Hurricane Milton and the call Ron DeSantis refused to take.
America in Turmoil; 28 days before the election.
While Hurricane Milton is regaining strength and on course to Florida, Trump's political whirlwind in American politics produced another day of drama. Kamala Harris called today's scandal "the latest example of who Donald Trump is."
Today, Howard Stern interviewed Harris, a radio personality known for his often provocative style. I will let Kamala Harris tell the story herself. Asked about Bob Woodward's latest book, which mentions that Trump sent COVID tests to Putin, she replied:
"I believe that Donald Trump has this desire to be a dictator. He admires strong men and he gets played by them because he thinks that they're his friends. And they are manipulating him full time and manipulating him by flattery and with favor. And […] in the height of the pandemic […] people were dying by the hundreds, everybody was scrambling to get these kits, the tests."
"And this guy who is President of the United States is sending them to Russia, to a murderous dictator for his personal use."
"That is just the most recent stark example of who Donald Trump is that he secretly sent COVID test kits for the personal use of Putin, of Russia, an adversary, to the United States. When he was talking about Americans should be putting bleach in their blood. Think about what this is. Think about this: this person who wants to be president again, who secretly is helping out an adversary when the American people are dying by the hundreds every day and in need of relief, and instead, how did he handle it domestically for Americans? He mismanaged the whole thing."
DeSantis
It was another day of America in Turmoil, with 28 days until the election. And still, after some ten years of one Trump scandal following the next, American voters still need help deciding who of the two candidates has the best resume to improve their lives and American society.
Florida's Governor, Ron DeSantis, was in the news. You will remember him as the one eager to become Trump 2.0. However, the sorcerer's apprentice failed in his attempt to take over control from the master and thus continued to practice Trumpian magic in Trump's newfound home state of Florida.
Now, the failed sorcerer's apprentice will soon need millions of brooms to carry water for him. So the Vice President of the United States tried to call him to coordinate federal relief efforts with those at the state level, just like she coordinates with governors from both parties in the states that Hurricane Helene has hit.
DeSantis refused to take Kamala's call. While lives are at stake for a monster hurricane, it is clear that his preference lies with playing political games instead of taking care of the people who voted him into office.
Two extreme hurricanes
It now seems likely that less than a month before the elections, the US will have to deal with the impacts of two extreme hurricanes. Hurricane Milton may be the worst to hit Florida in a hundred years. President Biden even canceled his planned trip to Germany and Africa. He's a leader who got his priorities right.
Florida is also the state where a history of disastrous hurricanes wasn't enough to convince even one of the Republican members of Congress to support last week's request for extra funding for FEMA. Chaos is their aim because the frustration and anger of those who miss the bigger picture is the GOP's most fertile ground for winning the next election.
Immigration
The Republicans' main rallying point is stopping immigration. You will remember that the Republican members of Congress blocked proposed measures to drastically reduce immigration on Trump's orders, again aiming for maximum chaos. Today, I saw this post on Blue Sky; it's a nice message to remind us how immigrants are helping the US out of the chaos created by climate change-fueled hurricanes.
Today's last thought: please move climate action higher on the political agenda.
The Planet is warning you.
Yesterday, I wrote:
When Hurricane Milton's Extremes and Extreme Politics Collide
American politics are in turmoil, and so is the climate. While many months and billions of dollars will be needed to rebuild communities in several southeastern states after the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene, the next one is warming up to slam Florida.
As soon as Trump was sworn in to serve the American people, he got busy eliminating any agency crucial to good governance, including Obama's pandemic office created in response to Ebola. He serves no one but himself.
No one can explain how the governor of FL, which is extremely experienced in the impacts of hurricanes,
can turn away a call from the government offering help which will sorely be needed after the “hurricane
of a century” hits FL very soon. It is incomprehensible to me that politics takes precedence over human lives. Ron DeSantis is doing just that and will have blood and untold misery on his hands forever. Shame on him.
As for the orange man, I have no words. The person who describes him best (besides Harris with Howard Stern) is his niece,
Mary Trump, who also is on Substack.
Thank you Alex for an excellent but sobering piece.