The peninsula’s known for its palm trees and isles,
And sun-kissed sandy beaches that go on for miles.
But when the polar vortex hits Florida
You’ve got to beware of iguanas,
‘Cause when the temperature drops, it starts raining reptiles.
A new University of North Florida poll in Florida finds Donald Trump leading Joe Biden, 47% to 45% among likely voters. About 4% said another candidate, 2% said they do not plan on voting, and 3% said they do not know, or refused to answer.
“In America today‚ 2024, women have fewer rights than their mothers or their grandmothers had, because of Donald Trump. I don’t think we’re going to let him get away with it, do you?”
— President Biden at a campaign stop in Tampa, reported by Tampa Bay Times.
The Guardian: “By almost every measure, the rightwinger has had another lackluster week on the campaign trail, with ‘clumsy’ missteps in New Hampshire, Texas, California and New York. Now, barely one month after his glitch-ridden launch on Twitter, DeSantis finds himself sinking in the polls, closer to the large field of optimists below him than the twice-indicted, twice-impeached former president who retains a stranglehold over the Republican party.
“‘The more voters learn about him, the less they can stomach the idea of him running the country,’ the online magazine Jezebel concluded.”
“Governor Ron DeSantis is a job killing moron who cares more about his own political ambitions and culture wars than Florida and our future. According to him, ‘woke makes you go broke’ but this is another example of how it’s actually the complete opposite. DeSantis is not who you want for President — ever.”
— Fla. Rep. Anna Eskamani (D – Dist. 42) reacting to the news that Disney will pull a $17 billion project out of her district. The decision was announced amid ongoing attacks from Fla. Gov. Ron DeSantis after Disney objected to the “Don’t Say Gay” law, which punishes any acknowledgement of nonheterosexual orientation in public schools.
Watching Ron DeSantis’ belly flop onto the empty concrete of the proverbially empty pool has been astonishing. It is very very rare to see a loss of 30 points. There hasn’t been a debate. The campaign hasn’t effectively started, and he’s collapsed under the weight of his disorder personality.
The newspapers are filled with stories. Ron DeSantis doesn’t like to talk to people. Ron DeSantis doesn’t like to make phone calls. Marco Rubio talked about the fact in the Wall Street Journal story that details the 30 point point collapse that he hasn’t talked to the governor of his state in months…
Not only does Trump have a score of congressional endorsements a few months later, while his behavior has become more outrageous, more dangerous and more unhnged. eight of those congressional endorsements are from the state of Florida.
Ron DeSantis just isn’t ready for prime time. He has no path to a comeback. He’s an extremely poor debater. It’s over.
A 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.
Politico.com: “[California Gov. Gavin] Newsom sat down with [MSNBC’s Jen] Psaki in Alabama, while on a tour of Republican-led states including Arkansas and Mississippi. Newsom recently announced the launch of a new political action committee called Campaign for Democracy, aimed at calling out red state policies and ‘authoritarian leaders.’
“With Psaki, he lit into DeSantis, a frequent target of his ire who is expected to announce a run for the Republican presidential nomination at the close of Florida’s legislative calendar.
“‘[He’s] scared to death, scared of the people, scared of the public,’ Newsom said. ‘I think the majority of NRA members probably oppose that position.’”
“Dirty French Steakhouse?”The new chair of the Florida Democratic Party is fearless. Nikki Fried was the only Dem in the cabinet of Ron DeSantis because Floridians elected her as our agriculture secretary and he couldn’t do anything about it. But she opted to run in the primary leading up to the 2022 gubernatorial election and lost because our team was so afraid of DeSantis winning a second term that they made the utterly wrong calculation that former governor, former Republican, former U.S. Representative Charlie Crist was the safer bet.
I knew Fried had what it would take to beat DeSantis. Unfortunately, you can’t go full nuclear on a fellow “Democrat” in a primary so Crist won on name recognition and voter laziness. DeSantis went on to take 59.4 percent of the vote, in an election with 53.6 percent turnout, or the votes of 4.6 million people in a state with 22.2 million people. But DeSantis touts his “landslide” victory and since it makes a better story, the press goes along with it and it becomes accepted fact.
But we still have Fried and she is not sleeping on retiring Ron DeSantis.
Musk started it, saying Trump’s bill was a “disgusting abomination.”
Trump responded, targeting Musk’s government contracts for termination.
So Musk threatens Trump with impeachment,
Then Trump mulls Musk’s deportation and banishment.
We hope it ends with a duel to the death, broadcast to a grateful nation.
“As is so often the case, Donald Trump’s opponents are playing into his hands. This is exactly the kind of fight that Donald Trump loves, with his opponents carrying Mexican flags past burning cars.”
“Don’t kid yourself they know they are absolutely getting cooked politically with their terrible bill and rising prices, and they want to create a violent spectacle to feed their content machine. It’s time for the mainstream media to describe this authoritarian madness accurately.”
— Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI), reacting on X to President Trump sending National Guard troops to Los Angeles.
“The people have spoken. A new political party is needed in America to represent the 80% in the middle! And exactly 80% of people agree. This is fate.”
— Elon Musk floated a new political party on Friday after falling out with President Trump over the big, beautiful bill, The Hill reports. He followed up with a potential name for the group, “The America Party.”
“The BBB will increase by orders of magnitude the scope, scale and speed of removing illegal and criminal aliens from the United States. For that reason alone, it’s the most essential piece of legislation currently under consideration in the entire Western World, in generations.”
— Trump aide Stephen Miller, on X, defending the Republican budget bill after Elon Musk called it a “disgusting abomination.”
As the Senate debates the GOP tax and spending bill titled One Big Beautiful Bill Act and President Donald Trump pushes for a July 4 deadline to sign it, a new Quinnipiac poll finds voters overwhelmingly oppose the legislation, 53% to 27%, with 20% not offering an opinion.
A new YouGov poll finds that President Trump’s deployment of Marines to Los Angeles is deeply unpopular, with a 47 percent disapproval mark, compared with 34 percent who approve. Dispatching the National Guard isn’t much better: 45 percent disapprove and 38 percent approve.
After persistent questioning about the cost of sending National Guard members and Marines to Los Angeles in response to protests over immigration raids, Hegseth turned to his acting comptroller, Bryn Woollacott MacDonnell, who said it would cost $134 million, the Associated Press reports.
Eight states, including Florida and Tennessee, have introduced or passed legislation to ban planes from emitting “chemtrails” to poison Americans or control the weather, The Guardian reports. Of course, there’s no credible evidence that this is even happening.
A new KFF Health poll finds that more than 70% of Americans are worried about the impact of Medicaid cuts in the bill leading to more people uninsured and hurting hospitals.