What do you think about with current News and Opinions?

Tweety, BSN, RN · Apr 23, 2022

17 hours ago, Beerman said:

Maybe this is what you're thinking of? But, the FL Supreme Court clearly didn't act the way you're remembering it, according to this article.

"— In a 5-0 ruling with two justices recused, the Florida Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a request by Gov. Ron DeSantis to provide advice on the legality of changing the configuration of a North Florida congressional district held by U.S. Rep. Al Lawson, a Black Democrat.

The decision now puts the pressure on the Florida House, which has delayed completion of its congressional map awaiting the court’s decision.

The House must decide whether to take the approach of the Senate and leave Congressional District 5, which stretches from Tallahassee to Jacksonville to link Black communities, as it is, or adopt the governor’s approach and dismantle it, creating a Jacksonville-based district instead."

https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida-politics/2022/02/10/florida-high-court-refuses-desantis-request-on-redistricting/

I'm talking about how my neighborhood was gerrymandered out of town to another county across Tampa Bay. In 2015 the Florida Supreme Court put us back in St. Petersburg which did have the effect of getting Crist, a Democrat, elected to congress. Now putting us back in the other county will get a Republican in. I'm not understanding why he would do this when it was already deemed by the Florida Supreme Court to be wrong.

The state was Republican lead at the time. It was the courts that created a Democrat seat. Clearly the Republicans want it back.

I will admit that is the part that stuck out at me personally about DeSantis's plan and I'll have to look into it further. For me personally it still means that the district I've been rezoned into (or back into) will have a Democrat representative.

Quote

It was the Florida Supreme Court’s dramatic decision to order major changes in eight of Florida’s gerrymandered Congressional Districts. Among them are the 13th, lying exclusively within Pinellas County, and the adjacent 14th, which combines a mainly Democratic and black part of that county with a much larger and predominantly Democratic population in Hillsborough.

However they are redrawn, said the court, neither district can cross Tampa Bay — a nod to the compactness factor prescribed by the anti-gerrymandering initiatives voters overwhelmingly approved five years ago.

In practical terms, that means moving nearly 47,000 Pinellas voters back home to District 13, and as some 38,000 are registered Democrats, there goes the district’s narrow Republican advantage. It’s no longer particularly friendly to GOP incumbent David Jolly, and it’s made to order for a certain lifelong resident and fairly recent Democrat named Charlie Crist.

https://floridapolitics.com/archives/186489-martin-dyckman-redistricting-irony-the-resurrection-of-charlie-crist/

Tweety, BSN, RN · Apr 23, 2022

On 4/21/2022 at 11:02 AM, toomuchbaloney said:

Do you think that people who support Trump or Trumpian politics, rhetoric or narratives are thinking clearly with the wellbeing of our republic as their top priority? I don't.

I actually do. This is why they carry the American Flag as their primary symbol and call themselves patriots. They love this country as much as all of us do. Obviously it's my opinion that they are a bit off path in some areas.

Tweety, BSN, RN · Apr 23, 2022

On 4/22/2022 at 9:33 AM, Beerman said:

Did Chick Fil A get political, or did people get political with them? What I remember is people boycotting them over charities they gave to.

Still, I would agree, he went a little overboard with Disney. In the end they both are going to come out OK. Disney is raking in the dough, and they aren't going anywhere despite DeSantis not keeping the peace.

Of course his base is important, but to say he doesn't give a crap about anyone else is maybe a little strong. Most of the big tourist areas are heavy Democratic territory. They definitely benefitted from him keeping FL's economy open, as did the entire state. And, what politician doesn't heavily favor his base over others?

You'll have to show me where the Supreme Court has ruled against his redistricting plan. Your article says that Democrats say it's unconstitutional. Not the Supreme Court.

I put in the post above about what the Florida Supreme Court did to my neighborhood.

I agree that the statement I made is a bit strong. Really he's only performing exactly as I expected a man who played "build that wall" with his toddler in his campaign ads. In a state with 20 million people and a 1.2 trillion dollar economy he is a powerful man and seems to know how to use it.

Disney Orlando opened up almost a year before Disney in California opened and clearly benefited from DeSantis doing this. Disney has been an LBGT friendly employer, makes a ton of money on "Gay Days", with legalization of gay marriage many couples are honeymooning there, and it's a destination for gay people with children. They could have just let it be and not said anything and that would have been okay. But when they did, DeSantis could have made a statement against it and took it on the chin, instead of "taking them on". He's always been good at handling criticism without going into a culture war. Now Fox News is interviewing straight people saying how wrong Disney is, and how they won't be going to Disney. But at the end of the day Disney will be fine as it is so beloved.

My employer is based in Orlando and participates in Pride, has non-discrimination policies mentioning gay and trans people, it features gay members during Pride on their homepage and social media but they stayed silent about this. Disney could have done the same.

I guess it could be argued that Chick-fil A's anti-LBGTQ controversies are just them doing charity work or it's political. Gray line I suppose. But again, it hasn't hurt them a bit. In fact they enjoy great customer loyalty, great worker satisfaction, and high sales.

Beerman, BSN · Apr 23, 2022

30 minutes ago, Tweety said:

I'm talking about how my neighborhood was gerrymandered out of town to another county across Tampa Bay. In 2015 the Florida Supreme Court put us back in St. Petersburg which did have the effect of getting Crist, a Democrat, elected to congress. Now putting us back in the other county will get a Republican in. I'm not understanding why he would do this when it was already deemed by the Florida Supreme Court to be wrong.

The state was Republican lead at the time. It was the courts that created a Democrat seat. Clearly the Republicans want it back.

