Florida Democratic Primary Ballot for August 18, 2026 election - Thoughts

There's an election coming up soon in Florida, and since I signed up to vote by mail I have my ballot now. I'm registered as a democrat, so my version of the ballot lets me vote for candidates in the democratic primary elections, as well as in elections for non-partisan positions like judges and school board members. Interestingly, I also get to choose between two republicans in a "universal primary" for District 5 County Commissioner, because Florida law opens up the primaries to all registered voters if all the primary candidates are from one party.

I tried to do a reasonable amount of a research into all the candidates before I marked my ballot, looking not only at the candidates' own campaign websites, but also at what the local newspapers and trusted pundits were saying about them. The News-Press usually has some local candidate information, and I think it's viewable even to non-subscribers. (I actually subscribed to that newspaper recently, which is the first time I've ever purchased a newspaper subscription. It seems to be a good local news source that covers shit in more detail than you get on the TV news. Also, I know and admire some of the writers a lot, including Amy Bennett Williams and Chad Gillis who have often covered science and environment stories I've weighed in on.)

Anyway, this is what I marked (the X is who I voted for), with a little explanation of why:

United States Senator - 
Angie Nixon (X) 
Alex Vindaman

- Both senate candidates have admirable qualities such as being willing to speak truth to power at personal risk. However, I chose Angie Nixon because of her support for peace in Gaza where my friend Rachel was killed by an Israeli bulldozer in 2003 in a pattern of violence against Palestinian civilians, aid workers, and human rights activists that the US has abetted for far too long. This needs to change. 

US Congressional Representative for District 19 (Byron Donalds' seat) -
Victor Arias
Robert M. Neeld
Howard Sapp (X) - 

- Sapp is a respected local leader who has been in tough political races before. He has also raised the most money.

Governor and Lieutenant Governor -
Evelyn Castillo-Bach
Thomas Eloy Fernandez
Dayna Marie Foster
David Jolly / Gwen Graham 
Dotie Joseph (X)  
Stephann Norman

- Dotie Joseph is an legitimate democrat with 8 years experience in the Florida House. David Jolly is the favorite in this race but he was a republican until recently, which I think is suspicious. 

Chief Financial Officer
Earle Ford
Annette Taddeo (X) 

- Taddeo has political experience and seems to unequivocally support stuff I care about.

Commissioner of Agriculture
Joey Mendoza Atkins (X) 
Donald A. "Don" Prichard

- Mendoza Atkins says he'll actually follow the recommendations of the Blue Green Algae Task force, which includes some scientists I admire. Also, Mendoza Atkins is the only candidate with a website.

Board of County Commissioners District 5
Amanda Cochran REP (X) 
Trish Petrosky REP 

- Cochran is a rural Lee County resident opposed to sprawl and endorsed by the non-partisan "Vote Water" environmental organization. Petrosky on the other hand was appointed by Governor DeSantis, is not really from around here, and is expected to be a rubber stamp for environment-destroying special interests

Circuit Court Judge 20th Group 19
Vera Bergermann (X) 
James Stewart 

- Stewart was appointed by Governor DeSantis. That suggests that Stewart has far right conservative views like DeSantis does. Bergermann was not appointed by DeSantis and is more likely to have independent views.

Circuit Court Judge 20th Group 27
Ryan Kuhl (X) 
Amanda Levy-Reis 

- Levy-Reis was appointed by Governor DeSantis. That suggests that Levy-Reis has far right conservative views like DeSantis does. Kuhl was not appointed by DeSantis and is more likely to have independent views.

County Judge Group 5
Mike Colombo (X) - Not appointed by DeSantis
Javier A. Pachecho - Appointed by DeSantis

- Pachecho was appointed by Governor DeSantis. That suggests that Pachecho has far right conservative views like DeSantis does. Colombo was not appointed by DeSantis and is more likely to have independent views.

School Board Member District 6

Jada Langford Fleming 
India Palencia (X) 

- Fleming is one of those ultra-conservative "anti-woke" crusaders who I think are dumbing down and education and censoring important topics. Palencia is known for standing up for minorities. 

