Audio By Carbonatix
Well, we’ve pretty much survived another 60-day Florida legislative session. As in most years, this lawmaking period involved hatred toward immigrants, crazy ideas about guns, extremely mean and regressive laws aimed at drug addicts, rules designed to destroy the environment, and liberal use of the N-word. Sure, some good things happened this year: A few laws designed to help ease the pain of the War on Drugs and police state were passed, and the Legislature did approve a deal to help revive the Everglades.
But for the most part, lawmaking in Tallahassee this year involved tossing a bunch of legal nightmares at the wall; sacrificing a few orphans to Moloch, the biblical god of child-sacrifice; and hoping nobody noticed your terrible idea before it was written into law. Here’s what the cretins slipped past us this year:
The awful ideas that passed but await Gov. Rick Scott’s signature:
1. A bill ratcheting up the drug war, which imposes harsher fines on drug addicts caught with fentanyl.
Will you step up to support New Times this year?
We’re aiming to raise $30,000 by December 31, so we can continue covering what matters most to you. If Miami New Times matters to you, please take action and contribute today, so when news happens, our reporters can be there.
2. A half-billion cut to Medicaid, including a $157 million slash to South Florida hospitals.
3. A ridiculous bill allowing parents of children in public schools to object to the science taught in their kids’ science books.
4. A bill to exempt 2.7 million criminal records from public view.
5. Making the Stand Your Ground law even stronger (although lawmakers tempered the bill’s language slightly).
The ones that didn’t:
7. Allowing citizens to take guns into airports.
8. A blatantly unconstitutional bill increasing the penalties for crimes committed by undocumented people.
9. Forcing local residents to pay for electricity companies’ random fracking projects across the country.
10. A bill forcing Medicaid recipients to work for their health care.
11. A 20-week abortion ban.
And, of course, one of the craziest things ever proposed by a sitting lawmaker:
12. Asking the federal government to abolish the U.S. Supreme Court and federal judicial system.
