patrick.net

Voting against a city marina and golf course. That's a private sector can solve that. Yeah, it's a huge thing here. I think the entire city Golf Course should be sold or leased at a flat rate + share of the profit.

We spent $3M on sprinklers and other golf course improvements and half a mil on a marina viability study. And our city taxes went up. Meanwhile the sidewalks are all fucked up. Probably fix every pothole & relay all the worst portions of sidewalk for 30 years with $3M

I did want to see a candidate exploring the possibility of rewriting the hotel laws so only US Citizens or Corporate Entity-paid users can stay over 30 days (anti-Migrant measure)

Let's see, always voting the Engineer over the Realwhore... City Council packed with Realwhores, time for a change...

Elections suck. I do vote. So much bull shit to go through to make an educated decision.

I fucking need to get my paperwork filled out for the spring to be on the ballot for reelection. I haven't done my local and state research yet for November. I know my House rep (federal), Dem unfortunately, but I'm voting for her. We don't have a Senate seat up this year.

I got the school board covered and village, that's spring and I know them all. Need to look into my State reps though for November. That's generally more important.

AmericanKulak says

Florida Amendment 3, Marijuana Legalization Initiative (2024) YES - I don't smoke but I want prescription free drugs legal

I'm voting no, on this amendment. It does nothing to allow for individual cultivation. In fact the bills language will protect the current growers licensed to grow it. The only reason most people can think of to vote for this is that it legalizes smoking. Which it really does not. When was the last time you or anyone you know got arrested for smoking pot? People smoke it all the time, and nobody is arrested.

There will be zero tolerance on smoking in public. I'm not talking about smoking in a pavilion at a public park, full of families celebrating their kid's birthday. People will get busted for smoking anywhere outdoors, even if they are alone. Just imagine the ramifications of people calling the police because they smell it coming from your yard. What about folks that can't smoke in their rented apartment? Where can they legally smoke?

As it is now, as long as you aren't acting like some criminal thug, that conjures probable cause. Cops will never arrest you for smoking.
I was in my back yard of a rented house years ago. About 5 cops came through my back yard, they were going to the tenant in the back. We were oblivious that they were out front. The cops came around the corner, while we were passing a joint, it was one of those misty humid days, where the air is thick and the smoke was just wafting in the whole backyard like a fog machine. The cops just said, put that out and go inside, so we don't catch a case.

More over I wouldn't trust anything Joe Gruters says, about "Fixing it" after it's passed. Such a Nancy Pelosi thing to say, for a RINO.

Tenpoundbass says

The only reason most people can think of to vote for this is that it legalizes smoking. Which it really does not. When was the last time you or anyone you know got arrested for smoking pot? People smoke it all the time, and nobody is arrested.

About the only positive out of BLM and the likes of ANTIFA. At least in normal law abiding areas. It's much easier to do illegal things PERSONALLY as the cops don't want interaction if you're not harming another person. They'll just tell you to put it out now.

So I could see why you'd vote no. I also think as you mention that people are dumb enough to think it allows smoking in public. The weed lobby is strong. I have no issue with it, it's a plant that makes you feel fuzzy/high. Every Wednesday I'm in a weed smoke filled room for 3 hours with my ping pong crew. Doesn't bother me. Been done with it for over a 18 months now.

My friends can say the same about my drinking, but never understood getting high constantly. Tried it for a while when it became legal more frequently here in IL. It just shuts me down. The THC percentage is 3-4x's what I grew up with. Regardless of strain, I'd be sleeping in an hour if I smoke the dispensary stuff now.

I just want legal weed to include personal cultivation. That way I can grow my own regs. I like just plain old good buzz weed. I have never been a fan of the dank kush kind buds and all that. Regular weed used to give you a mild buzz you could function and still complete your tasks you were planning. Today most weed will kill your gumption to get things done, even if the high wasn't great.