Yes life can be hard for men but don't be a jerk

Hello fellow male humans,

I read on the Internet that you’re having a hard time. I believe it because I have been alive since 1979 and even my “successful” life has had lots of internal woe, scrawled across the pages of diaries intermittently kept since high school.  Life is hard in the ways it has always been hard, such as the struggles of family dynamics, school, work, forming friendships, finding romance, finding a deeper meaning, coping with physical and mental illness, and facing inevitable aging and death. However, life is also hard in uniquely modern ways, such as the constant flood of misery, temptation, judgement, and deception delivered through billionaire-owned social media networks to your very addictive mobile computing devices.

Life is hard for women, too. You may not want to hear this, or may not believe it, but it’s even harder for women than it is for you. This is because women face all the timeless and modern hardships listed above, plus additional, serious dangers and hardships from living in still-male-dominated societies. That monologue about women’s plight in the Barbie movie nailed it.

This post isn’t meant to be a debate of who has it harder, and I’m not trying to make you feel worse than you already feel about your male struggles. It’s just important to remember that women are struggling, too, and its often because of us. 

In your defense, there ARE some specific, extra struggles associated with being male. I’m not talking about the risk of testicle injuries (although that is a thing). I’m talking about social and emotional struggles. I want to identify some of those struggles and address how we deal with them. How we deal with them has implications not only for our personal happiness but for whether we affect society positively or negatively. Some specific hazards and hardships of the male circumstance include:

1.     A ridiculous excess of sexual and romantic desire. The male libido hits like a meteor at puberty and burns for decades. It supplies a lot of anxious motivation and not a lot of satisfaction. The desire for romantic love is another burning meteor, though that one at least has a chance of finding a stable orbit. Developing positive, romantic and sexual relationship(s) in real life IS worth working towards, after attending to the even more important things like a roof over your head and a supportive network of friends and family. However, if you’re trying to sculpt your real life to meet 100% of your testicles’ ridiculous desires you’re in great danger of becoming a selfish, awful, tragic person. Chasing too hard after impossible desires can really hurt you, and others. For example, people who leverage money and power and/or deviously manipulate others to meet their desires can end up as monsters like Epstein and Weinstein. In addition to those infamous abusers of power, there are legions of lower-profile predators and creeps who have hurt women, and legions of sad dudes who have hurt themselves by wasting all their money on porn, how-to-be-a-player courses, strip clubs, prostitutes, etc. Don’t let yourself or your bros become those guys. It’s part of the human condition that there will always be a large portion of your desires that just can’t be met, realistically, ethically, or financially. Some combination of acceptance, imagination, and laughing at yourself will get you through.

2.     The sense of entitlement and deficit of responsibility that come from living in a patriarchal society. Patriarchy is a social system where men hold primary power, dominating roles in political leadership, moral authority, social privilege, and control of property. There are different degrees of patriarchy, but the USA is still strongly patriarchal according to every economic and social thing we can measure. Males get a lot of perks and privileges that women don’t get. For example, expectations for responsibility are MUCH lower for boys and men than they are for girls and women. Cartoon characters illustrate this well. We think boys like Bart Simpson, teenagers like Beavis and Butthead, and men like Homer Simpson are endearingly hilarious in their bad behavior, while their female counterparts Lisa Simpson, Daria Morgendorfer, and Marge Simpson have to be responsible all the time.

Rarely having to clean up our own messes, consider others’ needs, or pay the full price of our transgressions means males in a patriarchy grow up without developing the full responsibility and moral skillsets that all humans should have. Or we’re slow to develop them. We think we’re special good boys and nice guys when actually we’re morally stunted jerks who can’t deal with real life and who put a huge burden on others. We have this immature fantasy that at some point we'll slay a dragon and be adored and in the meantime we can't stoop to do our own laundry or vacuum the floor. That’s the bad edge of the patriarchy sword. Here’s a personal example: I grew up thinking of myself as a super special nice guy who could do no wrong, and I persisted in that view even when I was being selfish and ridiculous in early relationships. This doomed me to hard lessons and delayed social/emotional maturity, and of course it was hard on whoever I was dating.

