Vote 'No' on Amendment 3

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If Amendment 3 passes, the Legislature would lose the ability to approve any further expansion of casino-style gambling in Florida, including sports betting. There are some big names behind this amendment. Disney Worldwide Services, the political arm of the mammoth Walt Disney Company, has opened its coffers in support.

There are reasons, however, to approach a sweeping prohibition like this with caution. One of them is swirling toward the Gulf of Mexico right now. With big storm after big storm battering Florida, it's easy to foresee a time when lawmakers run out of options — and money — to meet the state's most critical needs. This takes a big opportunity off the table. Gambling already generates hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for the state, including $280 million this year from the Seminole Tribe of Florida, which operates six casinos across the state.

The relationship between the tribe and the state is best summed up as “complicated.” For years, the tribal gaming compact was seen as a gentleman's agreement between Seminole leaders and lawmakers — if the Legislature didn't push for other forms of gaming, the tribe would continue to be generous with payments.

But if Amendment 3 passes, “there's nothing left to negotiate for,” says Mike Scudiero, an Ormond Beach based consultant who has worked on gaming issues. This amendment is likely to give the tribe a near-monopoly on games of chance in the state, while shutting down the possibility of negotiating other forms of gambling for anyone. On balance, it's not hard to see why the Seminole Tribe is enthusiastically, though quietly, backing Amendment 3.

The idea of voter control sounds attractive, and there are sound public-policy arguments against expanding gambling. But Amendment 3 won't make gambling go away; it's already here. Approving this prohibition would require voters to roll the dice that harder times will never force lawmakers to make tough choices like expanding gambling — and that the Seminole Tribe's generosity won't be affected if it gains such a clear upper hand in negotiations. That makes it a bad bet for Florida.

Editorial - 10/9/18 edition

The 2010 United States elections were held on Tuesday, November 2, 2010, in the middle of President Barack Obama's first term. Approximately 82.5 million people voted. The Democratic Party suffered massive defeats in many national and state level elections, with many seats switching to Republican Party control. Although the President's party usually loses congressional, statewide and local seats in midterm elections, the 2010 midterm election season featured some of the biggest losses since the Great Depression.

The Republican Party gained 63 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, recapturing the majority, ousting Nancy Pelosi as Speaker, and making it the largest seat change since 1948 and the largest for any midterm election since the 1938 midterm elections. The Republicans gained six seats in the U.S. Senate and also gained 680 seats in state legislative races.

See: 2010 RED WAVE

SO HOW IMPORTANT IS VOTING?

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The Kavanaugh nomination turned on two events. First, as I discussed here, Kavanaugh chose to fight. He wasn't going to quietly and gently absorb all of the false, outlandish accusations. Trump's speech October 2 in Southaven, Mississippi, was the second event that drove Kavanaugh toward confirmation. Trump rehashed Christine Ford's testimony.

"How did you get home? I don’t remember. How did you get there? I don’t remember. Where is the place? I don’t remember. How many years ago was it? I don’t know. I don’t know. I don't know."

Trump wasn't mocking Ford, he was transcribing her. It turns out Trump's transcription made the difference. He accomplished in 36 seconds what took Senator Susan Collins nearly an hour to do — shine a 100,000 megawatt spotlight on the failure of Ford to convince us that Brett Kavanaugh did anything to her.

Some will be slow to absorb this. The Woman is Always Right crowd probably never will. The ones in most need of schooling, however, are the establishment Republicans who are filled with animosity toward Trump and his tactics. Times have changed, and the Left is seeking to forever transform the country using tactics that the Old Ways can't combat. We saw it these last three weeks. Trump understands it. Matthew Continetti puts it this way:

He brags, he intimidates, he pouts, he jokes, he insults, he is purposefully ambiguous, and he leaves no criticism unanswered. He is frenetic and polarizing, a showboat and a salesman. His methods are over-the-top, combative, and divisive. Where others mindlessly repeat politically correct clichés, Trump unequivocally challenges them. He is president of a country that is wilder, zanier, and more unpredictable than before. It is also stronger.

By J. CHRISTIAN ADAMS - Read it all @ FIGHT BACK  

UNEMPLOYMENT LOWEST

SINCE 1969

Hispanic Unemployment Record Low... 
Manufacturing confidence all-time high... 
16,000 Govt Jobs Cut Since Trump... 
Construction hiring booming -- and many available jobs... 

POLL: PRESIDENT APPROVAL 51%... 

Dems: ‘Give in to Our Worldview or to Hell With You’

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The Democrats blatant disregard of due process displayed in the Kavanaugh hearing, and their zeal to crucify his career and hang his reputation upon flimsy accusations .. returns civic discourse to the age of the Salem Witch Trials.  

