @Matt McIrvin:

    I think the new paradigm is Maine going for Biden while also reelecting Susan Collins.

  194. 194.

    Citizen Alan

    August 28, 2022 at 3:41 pm

    @Amir Khalid:

    “The team’s fans will worship you — personal affirmation!” Do they? I’d always thought most NFL team owners were despised. Like Dan Snyder, frex.

  195. 195.

    Mai Naem mobile

    August 28, 2022 at 3:43 pm

    @Baud: one reason I would like to see JB Pritzker be POTUS or Veep is to see Fox et al go nuts about all  the Hyatt hotels worldwide that the Pritzkers own and how difficult and expensive it would be protect them. Also how furriners could curry favor with Pritzker…how unseemly it would be to have a POTUS owning a hotel in DC where lobbyists could buy access. They would complain even if Pritzker had a blind trust . Let’s not even talk about the favorable tax treatment he would get if he sold his holdings even though  Mnuchin, Tillerson and Wilbur Ross did the same thing.

  196. 196.

    MomSense

    August 28, 2022 at 3:45 pm

    We leave for the airport in 2 hours.  Just finished all the packing.  Kiddo’s girlfriend and best friend are here and I’m making linguini with meat sauce and the onions are killing me.

  197. 197.

    Matt McIrvin

    August 28, 2022 at 3:46 pm

    @FelonyGovt: Speculation: Florida is a place where elderly people go to retire. That means it’s possible to start a feedback loop where red-meat symbolic politics rapidly attract the most reactionary retirees (and repel non-reactionary ones), reinforcing the tendency.

    It has occurred to me that one of the effects of the current anti-LGBT signaling there will be to make gay retirees think twice about going to Florida.

    (But this doesn’t explain recent trends in Arizona, which you’d expect would be a similar case but where if anything their historic right-wing tendency is softening. AZ has a lower median age to begin with though. And the far West as a whole has been trending more Democratic for decades.)

  198. 198.

    SteveinPHX

    August 28, 2022 at 3:46 pm

    @Kent:

     

    I’ll never forget an IT guy where I work, who grew up on the west coast of Florida telling me about his 1st visit to CA as a young man.
    He goes to the beach while visiting West Coast family, looks at that beautiful ocean, strips down to his bathing suit and goes running into the surf. About ten steps in he realizes that he’s about to die of frost bite. Does a 180 and gets out before he congeals. Never tried THAT again!
    As an old Florida East Coaster, I have to agree. I’ve stuck my foot in the California ocean. Once was enuf!

  199. 199.

    Baud

    August 28, 2022 at 3:47 pm

    @Mai Naem mobile:

    The problem is that the NYT and mainstream media will also treat all those things as horrific scandals.

     

     

    @MomSense:

    Hugs.  Is the girlfriend staying with you?

  200. 200.

    cain

    August 28, 2022 at 3:52 pm

    @Amir Khalid: Interestingly enough, the series “Batman: The Dark Knight Returns” is exploring all about that. Frank Miller’s Batman was a highly questionable and possibly psychotic Batman.

    “It was tough dragging 220lbs of psychopath up to Gotham Tower, the highest point in the city. But the scream alone was worth it”

    ”

    Thug: No! Stay back–I got RIGHTS– [Batman seizes him and slams him through a window, with him falling onto the fire escape, cuts all over him and is bleeding profusely]
    Batman: Yes, you’ve got rights. Sometimes at night I count them just to make myself crazy. And right now, you’ve got a huge shard of glass stuck in a major artery in your arm. Right now, you’re bleeding to death. And right now? I’m the only one around to get you to a hospital in time. So however long you take to tell me what I want to know? That’s up to you. Right now, would be preferable.”

  201. 201.

