November 28, 2024 - 5:15pm
Donald Trump is bringing a Florida crew back to Washington with him. Arguably the two most important jobs in his administration will be held by women with strong links to the Sunshine State. Susie Wiles, Trump’s incoming chief of staff, and Pam Bondi, his nominee for attorney general, both lobbied extensively at the same Florida firm in recent years.
Trump’s likely-to-be-confirmed secretary of state is Marco Rubio, a senator from Florida since 2011. Michael Waltz, a Congressman from the state’s eastern coast, will serve as national security advisor. That’s already four key positions occupied by people with deep ties to Florida, before you add lower-profile nominees such as John Phelan for secretary of the Navy and Dave Weldon for the Centers for Disease Control (technically based in Atlanta).
Wiles and Bondi both worked at Ballard Partners, the lobbying shop of “prominent Florida Republican fund-raiser Brian Ballard”, as the New York Times put it. “Susie brings with her a Florida approach, without question,” Ballard told NBC News. “She is a national player, but clearly has major Florida roots and connections. The many people from Florida you see going to the administration are in no small part because of her.” Wiles helped Ballard open a DC office and establish a lobbying presence in the Beltway. Mercury, a lobbying giant, later named Wiles the co-chair of offices in DC and Tallahassee.
If all of this sounds a little swampy, it’s because Florida’s political ecosystem is as swampy as its literal one. Trump, having transformed the state from purple to red, now spends most of his time at Mar-a-Lago. During the pandemic, as MAGA-inclined people moved to Florida for conservative politics, the state became a refuge for the likeminded.
This may, to some extent, force people around Trump to confront a tough choice: is it worth leaving Florida for Washington to get in on the presidential action? This is an easier decision for the high-profile jobs, but for mid-level staffers it may be more difficult. The state is also home to a robust group of MAGA influencers and podcasters, some of whom are itching to actually get seats in the White House briefing room. If you already have access to Trump, why relocate to a stuffy company town and rub elbows with ink-stained wretches?
Whether they actually move, Trump’s well-connected Florida friends are sure to be spending more time in the capital. This is hardly without precedent: George W. Bush brought Texas to DC, while Barack Obama brought Chicago. The very recent history of Florida, though, incubated a particular vibe. The state became a high-energy safe space for MAGA Republicans in and outside politics to fraternise and enjoy the company of others without fear of social cancellation or Covid mask mandates. That means operatives and influencers will come to Washington fresh off several years of plotting and scheming and partying in the same circles.
Florida is the state with the third-largest Latino population in the country, comprising 27% of inhabitants. Of all Cubans who live in the US, 64% live in the Sunshine State, inflecting GOP politics in Florida with a strong and uncompromising anti-communist streak. Florida Republicans, for example, won’t waver an inch on Cuba or Venezuela sanctions, even as the Right starts to rethink neoconservatism writ large (see: Marco Rubio).
On social issues, consider that on election day 57% of Florida voters cast their ballots to enshrine abortion rights into the state constitution and 56% cast ballots to legalise recreational marijuana. In all, 56% cast ballots for Donald Trump. Even so, after signing a six-week abortion ban, Governor Ron DeSantis remains popular with over half of the state.
What does all of it mean? Trump’s last administration suffered from constant leaking and rampant distrust. This time around, he’ll at least have the forged-in-fire loyalty of Florida faithfuls.
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SubscribeTempted to knock one out right now….
I think you may be overthinking this.
What’s called “weird right” or “fashy” here was once merely masculine. To be a “wank3r” is shameful because unmanly. No one’s put it more acutely than Shakespeare: ‘expense of spirit in a waste of shame’. But the masterwork on masturbation is DH Lawrence’s P0rnography and Obscenity. His principal theme is *reciprocity* or rather its denial: masturbation is “doing the dirt on life”.
‘expense of spirit in a waste of shame’ … is lust in action and, till action, lust.
Have you … er … come across Kant’s attack on wanking in the Metaphysics of Morals?
‘expense of spirit in a waste of shame’ … is lust in action and, till action, lust.
Have you … er … come across Kant’s attack on wanquing in the Metaphysics of Morals?
Do enlighten me, sir.
Quick and clean, keeps the parts in woking order, what’s not to like? Unless of course, you are foolish enough to swallow religious guilt.
What does penile woking order consist in, exactly?
Standing up for your woke beliefs ??!
In my experience there’s little else to do in Woking.
isn’t woking the emotional equivalent of masturbating?
Wanking is better than Woking
Penetrating and seminal
Ho ho. Content = nice thought, nice stiff, nice end.
A thoughtful and loving gf once said to me, “…think of an orgasm as recharging your batteries.”
I thought and obeyed, and have topped off ever since.
Are you kidding? I’m masturbating right now!
Are you nude?
Or fully dressed, just a single nether hanging out.
Nurse! The screens!
I’m sorry, what? I am trying to wrap my head around the concept of a vast internet community engaging in a circle jerk about not jerking off.
I apologise for not resisting the temptation- what a load of tossers.
It seems odd to me that western religions discouraged masturbation when surely it was a God given antidote to sexual intercourse.
