Ron DeSantis can be one miserable guy in nearly every way – there have long been allegations of corruption, he is petulant, petty, and particularly brutal on Florida’s black and brown residents. For sure. But the guy has had his massive state hit twice by vicious hurricanes and he probably has the second hardest job in the country right now. Nothing will come easy in the rebuild and it has to be maddening.
Before I shower him with minimal understanding, it should be noted that he has wrongly lashed out at Kamala Harris. He said that he wouldn’t be taking Harris’s calls about the disaster relief. According to The Hill, DeSantis stated:
“I didn’t even know she was trying to reach me, but she has no role in this process. And I’ve been dealing with these storms in Florida under both [former President] Trump and Biden. Neither of them ever politicized it.
Yes, cranky – I think I noted his predisposition above. He isn’t wrong, though. Well, he’s wrong – just in a different sense. It is surely true that DeSantis is talking to President Biden and he worked with Former President Trump during emergencies back then. So, he’s doing his job and no one would ask or care whether he also spoke to then Vice-President Pence at the time, that’s just reality.
We ought to be grown-ups and admit that Harris would want to make that call right now for political reasons. She absolutely should make that call. She’s running for president, another reality. She should do everything she can – she better do all she can. So DeSantis isn’t wrong but he still should’ve taken the call and then just kept his mouth shut.
DeSantis has, however, earned a bit of credit for his management (stay with me) because he’s definitely not out there criticizing FEMA or Biden. Yes – that passes for a good governor with politics now. Additionally, his state has also been utterly devastated and this is not the time to be making overall damage assessments. They are still tragically pulling bodies out of homes. So it is completely understandable… and right, for him to express some anger at a reporter’s question about a Wall Street damage estimate. Just bear with me on this. Put yourself in his shoes. From Mediaite:
Reporter: Wall Street analysts predicted that Milton’s losses could exceed $50 billion. Does the state have any sort of–
DeSantis: How the hell would a Wall Street analyst be able to know — it’s been dark all day! What, you just going to know that you’re going to do? I mean, like give me a break on some of this stuff. They’re doing damage assessments now. They always say this or that or whatever. I mean, what I would say is what I said in the original talkers.
I don’t blame him. I really don’t. I think it was a time and place for him to stand up for the people of his state that have been ravaged and not talk Wall Street damage estimates, or even the state’s economic response. The “assessment” could probably be plus or minus $25 billion. Talking about numbers while people are homeless, suffering, hungry, and hurt is off-putting at best and would otherwise show a pretty hollow soul. This remains a time for him to stand up for his state, talk about what they have – not what they’ve lost, and rally the people.
If Floridians unite and have a sense of hope about building back better, then it is far more likely to actually happen. Florida is home to a lot of people and is an economic powerhouse. On a macro-level this state has to come back mightily for the country.
But that also brings me to a larger point. I fully understand the passion about this election. It terrifies some of us – most, and it is very much time to rally around each other. But it is also a time to unite as a country over stuff that is clearly non-political. This was yet another hurricane and the rebuild will be done by Republicans, Democrats, black people, white people, immigrants, all of it – they will unite. So on these issues it is best for the country and best for our own mental health to check some of our assumptions at the door. I understand DeSantis’s point and frustration.
The reality is that politics touches almost every aspect of our lives -that doesn’t mean “all.” We simply must set it aside at the right time and place. Indeed – we need to if we’re to stay hopeful.
So? Governor DeSantis? I will oppose you on nearly every single bill you sign, rip you apart when correct to do so and work tirelessly to replace you. But I support you in backing up your state during a devastating time.
I hope I’m not the only one.
God Bless: I can be reached at [email protected] and @JasonMiciak
Hey Nancy fancy go go boots…just like you said slavery was a job training program…just look at it the same way. Since you nazis deny climate change, and YOU HAVE ALSO, mother nature has some reality for you to study. You phucking lying nazi hypocrite. Hard to feel sorry for the state that put YOU and Scott in power. Where did I put the world’s smallest violin? I need to find it before she kicks your ass again…and she will…count on it. Someone called it you REAP WHAT YOU’VE SOWN!
