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spenser1058

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1 hour ago, orlandoguy said:


Spenser, did you stop by and shake Mayor Pete’s hand?

I did attend briefly but didn’t stay to hang out with Mayor Pete. It’s going to be a fun campaign, though, and I hope he does well - it’s good to be excited about a presidential candidate again!

20 PETE 20

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This is a definitely wonkish breakdown of electoral trends in Florida:

https://www.sayfiereview.com/page/Who and Where are Floridas Democrats and Republicans

From Sayfie Review

A couple of caveats: the article notes, contrary to conventional wisdom (especially from non-Floridians) that seniors are NOT the state’s largest cohort of voters. 

While that’s correct, it’s also true they are the group most likely to show up at the polls on Election Day (or beforehand via early voting and especially absentee ballots).

It’s also true that the breakdown of older voters indicates a pretty even split between Democrats and Republicans among older voters. The disconnect that has occurred for Democrats is that the newest wave of retirees moving into the state to places like The Villages has a disproportionate Tepublican skew.

That’s why when Democrats are sometimes noted as confident prior to Election Day, they get a rude awakening as the latest wave of newcomers most likely to vote (and with the least amount of friction by governmental efforts to keep them from voting) are Republican retirees.

Just as in Texas, however, the urban areas of the state are becoming an ever darker hue of blue while the newly built exurban areas tend to be very red. 

Interestingly, several closer-in suburban counties like Seminole and Polk are becoming more purple while coastal counties like Paso, Brevard, Volusia, Flagler and St John’s are moving further into the red zone (again thanks to an influx of retirees).

 

 

Edited by spenser1058
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Rolling Stone looks at the effort to bring recreational marijuana to Florida, featuring John #PotDaddy Morgan!

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/marijuana-weed-florida-legalization-ballot-initiative-2020-872703/amp/

Note to Rolling Stone: with all the English majors out there desperate for work, is it really hard to proof articles?  Florida, btw, has 67 counties, not 27...

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Marion Hammer, NRA  lobbyist in Tallahassee and the bete noir of Florida is politics, says that it would be unfair to take away the assault rifle a 10-year old girl got for her birthday (wrapped with a pink bow, of course).

What’s sad is I’m not making this up. THIS is the NRA!

https://www.newsweek.com/nra-says-new-florida-law-would-take-away-rifles-10-year-old-little-girls-their-birthdays-1454841?amp=1

From Newsweek 

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We’ve been talking about when the next recession will arrive. It’s probably a good idea to post how iffy the science of predicting one is.

It’s also worth noting, however, that economists usually err in the other direction and their predictions are often too sunny.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/economists-are-bad-at-predicting-recessions/amp/

From 538

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Control of the Florida Senate in 2020 (and the redistributing process) could all come down to a seat in ever-more-purple Seminole County but it’s still a tough row to hoe for the Democrats:

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/politics/os-ne-seminole-senate-race-democrats-20190822-mkpntsbp2zbudidsr2ueaizcia-story.html

From the Sentinel 

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Here’s a delicious bit of irony: even as Volusia County becomes more Republican (which is wreaking havoc on the northward extension of SunRail), NASCAR, which was founded in Daytona, is parting ways with the NRA (and to say the gun folks aren’t happy is to put it mildly):

https://jalopnik.com/the-nra-is-not-happy-with-nascar-1837961725/amp

From Jalopnik

 

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I’m often asked how I can be so certain of the political leanings of a particular county. Twenty years ago, it was a lot harder to do.

Nowadays, however, it’s not hard at all. Americans have been busy the last couple of decades self-selecting where they live on the basis of their politics. Pollsters will also tell you the fact they are registered as “NPA” (no party affiliation) doesn’t mean much. A couple of questions usually results in an easy determination of how one leans.

Here’s a look at the phenomenon on a national basis:

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1051176

From NBC News

Another thing that is fascinating (not covered in this article) is that research increasingly shows that voters are determining their policy preferences based on the party they most identify with rather than the other way around. That insight is leading to significant changes in how candidates determine which issues to favor with their electorate.

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The latest outrage from Florida’s worst governor in the modern era who was inexplicably sent to the US Senate: it turns out Dear Rick deliberately turn down funding from the federal government for HIV (this was while he was also cutting back environmental funding as algae blooms surged and getting Rich off failed SunPass schemes - he’s nothing if not consistent). The predictable result? Florida rocketed to the top of the list for new HIV infections. Would someone pleas send this carpetbagger back where he came from?

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/sep/11/florida-hiv-rick-scott-republican-governor

From The Guardian

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3 hours ago, spenser1058 said:

The latest outrage from Florida’s worst governor in the modern era who was inexplicably sent to the US Senate: it turns out Dear Rick deliberately turn down funding from the federal government for HIV (this was while he was also cutting back environmental funding as algae blooms surged and getting Rich off failed SunPass schemes - he’s nothing if not consistent). The predictable result? Florida rocketed to the top of the list for new HIV infections. Would someone pleas send this carpetbagger back where he came from?

