DeSantis isn’t planning on meeting Biden tomorrow during his trip to Florida, the governor’s office says, despite Biden saying earlier today at the WH they would be — https://t.co/4wSk4vfNtb
— Alec Hernández (@AlecAHernandez) September 1, 2023
Too busy running away from 15 year olds? https://t.co/jgA2atK5Fx
— Susan J. Demas ?? (@sjdemas) September 1, 2023
We all remember what happened last time pic.twitter.com/xjZoK9W1YY
— Sam I Am (@sambone76) September 1, 2023
JWR
Stuck between a 15 year old and Joe Biden, what’s a poor Floriduh Man to do?
JoyceH
DeSantis is just being … churlish.
patrick Ii
DeSantis remembers what happened to Christie when he shook Obama’s hand after Sandy. To Republicans, it’s more important to pose, or not pose in this case, than to govern.
mrmoshpotato
🎶The sky is red, I don’t understand,
past midnight I still see the land.🎶
Betty Cracker
I just read that Jimmy Buffett died. It’s hard to imagine Florida without him.
Joey Maloney
@mrmoshpotato: Deep (Purple) cut, my friend.
I just saw on Buffet’s Twitter feed that he passed. He was one of the good ones, I think.
JWR
ICYMI, Ramaswamy going all ramaladingdong as he explains the brutal Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Or not. Yeah, not.) A brief taste…
… and it goes on and on. Found over at Aaron Rupar’s place, where he’s got a good follow-up to Ding Dong on his Public Notice site.
Dangerman
Let’s do a test; let’s have Trump meet with DeSantis. Bet he’d be humming a different tune for Donald.
Ascap_scab
De Satan is a coward.
But let’s also remember how Christie hugging Obama after Sandy was political death.
Jackie
R I P Jimmy 😭
HumboldtBlue
@Betty Cracker:
Just read that
Jackie
@Ascap_scab: Pudd’n Boots doesn’t need to hug the man, FGS!🤦🏼♀️
The folks Biden meets with would probably prefer RDS not be there anyway. I hope Joe and Jill get a great reception and lots of good press!
Betty Cracker
The super PAC that is illegally running the DeSantis 2024 campaign probably told him not to appear in the same camera frame as Biden, so he cancelled. Everything DeSantis does is about trying to win the GOP nomination; he and his taxpayer funded staff are laser focused on it. The people at Florida Politics uncovered a super PAC memo with talking points about how to spin the hurricane into positive campaign coverage, and sure enough, DeSantis has repeated the talking points on camera.
Cameron
I think the President should show solidarity with the people of Florida by wearing some sassy white boots during his visit.
Betty Cracker
@Jackie: I don’t know where Biden will visit, but the hardest-hit places are extremely right wing.
MagdaInBlack
@Betty Cracker: Ouch.
lowtechcyclist
@Betty Cracker:
Bummer. We’ll miss him.
raven
@Betty Cracker: Damn it.
Mother Mother Ocean
Gotta stop wishin. . .
raven
I made enough money to buy Miami
“But I pissed it away so fast
Never meant to last
Never meant to last.”
eclare
@Betty Cracker:
Oh no!
Jeffg166
@Cameron: That would be funny. Fox would have a fit.
sab
Jimmy Buffet RIP. As an old I can say “What a shame. He was so young.” My dad just had his 99th birthday. Two of my husband’s siblings died in their mid-seventies. That seems so young to me.
When I was twelve I figured out that the millenium would come when I was in my mid-forties and thus I would be way too old to enjoy it.
I have loved Jimmy Buffet’s music for years. Florida at its perkiest
ETA I went to a Jimmy Buffet concert in law school in Tennesee because I wanted to see his warm up Jesse Winchester. Jesse Winchester was okay. Jimmy Buffet blew me away. Amazing and so much fun.
eclare
“Son of a gun, load the last ton, one step ahead of the jailer”
raven
But there’s this one particular harbour
So far but yet so near
Where I see the days as they fade away
And finally disappear
Van Buren
Jimmy was a large part of the soundtrack of my life. I feel like a friend has died.
raven
@Van Buren: In the mid-70’s he’d play in Champaign-Urbana. Just him and his axe.
Betty Cracker
Sen. Rick Scott is swooping in, bat-like, to take advantage of the DeSantis campaign’s change of plans on meeting the POTUS, according to Politico:
LOL! Rick Scott is as terrible a retail politician as DeSantis is, but he’s smarter and more disciplined.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
The only thing batboy has ever done that I approve of.
Baud
There’ll always be a special place in my heart for “Why don’t we get drunk and screw.”
Steeplejack
Jimmy Buffett’s obituary in the New York Times. (🎁 free article.)
Betty Cracker
@Baud: Scott rarely misses an opportunity to beclown DeSantis. The source of the bad blood between the two is unclear to me. It could be because DeSantis finagled a GOP primary endorsement in 2018 by shamelessly kissing Trump’s ass, thereby dooming the candidacy of Adam Putnam. But that’s just a guess.
eclare
@Steeplejack:
Thanks.
