* Would-be DeSantis signage:
^“Better Red than well-read.”
^“Let Kids be Kids, especially if they want to be Props.”
* Last year was a record year for visitors. This year it’s less likely. Hardly helping was the NAACP issuance of a travel advisory for Florida warning that the state is “openly hostile toward African Americans, people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals.” Then the Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBTQ+ organization, issued an updated travel advisory after what it labeled “the most anti-LGBTQ legislative session in history.”
* GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley has offered to relocate 70,000 Disney jobs to South Carolina, where the locals are “not woke, but we’re not sanctimonious about it either.” Zing.
* Orlando pushback: Conventions canceled and no more plans for a Disney Corporate Campus. Remember the business-friendly GOP?
* Speaking of travel advisories, the unspeakable Rick Scott has predictably weighed in and issued his own “TRAVEL ADVISORY FOR SOCIALISTS VISITING FLORIDA.” No, you can’t make this up.
* Flori-duh: AAA’s hurricane season survey found that 1 in 4 Floridians said they would ignore hurricane evacuation orders.
* “A veneer to impose an ideological agenda.” That’s how Gov. Ron DisIngenuous has referred to the concepts of diversity, equity and inclusion. What’s actually being imposed, misstates DeSantis, is “discrimination, exclusion and indoctrination.”
* “What we know is that faculty are leaving Florida in droves.”–Amy Reid, professor of French and director of New College’s gender studies program.
* “Academic freedom, tenure and shared governance in Florida’s public colleges and universities currently face a politically and ideologically driven assault unparalleled in U.S. history.”–The American Association of University Professors.
* “You guys need to disregard lies of untruthful media and politicians.” That’s what commencement speaker Scott Atlas, who wasn’t referring to Fox, Alex Jones or Gov. DiSaster, told New College grads.
* Florida remains one of only 10 states that have not taken advantage of expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.
* It’s official. The (GOP venerating) Villages was the fastest-growing U.S. metro area between 2021 and 2022, increasing–as this governor well knows–by 7.5 percent.
* DeSantis signed a bill allowing group prayer before sports events. What would Jesus say? Hopefully not: “For Christ’s sake, let’s go and kick some ass.”
* Reefer gladness: According to the Division of Elections, the recreational marijuana initiative has surpassed the number of petition signatures necessary to place it on the 2024 ballot. No, AG Ashley Moody wasn’t pleased.