Similarly, if
“masturbation, just like sex, has several health benefits, as it follows the same sexual response cycle that you would experience with a partner. Sex, partnered or not, releases stress, boosts your immune system, brightens your mood, and calms your nerves. Happiness and a close bond (again, with a partner or yourself and your body) can result from having an orgasm. What’s more interesting is that when having an orgasm, 95 percent of the brain mimics the brain of someone who has taken heroin; the region of the brain behind the left eye shuts down during an orgasm, which is also the part of the brain that allows us to maintain control”
then clearly achieving multiple orgasms through chi orientated masturbation makes us stronger, healthier, more relaxed and happier.
So one can only guess St Augustine was miserable, bad tempered, prone to illness and riddled with shame 😊
I reach high state of health and bliss without sexual orgasm, when my energy accumulates and goes upwards, reaches the heart center and beyond.
Rereading Augustine absurd and vicious attempt to justify collective and inherited guilt reminds me that theologians can be just as idiotic as philosophers and priests as childish as politicians.
An interesting article on a topic I’d heard little about. Perhaps I should have anticipated the puerile jokes in the discussion as it seems it is still an area we won’t talk about honestly.
The 20th Century should have knocked that idea in the head.
Perfectionists, again overthinking stuff – both Augustine and Nietzsche. The ancient Greeks and Romans were better – nothing too much or too little of these or that. Virtue was in the middle – courage between the extremes of recklessness and cowardice. Enter the Christians, and now it is a one way street. Telleyrand had it right – et surtout, messieurs, pas trop de zele. oh well….
Not a helpful quote in an article on the pros and cons of onanism:“… a British ascetic named Pelagius, thought human willpower was enough to enable every man to get a grip…”
Sorry, I’ll get my coat .
What does Jeffrey Toobin think? Perhaps we could set up a Zoom call with him to find out.
And there was me thinking that masturbation was god’s way of telling me that my future was in my own hands
I read that No Nut November is about abstinence, not just masturbation, as the opening paragraph implies. Anyway No Nut November appears to be cancelled, apparently due to Covid. Moreover this is a tedious article that attempts to address the health question in its title with a summation of views and quotes from a select group of the long-dead. Maybe its meant to be ironic, or even funny, and i missed it, whatever for me it seems pretty pointless; maybe it pleasures the author !
The article’s about historical perspective, not health – not everyone thinks a look into the past is pointless!
‘make us weak’ in the sense of “has the effect of draining us”, or in the sense of “partly constitutes a weak way of life”? The article doesn’t try to answer the first (surely scientific) question, and mainly just offers different opinions on the latter (surely moral) question… Unless we separate the questions out, we won’t be able to address how they come together (so to speak): as when a belief that it makes you weak itself is the real cause of engaging in it demoralising you.
‘(An echo of this view is found today in those football managers who tell players not to have sex the night before a match.)’
Given their performances this season, I can only assume that the Derby County players are having sex at half time.
I recommend everyone on nofap-the absolutely power of liberation and dignity and honor it comes with are unparalleled. Helps me with focusing on my purpose too.
i thought this was a health piece .. but no.. it was mostly ranting.
also mentioning greasy food is dumb and misleading. saturated fats are essential for our diets
#meatrx #carnivore.
yes, orgasms weaken us phisically , can only speak for males though. mentally also.
havent done it in a year or so.. and yes, i have an attractive girlfriend but we dont have sex everymonth.. maybe every season
I think there is some confusion in the comments. In America to ‘nut’ is to ejaculate rather than masturbate. So the month is about abstinence, not oraism. Personally, I dont give a toss.
The Christian case was based on not spilling seed on unfertile ground, so obviously it only applied to men.
Excellent!
“Everything is about sex except sex. Sex is about command and control.”
Yes, it seems over the top. On the other hand, I suspect there is a lot we don’t know. It does feel different when you take a few days off.
Nofap is nonsense. Simple as that. Trying to create a false discipline around nonsense is all it is. It’s healthier for you to ejaculate reasonably frequently.
To give the christian point of view it is tied to marriage. Masturbation before marriage would tend to encourage fornication (sex outside of marriage) as it is very difficult to do it without visualising somebody. Masturbation within marriage (if it is not with your spouse in mind) would tend to foster adultery. Within the marriage bed anything goes so long as there are no third parties, in reality and even in your head.
As someone once eloquently stated..”masturbation…having sex with someone you really love..”
or as a good friend once told me..”I’ve been having sex with Sarah for a few years yet…although she doesn’t know it..”
Mind you..troublesome stuff for us good Catholic boys!!!
Now I know about #nofap. Thanks, Mary.
Seriously, though – nice way to turn out 3000 words (I haven’t counted) on wanking in an article which is, essentially, a verbal w**k about theology.
I can’t understand the whole ‘incel’ movement or why young guys would group together and self-identify as such. I think it was Clive James who said that virginity was a reoccurring condition. If you want a girlfriend, you clean up, get a job and make yourself attractive to the opposite sex. Sitting on the sofa eating cheetos, whining to other losers online isn’t usually a good way to get laid.