Taylor Swift may now know the way topical her track “Florida!!!” is on the subject of the state’s political scene.
Because the State Watchdog Reporter for USA TODAY Community-Florida, I cowl the state authorities in Tallahassee. Any given day, you will discover me watching a press convention with Gov. Ron DeSantis, trying by means of medical expert information or interviewing state legislators concerning the payments they’ve sponsored.
However immediately, I will be writing about Taylor’s lyrics and the way “Florida!!!” they are surely.
Florida: Taylor’s Model in comparison with DeSantis’ Model
When you did not keep up till 4 a.m. to hearken to Taylor Swift’s new extremely anticipated album “The Tortured Poets Division” then you definitely’re one of many few who do not have an opinion on the track “Florida!!!”
The track, that includes Florence Welch with Florence + The Machine, depicts the state like an outdated frontier city – disorderly and darkish, with homicide, binge consuming and medicines – the alternative of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ powerful “regulation and order” stance on crime.
“We’re pleased with being a regulation and order state,” DeSantis mentioned final week as he signed 5 public security payments in St. Petersburg.
The governor has repeated the mantra at nearly each press convention this spring. Whether or not it was signing a invoice that will enable owners to take away squatters from their property or warning spring breakers in Miami, DeSantis has criticized blue states like California and has in contrast them to Florida.
“What passes muster in New York and California is just not passing muster right here,” he mentioned when he signed “Property Rights” invoice (HB 621) in Orlando in March.
Florida (Taylor’s model) is completely different. Her lyrics echo the Sunshine State stereotypes that DeSantis is actively attempting to alter.
Regardless, the verses of “Florida!!!” hit information peg after information peg in each stanza, and it is easy for me to jot down concerning the newest in Florida politics utilizing Taylor’s skills. Perhaps Technology Alpha will subscribe to the paper after this.
Bringing the warmth in ‘Florida!!!’
‘You’ll be able to beat the warmth should you beat the costs too’
Is Taylor speaking concerning the warmth preemption regulation DeSantis signed final week?
The measure was in response to a Miami-Dade County proposal, which instructed mandated breaks within the shade on the most popular days – however Florida mentioned no and handed HB 433. It bars native governments from establishing insurance policies concerning warmth publicity necessities not in any other case required underneath state or federal regulation.
Throughout this yr’s legislative session, Sen. Jay Trumbull, R-Panama Metropolis mentioned he sponsored the invoice to achieve assist for a statewide mandate to comply with federal Occupational Security Well being Administration (OSHA) rules.
However the regulation has annoyed and angered some consultants and advocates for development employees and farmworkers, who say employees want extra protections, not fewer.
Florida and the scent of weed – authorized or not
‘And my buddies all scent like weed or little infants, and this metropolis reeks of driving myself loopy’
Smelling like weed is one thing DeSantis has warned Floridians time and time once more could occur if a constitutional modification on the poll this November passes.
The proposal, referred to as Modification 3, will legalize the “non-medical private use of marijuana merchandise and marijuana equipment by an grownup” 21 or older if accredited by 60% or extra of statewide voters. It might take impact six months after the election.
DeSantis mentioned he thought medical marijuana was sufficient for Florida.
“This state will begin to scent like marijuana … it would scale back the standard of life,” he mentioned. “Can we wish to have extra marijuana in our communities? I do not suppose it will work out nicely. However it’s a very, very broad modification.”
Destin will get title dropped. What about trip leases?
‘So you’re employed your life away simply to pay For a time-share down in Destin’
This session, native governments misplaced authority to the state on trip leases. The brand new regulation additionally created in a single day occupancy limits, and fines for rental violations could be capped at $500.
There have been just below 27,000 trip leases licensed with the state in 2022, a quantity seen as capturing solely a fraction of the leases possible in operation.
Lawmakers have been scrapping over trip leases for greater than a decade, advancing insurance policies that toggle between extra state management and extra hands-off. This yr, the state comes out on high, except DeSantis vetoes the invoice.
DeSantis hasn’t commented on the newest laws and his workplace declined to supply perception into his considering.
Florida could also be a drug, however the penalties are getting steeper
‘Florida is one hell of a drug’
If Taylor is speaking about literal medicine, that is a problem Florida’s lawmakers have continued to crack down on. This yr, Florida added tianeptine, ‘gasoline station heroin,’ to the Schedule I.
In early April, DeSantis signed “Exposures of First Responders to Fentanyl” (SB 718) and mentioned it might “ensure that the folks that put on the uniform are protected,” though medical consultants say the brand new regulation might probably trigger hurt and discourage bystanders and members of the family from calling 911 throughout an overdose.