No. 💩-45 never shorted Florida when he was president. Like Texas. But he did politicize other states and Puerto Rico. And he is being an azz (Helene). So… 🤦🏻♂️
Oh…and let’s not forget how your AG purged thousands of minorities off the rolls to screw Al Gore out of the presidency including whatever he would have done about climate change. So enjoy the reality you helped create.
Um, when did DeSantis’s AG purge those minorities to “screw Al Gore out of the presidency?”
Ron DeSantis was 22 years old when Gore lost Florida (and I do believe the bigger issue was a crappy ballot design used in a few of Florida’s counties). Has DeSantis’s AG been purging minorities from the rolls now? Yes but that did NOTHING to affect Al Gore’s presidential bid 24 years ago.
You’re free to hold whatever opinion you want to but you’re NOT free to make up the FACTS of an issue. Otherwise, you’re no better than Trump. (Also, I believe that, in Florida, it’s the Secretary of State who’s immediately responsible for election policies and procedures–as may be directed by the Legislature–while the AG is only responsible for defending election policies in legal actions.)
No, it wasn’t the ballots. It was their RWNJ AG who had the name Kathleen Harris who threw all sorts of people off the voting rolls, her and Jeb bush. You can look it up.
Talking about Florida…calling me Trump says more about you than me oh great and wonderful OZ.
Joseph, you’re picking at nits here. Yes, Katherine Harris was sec of Sate and not AG, and yeah, Bushy was gov and not Puss in Boots, but the point holds. Harris was corrupt as hell and blatant like ALL current repubs (ok Not Mike DeWine or Larry Hogan, but ALL the rest) that she just didn’t want black people voting. And then we have presidents who cannot see the environmental issue like Bushy and Trump and of course, DeSantis. When I was 16 John Lennon broke the some “Working class Hero”. There’s a line in there “but you’re still phuking peasant as far as I can see”. Sadly, today, the poorer people are, the more they’re voting Repub because they buy all the BS. So today, the Working Class don’t need anyone to screw them, they’re doing a very good job of doing it to themselves. And my point Joseph? Scott may have the nit picky details wrong, but his point about DeSantis inheritting the environmental sins of Katherine Harris, The Bushes, Trumpo, etc, and proudly making them his own, he’s effectively bang on.
I wasn’t talking about DeSantis when I brought up Gore…I thought it was obvious as it was decades prior. I was talking about how they’ve, the florida government, has been complicit in climate change for decades. I could have been a better editor but Joseph loves to call me names all the while missing the point. Seems he, like someone else we know, likes to use slurs…anyone who reads my posts knows my points are based on facts. Just because I’m not a victim of OCD, I ignore folks minor mistakes and try to see what their point is. The great and powerful Oz likes to do the opposite. Thanks for returning to my point. They THE FOLKS IN FLORIDA have voted against their own interests for DECADES. Clear enough?
Sorry, Jason, but DeSantis INTERRUPTED the reporter’s question (as he’s so wont to do because he hates being asked questions) so there’s that to start with. As for DeSantis’s response about “how the hell would an analyst know,” he might want to consider that, even before the storm hit, there were already *predictions* about the potential cost (especially in light of the state’s still trying to clean up and rebuild from Helene). Also, DeSantis might want to remember his little outburst the next time that *HE* starts making economic “predictions.” That’s part of ANY disaster. Does DeSantis think the insurance companies determine the costs when setting people’s insurance rates? (Incidentally, I’d have loved for a reporter to ask DeSantis how he plans on keeping insurance companies from blowing up people’s premiums in light of not one but two major hurricanes hitting the state when major insurance companies are already charging what policyholders consider to be outrageous rates. DeSantis’s head would’ve probably just exploded.)
But, again, DeSantis should have let the reporter ASK HIS QUESTION before blowing up at him. It’s funny that DeSantis is talking about “damage assessments” as if there won’t be a number of price tags connected with those assessments.
All at a press conference next Friday, after the first real assessments have been done. Yes, he absolutely needs to be asked about the response. Next week. I think he was right to cot it off.
jason