Deep Something

Why Josie Tomkow is Wrong for Tampa

March 17, 2026 B. John 214 Views 0 Comments Voter Suppression, Public Education, Josie Tomkow, Tampa Politics, Home Rule, SD 14, Preemption, Local Autonomy

For decades, the “Home Rule” philosophy was the bedrock of Florida governance—the common-sense idea that the people who live in South Tampa and Northwest Hillsborough are better equipped to run their communities than a bureaucrat in a distant capital. But after the 2026 Legislative session, that principle isn’t just under attack; it’s being systematically dismantled. At the center of this power grab is Representative Josie Tomkow, a Polk County resident now seeking to represent Senate District 14. While her campaign paints a picture of “common sense” leadership, her voting record tells a different story: one of a reliable “yes-man” for a Tallahassee establishment that views your local autonomy as an obstacle to be cleared.

From voting to strip your city council of the power to host local cultural festivals to supporting state-level takeovers of local zoning boards, Tomkow has consistently prioritized state authority over your backyard reality. Whether it’s placing barriers at the ballot box for USF students or diverting your tax dollars away from public classrooms, her record is a blueprint for centralization. Senate District 14 doesn’t need a proxy for the Governor’s office; it needs a champion for its own streets. We’re taking a deep dive into the specific “preemption” bills Tomkow supported and why her vision for Florida is a direct threat to the independence of the Tampa Bay area.

[Read the full analysis here: The Death of Home Rule and the Rise of the Polk County Proxy]

Politics Legislature Featured Places Tampa

Where in the World is Josie Tomkow?

February 19, 2026February 19, 2026 B. John 498 Views 0 Comments Florida Special Election, Tallahassee Insider, Senate District 14, Josie Tomkow, Carpetbagger, South Tampa Politics, Residency Scandal, Tom Piccolo, Florida Health Committee, Medical Freedom

Or The Ghost of Polk City and the Great Tampa Gamble South Tampa and Downtown are built on a foundation

Kings Mountain Politics Presidency Stoicism Boone Featured Places

Wisdom: The Organizing Virtue

February 15, 2026February 15, 2026 B. John 290 Views 0 Comments Practical Wisdom, Civic Leadership, Moral Philosophy, Donald Trump, Political Judgment, Appalachian State, Boone NC, Modern Stoicism, Stoicism, wisdom

What happens when leadership confuses force with wisdom?

Learn a 3-step pause to outthink panic and regain control over decision-making. We are living in a moment when reactivity often masquerades as strength. Foreign policy escalates without proportion. Economic decisions shift with the winds of applause. Dissent is treated as disloyalty. But courage without wisdom becomes recklessness. Justice without wisdom becomes punishment. Temperance without wisdom becomes denial. Something essential is missing when judgment fails at scale.

In this new essay, I reflect on what Stoic wisdom actually looks like — not as abstraction, but as disciplined judgment under pressure. From sleepless nights of personal uncertainty to watching national decisions unfold, I explore why wisdom is the organizing virtue that keeps both a life and a nation from unraveling.

Read more in Wisdom: The Organizing Virtue.

A gently rising two-lane road at sunrise, narrowing toward the horizon in soft golden light.

Election Deep Thoughts Featured Places Kings Mountain Politics

Looking Back at 2025: A Year of Loss, Resolve, and Reckoning

February 11, 2026February 11, 2026 B. John 718 Views 0 Comments Stoicism, Resilience, Civic Engagement, Reflection, grief, aging, Reinvention, Intentional Living

At 66, I did not expect 2025 to take as much as it did. My mother died. I lost my job. Certain illusions about stability quietly disappeared. It was not a year of fireworks or easy victories. It was a year of subtraction. And yet, beneath the loss, something steadier emerged: clarity. About health. About purpose. About what still matters when titles and timelines fall away.
If 2025 was the year of endurance, 2026 must be the year of intention. Fewer illusions. More intention. The road continues. In this year-end reflection, I write honestly about grief, layoffs, aging, civic resolve, and the discipline of choosing steadiness anyway. I hope you’ll read the full piece and walk a little of that road with me.

Featured Places Tampa Politics Election Legislature

The Ideological Tourist: Why Josie Tomkow is the Wrong Prescription for Tampa

February 4, 2026February 5, 2026 B. John 345 Views 0 Comments Carpetbagging, Health Committee, Public Health, Ideological Tourist, Campaign of Terror, Tampa Bay, Florida Politics, Senate District 14, Josie Tomkow

Josie Tomkow is a career politician currently engaged in an audacious act of “ideological tourism.” Having spent years in rural Polk County, she is now attempting to transplant her record of institutionalized cruelty into the heart of South Tampa and Downtown. As the Chair of the House Health and Human Services Committee, she hasn’t just been a witness to the state’s “campaign of terror” against marginalized communities—she has been its gatekeeper. From overseeing draconian abortion bans to weaponizing healthcare against the LGBTQ+ community, Tomkow has treated the law as a tool for “othering” rather than a safeguard for the public.

