Shocker: Matt Gaetz Marries Adult Woman

Florida Man and well-known congressional sleazebag Matt Gaetz (R, FL-1) took a break from dodging a Justice Department inquiry into underage sex trafficking and traveling across state lines with a married woman to wed 26-year-old Ginger Luckey, merely 13 years his junior, in California. The couple met last year at Mar-a-Lago, of course. The bride markets preservatives you spray on fruits and veggies, and the goateed Gaetz brother-in-law founded a virtual reality company. As to the rest of family, his new sister-in-law called Mr. Gaetz a weird and creepy pedophile.

Congressman Gaetz wanted an Elvis imitator to officiate, but settled for former Rand Paul staffer and Trump fundraiser Sergio Gor, who has the power to marry people because he’s a Libertarian minister or something. It was a small ceremony on Catalina Island. In lieu of gifts, send weird conspiracy theories via Twitter, if you’re not banned.

More:

“Matt Gaetz, Republican in sex-trafficking investigation, marries in California,” AP via The Guardian

“’Trump Was an Inspiration for Me’: Matt Gaetz Tries to Shift the Focus With a MAGA Romance,” Abigail Tracy, Vanity Fair

_______________
Short link: https://wp.me/p6sb6-xmT

Image (based on Gaetz podcast logo) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

Alligator Wrestling

Halpate, a short film by Adam Khalil and Adam Piron, explains how Florida’s exploitative tourist spectacle became a means of survival for Seminole and Miccosukee people.

_____________
Shortlink: https://wp.me/p6sb6-wDl

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

Trump’s New Job

According to the Palm Beach Town Attorney, Donald J. Trump is live-in help at the Mar-a-Lago Club.

In 1993 Mr. Trump signed a “Declaration of Use” agreement with the town, assuring that when he converted the historic Mar-a-Lago property into a private club, he wouldn’t live there permanently. In October of 2019, however, Donald Trump changed his official residence from New York to Florida, specifically 1100 South Ocean Boulevard, Mar-a-Lago.

Neighbors weren’t happy, even less so after Mr. Trump lost the 2020 election and fomented the Capitol insurgency. They cited the 1993 agreement, as if they could trust the word of a man who told 30,573 lies in the 4 years he was president.

The attorney for Palm Beach, John “Skip” Randolph, cited a loophole in the town’s zoning code allowing private clubs to provide living quarters to a “bona fide employee.”

He lives at the club, ergo Donald J. Trump is live-in help at Mar-a-Lago. with so many of his fellow employees out due to COVID-19, maybe he can bus tables or clean the pool in his free time.

___________________
Short Link: https://wp.me/p6sb6-x7G

Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

 

Sex-Scandalized Matt Gaetz to Meet with Women at Trump Resort

Scandal-plagued Matt Gaetz will emerge from hiding this weekend to address the Save America Summit, a gathering of Trump’s diehard female supporters, held at Trump National Doral Miami, probably because the ex-president needs the money. The event is produced by Women for America First, the ladies whose post-election bus tour and January 6th Save America Rally culminated in the mob assault on the U.S. Capitol, deaths, and hundreds of arrests.

Matt Gaetz at a women’s event boggles the mind, as he is under investigation by the Justice Department for transporting a 17-year-old woman across state lines for purposes of sex. Mr. Gaetz is also known for showing nude photos of his sexual conquests to colleagues on the floor of Congress and back when he was a Florida legislator. Matt Gaetz was the only “no” vote on the 2017 human trafficking bill, and opposed a Florida bill outlawing “revenge porn.” He’s making Donald Trump’s Access Hollywood escapade look like a women’s rights rally.