The Left’s efforts, now embodied by groups such as Antifa and an increasing number of Democratic elected officials, to demonize and redefine words and concepts are not about defending their positions on policy or winning specific elections. Instead, the Left as a whole seeks to control and redefine the institutions it can, and destroy the institutions it cannot. 

The Left is challenging foundational and fundamental aspects of the country that make it viable. If Democrats succeed in redefining concepts such as justice, borders, sovereignty, and what constitutes rights, the country will no longer be recognizable.

We need to cease being polite and intellectually lazy in countering the Left’s strategy at redefining American institutions. If we do not succeed in doing this, what happened to Brett Kavanaugh will become the norm rather than the exception. 

Read it all @ THE LEFT AT WAR WITH U.S. - By Robert Miller - 

#1 .. VOTE

#2 .. BRING A FRIEND

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WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House has a message for vulnerable House Republicans tiptoeing around President Donald Trump: Get on board or start packing.

The warning comes in a memo from White House political director Bill Stepien, who argues that GOP candidates who try to distance themselves from the president are only doing themselves harm in the upcoming midterm elections.

Trump has used campaign rallies in an effort to boost Republican turnout, encouraging the voters he drew to the polls in 2016 to support more staid traditional lawmakers. Both parties largely view the 2018 contest as a race to turn out party faithful rather than an effort to attract new voters. At a rally in Southaven, Mississippi, on Tuesday, Trump told voters: “Pretend I’m on the ballot.”

He added: “This is also a referendum about me and the disgusting gridlock they’ll put this country through.”

“Watch closely where the president has and will campaign; you will see the president aggressively campaigning in districts with candidates who enthusiastically embrace the policies that have put America on the pathway to prosperity,” the memo states. “President Trump continues to be ready, willing and able to put the power and force of his coalition to work for the candidates with whom he stands, and those who stand with him.”

Read it all @ B-4 TRUMP or B-GONE

Bill Nelson is the DC swamp. 

New ad. Click to watch

DEMOCRATS

Time for Rick Scott.

Can you guess the kind of justices

Governor Gillum will appoint?

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A highly contentious legal and political battle surrounds the three seats, held by justices Fred Lewis, Barbara Pariente and Peggy Quince. All three must depart in January because of a mandatory age 70 retirement limit. Lewis and Pariente were appointed by Florida’s last Democratic governor, Lawton Chiles. Quince was jointly chosen by Chiles and his successor, Jeb Bush, shortly before Chiles died in December 1998 near the end of his second term.

All three justices have issued decisions in major cases in opposition to the Scott administration. 

“Governor Scott intends to follow this precedent and will invite the governor-elect to conduct his own interviews of the nominees following the general election,” Scott’s statement said. “The governor’s expectation is that he and the governor-elect — like Governor Chiles and then Governor-elect Bush — will agree on the selection of three justices who will serve with distinction.”

That could get interesting if Gillum, a staunch progressive who once got into a spat with Scott about Tallahassee’s response to Hurricane Hermine, gets elected. 

Geoff Burgan, Gillum’s campaign spokesman, implied in a statement that Scott is overreaching. “In our understanding of the Constitution, the next Governor will appoint the next three Supreme Court justices.” 

Meanwhile, DeSantis’ campaign said in a statement that he “looks forward to working with Governor Scott” to appoint justices who aren’t “judicial activists who legislate from the bench,” a common talking point throughout his campaign. DeSantis has often compared these three appointments, which have the potential to dramatically alter the philosophical makeup of the state’s highest legal authority, to the national drama surrounding President Trump’s U.S. Supreme Court nominations.

But that national spectacle could be replicated in Florida. “Rick Scott expects the next governor to cooperate because he expects the next governor to be Ron DeSantis,” said Steve Vancore, a Democratic pollster and consultant.

“If Gillum is elected this will be huge. It will be defining of the next governorship.” Vancore predicted that if Gillum wins, he will challenge Scott in court and use this as an “opening salvo.”

Read @ FL. SUPREME COURT- Emily Mahoney / Steve Bousquet - Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau

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Could the stakes be any higher for Florida?

By Medha Singh

(Excerpt)

(Reuters) – Wall Street was set to open higher on Monday after the United States and Canada clinched a last-minute deal to save NAFTA as a trilateral pact with Mexico, raising hopes for progress in talks with other countries at the start of the fourth quarter.

The relief lifted world markets after the new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) rescued a $1.2 trillion open-trade zone on Sunday.

U.S. President Donald Trump coerced Canada and Mexico into accepting more restrictive commerce with their main export partner in a deal that will make it harder for global auto makers to build cars cheaply in Mexico and aims to bring more jobs to the United States

Read it all @ AMERICA FIRST