Florida

60th Anniversary Of March On Washington: Need For Renewal Of That Effort!

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Today, 60 years after the famous March on Washington in 1963, and the legendary speech by the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther, King Jr. calling for justice and basic civil rights for African Americans and other discriminated groups, we are having a commitment to restore the civil rights that are under attack in recent years by the US Supreme Court, the Republican Party, and extreme right wing forces.

It is expected that about 100,000 people will participate in today’s commemoration in Washington, DC, as compared to the 250,000 who did so on August 28, 1963.

The struggle against forces that have taken away the right to vote requires a new national commitment to restoring the weakened Voting Rights Act of 1965.

And the open racism and nativism and misogyny promoted by Donald Trump and his minions must be fought tooth and nail through lawsuits, marches, and demonstrations against state governments that are limiting basic human rights, with Florida, Texas, Tennessee, and Alabama in the leadership of setting American rights and freedoms in the wrong direction!

The Decline And Fall Of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis: The New Scott Walker!

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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis won a massive victory for reelection in Florida in November 2022, and was seen as a major challenger to Donald Trump for the Republican Presidential nomination in 2024.

But his campaign has slumped horribly, and it is now clear that he is the new Scott Walker, the Wisconsin Governor thought to be the likely Republican choice for President in 2016, but ending up as a total flop!

DeSantis has fumbled badly, and is not showing up well in Iowa, where he is spending most of his time.

DeSantis is seen more than ever as an unpleasant, arrogant, nasty, mean spirited, non charismatic individual, and even his own state’s representatives in Congress are not backing him.

His horrendous policies on a multitude of issues, including race, gender, sexuality, health care and education may have won him support in Florida, but Florida is clearly NOT America.

One can only wait for 2026, when Ron DeSantis will finish his second term as governor of the Sunshine state, sadly leaving wreckage in his midst, but with inability to have a third consecutive term, as the Florida Constitution prevents that.

Gerrrymandered State Legislatures–Tennessee, North Carolina, Florida, Texas And Other Republican States!

Ronald 3 Comments

Gerrymandering of many state legislatures, particularly in “Red” states, has led to the movement to take away democracy.

This is particularly noted in Tennessee, North Carolina, Florida, and Texas, as those state legislatures take unprecedented action to strip voting rights, abortion rights, gay rights, and to reject any regulation of guns, despite consistent, every day, occurrences of gun massacres!

The “red” states are the centers of greater carnage than in “blue” states, which are totally the opposite of the “red” states on the major issues of civil rights.

Many state legislatures have become the center of autocratic leadership, such as Ron DeSantis in Florida and Greg Abbott in Texas, but also including many other states!

Republican State Legislatures Are Becoming Fascist Strongholds, Stifling Free Speech!

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Republican state legislatures, many of them holding two thirds of the seats or more, are rapidly becoming Fascist strongholds, stifling free speech, free assembly, and freedom to protest!

Tennessee, by expelling two African American members joining a protest demanding gun regulations after six people are slaughtered at a Christian elementary school in Nashville, is an outrage and racist at its core, as a white woman member who took part in the protest, was not expelled!

The state legislatures in not just Tennessee, but also Florida, Texas, Mississippi, Virginia, Montana, and other “red” states, are stripping civil liberties, including the ability of the public to testify against extremist legislation, being given 30 seconds to one minute, to testify.

Arrogant, out of control governors, including Ron DeSantis of Florida, Greg Abbott of Texas, Glenn Youngkin of Virginia, and others are promoting abuses of power way out of line with constitutional government!

The three governors mentioned above all have Presidential ambitions, and clearly, would be a danger to American democracy and constitutional government, were they to gain the power of the Oval Office!

Ten States Refuse To Expand Medicaid, No Concern About Health Care For Millions!

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North Carolina just became, finally, the 40th state to expand Medicaid for its poorer, less fortunate citizens!

It is mind boggling that TEN states, mostly Southern, refuse to care about health care for millions of their populations combined.

These states are:

Florida
Texas
South Carolina
Georgia
Tennessee
Alabama
Mississippi
Wisconsin
Kansas
Wyoming

This needs to be emphasized for those states that are likely to have Republican Presidential contenders, including Florida (Ron DeSantis), Texas (Greg Abbott and Ted Cruz), and South Carolina (Nikki Haley, Tim Scott).

It is unconscionable that Republicans who are supposedly “pro life” on abortion have no concern about the lives of their poor constituents!

It is a crime against humanity, and should be rectified!

Long Overdue For 11 States To Expand Medicaid Coverage!

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Hard to believe, but in 2023, there are still ELEVEN states that have refused to take care of their poorer citizens by expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare)!

Eight of these eleven states are in the South, including the megastates of Texas and Florida, and that should be used by the Democrats against Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis, when and if they announce for President, which at least, DeSantis is expected to do soon!

The other states that are recalcitrant, and show lack of concern for the lives of their less fortunate citizenry are Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee!

Also, outliers outside the South are Kansas, Wisconsin, and Wyoming!

