In an homage to himself and the colossally unself-aware sloganeering featured in his flaming Hindenburg of a GOP primary campaign, shitty far-right Florida Governor Ron DeSantis recently wasted $60K in taxpayer funds to change state line welcome signs to read “Welcome to the free state of Florida.” (Source: Tampa Bay Times)
It probably won’t matter in the final Electoral College* tally, but as one of the taxpayers whose contributions have been wasted on the sour kumquat’s hard-right vanity projects, I’m grateful that Kamala Harris and Tim Walz have both been attacking the DeSantis anti-freedom agenda for years and hope they keep it up throughout the next 90 days.
Last year, when the DeSantis admin dumbed down the public school black history curriculum to protect the extra-dainty feelings of white snowflakes, Harris came to Jacksonville to call the change what it is: distorting history with far-right propaganda and lies. (Source: NPR) This year, she visited the state after the 6-week abortion ban became law and said “the government should never come between [a woman] and her doctor.”
Meanwhile, from his perch as a fellow governor, Walz has steadily slagged his odious Florida counterpart: (Source: TBT)
On social media, Walz has posted articles about books being removed from Florida school shelves, saying that “while we’re focused on banishing hunger with free breakfast and lunch, they’re focused on banning books, bullying LGBTQ+ students, and attacking teachers.”
In response to Florida effectively banning AP Psychology last year because the curriculum acknowledged the existence of people who are LGBTQ, Walz said, “My message stays the same: If you want to live in the year 2023, come to Minnesota. We’re protecting freedoms here – not taking them away.”
DeSantis talks often about all of the people who have moved to Florida since he became governor to flee liberal states. Walz, in an interview with NBC News last year, said Minnesota’s track record could appeal to people wanting to leave Florida and find another home.
“Like no time in my lifetime, the choice in states you could pick could not be greater,” he said in the NBC interview. “Folks don’t really care about the woke corporation fights, they care about the roads and water treatment plants.”
If I wouldn’t literally freeze to death in Minnesota, I might consider it, Governor Walz.
DeSantis takes credit for the sun, spinning the in-migration as a response to his crackpot far-right policies rather than the continuation of a trend that has seen the state’s population nearly triple in my lifetime. (It’s the sunshine and lack of a state tax, stupid!)
Anyhoo, “more of this, please,” etc. It’s meaningful to Democrats in red states when our national leaders push back on the fascist GOP culture war bullshit that takes away our freedoms, makes it harder for us to access healthcare and complicates raising our families.
Open thread.
*After we cross “crush fascism” off the to-do list, we should really make a more sustained effort to abolish the anti-democratic vestige of deference to slave states known as the Electoral College. The appeal could be fairly simple: In a democracy, all of our voices matter, so let’s stop making the citizens of a handful of swing states super-voters whose ballots outweigh everyone else’s. Maybe framing it as a fairness issue could work.
War for Ukraine Day 896: Kursk Oblast
pat
Frankly, as global warming progresses, it will become much more livable in MN (and WI) than Florida. Something to think about….
OMG, Frist!!!
Lapassionara
Thanks, BC. About the EC, as I recall, in 2000, in case he won the popular vote but not the EC, W had a phalanx of lawyers ready to argue that the popular vote should prevail. I wish they would share their ideas, just in case.
Yutsano
I can already hear the outcry:
“YOU WANT CALIFORNIA AND NEW YORK TO DECIDE THE PRESIDENCY???”
Well yeah. If your guy can’t get over 50% of the vote in this country maybe you’re picking the wrong guy. Not that I expect any sort of introspection from Republicans. They got that in 2012 and noped all the way back to white resentment and racism. It almost gave me whiplash to see it in real time.
p.a.
@Lapassionara: Yes, they were ready to argue either side.
Real tangental, but: it’s not just about states’ income taxes (or lack thereof) And this video doesn’t even mention services.
https://youtu.be/uN4K3gGyEC0?si=YlCyO01L0mRhd5pv
bbleh
If the election is fought on “culture war” grounds, we’ll lose. Walz is right when he says focus on helping your neighbor, staying out of their business otherwise, and getting stuff done.
