Week ending August 16: The Florida Primary
Voting was in full swing until 4 PM on Sunday in Florida. At 4 PM the polls closed, in no small part because it makes it harder for Souls to the Polls efforts to get people to the polls after church services that often go well into the afternoon, to be effective. The polls are not open on the Monday before the election. They will reopen on election day, where anyone still wishing to vote now has to figure out their local precinct polling place and go there. Mail in ballots need to arrive before 8 PM on Tuesday, when the polls close, so if you're holding a vote by mail ballot you need to go into your local precinct on Tuesday and vote.
Is that confusing? Yep. Is that the point? Yep. For some assistance in navigating it, click on the link above.
Anyway, another week in Florida has come and gone so let's take a look at the good, the bad and the ugly.
“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.” Martin Luther King Jr. in Washington DC in February of 1968.
Table of Contents
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Finite
Disappointment
In what should come as a surprise to no one, the United States government engaged in a 'mass spying campaign' against opponents of the Trump Administration this year, according to reporting in the Guardian by Sam Levin and Rachel Leingang.
Sam Levin and Rachel Leingang
While this reporting does not touch on Florida in any direct way, it serves as a reminder that it is way too easy for the government to do this, so easy, in fact, even untrained clowns hiding in street drains can figure it out. A conversation I had with someone this week reminded me of the research done by the creators of Firefox two years ago that should shake any illusion of privacy you hold onto, so long as you're holding onto that phone.
Do I have a phone? Yes. Does it have a bunch of unusual safety features to limit it being used as a privacy nightmare? Also yes. Is it still a security risk? Absolutely.
The point of all of the invasions of privacy is a) to make people like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos as much money as possible by harvesting your data and using it to exploit you and b) to scare you into compliance.
I personally try hard to avoid giving money to people like Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos and I refuse to be intimidated by scare tactics, even though I certainly have a healthy respect for the danger they pose.
Hamlet treated Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in Act 3 Scene 4 of his play like "adders fang'd," not to be trusted but given a healthy amount of respect for the risk they pose. I treat my phone, the internet and anti-freedom entities like Freddy the Crocodile–I do my best to keep a healthy distance while respecting the danger they pose.
Florida
Gonna Florida
Every candidate for governor that has spent money on TV ads in my area has railed against AI datacenters in Florida. A company is planning to build one just outside the President's Florida estate, right on the edge of the Everglades. Turns out, certain candidates, if you parse their language, aren't actually against datacenters at all. They just want you to think they are so they use sneaky, adder like langauge to commit to stopping only datacenters that don't make them money.
Sara Sneath
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My oldest wanted me to Dad Taxi them to a friend's house in Ft. Lauderdale and, because it's South Florida, traffic was trash on a Saturday so I did the natural thing and stopped at a pizza place to check it out. I was not disappointed by Pronto New York Style Pizza on US 1 in Dania Beach.
It appears to be locally owned and operated. The pizza was very good, using fresh ingredients (note the mushrooms in the photo are not canned) and the customer service was great. Cute place. Check it out if you're near Fort Lauderdale's International Airport.
300 S Federal Hwy, Dania Beach, FL 33004
Historic
Interlude
August 14, 1842 (from This Day in Florida History)
Colonel William Jenkins Worth announced an end to the Second Seminole War. He made the declaration after meeting with several Native leaders offering them each a rifle, money, and a year's rations of food if they went west to Indian Territory. Although many Seminoles reluctantly accepted the US government's offer, most planned to move to lands reserved for them in Southwest Florida. It is estimated that the war cost the United States $30-40 million today. At least 1,400 US soldiers and several thousand Seminoles died during the war. The total death count remains unknown.
FOR FURTHER READING: John K. Mahon, History of the Second Seminole War, 1835-1842 (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2017).
Infinite
Hope
Today, August 18, 2026, I'll be volunteering with a voter protection hotline in the state of Florida while my eldest kid is working at the local poll. We both voted on Sunday at FIU, and today we're continuing our sacred duty to defend the right to vote. A pretty decent reason for hope, in my opinion.
Bear
The History Hound Finds
Bear and I are neck deep in the election and the documentary on the prayer vigils outside of the so-called Alligator Alcatraz. It's also the first full week of school for the youngest (who is a senior in high school!) and the wife is out of town...so keeping this one short.
Charlotte Clymer
Sophie Hurwitz
Guardian staff reporter
Have a news or event tip?
Another great way to help TWIFL out is to send a tip about something going on in South Florida, especially something that is important to our community but may not be getting the coverage it needs. This can be anything from an ice cream social put on by kids to support a local retirement home to a protest for or against the current administration to an endangered species thriving or being threatened.
Though This Week in Florida is a labor of love it is in fact a lot of work. The hope is that one day it would add to the family income.
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