Recalling Donald Trump’s comments at the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) conference about immigrants taking “Black jobs,” can somebody define what a Black job is?
Is it President of the United States (Barack Obama); Vice President (Kamala Harris); General (Colin Powell); Secretary of State (Condoleezza Rice); Nobel Prize winner (Toni Morrison); TV host (Oprah Winfrey); actor (Morgan Freeman); Senator (Cory Booker); member of Congress (Barbara Lee); Governor (Wes Moore); journalist (Lester Holt) or Olympics gymnastic champion Simone Biles?
Which is it?
Leonor Sanchez, Miami
(Editor’s Note: Trump clarified his remark, ABC News reported, to say that “a Black job is anybody that has a job. That’s what it is.”)
Pay-to-play politics
In a story reported by Jason Garcia of Seeking Rents, if you’re a Republican donor, you get an exclusive seat at the table for your share of taxpayer money in Florida.
As Gov. Ron DeSantis was vetoing funds earmarked for arts and culture, he was handing a check for $6 million to John Rood, a megadonor to the governor and a charter school cheerleader. Your tax money will build a gymnasium for the Jacksonville Classical Academy. Playhouses may go dark and events will be canceled due to the arts veto, but rest assured that affluent parents will get their gym with no strings attached.
Pay-to-play politics is alive and well in Florida. Just ask the Commission on Ethics. The commission ruled that a $28,000 “golf simulator” given to the governor by an influential supporter did not have to be disclosed as a gift because it was technically a donation to the state. Sure it was.
The donor, Mori Hosseini, gained a highway interchange benefiting his development, with $92 million in leftover Covid funds. The Commission on Ethics is a group whose main purpose is to congratulate each other. A hand-picked group of well-connected people is not likely to rule against the governor.
Fiscally conservative Republicans, are you watching all of this?
PJ Whelan, Orlando
Depriving Florida kids
If, according to a recent report by the United Way, nearly half of all families in Florida are struggling to make ends meet, why would Gov. Ron DeSantis turn down federal money to provide these families with extra money for food?
Is he somehow teaching these children a lesson that going hungry builds character, or, maybe, intermittent fasting for a five-year-old is a good dietary practice? Has he tried these approaches with his own three children?
Thirteen states declined free food allowances for children. All 13 are run by Republican governors. Let’s remember this when we cast our ballots and consider, before children can pull themselves up from their bootstraps, they have to be nourished enough to walk in them.
Stacie M. Kiner, Hypoluxo
Schoolyard taunts
Is Donald Trump so cognitively impaired that he can’t figure out how to pronounce Kamala Harris’ name, or is he just so politically impotent that he has to resort to schoolyard taunts and name-calling?
Margery Resnick, Boca Raton
Vance on shaky ground?
I wonder how long it will be before the Orange Man’s advisers realize that his selection of JD Vance as his vice presidential running mate was as bad as Sen. John McCain’s selection of Sarah Palin of Alaska to be his running mate?
Or is it possible they already have and they are trying to figure out how to move him out?
Alan B. Wackerling, Plantation
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