As to the EC, as previously noted, we need to SWAMP them at the polls, because the Felon’s evil minions are working overtime to ratfk the electoral system from the precinct level all the way to Congress in the hope of throwing the election to the SC or the House. We will win if it’s CLEAR on election night (or the next morning at the latest) that we have TOTALLY won. That means GOTV in massive numbers.
Simple, actually. Just requires sustained effort.
WaterGirl
Betty, count me in on that fight!
Betty Cracker
@Yutsano: Yeah, it’s a heavy lift and probably won’t gain salience until such time that Repubs win the popular vote and lose the EC. But raising the issue is valuable, imo. It’s an antiquated and stupid way to decide elections, and it’s unworthy of a nation that loudly claims it’s a model democracy.
Ishiyama
The Democrats really are recalling their glorious past: Gretchen Whitmer on Trump:
“You wouldn’t buy a used car from this guy, ”
Paging Richard Nixon from 1960.
BR
@bbleh:
Yeah, this is why Harris is right to say we’re underdogs.
BellyCat
What politics won’t do for reforming the south, politically, global warming eventually will.
(Plus a whole lot more, unfortunately).
geg6
Believe me, most of us in swing states would prefer that our votes not have such heavy consequences. It’s not what we want and it’s not our fault. If states like FL and NC would get their shit together and dump the crazies, I’d be thrilled to have all the attention taken from us.
Ken
And it would have to be a GQP screaming that, because the reality-based community knows the most populous states are California, Texas, and Florida.
Obligatory XKCD, and the alt-text is especially relevant.
Jackie
@pat:
Climate change means hotter summers and more frigid winters. I know eastern WA has been suffering more winter storms and frigid temps AND more 100 degrees+ temps and wildfires in the summer.
SpaceUnit
I actually don’t think the culture war issues resonate as well as they think they do. Just in the MAGA bubble. That’s why they went all in on Biden being old and are currently floundering to find an effective message.
And maybe reproductive rights will turn out be the biggest culture war issue of them all. Or Project 2025.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@bbleh:
I’m confused by this. People by and large, don’t like the culture war waged by Republicans. That’s part of the backlash against them, along with their anti-abortion stances.
Our response to the culture war and one that resonates with a lot of people, as I understand it, is to emphasize freedom and leaving people alone to live their lives in peace. Mind Your Own Damn Business
BellyCat
@SpaceUnit:
Reproductive Rights: #1 for 18-40 yr olds.
Project 2025: #1 for 40+ yr olds.
Liking the math.
Betsy
Republicans are calling Governor Walz ‘Tampon Tim’ because he made sure Minnesota high schools had free tampons available.
Of course, this just makes me and other women love him more.
As usual, dumbass Republicans never have a woman in the room wherever they make their dumbass decisions!
Bonus turd points to them for using the age-old woman-hating trope: if you want to insult a man, try to associate him with something intrinsic to women, because of course, nothing could be more ridiculous and disgusting than women or their ordinary biology.
Geminid
@geg6: I have a hunch Harris will flip North Carolina this year. Biden lost the state by only 80,000 votes in 2020, and that was with minimal financial resources available. This cycle is different in that respect.
SpaceUnit
@BellyCat:
Yeah, put those two issues together and it’s a lot of dead weight to drag across the finish line.
Bupalos
@Jackie: mmm…it doesn’t actually mean more frigid winters. More snow.
Yes global warming is complicated…but no, overall you don’t want to be in the south if we ever stop burning the stuff that’s killing us…and yes, you do want to be in the north. I think Duluth Minnesota is pretty much the scientists’ pick for the USA winner of global warming.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Betsy:
I read a story about Walz where Minnesota Republicans were complaining that the $400 million for free school lunches for children in the state he signed into law “could be used for something else”. To which I say, like what? Tax cuts for the wealthy? Every child should have a free lunch if they need it
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Bupalos:
I’ve heard the Great Lakes region in general
Ken
A Foxconn factory, to rival neighbor Wisconsin’s!
