Could you possibly be any more racist?

Last week, flori-duhs governor announced that he wasn't going to allow AP African American studies to be taught in Florida schools. His statements were telling, along the lines of "there's no educational value"…. Which is sad, but right on brand.

I mean earlier, when the discussion was about Critical Race Theory (and by the way that is an awful name that makes it hard to understand what it is, exactly) he railed against that too. He likewise said it could not be taught here (every time I write something like that, he feels more like a dictator) because "it might make white people feel bad"

Which is up there in the racist speak.

And there was discussion about being sure that we talk about Columbus and glorifying his "discovery of America" and literally whitewashing history to be sure slavery is merely a footnote and that the white slave owners get all the attention.

Yep. You can't let white people feel bad. You have to leave that to everyone else.

Tuas concussion

The NFL and the players association said everything was handled properly with regard to Tua.

To which I say, the whole system is fucked up. And it sure feels like they're acting like Frank Dreben.

Which I suppose is apt. They're clueless, yet somehow manage to be effective (in terms of money and power anyway)

DeSantis’ Dubious COVID-19 Vaccine Claims - FactC…

https://www.factcheck.org/2022/12/scicheck-desantis-dubious-covid-19-vaccine-claims/

Oh look the concussion protocol is whack

Tua got hit "at some point" on Sunday. No one knows when, precisely, but he was not evaluated or taken out of the game for even a single play. Somehow the spotters - whose job it is to watch the game looking for signs of a concussion, especially for who the player the nfl enhanced rules were made for - missed it entirely.

But now he's in the concussion protocol. Having suffered his 3rd (officially his second because of the "neck injury") concussion. Have there been more they've missed as well? Probably.

The nfl, the doctors, the team...they just go about their business. "Yeah he had a concussion, but we can't rule him out next week."

Right.

Which just means the rules are meaningless and the nfl has no clue what it's doing.

On insurance.

"We've told consumers don't expect to see release relief within two years. The legislature needed to take strong action to save the Florida property insurance market.  To tell Florida your price is going to go down, is that realistic? It's not going to happen this year, next year, if ever. Rarely do we see the price of home insurance go down anywhere in the U.S. There's too many factors."

 — Mark Friedlander with the Insurance Information Institute  

If ever. All it does is protect "the industry" … the companies that make money. Not you or me. Good luck to us all. 

Well Florida, you’re getting what you wanted

We're a month removed from the election, and things continue to go exactly as you would expect. But there are always consequences.

The governor has already taken issue with a few school boards who have (in his opinion) violated the absurdity that is "don't say gay" and because he has a political axe to grind with these counties over other things, he'll surely go hard after them. But the thing is he hasn't said HOW they violated it. It's just his opinion on a poorly written piece of legislation. And don't miss that law suits are ongoing because the law is vague… as always.

Meanwhile, his "anti woke" legislation had its day in court. At the heart of it was the judge asking lawyers to define "woke"…their answer was, essentially, "anything we don't agree with" … which isn't much of a legal argument, and again underscores these poorly written things that are all about bluster.

He continues to harass and harangue companies about their politics, including Disney in spite of the change in leadership.

And then there's this nugget. He wants to sue the manufacturers of covid drugs because…reasons! I think he said something about side effects that impact Floridians. Which is inane. And don't worry he's going to put together a grand jury to investigate … or perhaps to essentially make things up to support his position. Your tax dollars at work, ladies and gents!

Let's not forget the mortgage crisis we have in the state. Insurance rates are high. Insurers leave the state regularly. It's been an ongoing problem for many years.

But the legislature "fixed it" in a one-week special session! And the governor is all in.

What does it do? It raises rates. Takes away many deductions you get for storm proofing. Limits what the public adjustors can do. Changes how the rules work for contractors and what they can bill. And eliminates our ability to sue if the insurer decides not to pay out enough,  or at all.

In the end it means homeowners will find insurance unaffordable in addition to the housing already being unaffordable. It can't end well.

So we're getting exactly what you would think … and don't worry, it will get worse. 

And eventually impact you directly.

Florida is…screwed.

In the floridas gubernatorial race, you had a former Republican 2x governor in charlie crist running as a democrat against Desantis. What an awful thing. Republicans hated him because he was a "turncoat" (and Republican messaging was especially harsh), and dems hated him because he wasn't an effective governor and never much represented us.

desantis has his cult…so they turned out and voted for him and rubio. And they picked up votes for each other among everyone else. And here we are.

People say Florida is "getting" red. I say it's pretty much the same as it's always been. The first time governor races are typically closely contested. But the incumbents always win. And we've had a Republican in the office for 28, now going on 32, years.

So this is not new or news. Someone needs to organize in Florida and provide a candidate more people can believe in and then help them reach actual voters.

As a complete aside, I know a lot of Venezuelans. While they can't all vote (not being citizens) you hear the talk about how the dems are socialists, like they see back home. And so they supported trump because he talked tough about Venezuela, even though he was much more like the guy back home than Biden.

And then Biden turned around and gave them tps status. But they still think he's the devil.

Desantis dupes mostly Venezuelan migrants with his (illegal and immoral) migrant flights … and yet they still supported him. And got people who hate what's happening in Venezuela on their side.

Those are the kinds of issues this state has to overcome. But there are many of them. Cuban Americans will never vote dem, because they were brought up hating on kennedy. Central Americans can't see that reps want to keep them down. And so on.

No one has managed to crack that nut. And as a result, we're screwed.

BTW, in Florida the incumbent governor has to vacate the office if s/he wants to run for higher office. The reps love desantis and want him to run for prez, so they want to change the law this term to allow him to remain gov while he runs.

The reason they have the law in the first place is because you can't serve two masters, and be an effective absentee gov. Which he kind of already is. 🤷🏼‍♂️