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
I think it must’ve been in a thread here not too long ago where that song came up, and I was asking, “whatever happened to waterbeds anyway?” (Superseded by better quality mattresses, IIRC.)
My favorite Buffett song was “The weather is here, wish you were beautiful” which I’d always listen to, and link to in my out-of-office message, when we went down to Anna Maria Island each year. I’d always meant to send him a letter asking him where he got the idea to turn that corny twist on the old cliché postcard line into a song.
Rest in peace, Jimmy, and thanks for all your great songs. You’ll be missed.
Baud
@lowtechcyclist:
Haha. Yes, that lyric is a classic.
sab
@lowtechcyclist: My favorite was “Come Monday.”
As I keep wanting to say ” Margaritaville” wasn’t his only song. And he did good covers of other peoples songs. I loved his cover of Winchester’s “Biloxi”.
West of the Rockies
@Betty Cracker:
Well, isn’t meeting DeSantis a reason to dislike him? Even human-skinned aliens have standards.
Princess
De Santis is scared of Biden. Trump is scared of Biden. Biden is going to go and talk about hurricane relief and without the Governor there, he’ll get all the credit. If he were the feeble old man they claim, De Santis would be begging to appear with him.
Gvg
@Betty Cracker: He was originally terrible. The first couple of years as a former business man who ran on not giving in to “corrupt” politicians, he got absolutely nothing done. The legislature would not pass a single thing he wanted. As a former executive he had not understood governments divided powers. Then unfortunately he got it and started a give and take that resulted in some awful legislation and Scott got re elected.
DeSantis seems to be the opposite. He started by understanding government and now seems to be losing it. He has made his Allie’s do stuff that’s going to make it hard for them to get re elected when he is aiming for national office. He is also losing track of what Florida wants.
geg6
Man, the news about Buffet really bums me out. I have seen him numerous times, too many to count. Such a great entertainer! His music was kind of the soundtrack to my relationship with my ex. He’s going to be bummed too. He was also an entertaining writer. Read a few of his books but I especially liked his A Pirate Looks at Fifty, an autobiography of sorts. RIP Jimmy.
Raven
one of his prettier songs
Oh, just ask for some palm trees
and tales from the South Seas
And I’ll make sparks fly ’round your your head
https://youtu.be/h0JX7pd7xTE?feature=shared
West of the Rockies
I loved Jimmy, his music, and several of his books. I regret never seeing him perform. RIP.
sab
@Raven: He always seemed so laid back that I always took for granted how good and true his voice was.
ETA And I loved his wisp of a Southern accent. It sounded so much like old Florida before we northerners invaded.
Percysowner
@Ascap_scab: I could be wrong, but I suspect Obama’s permanent tan had as much to do with that as him being a Democratic President. Biden is an old, white guy, most of the Floridians who would get upset about the Democrats still can relate to that.
Raven
@sab: He and Jerry Jeff were real troubadours!
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@lowtechcyclist:
But no mattress can give you that lost at sea feeling when you get a big wave sloshing back and forth.
(Never owned a waterbed but slept in a couple in motels)
Raven
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: I got seasick on one doing the nasty and acid!
sab
@lowtechcyclist: Also too as I keep wanting to say “Margaritaville” wasn’t his only song.
Betty Cracker
@Gvg: I never thought of it that way, but you’re right.
mrmoshpotato
@sab:
A belated happy birthday to your pops.
mrmoshpotato
@Baud:
Seconded – and batboy can still go fuck himself.
mrmoshpotato
@Baud:
Why does that not surprise me in the least?
sab
@mrmoshpotato: We had a small birthday party with half his kids. I am not sure he recognized any of us. He kept looking at his nurse’s aide in confusian. “Why are all these strange people here?”
Kind of sad. Very depressing.
ETA And I do visit him a lot. So without dementia he should have recognized me.
leeleeFL
@Betty Cracker: it’s hard to imagine the world without him! I just saw the reports a minute ago, and haven’t stopped crying! This just sucks!
In other news, Ron DeathSantis can eat an entire bag of salted dicks! I hope he crashes and burns before Super Tuesday. Prick!
Suzanne
I’m bummed about Jimmy. Some songs are perfect for singing along while stuck in traffic. Those are the best songs.
leeleeFL
@Suzanne: I only play Jimmy when driving down the Avenue that’s known as A1A! I used to drive my Mama to Sebastian to watch the breakers for a day and she sang it as loud as she could!
Gin & Tonic
@JWR: Ramaswamy is a festering boil on the ass of the GOP.
leeleeFL
@Gvg: Correcting this- he doesn’t care what Floridians want!
leeleeFL
@Van Buren: Me, too!
Suzanne
@leeleeFL: I spent many hours over the years, stuck crawling down one shitty urban freeway or another, singing and seat-dancing to various Buffett tunes. Gotta make that shit bearable.
eclare
@Suzanne:
How is your mom? Is surgery still on?
dr. luba
I traveled a lot more when I was younger, throughout the world (pre-COVID and sciatica). “Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes” always rang true to me. As did “Cheeseburger in Paradise.” For different reasons, of course.
bbleh
@Betty Cracker: Also, it’s pretty clear they’re related. There can’t be TWO Florida politicians who can unhinge their jaws and swallow children whole that aren’t at least cousins.