For a district that serves as the engine of Florida’s medical and research sector, Tomkow’s record is a fundamental mismatch. While Tampa’s doctors and researchers rely on scientific consensus, Tomkow has been the primary legislative enabler for a reckless anti-science agenda that threatens our schools and retirees. She is a “carpetbagger” who views our community as a political fallback, yet she brings with her a “patrimonial” system that prioritizes extremist loyalty over the actual health of our citizens. It is time to tell this opportunist that Tampa’s values—and our healthcare—are not for sale.

Society Methodism Stoicism Featured Places Tampa Religion

Civic Duty as Lived Responsibility

February 1, 2026 B. John 268 Views 0 Comments Stoicism, faith in action, justice, civic duty, social responsibility, community care, volunteerism, Wesleyan theology

Where will someone sleep in your city tonight? Civic duty rarely announces itself. It does not arrive as a moment of clarity or a flood of inspiration. More often, it looks like routine. Mats laid out across a facility space. Meals delivered and set out. Volunteers arriving in shifts through the night so others can sleep indoors when the temperature drops.

We talk about civic duty as an idea, but it is better understood as a practice. It begins when concern becomes action. Not because the work feels noble, but because shared life demands it. When a community faces need, and some people have the capacity to respond, responsibility follows. Not as heroism. As participation.

This essay reflects on civic duty as lived responsibility. Drawing on Stoic philosophy, Wesleyan theology, and a wider moral consensus across traditions, it asks what it really means to show up for others when the work is repetitive, incomplete, and often unseen.

Economy Featured Places Tampa Politics Election Legislature

Steel-Toed Integrity

January 10, 2026February 4, 2026 B. John 404 Views 0 Comments Brian Nathan, Steel-Toed Integrity, IBEW, Tampa Politics, Veteran, Working Families, Senate District 14

When 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.

Tampa Politics Legislature Economy Featured Places

The High Price of “Nice”: What Karen Gonzalez Pittman is Actually Costing South Tampa

January 7, 2026January 7, 2026 B. John 510 Views 0 Comments Florida GOP, Karen Gonzalez Pittman, South Tampa Politics, Florida Property Insurance, Florida Legislature, District 65, Cost of Living, Culture Wars, Fiscal Responsibility

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.

NC Featured Places Kings Mountain Boone

Stoic Practices: Negative Visualization

November 4, 2025November 4, 2025 B. John 425 Views 0 Comments Premeditatio Malorum, grief, mindfulness, negative visualization, Preparation, Gratitude, Resilience

What if imagining loss could make life feel fuller, not darker? The Stoics called it premeditatio malorum—the quiet practice of picturing what could go wrong, not to suffer in advance, but to steady the heart for when it does.

In this new essay, I write about sitting beside my mother near the end of her life, and later facing my own health scare. Both moments taught me that rehearsing misfortune isn’t about fear. It’s about gratitude. The kind that comes from realizing how much you already have.

Tampa Science Stoicism Environment Featured Places

Stoic Practices: Contemplation of Nature

October 15, 2025November 30, 2025 B. John 295 Views 0 Comments balance, humility, Climate Change, Stoicism, Marcus Aurelius, hurricane, Seneca, contemplation of nature, Tampa Bay, environmental ethics

Stoicism teaches that nature is both teacher and law. In a time of rising seas and stronger storms, the lesson feels urgent: to live according to nature now means to remember that we are not outside it.

Featured Places Tampa Stoicism

Rehearsing Virtue in Small Daily Acts

October 13, 2025November 30, 2025 B. John 496 Views 0 Comments Massimo Pigliucci, Tampa, virtue, compassion, daily practice, empathy, The Portico, Stoicism, Marcus Aurelius, Seneca

At The Portico café in downtown Tampa, I paused my work to sit with a man who had just been released from prison. He was unsure what to do next. I offered coffee, listened, and waited until the manager returned to connect him with help. It wasn’t a big deal, but later, I realized how much peace there can be in simply giving someone attention for a few minutes.

In the past, I invited my widowed neighbor to join my husband and me for our usual Taco Tuesday after she told me her daughter had been declared cancer-free. She later said how much the evening meant to her. Those simple moments, one with a stranger, one with a friend, reminded me that compassion is a practice. The Stoics taught that virtue is built not in theory but in repetition, through the small choices that make us steady and kind.

← Previous