Just When You Thought Politics In Florida Was Going to Revert to Some Sense of Normalcy...

Just getting word on this now, BREAKING NEWS and what what. But DAMN (via Elizabeth Koh at the Tampa Bay Times)...

Newly appointed Florida Secretary of State Michael Ertel has resigned from office after photos of him posing as a Hurricane Katrina victim in blackface were obtained by the Tallahassee Democrat, the paper reported Thursday.

According to the Democrat, the photos were taken in 2005, shortly after Ertel had become supervisor of elections in Seminole County, and depict Ertel in blackface, wearing a New Orleans Saints bandanna around his head and a shirt with the words "Katrina Victim" written on it.

There are photos. They are rude. I ain't showing them.

It's just (White) Boys (over the age of 35) being (White) Boys (what the everloving hell, you moranic wingnuts from the Hallowed Halls of White Privilege?).

Blackface is a troubling thing to begin with: it took Ted Danson years to recover from doing that, and he wasn't being an asshole about it.

Adding to the stupidity was even THINKING it was okay or funny to mock the thousands of actual New Orleans residents - most of them Black - dying from the flooding and lack of aid in the aftermath of one of the worst hurricanes in modern history.

And this was someone in a position of authority, a county-level official responsible for overseeing elections, showing utter disdain for a class of AMERICAN CITIZENS who just happen to be poor and wearing the "wrong" skin color.

This is a perfect example of the sadism of the modern Republican mindset. This is further proof of Serwer's contention that Cruelty is the Point.

And here I was about to write a blog entry about DeSantis' early tenure as Governor, where - I'm a bit shocked myself - he's actually been doing some sane shit for the state instead of going 100 percent Wingnut on everybody the way Rick "NO ETHICS" Scott did. Okay, DeSantis' court hires are a serious concern, but he's come out early on the right side of cleaning up the environment, which is huge around here...

But noooooo, the Florida GOP comes in and proves once again we're all getting leadership from a pack of assholes who never grew up from their drunken frat boy days.

And if you're wondering why a lot of people are throwing conniptions about Covington Catholic high school boys running around in blackface? This is why: Learned Behavior they will NEVER grow out of...