It was a good, if fast, Thanksgiving vacation. Thanks to Joe Pags and Rory O’Neill for coving our mornings while I was away.
We have a lot of ground to cover. The news start breaking, it seemed, as soon as my Thursday show before vacation was over. Gaetz is out, Bondi is in (glad to see that development) and the Trump presidency is taking form. It’s also getting something we have not seen in the world community since 2021- RESPECT. Why else are leaders of allies and foes responding to the election far better than the American left has? That’s what saying what you mean and doing what you say will do for you. Oh, and daddy pardoned Hunter Biden.
For Florida, the new Trump administration means we are playing Trump Dominoes. The selections the president has made for his cabinet and other positions has various regions in the state scrambling to fill vacant seats in congress and elsewhere. Candidates are seeking to jump from one office to another, leaving those sometimes recently attained offices vacant and sending even more people scrambling to fill them. It’s almost an electoral nightmare. This is the time to be glad you are not Tim Bobanic or any other elections supervisor with politically ambitious people vying to make a move.
And you term limits people need to just sit down, shut up and let the adults have the room. Please tell me how these term limits are working in ANY way! With Debbie Mayfield termed out in the Senate, in the House for all of five minutes and with Randy Fine leaving his Senate seat where Mayfield was termed out to run for congress in Daytona, she jumps into the race to return to the senate that she was ineligible to retain scant days ago, there are no real term limits. The simple truth is, they’re term limits don’t work at all.
Elections have consequences. The county commission is not omnipotent, but may be asked to be, and Palm Bay is seeing changes, most likely for the better.
We’ll never get to it all, but we’ll start eating the elephant one bite at a time as we get back to business today on BML.
THE LINEUP
Social
New College class to explore wokeness
Boise State stands for something
Return of THE LOGO? (no, the NFL one)
Political
Following the Gaetz $...be sure your sins will find you out
Gaetz out- character matters (at least it used to for conservatives)
Yale prof: effort to vanquish Trump a failure
Trump endorses Fine for Daytona congress seat
Immigration- are we annexing Mexico?
Florida
Chronister hammered as Branch COVIDian as Trump picks him to lead DEA
Brevard Commission, Arbiter of Truth & Constitutionality
Palm Bay- elections matter, change is happening
FL settles on 1st amendment case (may not be the only time)
The Waffle leads the Brevard County Commission
Challenges for the Legislature
House has potential to be more conservative
What about the governor’s race in 2026?
Sentinel decries restricting amendment initiatives (a good idea)