Ishiyama
@Bupalos:
pat
@Jackie:
In western WI we no longer have terribly cold winters or lots of snow. The last heavy snow I can remember was in 2010. Last year there was exactly one big snow fall, on my birthday so we didn’t get out for our thrice-yearly restaurant visits.
We do have more freezing rain, tho. And last year we didn’t even have that. I did not have to hack the ice off the driveway once.
Bupalos
I watched the whole Walz-Ezra Klein bit (while pulling apart a deck) and it marginally further alienated me from this particular online space, because they’re both way more right about politics than the general consensus here, that savages klein and probably would savage Walz if he wasn’t appearing at this particular moment when Trump eliminates all discord.
Then the you-tube flipped over to a Carville-Kristoll thing and it made me feel much better about the over moralized judgements that get made here because Carville is a fucking nut at this point. Kristoll (BILL KRISTOLL!!!) was basically eye-rolling at the degree to which Carville was doing anti-identity schtick. Carville is such a fucking mess. He’s going to have some kind of ‘event.’
HumboldtBlue
@Betsy:
Just respond to the 8th graders with: Tampon Tim is going to stem the red tide!
And then point and laugh.
BR
@Bupalos:
I’m not sure I follow any of your comment. But I am curious.
Jay
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
It tears down status, poor shaming and other things.
Growing up, I never went with out breakfast or a lunch, even if breakfast was just oatmeal, and lunch was only an apple and a cheese whiz and sweet pickle sandwich on homemade white bread.
But I got poor shamed from elementary school to high school.
Bupalos
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Yeah, Duluth is now the crown jewel, Milwwaukee, Detroit, and Cleveland are the royal court. SUCK IT AMERICA, YOU BURNT IT YOU BOUGHT IT!!!!
hells littlest angel
@BellyCat:What politics won’t do for reforming the south, politically, global warming eventually will.
Global warming won’t reform anything. It will turn humanity into one big war of all against all.
Kay
Betty what is going on with the condo assessments in FL? People seem mad.
Bupalos
@BR: Oh, well, Tim Walz did a thing on the Ezra Klein show (because haterz here don’t know but Ezra is smart and really, really connected) and… just go listen. It’s a huge part of what Democratic politics should sound like if you ask me… but be forewarned, they both act like good politics doesn’t include dehumanization or indulging a kind of self-indulgent over-moralized simplification.
But then after that was done youtube auto-played Carville-Kristoll, and I also understood how this blog hears anyone not dehumanizing Trumpers as basically the weird, bitter ramblings of James Carville….who…. I mean, that guy is going to drunk drive off a pier with an underaged girl at some point.
Just, if you listen to the two, you’ll get the vibe and the distinction I’m trying to make which is essentially “NOT ALL WHITE DUDES,” but “YES, YES, QUITE A FEW WHITE DUDES, EVEN SOME THAT ARE OSTENSIBLY DEMOCRATIC”
Eolirin
@Betty Cracker: We are pretty close to being able to get enough states with friendly legislatures to finish passing the state compact thing that’s been around for a while so that to crosses the threshold to activate, though we might need an act of congress to stave off it being struck down by the SCOTUS.
If we flip the PA and WI legislatures over the next few cycles I think we’re there.
BellyCat
@hells littlest angel: Welp… I was trying on my new “optimist” garb, but am inclined to subscribe to your newsletter.
Bupalos
@Ishiyama: Ever heard of critical supply chain disruptions? Or reliable access to fresh water amid disturbed weather patterns?
BR
@Bupalos:
Ok, sounds like I have to listen to understand. Though I can’t stand Carville, not Kristol is not much better.
Jackie
@Bupalos:
Makes me wonder why eastern WA has such severe winters and summers. Is it the nearness to the Pacific Ocean? Yet, our climate is separated by the Cascade Mountains, and is much more arid than western WA.
topclimber
@hells littlest angel: But it will “reduce the surplus population”, as Ebeneezer Scrooge put it.
