Ron Versus Debby

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis prepares for the storm. (Pensito Illustration)

Today Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis issued Executive Order 24-176, placing 54 Florida counties under a state of emergency, including Hillsborough County, where I live. A tropical wave, named Invest 97L, could become Tropical Storm Debby over the next 36 to 48 hours and veer up Florida’s Gulf Coast.

Gov. Ron is grandstanding (again). He’s trying to deflect attention away from his latest embarrassing “Stop Woke” loss in federal court and the growing media focus on his cruel and cynical mini-Project 2025 experiments on the Free State of Florida.

As a native Floridian and veteran of numerous storms, it seems to me to be a bit premature to start pulling on the white high-heeled shrimp boots, but I think Ron’s afraid of getting caught unprepared for what looks to be a rather large, wet, but (hopefully) not awful storm.

And it’s easier to declare a nearly statewide state of emergency than it is to head off a double-digit rate hike by Citizens Property Insurance, the state’s insurer of last resort for over 1.2 million policies.

Thanks, Ron. I almost forgot about all the book banning and climate change–denying you are doing for five seconds.

Off to the liquor store for hurricane supplies …

Three Travel Advisories are in Effect for Florida Because of Its War on “Woke”

The Legislature Continues to Focus on Issues Gov. DeSantis Can Boast About on the Campaign Trail

Equality Florida logoA third travel advisory has been issued for Florida. Equality Florida, the state’s largest organization devoted to fighting discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender idenity, is warning not to visit or relocate to Florida. The group joins The Florida Immigrant Coalition and state chapters of the NAACP in the same message:

Don’t come to Florida

The move comes in response to…the passage of laws that are hostile to the LGBTQ community, restrict access to reproductive health care, repeal gun safety laws, foment racial prejudice, and attack public education by banning books and censoring curriculum.

Florida’s legislature continues to churn out culture war laws devised by Gov. Ron DeSantis. One source from within the body even told a Politico Florida reporter that the governor’s office must sign off on any changes to bills as they work through the legislature.

Florida’s elected Republicans find themselves ignoring serious problems like a crisis in homeowners insurance that is causing Florida residents to sell their homes. They have also produced no bills dealing with climate change even as the Fort Lauderdale airport had to be shut down from torrential rain and flooding. Instead, they focus on issues that Ron DeSantis wants to be able to boast about in his primary challenge to disgraced former Pres. Trump.