Florida man, Florida man,
great head of hair, studio tan,
if I were hitching in the Everglades
and you pulled up, I’d be afraid.

I wouldn’t climb into your minivan,
your swampmobile, O Florida man.
I’d wait for a ride with an honest trucker.
Anyone but you, you sleazy fucker.

[link:https://www.theatlantic.com/books/archive/2021/04/poem-james-parker-florida-man/618495/|

(Remembered the link this time.)

Texas-based corporate leaders are trying to avoid the widespread criticism experienced by large Georgia-based corporations for not opposing the major voter restriction law passed by Republicans in the state until after the fact.

“We are strongly opposed to this bill and others like it. As a Texas-based business, we must stand up for the rights of our team members and customers who call Texas home, and honor the sacrifices made by generations of Americans to protect and expand the right to vote,” the Fort Worth-based airline [American Airlines] said in a statement. Michael Dell, founder and CEO of the Texas-based Dell Technologies, also came out against the bill, tweeting: “Free, fair, equitable access to voting is the foundation of American democracy. Those rights—especially for women, communities of color—have been hard-earned.”

The article goes on to say that the reactions of other Texas businesses (SW Airlines, AT&T) is more tepid. And there's this "howler" from Lt. Gov. Patrick.

Southern trees bear a strange fruit
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
Black bodies swingin' in the Southern breeze
Strange fruit hangin' from the poplar trees

The haunting delivery by Holiday would forever be engraved on the souls of those who heard it.

>snip

Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck
For the sun to rot, for the tree to drop
Here is a strange and bitter crop

[link:https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/3/21/2021130/-As-long-as-white-supremacy-endures-Billie-Holiday-s-Strange-Fruit-will-be-an-anthem-of-resistance|

Miami police arrested former Republican state Sen. Frank Artiles on Thursday and charged him with orchestrating a plot to siphon votes from a sitting Democratic state senator by paying a man with a similar last name to run a fake campaign. The scheme seems to have worked: In November, the incumbent, José Javier Rodríguez, lost his seat by the incredibly thin margin of around 30 votes to his Republican challenger, Ileana Garcia. The man Artiles recruited to run as an independent—an auto parts dealer named Alex Rodriguez, who didn’t live in the district—picked up more than 6,000 votes. (In his concession speech, José Javier Rodríguez called for a full investigation into the race.)

[link:https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/03/the-arrest-of-an-ex-florida-state-senator-hints-at-a-broader-dark-money-scheme/|