Ishiyama
@Bupalos: Yes, I have. Hilo has plenty of rain, and the Big Island has agriculture and wild game. And fish. And big mountains to bounce typhoons away. Duluth has mosquitos so big they can carry off cattle.
Bupalos
@BR: I was literally ripping boards off a deck and it still wasn’t quite enough of a release.
Again, BILL KRISTOLL WAS AUDIBLY ROLLING HIS EYES AT THE DEGREE TO WHICH THE RAGIN CAJUN IS LIKE “Well ah dun know, I guess she’s apposeded tah be multiple races or whahtevah, I dun believe in that crap buht whattevah they wanna do this identity shit…
BILL FUCKING KRISTOLL was like, “well but that’s pretty significant…and it’s representation…”
Citizen Alan
@Eolirin: You mean the compact that is unconstitutional?
Bupalos
Unpredictable weather disruptions
The islands are a teeny tiny slender little bump in an east-west flow. The recent apocalyptic fire was part of a weather anomaly.
Eolirin
@Citizen Alan: It’s not if congress okays it.
Easier lift than an amendment.
Though with the right court it could probably sqeak through on the grounds that the states are allowed to decide how to carry out their delegation of electors and it’s not a real compact, in the sense of being an actual agreement between the states, it just has a trigger clause before taking effect that requires other states to have independently done something similar
That court is definitely not this court.
TBone
😆🤩 taking Krusty Gnome TO SCHOOL!
https://x.com/CaneRidgeSSR/status/1821289949402222902
BR
I like hearing Shawn Fain (UAW guy) at the Michigan rally.
dmsilev
So I guess at least for the time being, there are enough people inside the Trump campaign worried about the trajectory, and the blame that they personally might be made to bear, that the “run to the media to spin tales of needed course corrections” game has begun:
Trump complains about campaign as advisers try to focus on attacking Harris
Way too early to say that the rats are abandoning a sinking ship, but they’re at least checking the emergency rations in the life rafts, making sure that the batteries in the distress beacons are charged, and so forth.
Doc Sardonic
@Kay: New law that went into effect July 1, has a lot of stuff related to condo associations and maintenance reserves, assessments, etc. there was also a late add on that will give developers more control over, I forget the term but green spaces, lobbies elevators etc. some condo owners have gotten 6 figure assessments on these things.
Jay
@Jackie:
The Cascades create a rainshadow effect and the Purcells and the Rockies create the valley effect. So, summer, hotter, dryer. Winter, colder because the marine temps don’t cross the mountains and quite often, the Jet stream plunges low after crossing the cascades.
Summer in the hills south of Kamloops (BC Interior) meant +40C days, winter meant -40C days. Snow average about 2 feet, but we had storms that would deliver 6 feet, and then of course, as it’s a dry snow, there would be drifts. Largest one I measured was 20 feet deep.
RevRick
It wasn’t the sun that made Florida the Sunshine State. It was Willis Carrier and his invention of air conditioning. Without A/C Florida would still be a malarial Swamp, and Northern retirees would stay put.
opiejeanne
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Delete the “if they need it” because the bookkeeping to sort out the kids who do and don’t need it is more expensive than just feeding every kid
Just feed every kid.
BellyCat
BATTERIES? Will there be sharks?!?!
Ishiyama
You say “The islands”, but I am speaking only of the windward side of the Big Island, which is not the same as Maui (where the fire was on the leeward, dry side). The only hazard we face here is volcanic activity. And apocalyptic fires in Canada create smoke in Duluth, every summer these days. But I’m not suggesting that you move here.
Phein64
@Bupalos: Duluth is a great town. My wife grew up there, and when we leave the deep south here in Champaign-Urbana, IL, we meet up with her family in Duluth, stop by the Electric Foetus for memorabilia, and walk the lift bridge and Canal Park for a lutefisk-free dinner.
Geminid
@Bupalos: Nomadic Warriors for Pritzger envision a nationwide Khanate ruled by Jay Pritzker, with the Summer Capital in Chicago. The Winter Capital would be Springfield. That would work out in terms of grazing.