DeSantis additionally introduced an growth of the Coordinated Opioid Restoration (CORE) Community, an effort between the state’s Division of Well being, Division of Kids and Households and the Company for Well being Care Administration. Its intention is to curb the variety of deaths brought on by the polluted drug provide and will likely be expanded to 29 counties.
This system, which began in 12 counties in 2022, connects folks with remedy therapy, restoration packages and peer assist.
Hurricane Florence and the Machine?
‘The hurricane with my title when it got here, I received drunk and I dared it to scrub me away’
That is Florence’s line. It is fairly apparent – Hurricane Florence hit in 2018. This yr, an “extraordinarily lively” hurricane season is probably going, in line with climate forecasters.
Final yr was the fourth most lively season on document. Hurricane Idalia was the one U.S. landfalling hurricane in 2023. It made landfall as a category-3 hurricane on Aug. 30 close to Keaton Seaside, Florida, inflicting storm surge inundation of seven to 12 toes and widespread rainfall flooding in Florida and all through the Southeast, NOAA mentioned.
Taylor can quickly get an even bigger bottle of wine in ‘Florida!!!’
‘Barricaded within the toilet with a bottle of wine. Effectively, me and my ghosts, wе had a hell of a time’
Floridians will quickly be capable to purchase large bottles of wine – as much as 15 liters in quantity. Nebuchadnezzars ought to be on cabinets July 1.
“There was actually no public coverage motive why we should always have this (earlier) regulation and this can be a regulation that had been in place for a lot of, many many years,” DeSantis mentioned at a bill-signing ceremony in Wine Watch, a Fort Lauderdale wine store.
The brand new regulation additionally permits smaller large bottles, together with 4.5-liter, 6-liter, 9-liter and 12-liter.
Taylor meets Tiger King in ‘Florida!!!’
‘And your dishonest husband disappeared, nicely, nobody asks any questions right here’
Certainly one of Florida’s most well-known disappearing husbands was the partner of “Tiger King” star Carole Baskin, who’s asking the Florida Supreme Court docket to guard her towards a defamation lawsuit filed by the longtime assistant of her lacking former husband.
Main as much as the airing of “Tiger King,” a Netflix documentary collection that grew to become a cult phenomenon in 2020, Baskin endeavored “to deal with a false storyline (that) instructed she killed her former husband,” in accordance to authorized filings from the star.
Baskin learn aloud outdated diary entries on her YouTube channel and posted on her web site accusations that McQueen, who had appeared on the present to debate Baskin’s former husband’s mysterious disappearance, embezzled and dedicated different misdeeds.
McQueen sued Baskin for defamation in Hillsborough County Circuit Court docket, however a choose there mentioned the assistant had no grounds to sue. A state appeals courtroom disagreed with the decrease courtroom.
Now Baskin is asking the state’s Supreme Court docket to weigh in, elevating the stakes on a collection of authorized arguments encompassing the First Modification and defamation regulation.
‘Florida!!!’ meets Texas as DeSantis sends within the state guard
‘So that you pack your life away simply to attend out, the sh*tstorm again in Texas’
DeSantis talks about Texas rather a lot at his press conferences.
The governor and members of his administration routinely blast President Joe Biden and Republican members of Congress for his or her response to the rise of immigrants coming by means of the nation’s southern border.
DeSantis reestablished the State Guard in 2022, and in February of this yr, he despatched greater than 1,000 Florida Nationwide Guard members and State Guard Troopers to Texas to assist cease what he known as “the invasion on the southern border.” They joined Freeway Patrol, Fish and Wildlife Conservation Fee and Florida Division of Regulation Enforcement members already there, a press launch mentioned.
Additionally in February, Taylor received wrapped up in a conspiracy concept concerning the president. Almost 1 in 5 People, principally conservatives, believed the singer is a part of a covert effort to assist Biden win the 2024 election, in line with a Monmouth College ballot.
Two-thirds of People, nonetheless, are supportive of Taylor’s efforts to extend voter turnout.
Taylor Swift’s Florida is aligned with newest Census information
‘So take me to Florida‘
The track ends with a shout out to this chorus I am attributing to the state’s inhabitants increase. In response to the U.S. Census, Florida skilled a internet migration of greater than 200,000 adults in 2022.
Come to Florida, Taylor. That is an official invitation. I am going to seize the Nebuchadnezzars.
USA In the present day, John Kennedy and Douglas Soule contributed background data to this story. Ana Goñi-Lessan is the State Watchdog Reporter for USA TODAY – Florida and might be reached at [email protected]. Comply with her on Twitter/X: @goni_lessan.