WEEKLY WRAP: Florida's primary election is Tuesday. Will Trump vote by mail again or sneak to the polls in a food truck?
A curated look ahead and a look back at the most interesting stories in the news.
This week
Florida will hold its midterm primary election Tuesday (August 18), and by the time you read this, early voting will be over in most counties. The state only requires early voting through Saturday, August 15, but some counties may extend that date.
You still have time to vote by mail if you have already received your ballot, but it’s really too late to mail if you want to ensure it arrives at your local Supervisor of Elections office on time. You can hand-deliver it, ask a friend to deliver it, or drop it off at your local polling place on Election Day.
Despite his never-ending jabber about how mail-in ballots are not secure, Donald Trump, a Palm Beach County resident, has frequently voted by mail (see the definition for the word hypocrisy). It is unknown if he will do so again or show up at the polling location nearest to Mar-a-Lago, perhaps sneaking in on a catering truck as he did during his daring escape from Iranian terrorists in Turkey that his own CIA told him was not really a credible threat.
Because Florida is a closed-primary state, only actual party members get to vote in Democratic or Republican races. More than 3 million citizens are registered to vote who have “no party affiliation.” They pay for the election with their tax dollars, but they are not allowed a say in who is nominated. Other, more progressive, states (including Texas, for heaven’s sake) allow everyone to vote.
The headline race in the Republican primary is the nomination for governor, although most prognosticators say Naples U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds has that sewn up. He’s got Trump’s endorsement and tons of cash from the AI datacenter crowd.
Former U.S. Rep. David Jolly is a shoo-in for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, but all eyes will be on the U.S. senatorial race between retired Army officer and Trump whistleblower Alex Vindman and State Rep. Angie Nixon.
For information on where to vote, check out this link:
That Was The Week That Was
Lawsuit: Florida hid records to keep Alligator Alcatraz open
Conservation groups have filed an updated lawsuit as part of the ongoing legal challenge over Alligator Alcatraz, claiming state and federal officials withheld crucial information from a federal appeals court proving that Florida applied for federal funding for the detention center and that the project should have undergone federal environmental reviews.
“Our government failed the Everglades, failed taxpayers and failed to comply with environmental laws when they built this ICE detention center in the middle of Big Cypress National Preserve. They left a mess behind when they hurried out of Alligator Alcatraz in June, and we’re advancing our lawsuit to hold them accountable for fixing the damage and owning up to the truth,” said Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Everglades.
Trump orders vaccinations spaced out
Trump issued an executive order—which has no real authority other than to sow confusion—that childhood vaccinations should be administered individually rather than in combination.
There is no science behind this. It’s a sop to the so-called “parental choice” crowd of vaccine deniers, chief among them the brain-worm-addled Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“The only thing that I can see is going to happen as a result of the announcement … is an injection of greater amounts of uncertainty and fear and confusion, where there doesn’t need to be any of that,” Dr. Andrew Racine, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said.
No means no except when it doesn’t
Trump doesn’t like it that a court told him to stop building his ballroom where the East Wing of the White House used to stand. He’s not happy, either, that despite promising no public funds would be spent, Democrats in Congress now say it will cost taxpayers nearly a billion dollars.
So, Trump sent the nation’s solicitor general over to the Supreme Court to ask the justices to suspend a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia that ballroom construction must be halted. It’s needed for national security, the court was told.
Rumors that the ballroom’s kitchen will have a fortified entrance for armored catering trucks with secret presidential compartments could not be confirmed.
Retail sales fell last month, creating worries about the economy during a time of nagging inflation and rising gasoline prices driven by Trump’s illegal war in Iran. Job figures were also sluggish.
Speaking of sluggish, here are the latest poll numbers
The latest Economist/YouGov poll shows that 62% of Americans disapprove of the president’s job performance. When asked if Trump was “honest and trustworthy,” 60% said no. And 65% of respondents said the country is headed in the wrong direction.
That 33% of Americans still find Trump credible is puzzling to pollsters and social scientists, although, studies show that approximately 16 percent of the population is considered to have an IQ “needing improvement,” to be charitable, so that explains about half of it.
Memes of the Week
Hide in a food truck? Expect memes. Here are a few of my faves.
Quote of the Week
"If you're hiding in a catering truck when you control the most powerful military in the world, you aren't winning."
— Ron Filipkowski
Letters of the Week
In this Trump era, I'm worried that elections will be canceled permanently, as well as being personally confronted. Lots to worry about, but what I mostly don't understand is why someone, especially those elected to represent US, aren't doing something to stop this crazed madness we seeing coming out of the WH.
— Robert Ivey
Sexual assault, adultery, tax fraud, theft, corruption, and now money laundering, is there any form of crime Mr. Trump isn’t involved in? The scary part is he truly believes he could get away with murder just like he claimed he could.
— Jim Hunter
Looking Ahead
When I’m not writing this newsletter, I also scribble a current events column for Florida Weekly. You should check it out. Here are some snippets, from there and elsewhere, to help guide your week ahead. (Paid subscribers to this newsletter have full access to the complete Onward Thru the Fog archive.)
August 16 is National Tell a Joke Day. Here’s one: Which days are the strongest? Saturday and Sunday. The rest are weekdays.
August 17 is Baby Boomer Recognition Day. You can recognize us by our gray hair or lack thereof. Also, our propensity to tell corny Dad Jokes
August 18 isn’t just Primary Election Day, it’s also Bad Poetry Day. It is widely agreed that the worst poem ever written in the English language was “The Tay Bridge Disaster” by William McGonagall. Off planet Earth, the worst poet in the universe, according to the late Douglas Adams, was Grunthos the Flatulent of the planet Kria and his infamous “Ode to a Small Lump of Green Putty I Found in My Armpit One Midsummer Morning.”
August 19. National Aviation Day celebrates the birthday of Orville Wright, the first person to successfully fly an airplane and not lose anyone’s luggage.
August 20. On this day in 1866, U.S. President Andrew Johnson formally declared the American Civil War over, more than a year after major fighting ceased. Then came the Tea Party and MAGA.
August 21. Senior Citizens Day. In Florida, 20% of the population – about 4.2 million people—are over the age of 60. Interestingly, despite its reputation as a retirement destination, Florida only ranks fourth in terms of the percentage of seniors. The top three are Maine, Vermont and West Virginia.
Last Week’s Tropic Press headlines
In case you missed it, here are some of the stories that headlined Tropic Press this past week. Click on the headlines to read the stories.
Profile in cowardice: Trump was happy to put everyone else at risk so long as he was safe
Instead of installing more EV chargers, Florida DOT dreams of flying cars
More than a million Floridians have voted early in advance of next week’s primary election
How big tech is trying to influence Florida’s elections
Good news on the storm front as fewer hurricanes are expected this season
ASK THE BIRD: Did RFK really suggest using rubbing alcohol as a deodorant?
Thanks for your support
Since this newsletter was launched a year ago, hundreds of thousands of subscribers have joined the Tropic Press community, making this one of the fastest-growing publications of its kind.
Our goal here is to reach as many voters — especially in the Sunshine State — as possible, so that we can increase engagement in the political process and, hopefully, raise interest in voting this coming November.
Currently, Republicans have a huge advantage in voter registration in Florida, but when you combine Democrats and voters unaffiliated with the two major parties, the numbers are there to change the way our state is governed.
Here are the stats from the Florida Secretary of State’s office:
The key is voter turnout. We need to get people involved. That’s the goal here. And you can help.
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Regardless, every person you share this with is one more potential vote for change.
Please share and help us make Florida — and America — better for all of us.
Thanks.
J.C. Bruce