WaterGirl
@Citizen Alan:
I have not heard that before. Can you say more?
Chet Murthy
@opiejeanne: And furthermore, there’s already a method for means-testing these free school lunches, and tons more stuff: *progressive income and wealth taxes*!!! Why invent new methods when we can just amp the numbers on the one we already have!
Phein64
@opiejeanne: We’ve been doing that in Urbana, IL for years, and it just makes everyone’s life easier.
Betsy
@geg6: hello, NC is pretty much the ultimate swing state?
Jay
@Chet Murthy:
Just feed everybody. Food is good.
And make it good food, like the French. Nobody takes a lunch to school in France.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@opiejeanne:
Good point. Means testing is bullshit and wasteful
Kay
@Doc Sardonic:
Thank you. Common spaces. Someone sent me a you tube link about it but it’s just this guy shouting about an 8000 dollar assessment.
SezMarcy
@Doc Sardonic: common areas?
TBone
Great new to me meme: beautiful poster of hand drawn cats in shades of blue by the ocean:
Chet Murthy
@Jay:
During my postdoc there, I ate in university canteens many times. Yeah, the food was good, and subsidized so cheap too. I’ve read that primary/high school food is also excellent, that the French view teaching their children how to properly eat as part of bringing up well-educated, well-acculturated French citizens. Good on ’em!
Eolirin
@WaterGirl: I assume he’s talking about the compacts clause of the constitution, which prohibits states from entering into agreements with each other without congressional consent.
geg6
@Betsy:
I didn’t want to name every southern state, which all are crazy not to vote Dem. But yeah, lump them all in there. But FL and NC flummox me. They should be in the Dem column. Both seem to be going in the wrong direction, mainly due to legislatures full of nutcases. I’m just sick of all the advertising and rallies for over a year, year after year after year after year. It’s exhausting. If other states would not have so many crazy people maybe they’d leave us alone for a while.
Barbara
@Doc Sardonic: Is this related to the collapse of the condo in Miami? This is one of the main problems with condos, but especially in a place like Florida where what you paid for your condo varies a lot depending on when you bought it. People might have very different views on what it makes sense to spend on maintenance.
Birdie
@Betsy: cosign all of this.
Citizen Alan
@WaterGirl: This explains it better than I could after the three whiskeys I’ve had to pregame my birthday tomorrow.
Jackie
@Jay: Yes, this I know. I’ve lived in the Tri-Cities for most of my life, minus five years in western WA. I’ve lived through the climate changes here, and was questioning the assumption that living north was better than south because of climate change. It’s hotter than hell the past summers and colder than ? the past winters.🤷🏼♀️
Climate Change is effecting most of the country adversely.
Peale
@Kay: the new regs have to do with reserves for maintenance, in response to the Surfside Condo collapse. It sucks to have an assessment, but then it’s also possible that these condos were keeping their HOA charges low to kick the can down the road for after they sold. And let their reserve funds run a little dry as insurance rates have been rising.
not sure what the state policy solution is here. If you give them more time, they’ll just not bother with reserves. But I think a lot of the condos were being run like state governments when the GOP takes over and finds a rainy day fund.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: & @Doc Sardonic: I’ve seen interviews with weeping octogenarians who received $250K assessments, had their maintenance fees double and are being driven out of their homes because they can’t afford to pay and can’t find buyers. Seems to be mostly a South FL phenomenon now, related to the deadly Surfside collapse, but it could spread. I suspect it’s related to 25 years of corrupt one-party rule that favored developer free-for-alls over public safety.
Frankensteinbeck
@Geminid:
I salute you.
Jackie
@TBone: 😹😹😹
Eolirin
@Citizen Alan:
Whether it’s considered constitutional or not will come down mostly to the court it comes before. There are work arounds for several of the things the court could go after it over, and the remaining issues aren’t settled law.