Josie
@sab:
A nurse explained that to me. With dementia, the recent memory is lost, but the old memories are still there. So he doesn’t recognize his children as adults. His memory has them as much younger. I started taking family photo albums to look at with Mama, and it helped her to remember people.
Soprano2
@Betty Cracker: It’s so dumb for DeSantis to snub Biden like this. It makes him look small and petty to most people. I think they forget they need regular people’s votes to actually win – MAGA’s aren’t enough.
RandomMonster
It would be a hummer of one kind or another.
kalakal
@Josie: We did that with my mother. It helped a lot. By the last few months everything had gone but it bought us quite a few years which we treasure. I’m the eldest by a few years so I got her memories longest. The part I found hardest was the tape loop conversations. Dementia is so cruel. One kind thing about memory is it also works to protect you. When I think of my parents my default thoughts of them is not of the very end of their lives, sick and frail but when they were young and strong, full of energy and beauty, laughing and enjoying life. I think that is a great kindness
Honus
@Betty Cracker: I thought that about Harry Crews a few years back
Ken
@Gvg: @Betty Cracker: @leeleeFL: So assuming DeSantis doesn’t get the presidential nomination — or does, but isn’t elected — what’s his Florida political career look like? I’m guessing the classic “nasty, brutish, and short.”
I recall some talk about changing Florida’s laws/constitution so he could run for governor again, but I’m guessing the legislature wouldn’t be so quick to roll over for him post-defeat, especially on that issue since some undoubtedly have their own ambitions.
Betty Cracker
@Ken: Yeah, I don’t think changing the state constitution would fly either. My guess is if DeSantis washes out this year, we’ll be stuck with him as our pouty governor with thwarted national ambitions until 2026, and that he’ll continue running the state as a GOP presidential primary campaign showroom and give it another go in 2028.
I don’t understand why more Floridians aren’t disgusted with being used as campaign props and their tax dollars wasted on political stunts. I don’t mean the wingnuts — them I understand. I mean normies who are getting hammered with unaffordable insurance, chaotic schools, etc., because of RD’s performative antics. They should be PISSED.
Soprano2
@kalakal: That’s interesting, it explains why my grandfather always knew who my grandmother was but had a hard time with the rest of us. I have the opposite experience to you – I have a hard time remembering what my grandpa was like before he got sick. I have to work at it. I’m so terrified that will happen with my husband. I’m hopeful it won’t because we’ve been together over 34 years.
Honus
@Baud: I was in the air studio at my college radio station in about 1976 when my friend played that song and then totally innocently committed the Mother of all Freudian Slips: “and that was Jimmy Buffett from his album A White Sport Coat and Pink Cuntstacean” There may have been marijuana involved.
kalakal
@Ken: I think you’re right. Once his campaign crashes and burns he’s the lamest of ducks and covered in loser stink. Fl GOP pols are are a despicable, stupid, and cowardly bunch but they are ambitious and they hate him. Up till now they’ve been scared of him but in a few months he’ll not only have anything to offer him, he’ll be a millstone.
@Betty Cracker: I don’t get that either. He’s making no pretense at trying to act as a governor and is costing the state a fortune. I’m hoping quite a few are waking up as the increasing number of media coverage of people discovering that he rejected the federal money for grants for home solar come out. I’ve seen quite a few ” Homeowners shocked to discover DeSantis veto will cost them $1,000s” lately.
Honus
@lowtechcyclist: back in the 80s we used to rewrite Richard Thompson’s Wall of Death as “Let me ride on the waterbed one more time”
kalakal
@Soprano2: I really hope that it works that way with your husband. I think after 34 years you’ll have so many really strong, really good memories they’ll be the ones that pop up first. Thinking about it I basically lived away from home ever since I went to university at 18 so those are the strongest memories of my parents. As a family we were both very close and usually widely geographically separated ( any time we were all on the same continent was a step up) but we talked a lot via phone and met up when we could.
kindness
DeSantis…. he’s going out of his way to show us all what a tiny small man he really is.
We knew.
Prometheus Shrugged
@Soprano2: He’d be better off sending a busload of undocumented refugees to intercept Biden’s tour.
cope
@raven: I saw him in the Auditorium in ’74. He had the back-up group with him and I’m 90% sure Doyle Grisham was on pedal steel guitar at that concert.
cope
@raven: Multiple obits I have read today put his net worth at one billion dollars. He was very smart in how he diversified his investments.
Citizen Alan
@Soprano2: So what you’re saying is, he’s on brand.
suzanne
@eclare: So far, so good. I ran out to get Covid tests on Thursday, and I had to go to three places to find any. So far, everyone feels fine. So fingers crossed.
Bill Arnold
@JWR:
Depressing how many of the replies in that thread have no clue that Ramaswamy is a con man.
That he has no original thoughts, just slight rehashes of right-wing fever swamp talking points.
schrodingers_cat
@Bill Arnold: He is not stupid. He is a grifter who knows what his marks want to hear.