* “Flori-duh” is back in the news. Thanks again, Panhandle Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz and Florida House Speaker Jose Oliva. The former tweeted Michael Cohen the night before his Congressional hearing and claimed that extramarital relations would now come back and haunt him. Even Rick Scott found it “disgusting.” The Florida Bar found it disturbing enough to initiate a preliminary investigation of witness tampering. Fox News, unsurprisingly, found it worth featuring Gaetz in network teases and promos.
As for Oliva, he found himself in major apology mode for having referred to pregnant women as “host bodies” in a CBS-affiliate interview in Miami. Yes, it also went viral. “Hurtful, dehumanizing and misogynistic” were not even the worst characterizations. “You’d expect to hear this offensive language in the “Handmaid’s Tale”–not from the Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives,” said Florida Democratic Party chair Terrie Rizzo.
* A bill proposed by state Rep. Will Robinson Jr., R-Bradenton would add warnings to lottery tickets. As in, “The chances of winning a big prize are very low.” But that, arguably, won’t impress or impact those who comprise the base that spent more than $6.7 billion on lottery tickets last year. They already know the odds are stacked against them; that’s why it’s a long-shot gamble. So why not make the warning a bit more cautionary and personal: “Don’t be a fool. Your chances of winning a big prize are virtually the same whether you play or not.”