Monthly Archives: March 2017
Flashback Friday: Senator George Smathers on the Civil Rights Act of 1964
Florida Senator George Smathers was a confidant of three Presidents, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard M. Nixon. Having served with all three in Congress, Smathers became a hot item around Washington. The Senator was also for much of his tenure one of the most influential Democrats back home in Florida. His rise […]
Democrats and the State Senate – the 2016 failure and 2018 hopes
Following a redistricting process in 2015 created by a legal victory, the State Senate suddenly appeared in serious play. The chamber which last had a Democratic majority in 1992 and which the party last held 40% of the body’s seat in 1998 became the focus of the Florida Democratic Party (FDP ) in 2016 – […]
Donald Trump: Making China the lone global superpower one executive order at a time
Donald Trump’s Climate Change executive order is not only horrible for the environment, but as Damian Carrington in The Guardian correctly points out, it cedes American leadership in the greatest foreign policy matter of this generation to the Chinese. Climate Change is the single biggest geopolitical issue facing policymakers today and the US has now unilaterally […]
What we’re reading: Trump Is Scaring Indian Americans Into Finding Their Political Voice
The Atlantic has a good piece on Indian-Americans finding their political voice due to the spate of killings of members of the community following Donald Trump’s inauguration. As an Indian-American however, I would note that simply voting for Democrats as a reaction to Trump is probably a weakening of the community’s potential political power, and […]
What we’re listening to: Russia expert Mark Ames on Unauthorized Disclosure
Mark Ames is uniquely qualified to discuss the “unending baffling frenzy over Trump, Putin, and Russia.” Along with Matt Taibbi, Ames published a satirical magazine in Russia that was shut down by Putin. Their publication, The Exile, provided satire and investigative journalism throughout the fall of the Soviet Union. In this podcast he shares his insight on our complicated relationship […]
What we are reading: Sunshine state shuns solar as overcast New York basks in clean energy boom
A great feature from this morning’s Guardian lamenting Florida’s willingness to forfeit it’s natural advantage on solar while New York takes advantage of whatever sunshine it has. Florida’s lack of vision on solar is no surprise – Utility companies enabled by Republican politicians and political consultants (some of whom work for Democrats frequently) have made our […]
Where are Florida Democrats headed? The unknown represents hope for a largely irrelevant party
Longtime Florida Democratic Party (FDP) Executive Director Scott Arceneaux is poised to leave his job in the very near future. The Executive Director will depart after four election cycles where the party’s fortunes continued to decline though much of it was probably due to national trends and the incredible power of incumbency the GOP has […]
Miami native Frank Martin makes history in the unlikliest place
South Carolina had not even won an NCAA Tournament game since 1973 two weeks ago, but today the Miami native Frank Martin led the school to its first Final Four. The unlikely run continued with the Gamcocks 77-70 win over Florida in the Elite Eight. The fifty one-year old Martin coached High School Basketball in […]
Pensacola Bay Bridge reconstruction beginning soon
The massive reconstruction and building of a signature span of the nearly 3-mile long Pensacola Bay Bridge will begin shortly. The current Pensacola Bay Bridge was built in 1960 and reached its projected 50-year lifespan in 2010. After a long process with public input, the design which is pictured to the right will be the […]
What we are reading: Hardball political operative Roger Stone finds himself on the receiving end
Roger Stone has been a national political player since the 1970’s. Since the late 1990’s he’s also been a major southeast Florida political player and currently works out of Fort Lauderdale. Famously, Stone was dubbed “Nixon’s man in Washington,” when the ex-President was in exile before being fully accepted back into political circles around the […]
The Florida Squeeze 