3.     The toxic competitiveness dynamic. Guys experience weird pressures and expectations from living in societies that over-inflate the importance of male “greatness” and hierarchical position. You’re supposed to be a big hero, or a big stud; the brightest peacock in the flock. Someone is always trying to make you feel bad and insecure for not being man enough, and they’re selling you muscle growth powder, penis enlargers, get-rich-quick schemes, etc. They say it’s not enough just to be a good person and good team player. The message is that 99% of men are worthless, ugly, too-poor, and too-short and wimpy, and you’re going to be miserable and loveless unless you can dominate all the competition and become some kind of warlord pimp Adonis. Now it’s true that there is some disparity in the amount of attention paid to flashy versus average guys, and some women have terrible, superficial tastes in men, just as most men have terrible, superficial tastes in women. It’s also true that there is some real unfairness in terms of the genetic cards we’re dealt, which I addressed in the 2010 post “Ugliness, Fairness, and Happiness.” But the world is not nearly the all-or-nothing, winners-dominate-losers kind of world that the manosphere influencers say it is. The “nice guys finish last” thing is not true. There are many ways that a not-so-flashy guy can find his niche in the world through cooperation, kindness, consistency, etc. You can flavor your niceness with a little pizazz without going to the extremes of being a macho jerk. The natural way to do it is to lean into the things you're good at and see where they lead. I got a lot of mileage out of windsurfing and science as a bachelor, and those are things I liked doing anyways. Compared with the warlord pimp Adonis, who will be hated by most people and likely deposed quickly by the next aspiring warlord pimp Adonis, a humble good guy will develop a stable network of people around him who actually appreciate him and will help and support him as he has helped and supported them. Another reward of developing your goodness rather than striving for greatness (a.k.a. clout), is that it makes a better world for EVERYONE, not just you.

Conclusion: The unfairness of the world is real, but the manosphere’s advice for how you should deal with that unfairness is terrible. Their advice is like, “You have to seize power for yourself by becoming a dominant, aggressive, alpha male. Showing any empathy or kindness towards others will just make you a loser.” Every man competing to be an alpha male, and ignoring essential-to-the-fabric-of-society things like cooperation and niceness, is a recipe for both personal and civilizational disaster. In fact I think idolizing and enabling alpha male types has contributed a lot to the dysfunctional, right-wing, authoritarian oligarchy we have today. For all but a very few well-positioned billionaires and political elites, the optimal strategy for the self is actually to be LESS selfish; to create a fair, egalitarian society through cooperation, niceness, and holding abusers and exploiters to account. Working TOGETHER we can ALL get ahead.

COVID-19: What is our endgame?

It’s very hard for a group to accomplish an objective if the objective hasn’t been made clear. I think lack of clarity about objectives explains some of the United States’ ongoing struggles to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic. Dealing with a pandemic is a group effort that requires widespread understanding and agreement about the end goal. This helps us align our expectations with reality and carry out our individual responsibilities effectively. 

In this blog post I will try to articulate as clearly as possible what I think our COVID-19 objectives are, or should be. As of this writing it’s too late for 190,000 Americans whose lives have already been lost to the deadly disease, but millions more lives still depend on our actions now. 

Objectives- 

1. Our primary objective should be to minimize loss of life. Life is the most precious thing we have, and dying before one’s time is a tragedy worth going to great lengths to prevent. Good medical care can improve survival chances among the infected by a modest amount, but preventing infections in the first place is by far the most effective way to reduce mortality. We have straightforward and effective means of preventing infections through hygienic measures, which include social distancing, personal protective equipment, testing, and contact tracing. At some point we will probably have an additional means to prevent infections- vaccines, but the infection prevention strategy can be very effective even while we lack a vaccine. 

This is important to note, because there is a widespread misconception that without a cure or vaccine, hygienic measures are only “delaying the inevitable.” I.e., there is a misconception that eventual infection of the entire population is unavoidable. It IS avoidable, though, and this would be obvious if we just remembered some of the basic math of epidemiology; the well-established science of how diseases spread through populations. In epidemiology, R0 is the average number of new people than an infected person spreads the infection to before he or she either dies or recovers. If R0 is more than 1, then the number of infected people in the population increases, eventually including nearly everybody. But if R0 is less than 1, the prevalence of the disease in the population dwindles, eventually to zero, and most people are never touched by the infection at all. 

Just as a fire deprived of access to new fuel will burn itself down to nothing, a disease deprived of access to new victims will also fizzle to nothing. This is the goal, and it has already been achieved by countries like New Zealand, which now need only remain vigilant for smoldering embers and sparks from abroad. 

