The site for ranting and reporting by John Masters
For months, we’ve watched Tallahassee treat Senate District 14 like a “GOP Arrivals Lounge”—a place where political tourists drop a carpetbag just long enough to get their voter registration stamped.
Our latest investigation into Jay Collins pulls back the curtain on a system where residency is a shell game and public service is a family business.
Read moreWhen something breaks in the real world, you don’t call a politician to give a speech; you call someone with a toolbox to fix it. That is the leadership Brian Nathan offers Senate District 14. A Navy veteran and IBEW electrician who chose Tampa as his home during the Great Recession, Brian brings a craftsman’s perspective to a political system that is deeply broken.
Read about Brian’s vision for “steel-toed integrity”—a philosophy born on the job site that prioritizes practical solutions for working families over political theater. He is running to fight for affordable housing, good-paying local jobs, and quality education.
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While South Tampa homeowners struggle with skyrocketing premiums, Josie Tomkow voted for insurance bailouts that stripped away consumer rights without guaranteeing a single cent in rate reductions. In this special election, we have a choice between an IBEW electrician who pays his own bills and a career politician funded by the insurance lobby.
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Is your State Rep costing you money?
On paper, Representative Karen Gonzalez Pittman fits South Tampa perfectly. She’s polished, presentable, and active in the community. If you met her at a Palma Ceia mixer, you’d think, “Now, there’s a reasonable person.” But for the wealthy and aspirational residents of District 65, voting for Pittman has become an expensive illusion. You think you’re voting for stability, but you’re actually paying a premium for a representative who consistently prioritizes Tallahassee’s culture war performance art over your bank account.
The most glaring receipt is your property insurance bill. For years, the Republican supermajority, of which Pittman is a loyal member, has promised that if we protected insurance companies from lawsuits, rates would trickle down. Pittman voted for every one of those protections. Yet, while your premiums have doubled, she and her colleagues have spent the legislative session banning books and policing bathrooms rather than fixing the financial crisis that is actually threatening our property values.
There’s a high cost to the “anti-woke” agenda, and South Tampa homeowners are paying it. This is a clear example of Patrimonialism: the state is run for insiders, while regular people get worse service and pay more. It’s time to see what her “nice” image is really costing you.
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Justice is one of the most frequently used moral words in public life, and one of the least examined. It appears in politics, religion, social movements, and law. Because it is so familiar, we often assume we mean the same thing when we use it. We usually do not.
Serious moral traditions have resisted reducing justice to feeling or slogan. Stoic philosophy, Christian ethics, and modern research all return to a similar conclusion: Justice is not primarily about emotion or ideology. It is about responsibility. Responsibility to others, to the common good, and to living in a way that keeps belief and behavior aligned.
Seen this way, justice is not a moment or a performance. It is discipline. A steady practice carried out over time. It asks for clarity without cruelty, conviction without self-righteousness, and persistence without spectacle. Justice endures not because it is loud, but because it is rooted.
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Justice is a word we hear all the time, but people often understand it differently. It shows up in courtrooms, sermons, protest signs, and political speeches. Before it became a slogan, justice was seen as a way to live. Not just a stance or an opinion, but a mode of living.
For me, justice starts with faith. The prophet Micah says it simply: Do justice. Love mercy. Walk humbly with God. This command is not abstract. Justice is not something to admire from afar. It is something you do, often quietly, sometimes without certainty, and sometimes at a real cost.
I have seen justice take shape in public gatherings and protest marches, but I have also seen it in smaller, steadier acts. Helping someone get a meal. Standing up for a person who cannot speak for themselves. Showing up again when the work seems slow and unfinished. Justice does not always announce itself. Most often, it looks like ordinary people refusing to look away.
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Florida Senate District 14 is facing a choice between a local voice and a corporate transfer. Josie Tomkow, a term-limited rancher from Polk County, is attempting to buy a Senate seat in South Tampa with $3 million in special interest cash. This essay examines her record of voting against our interests—on insurance, abortion, and education—and why we need a representative who actually lives here, like Brian Nathan.
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A recent critique of Laurel Lee’s time as Florida Secretary of State shows her history of voter suppression, but her actions in Congress are an even bigger betrayal. She has voted against jobs and insulin price caps, and taken large corporate donations while her district faces high housing costs. Lee has shown she works for special interests, not FL-15 families.
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Most of us think courage looks like pushing forward, fighting, and refusing to give in. But sometimes courage takes a quieter form. Sometimes it shows up not as effort, but as clarity, not as resistance, but as resolve.
During my mother’s final hospital stay, she listened patiently as doctors talked about rehab and recovery. After they left, she said calmly, “I’m just done.” She wasn’t asking for permission or advice. She was stating a decision shaped by a lifetime of endurance. A woman raised in scarcity. A woman who carried family responsibility without complaint. A woman who knew the difference between fear, despair, and judgment.
In this essay, I reflect on what her final decision taught me about courage. Drawing on Stoic philosophy, scripture, and lived experience, I explore courage not as bravado, but as alignment. Not as clinging, but as choosing without illusion. If you’ve ever wondered what courage really looks like when life stops negotiating, I invite you to read more.
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Last night’s prime-time presidential address was sold as a report to the nation. What it delivered was more like a campaign rally with a White House backdrop.
We were told inflation has been “stopped,” prices are “coming down fast,” the border is “fully secure,” wars have been ended, and the economy is suddenly the hottest in the world. The problem is that many of these claims aren’t true, and others are so exaggerated that they lose all contact with reality. Public data on inflation, jobs, migration, and global conflicts tell a far more complicated story than the one presented on screen.
The speech also leaned heavily into partisan attacks, repeatedly blaming Democrats and President Biden while offering little effort to speak to the country as a whole. Even new announcements, such as a promised cash payment to service members, were floated without any explanation of their legality or funding. Symbolism replaced substance. Confidence stood in for evidence.
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Over the past week, the administration has steadily ratcheted up the drumbeat against Venezuela. Two more alleged “drug boats” were destroyed in the Caribbean, again without publicly released evidence. A sudden announcement of an embargo on ships carrying Venezuelan oil. The quiet but unmistakable presence of the largest U.S. aircraft carrier and its support fleet repositioned into the Caribbean. And now, after days of escalating rhetoric, a prime-time address to the nation.
Taken individually, each move could be explained away. Together, they form a pattern that deserves attention. This is not routine counternarcotics enforcement. This is coercive signaling, and it is happening at a moment when the president faces mounting pressure at home.
When facts are thin, and spectacle is thick, motives matter. History teaches us to be cautious when presidents under domestic strain suddenly discover urgent foreign enemies. The timing alone should give us pause.