11-09-2022, 10:22 PM
(11-09-2022, 07:14 PM)Eric the Green Wrote:(10-08-2022, 12:56 PM)pbrower2a Wrote: I'm cheering for some blizzards here in Michigan. Agriculture is the #2 business here in Michigan, and farmers need blizzards to supply and protect groundwater. If I married some rich widow who has a second home in Florida I would be leery of going to Florida in September and October. My pretext would be to see the beautiful fall foliage in Michigan.
Blizzards aren't fun, but if you wimp out because of them there is a spelling for relief. F-L-O-R-I-D-A. I can't run as fast as I used to, and I certainly don't want to get caught in my car in floodwaters. December to early April... Florida is OK.
Florida? A place that votes 17-20% margins for looney culture warriors and covid and election deniers is not the place to go or live for anyone but fools. And they are voting for the hurricanes that hit them over and over again, and they never learn. And older white people like the lady in the picture you posted above are the most likely to vote for what she experienced. Did she learn, and vote Democratic? Probably not. The new Hurricane Nicole is one of only two in recorded history that have happened this late in the season. Will Floridians learn? Not on your life. They'd rather drown than vote for the Party that can reduce these disasters by boosting renewable energy and electric cars (or even more nuclear power; something needs to be done to reduce greenhouse has emissions!). They'd rather vote to prohibit people from saying "gay" or reading about their history. Shame on Florida. God damn Florida. May it sink into the sea.
Florida is politically rotten. It is effectively a dictatorship now due to a political machine that has made opposition irrelevant.
Florida is the state in which rigid enforcement of environmental laws, including those against the importation of giant snakes, is most important. This state, which has resisted oil refineries to protect its beaches (tough luck, Floridians -- you will need to sacrifice some beaches if you want some modestly-priced gasoline) has political leaders who have sold out to the fossil fuel interests and the electrical power monopoly. If one does generate electricity through solar power, then one must effectively pay a tax to the electric company for the lost revenue.
Academic freedom is nearly as shattered in Florida as in its neighbor to the South (Cuba), if for different reasons. If you teach any social study (especially economics) in a public university, then the Koch syndicate has dictated what is permissible. All hail Lord Mammon!
De Santis practically has a Trump-like or Castro-like cult of personality behind him. He has his "Florida Way of Things" to offer to the USA as a whole. Should that succeed, then I hope that Michigan secedes and joins Canada.
Michiganders have long gone to Florida to escape the bleak winters and nasty blizzards. The problem with Florida is in part snakes that are now eating alligators. Alligators at least have a healthy fear of us. Pythons and boas have no such fear. (Thank you, Marco Rubio, whose family was involved in the importation of exotic animals!)
I'd rather go to Costa Rica, anyway.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.