* It was no shock that far-right former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro didn’t hang around for the inauguration of his successor (Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva), the one who had defeated him in a run-off. There then followed an assault on Brazil’s capital Brasilia by Bolsonaro supporters who claimed the election was not won legally. It was eerily similar to Washington’s Jan. 6 insurrection.
So where does a Western Hemisphere autocrat head to? Florida. Initially near Orlando. Beyond that? Trump always has room in his Guilded Elba for a fellow despot.
* There are now two black county GOP chairpersons: Hillsborough’s Dana Golen and Palm Beach’s Michael Bennett.
* From 2013-20, Florida universities received nearly $1 billion from Chinese entities.
* “We seek normalcy, not philosophic lunacy. We will never surrender to the woke mob.”–Gov. Ron Desantis, at his inauguration. The obvious takeaway: the self-serving context and definition of “normalcy” are not unlike those for “freedom.”
* DeSantis’ “Stop WOKE Act” takes acronyming to ridiculous depths as he has dubbed the law the “Stop Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees Act. Well, we can go even lower. No butts about it. How about a gubernatorial acronym? Another Self Serving Hijacking Of Legal Expertise.