HumboldtBlue
One of the reasons Walz resonates is so many of us have fond memories of a teacher or mentor who helped us change our lives. Walz, as a coach and a teacher, reminded me of the story of a teacher and a student, Mr. Pigden, and English and Arsenal football legend, Ian Wright.
Sports, particularly high school and college sports, are rightly criticized for our modern excess, but sports plays as big a role in the lives of some kids as art, theater, band or woodshop.
Ian tells the story. Bring your tissues.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Damn, they are running Trump adds on You Tube with him doing his rant and there is something wrong with his left eye and he kept on pausing and hissing.
Knittingknots
As someone who spent half of her life on the Gulf coast, but now lives in Minnesota, I say give me MN winters over what’s down there any time…for a variety of reasons.
MisterForkbeard
@Ken: I mean, I’d love to actually get candidates visit California and not just for fund raisers.
On the one hand, I get to live in California and that’s pretty rad. On the other hand, during election season we’re basically just a piggy bank. And that’s sorta okay, but one of the nice things about Kamala is that she’s got that connection to CA (and kicked off her 2020 campaign in Oakland, if I recall).
Peale
@Betty Cracker: I saw that story. I don’t know what justified that. I bet the place was marketed as “affordable luxury”. My god…did they reserve for anything? Did they discover the entire building was built of straw?
Lyrebird
Agreed on wanting to abolish the Electoral College – and with the rest! A couple more states have joined the popular vote compact, if that’s what’s it’s called, but not enough yet.
Also specifically re: Florida,
Do I recall right that there’s an outsized proportion of military voters who vote in Fl? Because you can make that your residence while your deployed? That was one of many factors that came to mind when MisterMix and others were talking about Walz’ qualifications. I remember hearing rumors back oh lessee twenty years ago that the active duty military vote went to Kerry, but the VFW voters went with Bush.
I’ve never served in the military, and I know my sources are biased, but I do hear a lot of “who gives a fk” about sexual orientation etc from people who are. Like Sen. Duckworth saying, when ya need to be rescued, you’re not dwelling on who they wanna marry.
Jay
@Jackie:
Wet bulb effect.
The right combo of heat and humidity, means you can’t sweat, cool off your core, and cook from the inside out.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wet-bulb_temperature.
That is why the North beats the South other than the dry states, but they will have their own problems.
wjca
Those capable of introspection have generally left. Or, at least, stopped paying attention to politics as just too painful. Sometimes, becoming a low information voter is a rational defense mechanism.
rikyrah
@HumboldtBlue:
😭😭😭😭😭
Matt McIrvin
@geg6: Florida and NC are different. Florida is getting redder because the political environment and its status as America’s retirement home actually attracts Fox News Geezers and other reactionaries to move there. In NC I think it’s more neo-Jim Crow tactics continuing to suppress democracy. Florida has those too, but even without them it’d be trending bad.
HumboldtBlue
@rikyrah:
Right?
jonas
@pat: Exactly. Climate change is predicted to make the northern tier of the US wetter on average, but you probably won’t die if a storm knocks out your AC and the summer heat index is topping 120.
Matt McIrvin
@bbleh: point of order: they cannot throw the election to the House, unless it’s a literal tie or a three-way split. The Electoral Count Reform Act of 2022 made that clear but really it was in the text of the 12th Amendment.
(Sorry, this is a pet peeve for me. There were all these articles written in 2020 saying it’d go to a House contingent election if enough electors were disqualified that “no one gets to 270,” but that’s not how it works! That was never how it works!)
Betsy
@geg6: i can explain partly. NC has been gerrymandered and since 2010 has not had a legitimately elected government legislature proportional to the voters’s choices. And also, reactionary carpetbaggers keep moving here from the north because they think The south is a safe haven for their racism. And then they get into the legislature and lead some of the most reactionary doings, for example Robert Rucho and other yankee pests, and they also try to re-segregate our school systems but fortunately we pushed the worst of them off our best school board.
As always, black women are doing a ton of the pushback work.