More:

“Amid federal probe, Matt Gaetz will speak to conservative women’s group at Trump golf course,” Jaclyn Peiser, Washington Post

“Gaetz Will Speak At Trump Doral For Summit Hosted By Jan. 6 Rally Planners,” Matt Shuham, TalkingPointsMemo

_______________
Short link: https://wp.me/p6sb6-wVF

Image (“‘MAGA Maidens for Matt!’ hat”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

 

Matt Gaetz Youth Outreach

Last week saw reports that Congressman Matt Gaetz (R, FL-1) is being investigated by the Department of Justice for transporting a 17-year-old woman across state lines for purposes of sex, and conveniently paying for it by cellphone. There are receipts. No doubt Mr. Gaetz will justify his actions as a triumph of Free Market Capitalism. Luke Ball, the Gaetz communication director, resigned on Friday.

Here’s a list of fellow Republicans defending Matt Gaetz:

1.
2.
3.

You get the idea. Matt Gaetz is a well-known creep, even among fellow Trumpian bottom feeders, known for showing nude photos of his sexual conquests on the floor of Congress. One of his videos depicted a nude young lady with a hula hoop. There are reports he participated in similar acts when he was a member of Florida’s legislature,

Fact: Matt Gaetz was the only “no” vote on the 2017 human trafficking bill.

More:

“Matt Gaetz Is Said to Face Justice Dept. Inquiry Over Sex With an Underage Girl,” Michael S. Schmidt, Katie Benner and Nicholas Fandos, New York Times

“‘A 10ft pole is not long enough’: Matt Gaetz isolated in sex-trafficking scandal,” The Guardian

“Republicans Have Been Waiting for a Matt Gaetz Scandal to Break,” Matt Fuller and Sam Brodey, Daily Beast

“The Matt Gaetz Sex Scandal Has It All!” Ryan Bort, Rolling Stone

“Matt Gaetz Is Maybe Even More of a Creep Than We Knew,” Vivian Kane, The Mary Sue

“8 Wild Things You May Have Forgotten About the Florida Man Ensnared in Congress’s Latest Sex Scandal,” Daniella Byck, Washingtonian

Updates:

“Gaetz Desperately Fought to Keep Sharing ‘Revenge Porn’ Legal, Says Ex-Colleague,” Jamie Ross, Daily Beast

“Katie Hill: Matt Gaetz backed me but he must quit if nude-photo reports are true,” Martin Pengelly, The Guardian

“Stelter: After elevating Gaetz, Fox News barely covering scandal,” CNN

“John Oliver calls Matt Gaetz ‘the one white man on Earth that Tucker Carlson won’t defend’ during ‘Last Week Tonight’ segment,” Sarah K. Burris, Raw Story, via Orlando Weekly

“Rep. Matt Gaetz Fundraises Off Teen Sex-Trafficking Probe,” Sam Brodey, Daily Beast

“Trump and his allies abandon Gaetz,” Gabby Orr, Meridith McGraw, and Sam Stein, Politico

“Republicans Seem to Have Lost Matt Gaetz’s Number,”  Reic Lutz, Vanity Fair

“Women’s Group Taps ‘Fearless Leader’ Matt Gaetz to Headline Upcoming Event,” Blake Montgomery, Daily Beast

_______________
Short link: https://wp.me/p6sb6-wTJ

Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

 

Jacksonville Was Almost Hollywood

In the early 1900s, New York film companies searched for a warm-weather home, and they looked at Jacksonville, Florida, down the East Coast. J’ville’s town fathers recoiled at the thought of film actors running wild through Florida’s sunny streets, so the film folks decamped for far-off California. A Vox video by Phil Edwards.

_____________
Short link: https://wp.me/p6sb6-wnq

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

The First Underground Railroad

For nearly a century, Spanish Florida granted asylum and freedom to escaped enslaved Africans in the Carolinas and Georgia, prompting an “Underground Railroad” that ran south. Narrated by Dr. Henry Louis Gates, with Hasan Jeffries and Vincent Brown, from Black History in 2 Minutes (Or So).

_____________
Shortlink: https://wp.me/p6sb6-wEz

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

Trump Palm Beach International Airport? Flight Canceled.

