Monthly Archives: February 2021
#CPAC2021 Highlights: The illiberal, non-conservative right has a new ideology – Statist Nationalism
CPAC’s second full day has thus far followed up on the Friday lighting-rod speeches of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Missouri Senator Josh Hawley. The two potential leading contenders to take up ex-President Donald Trump’s mantle as leader of a new Republican Party laid out what the new GOP is about. Rep. Paul Gosar of […]
#CPAC2021 – DeSantis opening remarks set the stage for a perfectly Soviet weekend in Orlando
CPAC 2021 opened its first full day Friday morning, with a video about alleged election fraud before turning the stage over to opening remarks from Florida’s GOP Governor Ron DeSantis. The video was laced with racial and gender-based innuendo as clips of Democrats who were non-white or female dominated the video. The other subtle theme […]
CPAC 2021: “conservatives” led by Trump and DeSantis gather in Orlando to cancel Conservatism
CPAC, that annual cattle call of opinion leaders on the right hosted by the American Conservative Union (ACU) will for the first time in its history leave the Washington DC area in 2021. The ACU which non long ago was led by Floridian Al Cardenes is now led by the mega-MAGA insider Matt Schlapp. Yes […]
Edison and Ford in Florida
Thomas Edison and Henry Ford both famously wintered in Fort Myers. In the case of Edison, some of his great works were developed outside Menlo Park, NJ and in Florida. This week on The Florida History Podcast we talk about both famous titans time in Florida and discuss the Gilded Age, Titans of Industry and […]
The American-JetBlue partnership and Florida: More competition and choices for consumers or collusion that stifles competition? It’s not really clear…
Last year, two financially struggling US airlines that vigorously compete with each other in the Northeast, Florida and on transcontinental flights announced a partnership that covers the New York and Boston markets. This week, the first pieces of the American-JetBlue partnership fell in place. American operates one the largest US airline hubs in Miami (in […]
South Florida’s incomplete mass transit (among other things) inhibits the region’s delusions of grandeur in attracting Californians and New Yorkers
We will have more info on the Miami billboard now in SF soon. It was *not* paid for by @FrancisSuarez / @cityofmiami pic.twitter.com/amO0srDNNN — Rob Wile (@rjwile) February 18, 2021 In recent weeks, south Florida’s elected officials led by Miami Mayor Frances Suarez (a man skillfully adroit enough but also so lacking in actual political […]
Marco Rubio, The Cuban Disappointment
In the motherhood Hall of Fame there is one special section for moms who make their kids feel guilty, shaming them into doing things they don’t want to do. Honorable mention to all the Jewish moms out there. Cuban moms have a special knack for guilt inducing diatribes with all the drama of the worst […]
United States of America AKA Home of the Big Mind Fuck.
When I started on what I’ll call the project of writing for the Florida Squeeze it was my intent to draw a line from pre (and post) Castro Cuba’s perversion and flat out thuggery of the politics in my state, Florida. The events of the last month or so have my thoughts going in about […]
Muhammad Ali in Miami
Muhammad Ali, one of the most famous American sportsmen of all time spent his formative years both as a boxer and a activist in Miami. Ali (formerly Cassius Clay) lived in Miami from 1960 to 1967. On this week’s Florida History Podcast, we discuss Ali’s Miami and the new critically acclaimed film One Night in […]
Stupid Bowl LV
I will admit as a Tampa Native I’ve had a love/hate relationship with the Buccaneers and the NFL, and local politicians who’ve given way too much to both. My dad has always hated the team and even volunteered to drive them out of the city for free when there was talk of moving them from […]
The Florida Squeeze 