We have some real good guys, like Roy Cooper and Josh Stein. And some real homegrown assholes, too.
jonas
@dmsilev: JFC, this is why the MSM is so in thrall to Trumpworld. Just behold that leaking sieve of a campaign operation. It’s like trying to drink from a firehose, it is. They can’t get enough and just love this shit. The idea of four more years of this drama — it’s like promising a five year-old a never-ending fountain of soda and chocolate ice cream.
jonas
As we folks in colder climes like to say, there is no bad weather, only bad clothing. A stone-silent, deep forest covered in a fresh six inches of snow at -20 is a spiritual experience.
matt
@Ken: I mean the states with the biggest population and biggest contribution to GDP probably should get a voice.
wjca
You know it. I know it. But chances are fair that the Trump staff and cult members do not know that. And the low quality legal advisors, who are all the campaign can get these days, may well also be clueless. (Or, admittedly, may know but value their jobs above giving accurate legal advice.)
But you’re right, we need to make sure our own people are educated on the subject. Well enough educated to be able to push back when they encounter nonsense.
jonas
@Matt McIrvin: Yeah, all the rightwing choads where I am in CNY dream of moving to Florida one day where they think they can drink, play golf all day, and mock the libtards while paying no taxes. Well, there may be no income tax, but they’ll pay in other ways. It’s going to be real fun for them to find out what property insurance and HOA fees cost, that you can’t go outside half the year because it’s too fucking hot, and that you have to evacuate your home twice a year for hurricanes. They all just go “pshaw!” and hand-wave that away, but FAFO, as they say.
FL has some amazing natural beauty, as BC’s posts often show. But going forward, esp. with climate change, I’m not sure how much longer that state is going to be liveable.
2liberal
@Kay: re: condo assessments
https://tinyurl.com/k7u43mvp
jonas
@Matt McIrvin: That’s my understanding, too. It only goes to the House if all the certified electoral votes are cast and we still end up in a tie or no candidate receives a majority. If a state’s electoral votes are tied up in a court battle or the SOS refuses to certify the vote or something (like Trump wanted in Georgia in 2020, e.g.), I don’t think that triggers a House vote. That stuff would have to be sorted out first.
What I think the Trumpers are planning on is simply sowing chaos and disorder if the vote doesn’t go his way in swing states and hoping that the ensuing violence and uncertainty somehow benefits him. I trust that Biden’s people and allies like the Elias firm have a bunch of contingency plans in their back pockets in this eventuality.
kindness
The Electoral College Compact could work but the first time it got used the loser (Republicans of course) would sue. Eliminating the EC has to be a constitutional amendment. I support that. It’d pass in a Democratic run House but not a filibuster proof Senate. While I’m stretching reality, offing the filibuster should be the 1st thing the next Senate does. We’d all be happier.
Citizen Alan
@kindness: Just increase the size of The House to 4000 and the problems of the EC are solved.
Chet Murthy
@Citizen Alan: Wyoming Rule! Wyoming Rule!
[but also, it doesn’t change that the EC remains quantized at the state level. That’s still a biiiig problem.]
Betty Cracker
@jonas: We have about 8 months of great weather, at least where I live, which is a bit north of Tampa, and we’ve had to flee hurricanes twice in 20 years — both times needlessly, as it turned out. From October to May, we’ve got our windows open most days and can be boating, birding, gardening, golfing or hanging out in beach bars. You’re right about property insurance though.
frosty
@Betty Cracker:
From a John D. MacDonald novel:
Comment: “Florida’s weather is great in May and October.”
Response: “Everywhere in North America is great in May and October.”
Kent
Not as long as you have winner-take all elections at the state level. No matter how many electors there are it would still come down to the same few swing states.
wjca
But it doesn’t have to be. See Nebraska. (And Maine, I think.)
Chet Murthy
@wjca: Red States have no reason to give up that quantization. And as long as that remains the case, Blue States would be insane to give it up, too (unilateral disarmament).
MazeDancer
No place is as cold as it used to be. But still, might be a leap from FL.
One of my college roommates was from Tampa. She never got used to MA winters. Though, today, there is probably half the snow.
