LOCAL and Florida Politics

[spenser1058]

This rot among Florida Republicans isn’t new - it’s been going on for years. Stay tuned as now we’re likely to add DeSantis appointees to GOAA to the mess. Then I’m sure we head back to original bad boy Chris Dorworth. How long are we going to let this downright graft and sleaze go on, not to mention the intentional incompetence to line their pockets. Shall we add Rick Scott’s Medicare corruption to it, also? 
But how many will keep voting for this to go on because they simply cannot be bothered to return to the days of decent government in the state?

I never thought I’d be ashamed to call myself a Floridian but this is atrocious and it’s been going on ever since we handed the keys to the state’s Capitol to these people in 1998.

Matt Gaetz and Joel Greenberg: Don’t act indignant. You knew who they were. | Commentary
https://www.orlandosentinel.com/opinion/scott-maxwell-commentary/os-prem-op-matt-gaetz-joel-greenberg-scott-maxwell-20210407-xovufps2dng5fm2cllypwlr7ue-story.html

From The Sentinel (the GOAA connection is coming soon from CBS News).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[spenser1058]

Seminole County’s scuzziest GOP sleazeball is expected to plead guilty, which likely means he’s gonna sing like a bird against Congressman Matt Goetz.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/08/us/politics/matt-gaetz-investigation.html?referringSource=articleShare

From The New York Times 

 

Finally, someone’s gonna take on the 20-year old stench from Tallahassee.

Edited April 8, 2021 by spenser1058

[spenser1058]

And now the rot extends to Lake County and Anthony Sabatini:

Greenberg paid $7,500 to Sabatini while Seminole Tax Collector
https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-ne-joel-greenberg-anthony-sabatini-contract-20210408-f3rdefwoxrewxmhkgw5b7k5y6e-story.html

Apparently, Toni Jennings was the last honest Florida Republican. Had enough?

 

From The Sentinel 

 

 

[orange87]

I support this. A common-sense tax revenue source.

Florida House Passes Online Sales Tax Legislation

Article: https://www.mynews13.com/fl/orlando/news/2021/04/08/florida-house-passes-online-sales-tax-legislation

[JFW657]

I'm ambivalent.

[spenser1058]

As predicted, Chris Dorworth is now up ro his eye teeth in the rot that is Florida’s Republican Party:

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-prem-ne-gaetz-artiles-scandals-chris-dorworth-20210410-ui4fxe3swbf4dlrizpmgiehhke-story.html

From The Sentinel 

 

Had enough?

[spenser1058]

Dare I dream?

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/11/us/covid-burnout-mayors.html?referringSource=articleShare

From The New York Times 

 

[AmIReal]

Oh come on @spenser1058 this is too good. I know you want to say something... https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-prem-ne-joel-greenberg-connections-20210413-j2su54xccffopn6p5trplv5vzu-story.html

 

[spenser1058]

22 minutes ago, AmIReal said:

Oh come on @spenser1058 this is too good. I know you want to say something... https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-prem-ne-joel-greenberg-connections-20210413-j2su54xccffopn6p5trplv5vzu-story.html

 

It just vindicates everything I’ve been saying for years so I’m content. Hopefully, folks will do something about it in 2022. We used to be so much better than this - on both sides of the aisle.

[spenser1058]

Former Rep. Gwen Graham nominated to become an Assistant Secretary of Education by President Joe Biden:

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/politics/os-ne-gwen-graham-education-position-20210416-xkdxbdplafcgzf476veklocgnu-story.html

From The Sentinel 

While it’s a position for which she’s remarkably qualified, it seems to indicate she won’t be running for office in 2022. That’s a shame because she’d be a phenomenal governor or senator.

 

 

 

[spenser1058]

Good heavens, even Florida’s ultimate good ol’boy, Mike “Bubba” Bianchi, who’s hardly anyone’s idea of a wild-eyed liberal, has looked into the legislature’s transgender athlete bill and found a solution in search of a problem.

Meanwhile, real issues like environmental protection collapsing before our eyes, has been going ignored for years. Another to mention all the corruption that needs cleaning up.

This is Florida’s Republican-owned government. Had enough?

Why are Florida politicians trying to ban transgender athletes who aren’t even a problem? | Commentary
https://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/mike-bianchi-commentary/os-sp-transgender-female-sports-athletes-florida-20210416-jyfzy5jmenarbplty4ieyuxfuu-story.html

From The Sentinel 

 

[orange87]

On 4/16/2021 at 9:08 PM, spenser1058 said:

Good heavens, even Florida’s ultimate good ol’boy, Mike “Bubba” Bianchi, who’s hardly anyone’s idea of a wild-eyed liberal, has looked into the legislature’s transgender athlete bill and found a solution in search of a problem.

Meanwhile, real issues like environmental protection collapsing before our eyes, has been going ignored for years. Another to mention all the corruption that needs cleaning up.

This is Florida’s Republican-owned government. Had enough?

