‘Wicked Wisdom’. What if DeSantis Knows What He’s Doing?
Brandon Wolf, who was catapulted into activism in Florida after surviving the Orlando Pulse nightclub massacre in 2016, told me that effective coalitions are emerging to oppose DeSantis, but he acknowledged how formidable an opponent the governor is: “DeSantis’s strategy tries to pull us apart,” he said. It fuels a “narrative that we’re not all on the same page. They know that if they were able to unlock that vision of what the country, the world, could look like if we all stood in solidarity with one another, then they would lose.”
If these groups don’t unite to fight back soon, they could all lose in the end. For instance, as Pérez explained when talking about Cuban conservatives, the current policies being used to limit the teaching of Black history are broad enough that they could eliminate the course he created at F.I.U.: the history of Cuban Americans. And other states are already beginning to imitate or compete with what DeSantis is doing in Florida.
We would do well to learn this lesson nationally. The attack is broad: sexist, racist, xenophobic and homophobic. The only way to fight it is together.
I have always thought of DeSantis as a bit of a dullard, blinded by ambition. But Frank M. Reid III, bishop of the 11th Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Jacksonville, Fla., warns against such simplistic assessments:
“He went to Yale. He went to Harvard. He is not a quote, unquote, ‘redneck Republican.’ But he has recognized that this is his way to power, which makes him dangerous. And he wields that power fearlessly. He has a wicked wisdom.”
Texas AG Settles Whistleblower Suit, Sticks Taxpayers With Tab:
The lawsuit was filed more than two years ago. The case dragged on, with Paxton’s lawyers arguing that the whistleblower law didn’t apply to the office of the attorney general. Paxton’s office released its own investigation purporting to exonerate him of any wrongdoing. But on Friday, Paxton announced a settlement: although he would not admit any wrongdoing, he would delete the press release in which he smeared the staffers as “rogue employees,” and the plaintiffs would receive $3.3 million.
Here’s the kicker, though: The damages won’t be paid out by Ken Paxton; they’re supposed to be paid from state funds, which means that the settlement will have to be approved by the legislature…
This is a good outcome for the ex-staffers, of course, who get back pay and an apology. But it’s also a pretty good outcome for Ken Paxton, considering the position he was in two years ago, when he was facing allegations of corruption and an affair, with the FBI reportedly investigating, and a felony securities-fraud indictment hanging over his head. America’s most MAGA attorney general has since won reelection by defeating a well-funded statewide official who happened to be George W. Bush’s nephew, and he’s now offloaded the costs of his legal battle to taxpayers. The FBI doesn’t exactly publish running updates of its investigations, but the DOJ has not produced any charges against Paxton. As for that securities fraud indictment? Well, it’ll turn eight years old in July.
Whatever Happened To The Great Salt Lake?:
To walk on to the Great Salt Lake, the largest salt lake in the western hemisphere which faces the astounding prospect of disappearing just five years from now, is to trudge across expanses of sand and mud, streaked with ice and desiccated aquatic life, where just a short time ago you would be wading in waist-deep water.
But the mounting sense of local dread over the lake’s rapid retreat doesn’t just come from its throttled water supply and record low levels, as bad as this is. The terror comes from toxins laced in the vast exposed lake bed, such as arsenic, mercury and lead, being picked up by the wind to form poisonous clouds of dust that would swamp the lungs of people in nearby Salt Lake City, where air pollution is often already worse than that of Los Angeles, potentially provoking a myriad of respiratory and cancer-related problems.
This looming scenario, according to Ben Abbott, an ecologist at Brigham Young University, risks “one of the worst environmental disasters in modern US history”, surpassing the partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor in Pennsylvania in 1979 and acting like a sort of “perpetual Deepwater Horizon blowout”.
Man, thought I’d have more to talk about. Didn’t work out.
What do you want to talk about?