Prominent cases of purported lying continue to dominate the news cycle. Hunter Biden. George Santos. The rapper Offset. There are a number of variables that distinguish these cases. One is the audience: the faceless government, particular donors and millions of online followers, respectively. Another is the medium used to convey the alleged lie: on a bureaucratic form, through intermediaries and via social media.
Florida & Beyond, and All Opinions
DeSantis Is Right: Even As a Convicted Felon, Trump Would Be Eligible to Vote in Florida
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on June 7 suggested on X that former President Donald Trump is still eligible to vote in Florida, his home state, even though he is now a convicted felon 34 times over. DeSantis is correct, though not necessarily for all the reason he stated on X.
Judge Blocks Florida Law Requiring Cities’ Elected to Disclose Same Financial Details as County and State Officials
A federal judge has blocked a 2023 Florida law that required municipal elected officials to disclose detailed information about their personal finances, ruling that the law likely violated First Amendment rights. U.S. District Judge Melissa Damian on Monday issued a preliminary injunction, siding with municipal officials throughout the state who challenged the law. The decision came three weeks before a July 1 deadline for filing the information.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Tuesday, June 11, 2024
Veteran’s Suicide Prevention Training at the county library, The Atlantic Chapter of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State hosts an open, freewheeling discussion, Jacques Cousteau’s birthday and his evanescent memorials.
Biden and Trump Are Forgetful Of Some Details. But Here’s What Matters More.
Presidents need to use both intuitive and deliberative decision-making. The ability to make smaller decisions effectively using intuitive decision-making frees up time to concentrate on larger ones. However, the decisions that make or break a president are exceedingly complex and highly consequential, such as how to handle climate change or international conflicts. Here is where deliberative decision-making is most needed.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Monday, June 10, 2024
Heat index values up to 105. Trial week, but nothing high profile. The library board meets. Clay Jones turns the tables on those countries. The Bunnell City Commission meets, and living in a city of 100,000 without a museum or a bookstore. That’s Palm Coast.
State Laws Like Florida’s Are Threatening Academic Freedom
Over the past few years, Republican state lawmakers have introduced more than 150 bills in 35 states that seek to curb academic freedom on campus. Twenty-one of these bills have been signed into law, several of them in Florida. Taken together, this legislative onslaught has undermined academic freedom and institutional autonomy in five distinct and overlapping ways.
In Florida and Elsewhere, New GOP Rules Hostile to Voter Registration Threaten Fines and Criminal Penalties
Republican lawmakers in Florida , Alabama, Georgia, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, and Texas have enacted a variety of voter registration laws over the past four years. The measures add new requirements around registering and communicating with voters and threaten hefty penalties for violations. The stated goal of the new laws is to prevent fraud, but in the absence of any evidence of more than very rare fraud some voting rights groups contend their real purpose is to dampen participation by likely Democratic voters.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Sunday, June 9, 2024
9th Annual FUN-Raiser Festival at the Florida Agricultural Museum, Donald Duck’s birthday, an FDR Fireside Chat from 1934 on the legitimate object of government.
Germany Lowers Voting Age to 16 for European Election
Ahead of the European parliament elections in June, Germany has lowered the age limit on participation to 16. This makes it the largest of just a handful of states in the EU to allow people under the age of 18 to vote. Austria, Belgium and Malta have already enfranchised 16 and 17-year-olds, and Greece is to allow anyone turning 17 in 2024 to participate in the June vote.