Why are Florida politicians trying to ban transgender athletes who aren’t even a problem? | Commentary
https://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/mike-bianchi-commentary/os-sp-transgender-female-sports-athletes-florida-20210416-jyfzy5jmenarbplty4ieyuxfuu-story.html

From The Sentinel 

I agree that it's not a terribly important issue in the grand scheme of things. I understand that some people's gender identity is different than their biological sex. You can pretty convincingly change your physical appearance, but nonetheless you CANNOT actually change your biological sex. Period. For the sake of sanity and having an objective reality this is important. Sports should be segregated by biological sex, not psychological gender. Athletics is about pushing the human body to it's limits and achieving physical feats. A biological male has an enormous unfair physical advantage over a biological female. We can be polite and accommodating and call people their preferred pronouns if their gender identity doesn't match their biological sex. But we will not be guilted or bullied into being science deniers.

Edited April 18, 2021 by orange87

[JFW657]

19 hours ago, orange87 said:

I agree that it's not a terribly important issue in the grand scheme of things. I understand that some people's gender identity is different than their biological sex. You can pretty convincingly change your physical appearance, but nonetheless you CANNOT actually change your biological sex. Period. For the sake of sanity and having an objective reality this is important. Sports should be segregated by biological sex, not psychological gender. Athletics is about pushing the human body to it's limits and achieving physical feats. A biological male has an enormous unfair physical advantage over a biological female. We can be polite and accommodating and call people their preferred pronouns if their gender identity doesn't match their biological sex. But we will not be guilted or bullied into being science deniers.

Seems like common sense, but then again, common sense is not something that carries much weight anymore.

I say let transgenders compete in women's sports, then sit back and wait for the inevitable to occur.

Transgender athletes who were born biologically male will win every single competition against biological female athletes. 

This will go on for awhile as everyone tries to rationalize it by making claims like "(S)he must have just trained harder. Hooray for transgender athletes!!!" 

But eventually it will begin to dawn on everyone, especially biological female athletes who can no longer win, and they will begin to complain about the unfair advantage transgender biological male athletes have over them, not to mention the disadvantage biological female athletes who identify as males have against biological male athletes.

This will create a conundrum for the PC woke elements of society because two protected groups will now be at odds with each other and they will be forced to make a choice and decide with who their sympathies lie.

The rest of us will be confronted with the challenge of not saying "We told you so." 

*************

I will amend the above by saying this.... if it is a proven fact that hormone therapy diminishes any biological male physical advantage after a certain minimum amount of time, then I will have no issue with allowing them to compete in women's sports as long as they have had and continue to receive female hormones that diminish any physical advantage.

.

Edited April 19, 2021 by JFW657

[spenser1058]

Remember when marriage equality was going to destroy civilization? Somehow, it didn’t. Remember when gay folks in the military was going to decimate its effectiveness (even though gay folks had always been there)? Somehow, it didn’t.

There have always been women who could toss their smaller male brethren around and there are already protocols in place to make sure no drugs are being used that would provide a disadvantage.

Further, the legislators had no examples to the contrary in the state. This, just like the two issues above, is the latest example of one party creating wedge issues because they cannot win on everyday policies.

The tragedy is that these games they play destroy real people’s lives. Having had to come of age in the Anita Bryant era, I know how that goes. (Remember how gay folks couldn’t be schoolteachers or adopt in those days? Yet two more canards).

 

Edited April 19, 2021 by spenser1058

[JFW657]

1 hour ago, spenser1058 said:

Remember when marriage equality was going to destroy civilization? Somehow, it didn’t. Remember when gay folks in the military was going to decimate its effectiveness (even though gay folks had always been there)? Somehow, it didn’t.

There have always been women who could toss their smaller male brethren around and there are already protocols in place to make sure no drugs are being used that would provide a disadvantage.

Further, the legislators had no examples to the contrary in the state. This, just like the two issues above, is the latest example of one party creating wedge issues because they cannot win on everyday policies.

The tragedy is that these games they play destroy real people’s lives. Having had to come of age in the Anita Bryant era, I know how that goes. (Remember how gay folks couldn’t be schoolteachers or adopt in those days? Yet two more canards).

False equivalence fallacy, aka "apples and oranges".

In sports and athletic competition, the contestants are called upon to utilize their natural and developed physical strength to out perform their opponent.

It is a biological fact that biologically born males are larger, stronger and faster than biologically born females.

If a transgender athlete has had estrogen treatments to cause their musculature and bone structure to, in essence, become female, then I would think that would sort of "level the playing field".

If a man just says "I want to be regarded as a woman", then competes with women in sports competition, that would give him a ridiculous advantage which I guarantee you, women will not stand for.

[orange87]

3 hours ago, spenser1058 said:

Remember when marriage equality was going to destroy civilization? Somehow, it didn’t. Remember when gay folks in the military was going to decimate its effectiveness (even though gay folks had always been there)? Somehow, it didn’t.

There have always been women who could toss their smaller male brethren around and there are already protocols in place to make sure no drugs are being used that would provide a disadvantage.