It's scary the way people are conditioned to think that if it we don't vote for it now it will never come up again. It comes up every tight election where the Florida Dems are scared they are going to lose. What's strange about this time, it was spear headed by a scumbag RINO to drive the Kamala vote to the polls, thinking they are getting legal weed.

Remember when Florida voted for medical weed, the legislature dragged their feet on it, and tightly controlled it to create a weed monopoly. They just want to expand that now to recreational smokers. The law makers love it, because it will give them legislation to budget for the policing of unlawful pot smokers. Which will be a huge money maker for them. If you remember under Obama Eric Holder all but decriminalized recreational pot smokers. That is why if any City or State arrests people, they don't get Federal funds to help detain and prosecute them. So most states treat it as a secondary offense to catch people doing other stupid shit.

Without specific recreational cultivation provisions, I like the way things are now. As growing a plant IS a serious Federal crime worthy of a DEA and a SWAT team raid. This bill wont change that.

https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/principled-tuesday-october-29-2024

The New York Times ran a highly gratifying but deceptive story that still made my morning, headlined, “Florida Stopped Being a Swing State Slowly, Then All At Once.” Ha! The post-pandemic swing was to +1,000,000 red voters. That headline is encouraging enough, but the sub-headline added: “Once a top presidential battleground, Florida is no longer competitive.” Take that, dems. ...

The Times ignored the obvious question: what significant event happened in between 2018 and 2022, say in 2020, which made DeSantis who he is, and which painted Florida deep red? Hmm?

The word “pandemic” was mostly absent from the Times’ article, which instead floundered around whining about wonky hispanic voting trends, pining over democrat underspending and voter-registration outsourcing, and gnashing its teeth about Republican gerrymandering. ...

And, at some point in early summer 2020, DeSantis made the fateful decision that transformed him into one of the most well-known politicians in the world.

Governor DeSantis defied lockdowns at a time when doing that meant the narrative-enforcing media would immediately savage you and try to destroy your political career. DeSantis did it anyway. He also shut down the Summer of Protest. And he fought to free people —like me— who live in Florida’s few blue counties.

The media’s effort to destroy DeSantis backfired. They just gave him more publicity. The result was that, over the next two years, Florida experienced a red tsunami of Republican in-migration unlike anything that has maybe ever happened in American history. Conservatives across the country fled to Florida in droves. Meanwhile, small herds of liberals moved out, indignantly muttering “deathsantis” to each other all the way up I-75.

Patrick says

The New York Times ran a highly gratifying but deceptive story that still made my morning, headlined, “Florida Stopped Being a Swing State Slowly, Then All At Once.”

I remember when Iowa used to be a swing state. You'll notice that nobody even questions it anymore.

Patrick says

The media’s effort to destroy DeSantis backfired. They just gave him more publicity. The result was that, over the next two years, Florida experienced a red tsunami of Republican in-migration unlike anything that has maybe ever happened in American history. Conservatives across the country fled to Florida in droves. Meanwhile, small herds of liberals moved out, indignantly muttering “deathsantis” to each other all the way up I-75.

About all of those recent Republican voters. I'm not convinced that everyone of them actually plan on voting Republican. It would be the best way to hide bogus and illegal votes. If all of the sketch registrations they were voting with were all registered Republicans. Then perhaps the Dem activists thinks they could best hide them as registered Republicans. And my concern is the RNC legal watchdog delegation might just be scrutinizing the Democrat registrations.

Also I find it odd, that with all of the talk about how much more the Republicans are doing in Mail in and early voting. Then using those numbers against the Democrat's turnout, without mentioning, how many Democrats that is fed up with the Current Democrats and will vote for Donald Trump. But for now, they still see themselves as Democrats, without a true Democrat candidate to vote for. I expect at least 10% of the Democrat vote to do just that. I'm also cautiously worried that the grift this time around, will be in the registered Republican voters. Not all of them, but could be enough to offset their disengaged Democrat voters.