So what’s new in DuhSantistan?

What's great for Dems in the current political battles with the Trumpers is that the latter is so dialed into right wing conspiracy theories they can't see reality anymore. They think 95% of America agrees with them when the real number is 30-35% and they only lose because of cheating, none of which anyone can prove.

 

Florida elections officials quietly made it easier for Ron DeSantis to fund his 2024 bid

 

So they waited until 2023 to change the rules based on a 2010 court decision. Yeah, that makes sense. Florida is under a dictator at this point that just changes rules to whatever the f he wants. DT should file suit to challenge this, he has to be good for something

 

Sam hits the nail on the head.

 

PolitiFact - Ron DeSantis said that not ‘a single book’ was banned in Florida. Districts have removed dozens.

 

Story in the WaPo about teachers in Hernando County. I love this quote:

Meanwhile, Alyssa Marano, a math teacher who has resigned, rejected the oft-heard charge of LGBTQ indoctrination of students. “No one is teaching your kids to be gay,” she told the room. “Sometimes, they just are gay. I have math to teach. I literally don’t have time to teach your kids to be gay.”

DeSantis is going to destroy public education in Florida. Good luck finding new teachers next year to fill all the vacancies.

Nearly 50 teachers are reportedly planning to resign in this school district. Lisa Masserio, president of the teachers union in Hernando County, says state laws and directives restricting educators are a key reason. She told us: “There is increased pressure and scrutiny on an already difficult job.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...-ron-desantis-book-bans-democratic-governors/

 

The Times did a story that omitted so much of that - disappointing. Source greasing. Sometimes you need the out of town paper

Florida education debates rage on as hundreds attend Hernando school board meeting

 

I live in Citrus which is just a stones throw from Hernando county. It’s a complete joke to see this happening, and the fact that the ding dongs on the right can’t seem to understand that being gay is not a choice, but is biological.

 

Ron DeSantis loses his temper with a reporter: 'Are you blind?' (msn.com)

DeSantis, who delivered his stock stump speech to an audience of more than 100 people at a Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Laconia, became noticeably agitated when Steve Peoples of the Associated Press asked why he wasn’t taking questions from the audience like most presidential candidates do in this state.
"People are coming up to me, talking to me," DeSantis said. “What are you talking about? Are you blind? Are you blind? People are coming up to me, talking to me whatever they want to talk to me about.”

At the time, DeSantis was shaking hands and taking pictures with individual members of the crowd on his way out of the VFW hall. But he did not answer questions from his lectern so that voters could all hear his answers at once.
..............
“There weren’t questions or any interactivity with the audience,” said Vikram Mansharamani, who ran an unsuccessful campaign for the GOP Senate nomination last year. “We like to hear from candidates and we have questions of our own [as] citizens here in the state.”

Mansharamani praised DeSantis for tackling topics of interest to voters, but — shown the video of the Florida governor after the speech — he said it’s not what he wanted to see.“I find that very disappointing,” he said.

 

It's terrifying to think of the teachers they will be hiring to replace the good ones we will be losing or will not come to this state.

 

Translation: "We had nonrefundable hotel and flight reservations."

Here's a piece she wrote for NewsMax. Not just your random AA on vacay.

"When my husband and I booked our hotel and flights months ago, we did not anticipate flying right into the epicenter of danger for people like us."

https://www.newsmax.com/patriceleeonwuka/gillum-clickbait-hypocrisy/2023/06/01/id/1121973/

 

Jacobin with a piece about lower returns from Florida's pension funds and directing investments to donor firms. Not sure they have made the case yet. I see some holes. But worth following to see if other journalists pick up

 

No, he is not.............for anything.

 

Good thing we are beating down that woke culture while our insurance rates skyrocket. higher insurance rates drive down home prices which drives down property tax income

Florida’s homeowner insurance rates are four times the national average. That’s not getting better anytime soon (msn.com)

Hurricane season officially starts Thursday. But no matter how many storms hit Florida this year, the state’s residents are already struggling as they try to get homeowners’ insurance. National insurers have very little presence in Florida. Big insurance companies dominate more than half the market in the rest of the country. But in Florida, State Farm has about 7% of the market, according to the Insurance Information Institute, an industry trade group. No other major insurer has as much as 2%.

Meanwhile, the regional and local insurers left to provide coverage are in bad shape. Just more than half of insurers based in Florida are on the state insurance regulator’s watch list due to their financial health. Six were forced to liquidate last year, another one earlier this year. And to try to stay solvent, the remaining insurers are charging rates nearly four times as high as the national average. Homeowners in the state pay private insurers about $6,000 a year, compared to a national average of $1,700.
..............
And with affordable insurance from private insurers becoming tougher and tougher to find, more and more Florida homeowners are turning to Citizens. It now has 1.3 million policies, about 16% of the market, and it’s growing at a rate of about 3,000 policies a month. The number of policies is up nearly 50% from this time last year. And that itself poses a huge risk for the market.

The board of Citizens admits that the premiums it charges are not sufficient to cover the risk it has assumed. If one or more major hurricanes come ashore in South Florida’s Atlantic Coast, it could quickly wipe out Citizens’ reserves and force it to impose emergency assessments on not only its policyholders, but other insurance customers across the state. That could mean an additional 45% for current Citizens policyholders, according to III. Even those who don’t have Citizens policies could be hit by a 2% assessment on all their insurance premiums, both home and car, if the financial setback is great enough.

 

I hear the Florida GOP has teacher applications available at Wagner Group headquarters.

 

I just don't see how the Florida real estate market will not experience a serious devaluation soon. Collapse may be too strong a word in the short term, but the market is likely to suffer a severe correction. Correction may also be the wrong word. It just seems like it's going to be cost prohibitive to insure the risk in the state with windstorms and dense coastal living.