Further, the legislators had no examples to the contrary in the state. This, just like the two issues above, is the latest example of one party creating wedge issues because they cannot win on everyday policies.

The tragedy is that these games they play destroy real people’s lives. Having had to come of age in the Anita Bryant era, I know how that goes. (Remember how gay folks couldn’t be schoolteachers or adopt in those days? Yet two more canards).

I support gay marriage and allowing gays to serve in the military as long as they conform to military standards just like everyone else (equality). But those things are different than a biological man putting on a dress and saying we're bigots if we don't call him a woman. This is a very slippery slope to manipulate language and objective reality like this. What's next? My $1,000 in my bank account identifies as $20,000,000? The scary thing is that's just as true and valid as a man saying he identifies as a woman. People are already claiming that they identify as a different ethnicity and a different age. This will never end unless we resist the attempt to overthrow objective reality.

 

[nite owℓ]

Let's not forget cases where biological women were called "too manly" to participate in their own sport. And what if a transman (female to male) wants to compete in men's sports competitions, are there any stringent requirements for that scenario too--or does it only apply to protect biological women? Some people are born intersex (a mixture of both genitalia and or chromosomes) yet that's what numbskulls like Marjorie Taylor Greene fail to realize when they spout the "there are only two genders" argument. So what then... how would those people fit into their myopic criteria? Not trying to play devil's advocate here, but not everything is estrogen vs testosterone because women also produce testosterone and men also produce estrogen. I think people who identify as another sex will also have a doctor who can vouch for them. Just kind of crazy for lawmakers to make topics like this a priority with everything else going on in the world.

Edited April 19, 2021 by nite owℓ

[popsiclebrandon]

There are really people in here defending this horrible, no need law? It requires a physical genital examination without any reason. Just so ridiculous and harmful to people.

[JFW657]

Yes. 

We should let men with fully developed male skeletal and musculature properties compete in sporting competitions against physically smaller, slower and weaker women and in dong so, eliminate any chance of winning any woman will ever have again, just to make a certain segment of society feel good and with the only criteria being that the MAN decided to "identify" as a woman.

Yes.

Good plan.

I'm sure women athletes will be fine with it after a couple of years of constantly being soundly defeated in every competition by these self-identifying "women".

Heck... while we're at it, let's allow women who identify as men compete in the NFL, too.

That would be entertaining for the five minutes or so "he" would last before being carted away on a gurney with permanent injuries.

[nite owℓ]

On 4/20/2021 at 11:51 AM, JFW657 said:

Yes. 

We should let men with fully developed male skeletal and musculature properties compete in sporting competitions against physically smaller, slower and weaker women and in dong so, eliminate any chance of winning any woman will ever have again, just to make a certain segment of society feel good and with the only criteria being that the MAN decided to "identify" as a woman.

Yes.

Good plan.

I'm sure women athletes will be fine with it after a couple of years of constantly being soundly defeated in every competition by these self-identifying "women".

I do believe there some points to consider in the discussion, but what lawmakers are proposing is undignified and shameful.

I think there was a transwoman tennis player during your era, back in the 70's. Her name is Renée Richards. Interesting to note that she later came to believe her past as a man did provide her advantages over competitors: https://web.archive.org/web/20150208071630/http://www.slate.com/articles/sports/sports_nut/2012/10/jewish_jocks_and_ren_e_richards_the_life_of_the_transsexual_tennis_legend.html

On 4/20/2021 at 11:51 AM, JFW657 said:

Heck... while we're at it, let's allow women who identify as men compete in the NFL, too.

That would be entertaining for the five minutes or so "he" would last before being carted away on a gurney with permanent injuries.

There are quite a few transmen that might change your perception...  Laith Ashley being one of them.

Edited April 21, 2021 by nite owℓ

[spenser1058]

Sanity breaks out in the Florida Senate:

 

[orange87]

17 hours ago, spenser1058 said:

Sanity breaks out in the Florida Senate:

 

Mentally ill men in dresses is what you think "sanity" is? Yeesh!

[aent]

I don't know orange, If we allow transwomen to play on women's teams,  perhaps the women's teams can be entirely made up of transwomen due to their biological superiority that we all know a man who identifies as a woman has, and if the woman's teams are able to get men playing on them, perhaps it can solve the problems created by Title IX.

[spenser1058]

Florida is only getting one extra congressional seat instead of the expected two. Among other reasons, you needn’t go much further than Mar-A-Lago, thanks to the mess you know who made of the Census count and his splendid response to COVID. Thanks, Big Guy, for your efforts on behalf of your adopted state.

 

[orange87]

On 4/26/2021 at 4:01 PM, spenser1058 said:

Florida is only getting one extra congressional seat instead of the expected two. Among other reasons, you needn’t go much further than Mar-A-Lago, thanks to the mess you know who made of the Census count and his splendid response to COVID. Thanks, Big Guy, for your efforts on behalf of your adopted state.

 

"Mess." AKA not wanting to include people who aren't even supposed to be in this country (illegal immigrants) in the census.