    Kent

    August 28, 2022 at 3:55 pm

    @SteveinPHX:I’ll never forget an IT guy where I work, who grew up on the west coast of Florida telling me about his 1st visit to CA as a young man.
    He goes to the beach while visiting West Coast family, looks at that beautiful ocean, strips down to his bathing suit and goes running into the surf. About ten steps in he realizes that he’s about to die of frost bite. Does a 180 and gets out before he congeals. Never tried THAT again!
    As an old Florida East Coaster, I have to agree. I’ve stuck my foot in the California ocean. Once was enuf!

    Just because there are palm trees in LA doesn’t mean it is tropical.  There are palm trees in Seattle too.  Los Angeles is at the same latitude as central North Carolina.  So it is much further north than any place in Florida.  Also ocean currents generally circulate clockwise in the northern hemisphere due to the Coriolis effect so the water feeding the Southern California coast is coming from the North Pacific on the cold California Current.  Whereas the water feeding the Atlantic coast is coming from the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico via the warm Gulf Stream Current.

  202. 202.

    Matt McIrvin

    August 28, 2022 at 3:57 pm

    @cain: Yeah, though it seems like Frank Miller ended up going down that road himself, especially after 9/11 whacked him in the brain.

  203. 203.

    WaterGirl

    August 28, 2022 at 4:00 pm

    @MomSense: I’m sure the onions are the only reason you are crying!

  204. 204.

    Suzanne

    August 28, 2022 at 4:03 pm

    @Matt McIrvin:

    (But this doesn’t explain recent trends in Arizona, which you’d expect would be a similar case but where if anything their historic right-wing tendency is softening. AZ has a lower median age to begin with though. And the far West as a whole has been trending more Democratic for decades.) 

    That’s because Arizona isn’t really continuing to attract retirees like it used to. It’s now one of the younger states on average. They have a large Mexican population and lots of Mormons who have big (maybe not as big as they used to, but still big) families.

  205. 205.

    Geminid

    August 28, 2022 at 4:06 pm

    @Citizen Alan: Snyder is especially despised because his meddling in team personnel has handicapped the team ever since he owned it. He’s also an asshole, but fans hate him because he is an incompetent one.

    The NFL already fined the team $10 million and made Snyder take a leave of absence over running a work environment hostile to woman. There are additional allegations being investigated now, and the league will probably hit him even harder. But they won’t make him sell the team.

    Snyder made a lot of money by age 40 by jumping into the message board business that shows advertising in public spaces and waiting rooms.

    He was originally junior partner to another guy trying to by the team, but his partner was blackballed by an owner who claimed the partner cheated him on cable TV revenue, so Snyder got additional backing to buy the team.

    Despite its mediocre record under his ownership it’s still a revenue machine.

  206. 206.

    piratedan

    August 28, 2022 at 4:08 pm

    I think the not-stated but understood favoritism with GOP incumbancy, is that they are shameless about tilting the playing field when it comes to voter suppression and making voting a challenge rather than treating it as a right.

    I would expect long lines generated in Dem strongholds because of a lack of machines, staff or ballots, where as those places where they are a deep red will have every possible convenience.

    while our voters will be energized, don’t diminish that a GOP controlled state will do every damn thing it can to prevent those ballots from being cast.

  207. 207.

    mrmoshpotato

    August 28, 2022 at 4:10 pm

    OT – Whoever thought having a woman invading people’s personal space and homes would be a good ad campaign?  Fuck you, Priceline.

  208. 208.

    SteveinPHX

    August 28, 2022 at 4:11 pm

    @Kent: ​
     
    You’re absolutely right about the Gulf Stream. I hope global warming doesn’t change the flow of the Gulf Stream. I’ve read recently that it might be in danger.
    The range of my temperature tolerance must be pretty narrow. I DO like playing in the ocean w/o benefit of wet suit tho.
    Now I’m in PHX and doing without either!
    All the best,

  209. 209.

