Sunburn — The Morning Read Of What’s Hot In Florida Politics — 11.11.21

 By Peter Schorsch    

Good Thursday morning.

Today is a day to honor and thank the millions of military veterans who dedicated themselves to the preservation and furtherance of this great nation. Sprinkled throughout today’s edition are several blurbs and links highlighting Florida’s focus on veterans.

In addition to that content, here are some non-veteran issues for your radar:

 — Meet the man who made Jan. 6 possible: No, not Donald Trump. An excerpt from Jonathan Karl’s book, Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show, published in the Atlantic, introduces readers to Johnny McEntee, Trump’s late-term head of the Presidential Personnel Office who rose from Trump’s body guy to a top administration official for no other reason than he blindly supported the President. The department, Karl notes, was often compared to the East German Stasi or Gestapo for its relentless goal of sniffing out traitors (more often perceived than in reality) within the administration. The loyalty led to massive administration turnover, at the insistence of often unqualified young hires to replace them. The result was a team void of real qualifications in things like legal advice or historical context that supported and promoted Trump’s assertion the election had been stolen. Read more here.

 — The parental revolution Dems would be wise to acknowledge: When Republican Glenn Youngkin defeated Democrat Terry McAuliffe in Virginia’s gubernatorial race, it shocked many. But those who were noticing parental outrage saw the writing on the wall. As POLITICO writer Michael Kruse details, public education was at the forefront of that election, and likely will be going forward. Parents who typically align with Democrats, voted GOP this year if for no other reason than they were fed up with how COVID-19 policies affected their children and their education. Looking forward to the midterms next year, Republicans created a playbook in Virginia that could find broad success moving forward — they tapped into parental outrage while Dems refused to budget.

 — Police hurt thousands of teens every year, many of them Black girls: Roughly one in five use-of-force incidents involving kids 17 and under in six large police departments nationwide targeted Black girls. The Marshall Project, a nonprofit journalism group that focuses on criminal justice, identified 4,000 total incidents. Nearly 800 involved Black girls and teens, while just 120 cases targeted White girls and teens. In New Orleans, every girl involved in a use-of-force incident was Black. Similar results held in Chicago, Minneapolis, Indianapolis, Columbus and Portland, where girls who experienced use-of-force were disproportionately Black. The report highlights several examples, including a young Black girl who was struck by a car while riding her bike, only to be handcuffed and pepper-sprayed by officers when she didn’t want to be questioned about the accident. Other examples include a 9-year-old girl in Rochester, New York, who was pepper-sprayed as she sat handcuffed in the back of a police cruiser crying for her father and the now-infamous incident in which a teenage girl at a Texas pool party was wrestled to the ground by a police officer.

 — Where’s all that COVID plastic headed?: The ocean. Rivers. Streams. Lakes. Eventually, beaches. That’s where. A new study from the Nanjing University’s School of Atmospheric Sciences and UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography finds more than 8 million tons of pandemic-associated plastic waste have been generated globally, with more than 25,000 tons entering the global ocean. Within three to four years, a significant portion of ocean plastic debris is expected to make its way onto either beaches or the seabed. That’s fueled in part by the increase in single-use plastics spurred by the pandemic through things like straws, plastic cutlery, masks and gloves. Read more here.

 — His name is George Floyd: The Washington Post biography of Floyd is coming May 17. The book, by award-winning Post reporters Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa, places Floyd’s narrative “within the larger context of America’s deeply troubled history of institutional racism” and reveals how “systemic racism shaped George Floyd’s life and legacy,” according to the Post. It evaluates Floyd’s family roots in the tobacco fields of North Carolina and ongoing struggles with inequality in housing, education, health care, criminal justice and policing, and further goes on to evaluate how his tragic experiences ignited a global movement. Publisher Viking also released the book cover, a simple and somber eggshell background with the title in large black font and a subhead: “One Man’s Life and The Struggle For Racial Justice.”

— SITUATIONAL AWARENESS —

Tweet, tweet:

—@JoeBiden: The Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal is a historic investment in our nation’s public infrastructure. We will rebuild our roads and bridges, provide clean drinking water, expand broadband access, invest in clean energy, and create good-paying jobs across the country.

—@MarcoRubio: Two months ago, I warned that forcing the economy to conform to ever-changing progressive social goals would lead to the inflation of the 1970s, because it tries to do everything at once without creating real value to support it all

—@ValDemings: When billions flow to Florida from the bipartisan infrastructure bill — creating jobs and lowering prices in every corner of our state — just remember that Marco Rubio voted against it, because he can’t stand up and deliver for working people.

—@SecDef: Ahead of this #VeteransDay, I want to thank all those who have come before us. From the bottom of my heart to our Veterans: thank you, and your brave families, for the service you rendered in uniform. We honor you. And we remember you always.

Tweet, tweet:

—@Goni_Lessan: A 7-year-old outside of CVS told me the brain scraping COVID swab test hurt more than the Pfizer vaccine he just got. His 8-yr-old sister said after 20 seconds, her arm didn’t hurt. Now I feel wimpy for panicking and sweating through my shirt when I got my first shot in March.

—@Redistrict: FL’s Senate Rs release four draft congressional maps. Bizarre: these maps shore up #FL27 Rep. Maria Salazar (R), but otherwise are barely gerrymanders. By my count, these maps break down 16-12 Trump-Biden, vs. 15-12 today. Is this a head fake?