It is time for these eleven states to stop their resistance, and protect human lives, as much as they are pushing for protecting every fetus in the womb!

Arizona And Georgia Key States Now, NOT Florida And Texas!

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As a result of the Midterm Elections of 2022, after the Presidential Election of 2020, it is clear that Arizona and Georgia are the key states for the Democrats, although they do not make up for the Republican dominance of Florida and Texas!

But with Pennsylvania and Michigan also becoming more likely Democratic based on recent elections, and adding the Northeast and Pacific Coast, the Midwest states of Illinois and Minnesota, and a few Mountain states, such as Colorado, New Mexico, and Nevada, the prognosis for the Democrats in 2024 and beyond, is looking good, in regards to the Electoral College!

Projections On Midterm Elections Of 2022

Ronald 5 Comments

Here we are, a day before the Midterm Elections of 2022, so it is time to project the results, with trepidation about what is likely to happen tomorrow.

The odds are heavily in favor of the Republicans winning the House of Representatives, since they only need to gain five seats, so sadly, my projection is that they will gain about 20 seats, giving them an edge of about 15 seats–so a balance of about 232-203.

The Senate will remain Democratic in my estimate, with the following results:

Retention of presently held Democratic seats:

Mark Kelly, Arizona
Raphael Warnock, Georgia
Maggie Hassan, New Hampshire

However, the loss of Catherine Cortez Masto in Nevada!

Open Seats Gained by Democrats:

Tim Ryan, Ohio
John Fetterman, Pennsylvania
Mandela Barnes, Wisconsin

The end result would be 52 Democrats and Independents and 48 Republicans!

In the Governorships, Democrats gain seats:

Wes Moore, Maryland
Maura Healey, Massachusetts
Beto O’Rourke, Texas

So we would end up with 25 Democrats and 25 Republicans as Governors of their states.

So the elections will be a mixed bag, with both Democrats and Republicans able to claim vindication.

Sadly, however, Florida will remain strongly Republican both for the US Senate and the Governorship.

The Midterm Elections of 2022 will be seen as a “Red Ripple”, with less of a repudiation of Joe Biden than it was for earlier Presidents who saw much greater losses!

Hurricane Ian Reminds Us Of Climate Change, And Momentarily Unites Americans!

Ronald 2 Comments

The disaster of Hurricane Ian, a massive, historic hurricane hitting the west coast of Florida as I write, is an excellent reminder of Climate Change, even though Republicans continue to deny it, and work against finding solutions.

This author and blogger lives on the east coast of Florida in Boca Raton, and we have been spared the direct hit, but it is pure luck and coincidence, and anyone living in Florida has to face the reality of the dangers of hurricanes and climate change!

The damage that will be wrought by this monster hurricane, with more than 150 MPH winds and massive flooding, will require cooperation between the state government of Florida, under Ron DeSantis, and the Democratic Presidency of Joe Biden.

DeSantis will have to stop partisanship and acknowledge federal help, which is already forthcoming, and it seems already is acting appropriately, appreciative that Biden is having no limits in what he will promote for the survival and stability of millions of people!

But the issue of hurricanes will not go away, even after this tragedy, and it is time for politicians to stop their games of climate change denial, and acknowledge climate change is real and getting worse by the year, and cooperate to cope with it in the next decades, as the situation will not improve without willingness to overcome party politics!

Republican And Conservative Advantage In House, Senate, Electoral College System, Despite Popular Vote Advantage For Democrats

Ronald 1 Comment

The American political system is in bad straits, in what seems like a losing battle for popular vote to determine who runs our government.

The system has become stacked to favor Republicans and conservatives.

Republican legislatures in many states promote gerrymandering, which hurts Democrats massively, not only in the state governments, but also in setting up House of Representatives seats. An example is Florida, which used to have four Congressional seats that favored African American representation, but now has been halved to two such districts.

Fewer people regularly vote nationally for Republicans, but they have near to a majority even before the election in 2022 for the House of Representatives, and it is likely they will control the lower house of Congress despite having fewer total popular votes nationally.

Also, the US Senate has a situation in which Republican Senators, presently half the Senate, are elected by a population of about about 142 million Americans, while Democrats, presently the other half of the Senate, are elected by a population of about 184 million Americans!

So 60 percent of the nation’s population is being underrepresented, while 40 percent is overrepresented.

The idea that Wyoming has two US Senators with only about 600,000 people, while California with nearly 40 million peoples has two US Senators, is an abomination, but simply has evolved that way over time, so the US Senate is anti democracy to the extreme!

Additionally, the Electoral College favors the small, mostly Republican states, this despite the Democrats winning the national popular vote seven of the last eight Presidential elections, from 1992 through 2020, with the one exception of 2004!

So the idea of democracy is under attack, and the right wing Federalist Society has managed to “fix” the Supreme Court, with a strong 6-3 margin, with only Chief Justice John Roberts able to be considered, most of the time, as “moderate”.

So a constitutional crisis exists, with white supremacists working to insure that American democracy fails completely as we reach the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 2026!