    PaulB

    August 28, 2022 at 4:12 pm

    I’m not going to try to handicap the 2024 Republican nomination, particularly if both Trump and DeSantis go at it. Some data points to consider, though:

    Scott Walker was a top tier candidate in 2016. He was successful in trolling Democrats, had taken some really vile actions in Wisconsin, and had fought off a recall and subsequently won reelection there. He burned through massive quantities of campaign cash, had two lackluster debate performances, and watched as his support and cash dried up. He was out of the race shortly thereafter, one of the first to depart.

    Rudy Giuliani was an early front-runner in the 2008 campaign. He didn’t even compete in Iowa, took fourth place in New Hampshire, and crashed and burned after a dismal showing in Florida, his firewall.

    Jeb Bush was another top tier candidate in 2016, with both name recognition and a ton of money. He had locked down many of the major big donors early, trying to send the message that his nomination was virtually inevitable. Lackluster debate performances, poor results in Iowa and New Hampshire, and “please clap” did him in.

    Mitt Romney, in 2012, was apparently neither liked nor wanted by Republican voters, as one after another of his fellow candidates took the lead in polling, only to later crash and burn, sometimes after only a few days on top. The party’s voters couldn’t coalesce around a non-Romney candidate, so Romney basically won by outlasting everyone else.

    Few people, including me, gave Donald Trump much of a chance early in the 2016 primary. ‘Nuff said.

    So what does all of this mean for 2024? Maybe nothing, but I did want to point out that we don’t know if DeSantis can put together a national campaign staff, strategy, and funding, and continue all of that for the full campaign life cycle. And we don’t know if DeSantis’s high-drama, anti-woke, grievance-laden campaign will do well with anyone other than the usual suspects in the Republican Party. And we don’t know yet how badly the candidates will hurt each other, particularly Trump and DeSantis. And we don’t know whether the Republican voters will want the ridiculous drama of Trump and DeSantis or whether they will want someone more low key and “mainstream.”

    Right now, I think DeSantis is the de facto Republican Party front runner, regardless of the current polls showing Republican Party voters supporting Trump. I also happen to believe that DeSantis is beatable in the election (assuming that external factors, like the economy, are relatively neutral). That said, my political judgment over the past decade has been … less than optimal, so who knows?

  210. 210.

    WaterGirl

    August 28, 2022 at 4:12 pm

    @mrmoshpotato: What did I miss?

  211. 211.

    mrmoshpotato

    August 28, 2022 at 4:15 pm

    @WaterGirl: Creepy, creepy damn ads on YouTube.

  212. 212.

    Dan B

    August 28, 2022 at 4:15 pm

    @Citizen Alan: Nick Hanauer is a progressive billionaire.

  213. 213.

    eclare

    August 28, 2022 at 4:16 pm

    @Mike in NC:   Thank you for mentioning that woman.  I will never forget that.

  214. 214.

    MomSense

    August 28, 2022 at 4:17 pm

    @Baud:

    Yup.  Her mom died when she was young and kiddo told me she really likes being with me.

  215. 215.

    PaulB

    August 28, 2022 at 4:18 pm

    @WaterGirl:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xxQspI-hC0

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h87ibfuRhVo

  216. 216.

    Dan B

    August 28, 2022 at 4:23 pm

    @Ruckus: Deach Santa seems extremely homophobic.  SFB was not – even hired some extremely right wing gay men.*

    * I really wanted to use some nasty names but a willingness to work for SFB is awful enough.

  217. 217.

    Kent

    August 28, 2022 at 4:25 pm

    @Suzanne:That’s because Arizona isn’t really continuing to attract retirees like it used to. It’s now one of the younger states on average. They have a large Mexican population and lots of Mormons who have big (maybe not as big as they used to, but still big) families.

    Tons of young Californians go to college in Arizona because they can’t get into UCLA or UC-Berkeley and Arizona State sounds better than Cal State Fullerton.  And because Phoenix and Tucson are cheaper places to live than Southern California.

  218. 218.

