Editors’ picks: News that didn’t fit

Florida ‘callously’ strips healthcare from thousands of children despite new law
Gov. Ron De Santis’s challenging of a ‘continuous eligibility’ rule has booted over 22,500 children off insurance since January
by Richard Luscombe ~ The Guardian ~ April 29 ~ tinyurl.com/Iguana1988
The DeSantis administration has stripped Medicaid “KidCare” coverage from at least 22,000 needy Florida children — probably illegally. 

House GOP committee pits young against old
Mainstream media often gets it wrong these days when covering Social Security
by Tia Maria ~ Gainesville Iguana ~ June 1 ~ tinyurl.com/Iguana2002
It’s not just seniors who should be concerned about cutting social security — young people will need their earned Social Security benefits perhaps even more than their parents and grandparents. Let’s change the conversation from cutting benefits to increasing revenue sources.

How silly can right-wing culture warriors get?
Gov. Ron De Santis is goofier than ever
by Jim Hightower ~ Jim Hightower’s Lowdown ~ May 30 ~ tinyurl.com/Iguana1992
Jim Hightower describes DeSantis as having “the personality of a dirt clod and the political sensibility of a tin-pot totalitarian.”  In one of DeSantis’ absurd actions, he has decreed that Florida’s bridges “can only be lit up in hues of red, white, and blue — no ‘liberal’ colors like green or purple.”

It is time to … WAKE UP! 
The U.S. has the worst social record of any developed country in the world and many developing countries
by Bill Gilbert ~ Gainesville Iguana ~ June 1 ~ tinyurl.com/Iguana2001
Bill Gilbert, long-time Gainesville activist and social justice advocate who just turned 90, demands a nonviolent wakeup call in America. To stop climate change, to stop corporate greed, to protect the most vulnerable among us, and to make our representative democracy work for everyone. 

Project 2025 explained
It is frighteningly anti-democratic and goes against what the vast majority of Americans want for our country
Red Wine & Blue ~ redwine.blue/project2025/
Project 2025 is the far-right extremists’ vision for America. It’s a plan that has been formed by politically powerful allies and supporters of Donald Trump that he will implement if he wins a second presidential term in 2024. Be afraid, be very afraid.

Real estate mogul Charles Kushner funded PAC network that backed Surfside candidates
Florida’s loosened law governing state political committees has opened a new avenue to conceal donors in local elections
by Alex DeLluca and Naomi Feinstein ~ Miami New Times ~ May 20 ~ tinyurl.com/Iguana1986
A DeSantis-signed law allows massive contributions from political groups to local-election candidates to go unreported until after the elections in question: who could say Gainesville and Alachua County won’t experience the same big-dollar corruption that recently flooded Surfside, Florida?

The moral imperative of voting for Biden
Threats to abandon Biden are unfair, wrong, and dangerous
by Robert Hubbell ~ Substack newsletter, Today’s Edition ~ May 3 ~ roberthubbell.substack.com.
The president is always the lightning rod for the nation’s angst. It comes with the job and is no ground for complaint. But the natural tendency to “blame” the president for events over which he has no control has been converted into a cudgel by every side in a polygonal dispute that has endured for millennia.

This, that and the other
Emmitt Smith isn’t going to go quietly into that good night
by FreeGNV ~ May 28 ~ tinyurl.com/Iguana2000
Emmitt Smith, the Gator football legend, was one of the first to object when UF gutted its DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusiveness) staff. In a recent interview with USA Today Sports: “When I see them destroying DEI for the sake of politics … it’s not even common sense … This is just sheer out of spite and sheer power.” 

Zionist activist meets undercover with Muslim professors at UF, invites Israel criticism 
‘You hear about these things happening to other people,’ a professor said. ‘You never think it’s going to happen to you’
by Vivienne Serret ~ Fresh Takes Florida — UF’s College of Journalism and Communication ~ May 19 ~ tinyurl.com/Iguana1990
A Messianic Zionist activist, who pretended to be Muslim and said he was concerned about Islamophobia, met undercover with UF Muslim professors in an apparent scheme to goad them into making remarks that would expose their bias against Israel and conservatives.

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