Florida Disaster Area

President Biden is visiting Florida today to survey the damage left by Hurricane Idalia. He’s probably going to skip the real disaster of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign. But now comes the awkward part for DeSantis.

DeSantis should be seen with President Biden, a man he’s been verbally attacking and whose job he’s trying to get. Now, DeSantis has to ask President Biden for federal money, which is also awkward because Republicans are supposed to be against socialism and big government interference. Fortunately for DeSantis and everyone who lives in the Sunshine State, President Joe Biden is a better person than Ron DeSantis because Ron DeSantis doesn’t have to ask for federal money to deal with the hurricane. President Biden is going to give it to him. President Biden said, “We’re going to take care of Florida.” Then, he invited Ron DeSantis to meet with him and tour the affected areas together. Guess what. DeSantis has refused the meeting.

The President of the United States will tour areas hit by Hurricane Idalia today without the governor of Florida with him. DeSantis’ office said, “In these rural communities, and so soon after impact, the security preparations alone that would go into setting up such a meeting would shut down ongoing recovery efforts.” As Sarah Marshall said in the great movie, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, “Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit, bullshit.”

After Hurricane Ian hit Florida last year, Ron DeSantis did accompany President Biden to tour the affected areas. What changed since then? What changed is that Ron DeSantis is running for president and he feels he can’t afford to be seen with President Biden. If he is, the other Republicans will attack him. Don’t believe me? In 2016, they all piled on Chris Christie for touring disaster areas with President Obama.

You may think, “Well this is beyond politics and it’s time to come together. They can verbally shit at each other later.” But that’s not how Republicans operate. Sure, they’re really good at asking for money but not so good at dispensing it when there’s a disaster. Look at Donald Trump. When he was president (sic), he whined that he wasn’t getting enough credit for aid that was going to Puerto Rico after a hurricane hit it. Republicans are attacking President Biden for the way he’s handled the wildfires in Maui (which is nonsense), but you don’t hear the president whining that he’s not getting enough credit.

After Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, Donald Trump withheld aid for the territory all because his feelings were hurt. Later, he tried to trade the island (which he had just found out was an island) for Greenland. And when Denmark (who owns Greenland) said no, he attacked their prime minister and called her a “nasty woman” which is something he also called the mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico.

You don’t see President Biden calling to trade Florida for something like French Guiana. I was going to make a joke about Florida being the one state we could probably get rid of and not miss, but then I thought of Texas, Arkansas, Alabama, West Virginia, Utah, etc, etc… Plus, Miami is OK.

And Ron DeSantis should be using state funds on hurricane relief instead of spending it to deport refugees from Texas.

And as if President Biden hasn’t been treated unfairly already, he’s going to be accompanied today by Florida Senator Rick Scott.

Creative note: This is the first time I’ve drawn White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. How much do you want to be that if Daily Kos runs it, that one of their readers says it’s “racist?”

Music note: I listened to Stone Temple Pilots while coloring today.

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