    Lyrebird

    August 28, 2022 at 4:26 pm

    @Dan B: ​
     
    DeSantis’ cruelty to children is enough. I agree with Newsom that stopping him now should be a national priority, just because of that.

  219. 219.

    MisterDancer

    August 28, 2022 at 4:33 pm

    @PaulB: You’re doing a lot of “we don’t know.”

    I’m doing a “let’s not wait.” I’m doing a “rack him now and kick the whole damn Fascist movement in the balls!”

    I know I said I’d not talk about Trump. So bear with me: I remember the debates about “can Trump win?” It was not, despite what we all say now, clear Back Then to everyone. I mean, I recall Jon Stewart treating him like a joke, and a lot of others did — recall Graham’s cell phone ad?

    Remember how many, not just the media, didn’t take Hillary Clinton’s warnings seriously?

    A lot of us didn’t focus on the massive shift in the GOP. We didn’t click on how he was a real risk, not just in the moment, but in what he opened up.

    And look at what we’re dealing with, now.

    Again — everyone seems to slide over the “this looks too much like the train wreak of Reconstruction for me to be comfortable.” How, back then as well, people didn’t see the risk to pandering to those assholes until they forced the Federal Government to accept allowing Black folk to be kicked back to the curb.

    So yeah, I’m setting off alarm bells, because these assholes depend on one “winner” to blueprint oppression. DeSantis is not Walker, and I’d not compare the two; Walker, for example, cared a lot more about what he’d considered “business,” esp. union busting.

    And DeSantis isn’t the utterly thin-skilled “Noun, Verb, and 9/11” Giuliani (Thanks, Biden!) He sure as hell ain’t Jeb “Please clap” Bush, or Mittens.

    And I already touched, in my post, on why DeSantis is different than a lot of his actual peers, like Abbot.

    He’s a MFer with a clear strategy for wreaking the hell out of any marginalized folx he can, to claw as much power right now as possible — and on his way to more. None of the above have brutalized their state in the way DeSantis is doing today, to the breath that DeSantis has implemented.

    Sure, he might flame out. But I’ll be damned if I look FOR A MOMENT at someone acting like DeSantis, and even think “well golly, maybe he’ll just not work out?”

    Screw that. I’ve read too much history, grew up with too many victims of Jim Crow, to ever been conformable with what I’m seeing coming out of FL, today.

    If we can, stop it now so we’re not dealing with worse, doing to road.

    That’s all I’m saying.

  220. 220.

    Geminid

    August 28, 2022 at 4:39 pm

    @Geminid: One interesting aspect of the Impact Research poll reported by Florida Politics was that Independents favored Crist over DeSantis 52-39%. That’s a number that can kill a Republican in a purple state. Republicans outnumbered Democrats in Arizona, but Biden and Kelly won in 2024 with a majority of non-affiliated voters.

    Florida Politics (floridapolitics.com) seems like a good resource. When the FBI searched Mar-a-Loco, it’s editor was the one who broke the story. Rather than publishing it in his online magazine, once he got confirmation of his tip he tweeted it out.

  221. 221.

    Cameron

    August 28, 2022 at 4:43 pm

    @MisterDancer: Agree 100%.

  222. 222.

    Another Scott

    August 28, 2022 at 4:43 pm

    @PaulB: No time to check, but my recollection is that TFG got in the race in 2016 the day after JEB! announced, in part to punish him for not letting him have his way in FL.

    Everything’s connected when it comes to TFG….

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  223. 223.

    Kent

    August 28, 2022 at 4:44 pm

    @MisterDancer:And DeSantis isn’t the utterly thin-skilled “Noun, Verb, and 9/11” Giuliani (Thanks, Biden!) He sure as hell ain’t Jeb “Please clap” Bush, or Mittens.

    I caught part of his speech in PA on NPR or some place.