I will admit that is the part that stuck out at me personally about DeSantis's plan and I'll have to look into it further. For me personally it still means that the district I've been rezoned into (or back into) will have a Democrat representative.

https://floridapolitics.com/archives/186489-martin-dyckman-redistricting-irony-the-resurrection-of-charlie-crist/

Thanks for the clarification. I did read another article about the 2015 decision. To me it sounded like the court had a problem many districts and so they were redrawn. I didn't get that there was anything preventing redistricting in the future. It sounds confusing, though.

Both sides do it, and I believe most Americans who are paying attention get frustrated by it. If I was in your place with what's happening now with your district, I'd be angry.

Anyway, it looks like you'll get to choose between Crist and DeSantis. That's be easy for me...LOL. But what about you?

Tweety, BSN, RN · Apr 23, 2022

10 hours ago, Beerman said:

Here is a few examples from the textbooks FL rejected:

https://www.fldoe.org/academics/standards/instructional-materials/

I also Googled the Implicit Association Test the one text book was using as a source for the graphs in the first two examples. Here's what I found about that.

https://www.vox.com/identities/2017/3/7/14637626/implicit-association-test-racism

It's pretty clear the publishers have an agenda. Good for FL for fighting back.

Maybe it needs to be scraped because it's not an effective way of measuring racial bias, but I'm not sure it's indoctrinating children and teaching CRT.

Tweety, BSN, RN · Apr 23, 2022

2 minutes ago, Beerman said:

Anyway, it looks like you'll get to choose between Crist and DeSantis. That's be easy for me...LOL. But what about you?

I think we've had this discussion before. LOL

Crist was a Republican, but too moderate for Florida and got shamed for taking Obama's stimulus package when he was governor at a time millions were being thrown out of work. So much so he ran as an independent trying to ride both sides of the fence and lost, and now is a Democrat. As a prior loser I wish someone else had stepped up, but I do like him for not being an extremist. He currently represents me in congress and I'll certainly be voting for him.

I'm used to being on the losing end of things here. I remember one recent election 8 of the 10 things I voted for lost. LOL

Beerman, BSN · Apr 23, 2022

7 minutes ago, Tweety said:

Maybe it needs to be scraped because it's not an effective way of measuring racial bias, but I'm not sure it's indoctrinating children and teaching CRT.

I'm not that interested if it meets the definition of CRT or not.

The textbook is including examples of false data that say if one is a conservative that they are likely a racist. And this to children who for the most part don't know too much about political ideologies or what liberals and conservatives are.

To me, that's pretty clear that is indoctrination.

My stepson has been out of school for quite sometime. So, I don't know firsthand about what's going on. But over the past few years I've heard folks call in to talk radio and news stories. You can Google "indoctrination in schools" and see examples. And, then this in MATH textbooks.

This should be a big concern to all of us.

Beerman, BSN · Apr 23, 2022

10 minutes ago, Tweety said:

I think we've had this discussion before. LOL

Crist was a Republican, but too moderate for Florida and got shamed for taking Obama's stimulus package when he was governor at a time millions were being thrown out of work. So much so he ran as an independent trying to ride both sides of the fence and lost, and now is a Democrat. As a prior loser I wish someone else had stepped up, but I do like him for not being an extremist. He currently represents me in congress and I'll certainly be voting for him.

I'm used to being on the losing end of things here. I remember one recent election 8 of the 10 things I voted for lost. LOL

Sounds like your voting for him, rather than voting against DeSantis. Even if he loses, that's something these days...LOL.

Tweety, BSN, RN · Apr 23, 2022

12 minutes ago, Beerman said:

Sounds like your voting for him, rather than voting against DeSantis. Even if he loses, that's something these days...LOL.

I suppose you can say that.

He's done some good things for Florida businesses and I certainly enjoyed him reopening the economy before much of the rest of the country (and glad I wasn't part of the tens of thousands of people hospitalized afterwards...sigh). He benefits from a growth state having a high tax base that's growing. While he's gone after textbooks he's raised salaries for teachers. He's not necessarily a conservative spender. He's had some good environmental policies. His being about "parental choice" really is him fulfilling a campaign promise.

But I will tell you, people here aren't all that bothered by such stuff. Rents in my city have gone of 26% his past year. My homeowners insurance went up $900 this past year. Critical race theory and a culture war with Disney are making headlines but very low on my list of concerns.

Covid cases are going up again, but that's not really a concern here. LOL

Beerman, BSN · Apr 23, 2022

1 hour ago, Tweety said:

I actually do. This is why they carry the American Flag as their primary symbol and call themselves patriots. They love this country as much as all of us do. Obviously it's my opinion that they are a bit off path in some areas.

It's quite easy for those who reside closer to the middle but lean heavily one way or another, to understand or at least try to see perspectives of those we disagree with.

Of course, that takes a lot more effort and brain power than just throwing stones.

Guests · Apr 23, 2022

1 hour ago, Tweety said:

I actually do. This is why they carry the American Flag as their primary symbol and call themselves patriots. They love this country as much as all of us do. Obviously it's my opinion that they are a bit off path in some areas.

But I didn't ask if they felt patriotic or love their country. Using a national flag as a symbol is not evidence of patriotism, love of country or clear thinking.

Do you think that nationalists (some of them white nationalists) have co-opted some of our symbols of patriotism? I do.

Guests · Apr 23, 2022

1 hour ago, Beerman said:

It's quite easy for those who reside closer to the middle but lean heavily one way or another, to understand or at least try to see perspectives of those we disagree with.

Of course, that takes a lot more effort and brain power than just throwing stones.

No kidding.

Do you think that there's much middle of the spectrum ideology expressed in current republican politics today? Do you think that there are very many influential national republicans who are considered moderates? Some political analysts believe that Trump represented a distinct step to the right and the result has been a loss of moderate voices in the Republican party. I think that the evidence supports that.