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/sep/11/florida-hiv-rick-scott-republican-governor

From The Guardian

It's be reported that Scott holds significant interest in Gilead, and might have an financial interest in rejecting this money. After all, you can't sell HIV drugs to people who don't have HIV. 

Unless, of course, it's Gilead's own Truvada, the only PrEP medication currently on the market, which the state will pay for at a rate of $1,300 per patient.

https://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/medicaid-paid-drug-maker-scott-portfolio-hundreds-millions/4WXtMwqiFtVMfVGh3MdqpI/

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8 minutes ago, smileguy said:

It's be reported that Scott holds significant interest in Gilead, and might have an financial interest in rejecting this money. After all, you can't sell HIV drugs to people who don't have HIV. 

Unless, of course, it's Gilead's own Truvada, the only PrEP medication currently on the market, which the state will pay for at a rate of $1,300 per patient.

https://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/medicaid-paid-drug-maker-scott-portfolio-hundreds-millions/4WXtMwqiFtVMfVGh3MdqpI/

I suppose we could make the case that if things got bad enough in Florida it would be easier to convince right-wing legislators to vote for PrEP funding. It gets ridiculously tangled, but everything about this cretin does going back to his healthcare scam days long before he was governor. And yet people keep voting for him. As loyal a Democrat as I am, even I refuse to vote for people playing that fast and loose (case in point, I wanted nothing to do with Rick Singh or “Baggy Pants” Siplin from the get-go).

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Qualifying for Orlando’s mayoral race and city council seats in Districts 4 and 6 concluded today:

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/orange-county/os-ne-city-council-mayor-qualifying-20190913-sldyge622fhari5z5qal5oynsy-story.html

From the Sentinel 

if you think everything in Orlando is just peachy keen, be happy because ain’t nothing going to change based on this slate.

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Winter Park may soon by eclipsed by (I Climbed!) Mount Dora when it comes to Most off the charts local governance. Meanwhile, Sentinel columnist Lauren Ritchie looks into the town’s upcoming charter amendments for this year’s election:

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/opinion/os-op-lauren-ritchie-mount-dora-charter-20190918-srzk25onqnff7d2ffosvnuywka-story.html

If only we had another dozen Laurens covering the local news...

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On 9/11/2019 at 5:16 PM, spenser1058 said:

I suppose we could make the case that if things got bad enough in Florida it would be easier to convince right-wing legislators to vote for PrEP funding.

There was a time when Truvada was recommended for serodiscordant couples and there was no other reason to take it unless you had a high risk of exposure (unsafe practices). Now it seems like everyone and their grandma are being put on PrEP and while we know to keep an eye on liver and kidney function and potential bone loss, I worry about unknown effects which are yet to be determined and I really hope I'm just being overly cautious. Yes Truvada has it's place, but I feel we are becoming too cavalier and blindly pushing it's usage without understanding the changes (if any) NRTIs may be having on our DNA. It's alarming to see non-medical personnel eagerly signing people up for PrEP and cavalierly waving off it's usage as safe when even some MD's who don't specialize in infectious disease can't even answer questions appropriately regarding Truvada's side effects as it is not their specialty. Finding answers is difficult simply because we still don't know the answer and at the moment there is no incentive to question it further (or disclose this to PrEP users).

NRTI.thumb.jpg.7dae67d5d56a2e42d255d936146e5bfa.jpg

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There’s no doubt Big Pharma has no qualms about pushing drugs as far as they can to make a buck. You’re right that no drug comes without side effects, some we don’t know about for decades.

While all precautions should be followed not to let it get out of hand, it’s still important to make sure those most at risk for HIV have access.

If legislators do their jobs to make drugs available to those who need them and spend less time catering to the whims of lobbyists, we wouldn’t need to have this discussion. That’s why it’s our job to pay close attention to whether we elect folks like Linda Stewart who are looking out for our interests or those like Chris Dorworth who are just lining their pockets.

How do we do that? Ignore all political ads on TV and check the endorsements in the legit newspapers for new candidates. If they’re incumbents, take a few minutes to Google their reputations and what they’re voting for. It’s really not hard to sort out the good ones from the bad ones.

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10 hours ago, spenser1058 said:

Andy Marlette is a Florida treasure...

the state capital has tons of people with guns there all the time... the armed guards stationed at every entrance, along with others throughout the building.

unfortunately, its not feasible to hire adequate armed security for each school given the number of schools. we got like 5000 of them... and clearly just 1 or 2 isn't sufficient because they might get scared in a school shooting. so the only proposal is training some school employees to dual purpose, be security on top of their normal jobs. which makes sense, given just how rare an incident even is

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