    About every 4th word out of his mouth was “woke”  He is basically a one-man crusade against “wokeness” which is apparently anything vaguely liberal that he disapproves up and labels “woke” because that turns it into a racist dog whistle.

    I don’t think he can form two sentences together without using the term “woke”

  224. 224.

    Cameron

    August 28, 2022 at 4:50 pm

    @Kent: It’s red meat for his audience.  They have no idea what it means, just that it’s liberal and Democrat and bad.  If Fox, Newsmax et al. started pimping “symbiotic” as the lieberalism du jour, he’d be babbling that in every speech, tweet and press release coming out of Tallahassee.

  225. 225.

    Kent

    August 28, 2022 at 4:52 pm

    @Cameron: I’m just saying that DeSantis is just as much of a one-note speaker as “a noun and a verb and 9-11” Giuliani.

  226. 226.

    Cameron

    August 28, 2022 at 4:54 pm

    @Kent: Absolutely.

  227. 227.

    MisterDancer

    August 28, 2022 at 4:56 pm

    [Removing, I saw the response to Cameron and that’s fine.]

  228. 228.

    Feathers

    August 28, 2022 at 4:58 pm

    @Brachiator: Oprah normalized antivaxxers by having a lot of them on her show and indulging their “vaccines and toxins” caused my kid’s autism bullshit. Antivaxxers were not really accepted in polite society before she gave them a huge and sympathetic platform on her show.  So a reasonable percentage of the Covid dead can be laid at her feet, as well as the refusal to mask. She made public health about feelings. Not alone, but the esteem she is held in helped enormously.

    What I really hold against her, however, is the “if someone isn’t bringing positive energy into your life, cut them out of it.” She probably didn’t mean remove anyone with depression, ADHD, or other mental illness from your social circle, but the enormous rise in “deaths of despair” from suicide and drug overdose came on the heels of this attitude. There’s this weird two-step of destigmatization of mental illness while saying that you shouldn’t have to put up with behavior from other people that is frequently a sign of mental illness. So it turns into a trap of people being “understanding” of someone’s mental struggles, while harshly judging their symptoms and demanding apologies for normal things depressed people do, with a promise it will never happen again.

    So, yeah, fuck Oprah. And De Santis. Throw in Drs. Oz and Phil as well.

  229. 229.

    Feathers

    August 28, 2022 at 5:01 pm

    @MisterDancer: Yes. Democrats have not had a national target the truly evils ones while they are still relatively local. Repubs do it to our potential rising stars all the time. We tend to leave it to the locals. Need to be better about that.

  230. 230.

    eddie blake

    August 28, 2022 at 5:04 pm

    @Another Scott:  i dunno. i’m a very large guy from a large family. it’s always been intuitive to me. especially when interacting with the world, which is full of usually much smaller people.

  231. 231.

    Betty Cracker

    August 28, 2022 at 5:07 pm

    DeSantis read Viktor Orbán’s “How to Convert a Democracy into a Fascist Autocracy for Dummies” and has implemented the plan with frightening speed.

    He has has coopted state agencies by putting kooks and cronies in charge and fired public officials who cross him to silence others. He has intimidated businesses by abridging their First Amendment rights and blatantly using government power to harm them financially. He has set mobs of kooks on the K-12 public education system, attempted to indoctrinate teachers with Christian nationalist propaganda and muzzled teachers. He is destroying the state’s flagship university by intimidating professors and putting his megadonors in charge of the board. He has removed democratically elected officials and replaced them with sycophants. He is funneling taxpayer dollars to out-of-state conservative law firms to defend his unconstitutional laws. He inspires terrorist mobs to harass and threaten the LGBTQ community, and he and his comms team routinely use anti-Semitic dog-whistles. 

    It’s no coincidence that DeSantis is supporting fellow Christian nationalists like Mastriano in PA and Masters in AZ. If he and his fascist fellow travelers get their hands on federal power, they will do to America what DeSantis has already done to Florida. So I agree, he must be stopped. We need to make DeSantis a one-term governor and a zero-term president.