How long it takes for the disease to fizzle out depends on how low we can get the R0. If the number is only slightly less than 1 then the disease still burns for a long time, but if the number is near zero the disease is rapidly extinguished and society can get back to normal promptly. There's more information on the basic math of epidemiology here- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_reproduction_number 

2. Our secondary objective is to minimize suffering. Sickness and the death of loved ones inflict great suffering, so our most effective measures to prevent infections (see objective #1) are also our most effective measures to minimize suffering. 

While sickness and death are the greatest causes of suffering in a pandemic, our measures to prevent infection may inflict suffering, as well. I.e., there are significant social, emotional, and economic costs to our hygienic measures. This creates a difficult situation, because in a pandemic that is being managed effectively, where hygienic measures are enforced and infections and deaths are kept low, all citizens suffer from the prevention measures while relatively few experience the actual sickness and death. Thus the cure is perceived as worse than the disease, and there is heavy pressure to relax the hygienic measures. 

The social, emotional, and economic costs to our hygienic measures should be minimized to the extent possible, but not to the extent that they increase sickness and death. Indeed there’s a dangerous trap of prematurely relaxing the hygienic measures, causing R0 to rise and the disease to spread again. This dooms us to more deaths and a more painful and prolonged period of hygienic measures than we would have had to endure if we had just stuck with the measures the first time. As they say in addiction recovery programs, “Half measures availed us nothing.” 

3. Our final objective is to extinguish the fires of COVID and prevent them from reigniting. Extinguishing the fires depends on our keeping R0 consistently below 1 for “a while” through hygienic measures. As I noted earlier, how long it takes depends on how well we adhere to the measures. If we half-ass it with weak, unenforced rules and repeated cycles of premature reopening, we could still be fighting it for years. However, if we buckle down it won’t take that long to get to the point where COVID is nearly gone and we can get back to mostly normal life. Preventing the COVID fires from reigniting will depend on watching carefully for smoldering embers within our borders (testing), and guarding against new sparks from abroad (also testing and international cooperation). The social and economic costs at that stage will be a lot less than they are now, and we can maintain them indefinitely if necessary. However, we may get a break if a safe and effective vaccine is developed and widely administered. When a majority of the population has immunity due to vaccination, it’s very hard for a disease to find susceptible victims. An immunized population is a like a wet and soggy forest, where sparks are unlikely to catch and spread. This is the good kind of “herd immunity.” I have more to say on herd immunity, though. 

WARNING- “Herd immunity” is one of the most misinterpreted things about the COVID-19. Whether or not herd immunity is a desirable outcome or a horrible outcome is totally dependent on how we GET to it. Herd immunity achieved by mass vaccination would be our absolute best outcome, minimizing loss of life and minimizing suffering by negating the need for hygienic measures. However, herd immunity achieved by mass infection would be the absolute worst outcome. To get herd immunity through mass infection would mean that everybody who COULD die of the disease WOULD die of the disease. That would be something like 1% of the population, which in a country the size of the United States (330,000,000 people) would be millions of people. 

Conclusion: 

The mass infection route to herd immunity would be an appalling folly resulting in unfathomably large numbers of deaths and untold suffering. 

A half-assed strategy of weak hygienic measures and premature reopening cycles (which seems to be our current strategy) prolongs suffering and leads to high numbers of preventable deaths; not much better than the mass infection route. 

Hygienic measures may be annoying, but they are absolutely our best route (and currently our only route, pending a vaccine) back to normal life. They will get us to a sustainable state where COVID-19 is basically gone and we’re just waiting for a vaccine to put the final nail in its coffin. So mask up, social distance, and call on your elected representatives to do what science assures us we MUST DO to squelch these deadly fires and return us to normalcy.

Neighborhood stormwater ponds and water quality

Something that would help address water pollution and harmful algae blooms in Florida and elsewhere is better management of detention / retention ponds. Unfortunately, typical pond management today turns these pollution-removal features into pollution-producing features that pose a danger to humans and nature alike. I put together a little presentation about this issue, intended to reach home owners association (HOA) groups. My environmental activist friend Vik Chhabra filmed the presentation. Please share. Thanks.

Moderate Memes

Here's another post in the "memes" style. Let me know what you think.

To Freak Out or Not to Freak Out

To freak out or not to freak out? That is the question. These are the answers.