Minnesota does have hoards of vampire sized mosquitos, though.
Dan B
@Bupalos: Au contraire. Global warming will, in many locations mean colder winters. The winter may not last as long but increasingly wild Jet Stream will bring Arctic air further south, but not in a regular pattern. Extreme weather will be more common, both hot and cold. Add in droughts, floods, and violent storms and its just more extremes in all regards.
Dan B
@Jackie: Wonky Jet Stream. As the difference between the Arctic – rapidly warming, and the subtropics- warming much more slowly, decreases the Jet Stream gets wilder and provides less of a barrier to artic air transgressions, and also it allows subtropical air to more frequently and more vigorously move north.
Matt McIrvin
@jonas: They could conceivably just refuse to certify enough electoral votes in Harris states that Trump gets a majority of the remaining ones. But that is what they’d have to do, and depending on the margin it could be a much heavier lift.
The election officials who do this would be disenfranchising their own entire state, too (in the presidential election at least), and facing the political consequences of that. The 2022 act makes it much harder for individual House members to raise objections.
Matt McIrvin
@Chet Murthy: Yes, the rhetoric on the Electoral College makes it seem as if the small-state bonus is the biggest problem with it. And that’s the thing that seems most unfair. But it’s not the big *partisan* problem with it–the Democrats have some small states too (Vermont, Delaware, Rhode Island, Hawaii), and the Republican advantage here is a tiny number of electoral votes.
The big problem is that the whole election hinges on the winner-take-all votes of large purplish states, and in recent cycles, a bunch of those have become very hard for Democrats to win. To put it another way, our large states tend to be very blue, and their large states are less red, with a lot of Democratic votes getting effectively overridden by winner-take-all, which gets Republicans overrepresented in the Electoral College.
However, that’s also not an immutable property of the map–it’s more a recent contingent historical fact. In much of the 20th century it was not true. For a while it seemed like the small-state bonus for Republicans and a mild winner-take-all bonus for Democrats were roughly cancelling one another out. But not any more.
Matt McIrvin
@jonas: The lack of income tax also attracts the more right-wing Boston-area techbros to move out to New Hampshire, but, guess what, they get you there in other ways, most notably property tax. And if you work in Massachusetts, you still have to pay Massachusetts income tax anyway! So it’s more of a tribal affiliation than a real way to avoid taxes.
NH tends to be a blue state in Presidential elections regardless. (Though it was in danger a few weeks ago–it’s one of the swingiest of blue-leaning states.) But voluntary exile from Taxachusetts helps contribute to the fact that one of the most right-wing areas of the state is the bit just over the line from me.
Ken
You sure those weren’t promos for the new Gollum movie?
Bill Arnold
@BellyCat:
Yes.. That is the Plan. :-)
Kosh III
Florida is a mess but there are lots of states controlled by the R(Regressive) Party that need help. Blue Tennesseans would love to kick Marsha Blackburn to the curb this year and we have a good candidate but she needs lots of outside help i.e. money.
Ironcity
@Lyrebird:
“Also specifically re: Florida,
Do I recall right that there’s an outsized proportion of military voters who vote in Fl? Because you can make that your residence while your deployed? That was one of many factors that came to mind when MisterMix and others were talking about Walz’ qualifications. I remember hearing rumors back oh lessee twenty years ago that the active duty military vote went to Kerry, but the VFW voters went with Bush.”
It’s called your “Home of Record” so that you have a home that you go back to when you are done getting orders to all kinds of places. Favorites are states without income taxes because you pay your taxes to your home of record state unless the state law gives you an out. You can not just pick any state you want, you have to have a plausible connection to the state like being from there or living there. FL, TX, WA and NH are some others. Since there aren’t many military bases in NH not much opportunity there. But orders to bases in FL, TX or WA are not uncommon so arrange you finances to your best (legal) advantage troops.
Newfmom
@Geminid: I live in SC but am volunteering in NC b/c I believe we can flip the state. If we can get a small % of the people who sat out the last election to vote this time we can do it.