  232. 232.

    Mike in NC

    August 28, 2022 at 5:07 pm

    Appreciate the comments regarding football team owners. We don’t follow the game but know neighbors who swore it off because they objected to players taking a knee to protest police brutality. The horror!

  233. 233.

    eddie blake

    August 28, 2022 at 5:15 pm

    @cain: batman is a criminal. he’s always been a criminal. he says as much in miller’s sequel, the dark knight strikes again.

  234. 234.

    Sister Golden Bear

    August 28, 2022 at 5:46 pm

    @MisterDancer:

    Sure, he might flame out. But I’ll be damned if I look FOR A MOMENT at someone acting like DeSantis, and even think “well golly, maybe he’ll just not work out?”

    Word.

    Hope is not a strategy, especially for those us already under attack.

  235. 235.

    kalakal

    August 28, 2022 at 5:47 pm

    @MisterDancer: well put

  236. 236.

    Pappenheimer

    August 28, 2022 at 5:48 pm

    @Amir Khalid:

     

    I prefer the Scottish “Hamster Heedit Bampot”, myself, but I don’t think HHB will take off.

  237. 237.

    Jinchi

    August 28, 2022 at 5:51 pm

    @Kent: Los Angeles is at the same latitude as central North Carolina. So it is much further north than any place in Florida.

    True, but latitude isn’t the key difference, ocean currents are.
    The waters off Plymouth, Ma. ( at about 42N) are typically around 68F in summer.
    That’s 10 degrees warmer than Monterey, Ca (at 37N) and roughly tied with San Diego (at 30 N).
    California waters are frigid even for a kid from New England.​​​​

  238. 238.

    kalakal

    August 28, 2022 at 6:00 pm

    @Matt McIrvin: Apparently FLs becoming less popular with elderly retirees, nothing to do with ideology, it’s simply becoming too expensive. Property used to be relatively cheap but has exploded and insurance is rocketing

  239. 239.

    Dan B

    August 28, 2022 at 6:01 pm

    @MisterDancer: Ha ingredient spent a year in Jim Crow Arkansas in 1960 I feel horrible echoes in Death Santa and much of the current GOP.  The open embrace of the KKK was revolting.  The fear in the eyes of the black residents when they were caught with white people was another awful aspect.  The little town of 7,000 has not prospered since then. The downtown that never had a black person on the sidewalk looks nearly abandoned in Street View.  Racism hurts everyone but it leaves black people with trauma.

  240. 240.

    James E Powell

    August 28, 2022 at 6:07 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Here’s a good article on what Balzac did & did not say, with some history of the uses, simplifications, etc. The ghost of Honoré de Balzac was not available for commentary on those or clarification as to what he meant when he said that.

    Since we can’t seem to find anyone else who actually said that, I want to say “Behind every great fortune lies a great crime” and I insist that every copy of The Godfather be edited to attribute the quote to me.

  241. 241.

    kalakal

    August 28, 2022 at 6:07 pm

    @Ruckus: Couldn’t agree more. I never thought we lived in a completely sane world but the last few years are getting me to the view that a lot of people are utterly batshit. TFG, Brexit, anti mask/antivax have radically changed my ( already jaundiced) view of much of humanity.

  242. 242.

    Dan B

    August 28, 2022 at 6:10 pm

    @Dan B: I need to review posts for incomprehensible autocorrect edits.  What did I type that got turned into “Ha ingredient”?  It was probably: I agree.

  243. 243.

    buggrit

    August 28, 2022 at 6:40 pm

    @Dan B: Bet you a cookie it was “Having.”

  244. 244.

    Ruckus

    August 28, 2022 at 6:53 pm

    @SteveinPHX:

    When I was a kid in SoCal we would go to the beach quite a bit. It must be colder now because I used to swim in it all the time and it was fine.

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