DeSantis Administration Would be a DiSaster
...and a few other notes
DeSantis Administration Would be a DiSaster.
This man’s campaign seems to be falling flat, but we’re a long time from the finish. Let’s hope it continues to bottom out.
One of the many poseurs who rose to power in the Tea Party frenzy, DeSantis has spent his tenure as Governor of Florida choosing the right enemies and building an image as a tormentor of “wokeism” (what the hell is that, other than my most despised word?). He has gotten himself into a pickle by trying to punish the Disney Corporation for its opposition to his “Parental Rights in Education Act – commonly known as his “don’t say gay” law. He also pushed to pass a law that would not allow cruise ship lines to require customers to provide proof of vaccination, a clear pander to the anti-vax crowd. Both of these gambits deviate from the supposed Republican philosophy of free markets and non-interference. Instead, he tries to wield the powers of the state to punish his enemies. Who are his enemies? Those who won’t bend to his will.
And what about his cruel trick and misuse of Florida taxpayer dollars to fly asylum seekers from TEXAS to Marth’s Vineyard? That’s right, these were Venezuelan asylum seekers in TEXAS that he used as political props to show himself as “tough on immigration.” As the New York Times reported:
“In June, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a budget that set aside $12 million to create a program for transporting unauthorized migrants out of Florida. He touted it as the highlight of the state’s new spending when it came to immigration.
But just three months later, the money was being used in a place far from Florida, in a very different way: rounding up Venezuelan asylum seekers on the streets of San Antonio and shipping them on private planes to Massachusetts.
The flights last month, carrying 48 migrants, attracted international attention and drew condemnation from Democrats as well as several legal challenges. Mr. DeSantis immediately claimed credit for what appeared to be a political maneuver — dumping dozens of asylum seekers on the doorstep of Northeastern Democrats who have resisted calls to clamp down on immigration.”[1]
What a cruel and cynical bully. He tries to tout his demonization of LGBTQ folks, and his attacks on education and history as getting “results,” but TIME magazine – no bastion of liberalism – presents a different picture.
The TIME story says: “Omitted from the public debate about DeSantis’s policies is almost any discussion of his actual record of governance—what exactly he has delivered to the citizens of his state, especially those without seven-figure incomes and lush investment portfolios,” then goes on to a long list of indicators that make Florida look like a pretty undesirable place to be. Florida:
· Ranks 36th in overall in health care performance
· Has the seventh-lowest per-pupil funding, and grades out with an “F” from the Education Law Center on dollars allocated to public education as a % of the state’s economic activity
· Is 49th in teacher pay
· Is ranked in the bottom quartile in “Long Term Services and Supports” by AARP in its State Scorecard
· Is last in unemployment benefits
· Has a teen birth rate 2.5 times that of Massachusetts
Maybe his cynical and bullying tactics get the “results” he wants - adoration from the mega-MAGA right wing fringe. But based on the record chronicled by TIME, I’d have to say he did not get results for the people of Florida. Yet he prevailed in a landslide. I can’t explain that, but can only hoped before long the voters down there figure out they’ve been duped and used.
In that 2022 campaign, the Tampa Bay Times endorsed his opponent, summing up their position with a simple question: “Do you want the state governed by a decent man or a bully?” The MAGA crowd is pretty fond of bullies. Let’s hope there are enough sane Republicans to prevent both DeSantis and his mentor from gaining the Republican nomination…and if not that, that there are enough fellow Americans to deny either of them the Presidency.
Records for Earth’s Hottest Day on Set on Consecutive Days. Today – 7/7/23 – the earth recorded its highest temperature…again, after doing so Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. And yet some climate change deniers are so threatened to have the story told that a meteorologist in Iowa who talked about it receives death threats. As he prepares to move on to the Woods Hole Group, an environmental consulting organization in Massachusetts, he said "I'm not giving up," he says. "I'm just switching roles to do even more of it."
It may seem overwhelming and out of any of our hands, but here’s advice from the United Nations about how each of us can help mitigate impending disaster.
Sixty years ago, a game for the ages. Growing up I was a huge baseball fan. In fact, still am. My team was the San Francisco Giants, unusual for a Jersey kid, but I had inherited it from my dad, a fan of the New York Giants before they followed the Dodgers to the Golden State. Since I am still a fan, I was recently reminded of a remarkable game that just passed its 60th anniversary. Eventual Hall-of-Famers Warren Spahn, still doing HOF things at age 42, and 25 year-old Juan Marichal, just emerging as a star among a galaxy of stars lighting up the skies in the ‘60s. They each put up 15 zeroes, as the sides changed entering the 16th. In that 16th, the Braves went down…then, one out into the bottom of the 16th, the great Willie Mays ended things with a home run over the left field fence.
Marichal threw 227 pitches; the 42 year-old Spahn threw 201. To put that into context, today’s starting pitchers are very rarely allowed to throw more than 100. Red Sox manager Grady Little was essentially fired for letting a tiring Pedro Martinez to pass 100 pitches in Game 7 of a Red Sox – Yankee AL Championship playoff, because the Sox lost. According to press accounts Giants manager Al Dark wanted to relieve Marichal, who pleaded: "Do you see that man pitching on the other side? He's 42 and I'm 25, and you can't take me out until that man is not pitching."
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[1] The Story Behind DeSantis’s Migrant Flights to Martha’s Vineyard, NY Times, Oct. 2, 2022