Mitch Perry
Happy June 1, the beginning of hurricane season. Cue up the stories about how we are or are not ready for a major storm. Journalism can be so predictable sometimes.
Much more important is that although Florida hasn’t been hard hit by such severe weather in a decade, a recent national report shows, Florida’s average homeowner premium of more than $2,000 a year is twice the national average, as reported by The Associated Press’ Gary Fineout.
Speaking of natural disasters, I took in the new summer Hollywood blockbuster San Andreas over the weekend, which is actually good fun, if seeing the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco tear apart is your idea of fun.
The film brings back the heyday of the great American disaster films from the 1970s. I’m thinking in particular of my favorite, 1972’s The Poseidon Adventure. Gene Hackman‘s character was so heroic in that Irwin Allen flick. In San Andreas, plays the hero (which lays it on heavy about family ties), and he’s actually pretty damned impressive. Some of the lines uttered by Paul Giamatti as the intense seismologist are unintended bits (but not unappreciated) of comedy. But I think people criticizing this movie as being in poor taste because of the disaster in Nepal are missing the point.
Growing up in California, I learned very young about the perils of living on the San Andreas fault: Seismologists have predicted for decades that there’s going to be The Big One at some point. The message of San Andreas is, if you’re in the middle of an earthquake, hope that you’ve got someone as cool and resourceful as The Rock saving your butt. Otherwise you’re pretty screwed.
I also saw Cameron Crowe‘s Aloha, which isn’t as bad as some say but also isn’t vintage Crowe.
In political news, Bob Schieffer signed off Sunday as host of Face The Nation. In his last one-on-one interview, Schieffer showed why he’ll be missed, as he challenged Jeb Bush on the absurdity of him not officially being a presidential candidate yet. The reason is that individual campaign contributions are limited to $2,700, while people can give unlimited money to a super PAC like Bush’s Right to Rise.
BUSH: “I, look, I hope, I hope I run, to be honest with you … I’d like to run, but I haven’t made the decision.”
SCHIEFER: “Well, what would have to happen between now and then to convince you not to run?”
BUSH: “Who knows. Who knows … I’ve learned not to answer a lot of hypothetical questions.”
SCHIEFER: “You’re probably going to run.”
BUSH: “I hope so. I hope, I hope I’m a candidate in the near future.”
That’s totally absurd, we all know — as is the notion that Scott Walker is also not really a candidate now but is still “testing the waters.”
Last week, the Campaign Legal Center and Democracy 21 called on the the U.S. Justice Department to investigate Bush’s non-campaign. As Democracy 21’s Fred Wertheimer wrote in March: “Presidential candidates and their individual-candidate super PACs must be held accountable for any brazen violations of the campaign finance laws during the 2016 presidential election. The next president should not start off his or her presidency as a massive law breaker.”
In other news …
The Special Session kicks off in Tallahassee. One thing not on the agenda, yet but may pop up, is what to do with ride-sharing companies such as Uber and Lyft.
