Florida

Who Needs DEI?

Featured image Black college athletes do, according to the NAACP. The NAACP is urging black athletes not to go to college in Florida: The NAACP asked Black student-athletes to reconsider their decisions to attend public colleges and universities in the state of Florida, in response to the University of Florida and other state schools recently eliminating their diversity, equity and inclusion programs. In a letter sent to NCAA president Charlie Baker and »

Red States Getting Redder

Featured image The Great Sort is under way, as normal people move to red states and liberals move to blue states. (That last is hypothetical and hasn’t actually been observed.) When massive numbers began leaving blue states like California and New York for red states like Texas and Florida, many conservatives worried that those blue staters might bring their bad voting habits with them. Happily, that doesn’t seem to have happened. This »

The Pangloss-Pétain Governor

Featured image In his debate with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, California Gov. Gavin Newsom claimed, “We’ve already established that more people are moving from Florida to California.” That caught the attention of Lee Ohanian, research fellow at the Independent Institute, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, and professor of economics at UCLA. “The rate of California’s population outflow to Florida has in fact accelerated,” professor Ohanian explains. “In 2022, California had a »

Left-Wing Professors Leaving Florida

Featured image Under Ron DeSantis’s leadership, Florida has attained the enviable status of the state that liberals most like to hate, and to denigrate irrationally. Thus it is no surprise to see this headline: Pro-woke professors leave Florida universities in protest. The Tampa Bay Times reported on a July meeting of the Florida Board of Governors. During the meeting, a number of professors expressed concern about the political climate in Florida. Professors »

At WaPo, an Epic Blunder

Featured image Jennifer Rubin is a left-wing columnist for the Washington Post. So, naturally, she hates Ron DeSantis. On Friday, she published a column arguing that DeSantis’s conservative policies endanger Florida’s economy. The headline was, “Florida might pay for MAGA cruelty and know-nothingism.” Just another objective day at the office at WaPo! Unfortunately, her entire column was based on a grotesque factual error. The Washington Post has had to post a correction »

NAACP, the Embodiment of Inept Hypocrisy

Featured image The NAACP has been a worthless organization for a long time, but its latest DNC-echoing attack on the State of Florida–it issued a “travel advisory”–may represent a new low: "Under the leadership of Governor Desantis, the state of Florida has become hostile to Black Americans and in direct conflict with the democratic ideals that our union was founded upon." — NAACP President and CEO @DerrickNAACP Take a stand with us. »

The Anti-DeSantis Emerges

Featured image A dark horse candidate for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination has been identified: Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. If that sounds far-fetched, consider this Daily Beast puff piece: “Minnesota’s Gov. Tim Walz Is the Anti-DeSantis. Dems Should Take Note.” It is actually true that Walz is the anti-DeSantis. His policies are the negative image of Florida’s governor’s. But you would have to be deeply delusional to think that the comparison is »

Trump Has Got to Stop This if He Wants to Win

Featured image Donald Trump was a great president. Despite the relentless pursuit by members of a deep state determined to remove him from office, he accomplished a great deal in four years. To name just a few of those achievements: His tax cuts and focus on deregulation triggered an economic boom. He reshaped the judiciary, made America energy independent, strengthened our military, secured our border, and stood up to China. I voted »

Trump Is Rattled

Featured image A lot of our loyal readers, who we greatly value, insist on saying we are a nest of Never Trumpers. I deny it. I won’t go through the complete case now, because it would be long and tedious—and wouldn’t convince anyone dug in on the theme. For the record: I have stated recently that Trump might well be the best GOP candidate in 2024. I have doubts he can win »

Florida vs. New York

Featured image As states increasingly segregate into red and blue, California, New York, Texas and Florida are the heavyweight contenders. (Although, don’t forget poor Illinois.) A year ago I had the good fortune to hear Governor Ron DeSantis give a speech to a Minnesota group in Naples, Florida. DeSantis said something that I thought couldn’t possibly be correct: that Florida has more people than New York, with a state budget only half »

The Great Sort Continues

Featured image Americans are sorting themselves into red and blue states. To be fair, though, the sort is mostly a one-way street: millions are leaving failing blue states and flocking to Florida, Texas, Tennessee, South Carolina, South Dakota, etc. As this realignment of population continues, states seem to be doubling down. California and New York edge farther to the left, while in Minnesota, my state, Democrats are proposing to increase personal income »

DeSantis Marches On

Featured image Governor Ron DeSantis had a busy day yesterday. He followed through on last year’s legislation that ended the Disney Corporation’s unique self-governing status through the Reedy Creek Improvement District. The Orlando Sentinel reports: A notice published on Osceola County’s website on Friday states that lawmakers will take up legislation “increasing state oversight, accountability, and transparency” of the district, which gives Disney quasi-government control over its theme park properties in Florida. »

The Good, and the Bad and Ugly

Featured image First, the bad and ugly: the House adjourned today with no speaker for the first time in a century. Nineteen Republican spoilers have prevented Kevin McCarthy from taking the gavel. Reportedly, some of the dissident Republicans have told McCarthy that they don’t mind if far-left Democrat Hakeem Jeffries becomes Speaker. I don’t want to believe that, but there are some conservatives who are only comfortable as outsiders and who shun »

Ramble on, Joe

Featured image I try to maintain a sense of humor and keep things light when documenting Joe Biden’s ruminations and dementia. I find that hard to do with respect to his remarks at a reception for gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist at a private residence in Golden Beach, Florida yesterday. The White House has posted the transcript here. I will only say that Biden’s remarks comprise an almost nonstop flood of lies. They »

Vaccines Today, Vaccines Tomorrow, Vaccines Forever!

Featured image Yesterday the out-of-control Centers for Disease Control’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted 15-0 to add the Covid-19 vaccine to the CDC’s child and adolescent immunization schedule. I don’t think there is any scientific basis for this action. Covid has proved not to be dangerous to children and young people; certainly not to infants who are routinely undergoing vaccination. For reasons I frankly do not understand, our establishment has resolved »

Delusion In Florida

Featured image I saw an interview with Robert Cahaly, who runs the Trafalgar polling operation, the other day. (It may have been off a Power Line link.) As I recall, he said that he isn’t polling in Florida because he doesn’t think there are any serious races there. I agree. For a time, Democrats believed, or pretended to believe, that retread party-switcher Charlie Crist could seriously challenge Ron DeSantis. In my opinion, »

The DeSantis factor

Featured image Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is one of those “MAGA Republicans” President Biden was talking about in his Triumph of the Shill speech last week. He all but accuses “MAGA Republicans” of treason. The FBI must be on our case. And yet Governor DeSantis has some serious bragging to do about his accomplishments in office over the past four years (video below). In the advertisement below he lets constituents do the »