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We all remember “hanging chads” and the national focus on Florida over problematic presidential ballots that helped George W. Bush become a popular-vote-losing president in 2000. “Flori-duh” became a political-laughingstock trope and never totally recovered from media punch lines. Nowhere to go after that but up.

Nope.

Rick Scott–of HCA infamy, light-rail defiance and a Lord Voldemort look–and Trump disciple Ron DeSantis hardly helped. Especially the latter, a Fox-favorite dissembler who has been de facto doubling down on “Flori-duh” via his uber divisive, faux freedom brand that is geared to an office higher than Tallahassee.

DeSantis’ agenda—with the support of the spineless GOPster legislature—is all about self-appropriated definitions of “freedom” and “liberty” and the demonization of opposition as “anti-woke.” If it doesn’t fit on a bumper sticker, it doesn’t matter.

It manifests itself across a spectrum of issues that places DeSantis in a national spotlight with The Villages too often as an insolent backdrop. He got his version of a redistricting map that adds to minority under-representation and gives him more congressional cover. He got his disturbing choice of surgeon general in the controversial Joseph Ladapo. He took shots at academic freedom of speech, school districts that played it safe with mask mandates and Reedy Creeked Disney’s efforts to combine fairy tales with diverse casting and storytelling.

Speaking of Disney, its loud speaker announcements are now gender neutral. “Dreamers of all ages” has replaced “ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls.” Disney wants its Main Street to be inclusive and look like America 2022. DeSantis doesn’t.

* “On every social issue, (Democrats) own the moral high ground. They should challenge Republicans to climb.”–Leonard Pitts, Miami Herald.

* “The culture war is here, whether Democrats like it or not. The only alternative to fighting it is losing it.”–Jamelle Bouie, NYT.

* If you were told—and you have been—that as a result of a statutory authority, you were no longer required to mask up on planes, trains and buses, would you regard that as an acceptable public health directive and rationale—as opposed to what the science-steeped CDC was still advocating? Yes, that’s a rhetorical question. But, no, that shouldn’t be part of “American exceptionalism.”

* Total U.S. population that is boosted: 30 percent. Total Florida population that is boosted: 26 percent.

* Total pandemic deaths in Florida: 73,822. Total pandemic deaths in the last week: 133.

* Another day, another Ron DuhSantis-branding proclamation. This time it was about public university professors attaining or retaining tenure. “We need to make sure the faculty are held accountable and make sure they don’t just have tenure forever without having any type of way to hold them accountable or evaluate what they’re doing,” said the governor after a bill signing. Wonder if Joseph Ladapo agrees. House Speaker Chris Sprowls helped out, so to speak, by framing the legislation as a way to prevent, you guessed it, “indoctrination” of students.

* “Woke Disney” has “lost any moral authority to tell you what to do.” That’s from a fund-raising email that the governor sent to supporters.

* In 2022, the Sunshine State is projected to be 11.1 percent below the amount of business-travel revenue in 2019, the last full year before the pandemic. Nationally, such revenues are projected to be down 23.1 percent according to a report by the American Hotel and Lodging Association.

* “I’ve met Martin Luther King. I don’t just talk about him. He taught me peaceful protests, and here we are in 2022 rolling back the tide.”–State Rep. Yvonne Hinson, D-Gainesville.

* The Cross Bay Ferry that connects the downtowns of Tampa and St. Petersburg recently set a new 6-month record—with more than 53,000 riders. That’s a 2 percent increase over pre-pandemic numbers. The CBF operations will cease on May 1.

For those hoping for year-round service, it should help that HART (Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority) received nearly $5 million in federal dollars for the ferry in February.

* April is water conservation month. As a result, Tampa water customers can request free water-savings devices to save water, as well as lower utility bills and support sustainability. To request a kit: Tampa.gov/SaveWater.

* That was a notable sigh of relief from NATO and the European Union when right-wing populist Marine Le Pen failed to defeat incumbent French President Emmanuel Macron. That sigh was not unlike the response of Western Europe (except Hungary), which was more than pleased that President Trump–and his “America First,” Putin-friendly agenda–was not re-elected.

* “Warsaw is at capacity. We accepted more than 300,000 people but we cannot accept more. With the escalation by Russia in Eastern Ukraine, we could have a second wave.”–Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski.

* Facebook has 23 times the annual revenue of Twitter. It has nearly 2 billion daily users; Twitter has 217 million.

* In the last eight years, the New York Times has gone from about 800,000 digital-only subscribers to 6.8 million paid digital subscribers.

* CNN has said it’s pulling the plug on CNN+, its streaming platform that’s been underwhelmed by subscribers.

* Netflix announced that it had lost 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter. That’s why shares plunged 35 percent.

* “A sexual agenda for 6-year-olds” that was “creepy as hell.”–Fox News creep-host Tucker Carlson, during his Disney rant.

* You’re getting old when tying one on means fastening your MedicAlert bracelet.

* In the world of Kindles and best-seller hardbacks, the rare occurrence of paperback reading can seem like a literary time machine. I experienced that a few years ago when I decided to revisit “On The Road” by Jack Kerouac. It didn’t hold up the way it did when I was in college, and the relatively tiny print and long paragraphs made it a bid of a slog. As for footnotes, it helped to keep a magnifying glass nearby.

Now I’m in the paperback cross hairs again. This time it’s the 1960 work of Robert F. Kennedy, assessing organized crime in “The Enemy Within.” It’s been on my bookshelf for years staring back at me in accusatory fashion for being an implicit imposter. I finally needed to read it.

Maybe I’ll finish it.

* Flashing back to (Penn State) intercollegiate days and English lit instructors, I still fondly recall a reference by one of the more humorous professors who shared some faculty-lounge ambience. It seemed that some profs—where academic humor meets peer competition—played a “Famous books I’ve never read” game. Even at that level, everybody had something glaringly unread.

Then it was on to the next level: “Famous books in my field that I’ve never read.” That took some candor and chutzpah.

When the field was finally winnowed and only the hard-core remained, it was time for the final segment: “Famous books I’ve taught that I’ve never read.” In other words, literary criticism and research could carry the day in a survey course of American literature. So, maybe this was the wry side of an ethical lapse or maybe he was kidding to relate better to his students. If so, the latter worked. This professor, a Hemingway scholar, acknowledged that for him it was James Fennimore Cooper’s “The Deerslayer.”

No, it wasn’t part of that course’s curriculum, And, no, I’ve still managed to work around it all these years.

* Scientist’s door: “Gone Fission.”

* Office: “We shoot every 3^rd salesman, and the 2^nd one just left.”

* Recall the Rays trading for 41-year-old Nelson Cruz of the Twins last year to provide a right-handed power hitter down the stretch. He helped as a late-July addition, but not nearly enough. What they traded for the Nelson rental included Joe Ryan, a minor league pitcher with consensus major league upside. He was rated the #10 prospect by MLB Pipeline. Ryan began the season with Minnesota as part of their starting rotation. So far, he is 3-1 with a 1.17 E.R.A. Yes, he would be of help right now to the starting pitching-challenged Rays.

* “He transformed Tampa into a true hockey town while leading them to the Promised Land.”–Former Bolt Marty St. Louis, in a tribute video honoring Steven Stamkos who just passed St. Louis as the Lightning’s all-time top scorer.