“Former President Donald Trump won’t see his name on the airport in his home turf of Palm Beach County — and it also might be difficult to engrave it anywhere else in South Florida.

A majority of Palm Beach County commissioners told the South Florida Sun Sentinel this week that they won’t support renaming the local airport, Palm Beach International, after him.”

— “An airport named after Donald Trump? Palm Beach County says ‘no’ to that,” Wells Dusenbury, South Florida Sun Sentinel via Yahoo News

___________________
Short Link: https://wp.me/p6sb6-wAd

Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

Dr. Trump’s Last Prescription: Pardon Florida Healthcare Fraudsters

On January 20th, before fleeing to Palm Beach (where his neighbors don’t want him) lame duck grifter Donald Trump granted clemency to fellow Floridians convicted of engaging in the Sunshine State’s flourishing industry, Medicare and Medicaid fraud:

Philip Esformes, a nursing home system operator convicted of a $1.3 Billion Medicare fraud, largest in the the nation’s history, won comutation of his 20-year prison sentence.

South Florida eye doctor Salomon Melgen was serving a 17-year sentence for a $73 million Medicare fraud conviction, was pardoned by Mr. Trump, a Florida neighbor.

Also pardoned: Todd Farha, Thaddeus Bereday, William Kale, Paul Behrens, and Peter Clay, former executives of Florida’s WellCare Health Plans, were convicted of defrauding the state’s Medicaid program of over $35 million.

This should make him welcome in his new retirement home, a state represented by a Republican senator once involved in a $1.7 billion Medicare fraud.

More:

“The doctors Trump pardoned for defrauding the government,” Anjalee Khemlani, Yahoo Finance

________________

Short link: https://wp.me/p6sb6-wzz

Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

Trump Wants to live at Mar-a-Lago. The Neighbors Don’t Want Him.

Since he lost the election and his attempted coup failed – 60 times — Donald J. Trump is preparing a White House in Exile at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida. His quarters there are undergoing renovation, and Melania is looking at suitably snooty schools nearby for young Baron.

Coupla things, though. Although Mr. Trump registered Mar-a-Lago as his permanent residence before he voted this fall, according to a 1993 agreement he signed, he can’t legally live there. And the neighbors don’t want him to, either. During his presidency, there was a lot of “there-goes-the-neighborhood” grousing in Palm Beach about helicopters, police overtime, road closures, and Coast Guard patrols, but it was only for a few days at a time and, you know, the guy was president.

But after noon on January 21st, Donald Trump is just another rich old man, and can’t hold himself above the law. When he converted Mar-a-Lago from a home to a private club, DJT signed a pact that no one would live at the place for more than seven days at a time for three nonconsecutive weeks per year — and he got a property tax break in the process. Mr. Trump now wants to weasel out of the contract and live fulltime at Mar-a-Lago, since Florida residence helps him avoid New York State and City income taxes, or at least the legal hassle of finagling out of them, anyway.

Bottom line: Donald Trump’s Palm Beach neighbors want him gone, and New York doesn’t want him back, either. So where’s a failed American autocrat to go? Well, Moscow’s media are urging his pal Putin to offer him political asylum in Russia.

More:

“Mar-a-Lago neighbors to Trump: Spend your post-presidency elsewhere,” Manuel Roig-Franzia and Carol D. Leonnig, Washington Post

“Mar-a-Lago neighbors say Trump forfeited right to live on estate once presidency ends,” Christine Stapleton, Palm Beach Post

“Mar-a-Lago neighbors want Trump to go elsewhere after he leaves the White House,” Kate Bennett and Katelyn Polantz, CNN

“Almost no one wants a neighbor like Donald Trump,”Helaine Olen, Washington Post

Related:

“Use of helipad at Mar-a-Lago ends with Trump’s term on Jan. 20,” William Kelly, Palm Beach Daily News

___________________
Short Link: https://wp.me/p6sb6-wgr

Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.