Going on Spanish-language radio to call a popular Democratic politician an agent of Castro is a pretty standard tactic for South Florida Republicans. What's slightly weirder is to do it while promising in English to run a clean campaign. What's very weird is lying about it when caught. Watch as the Naples Daily News commits real journalism:
Recent Bluessky Posts- People keep talking about oil prices reacting (or not) to the on-again-off-again shooting war in the Gulf of Hormuz. I'm more concerned about the looming fertilizer crisis. Apparently, 30% of the world's supply goes through the Gulf. Or, now, doesn't. news.un.org/en/interview... July 9, 2026 Michael Froomkin
- Jotwell T&E: Reid Weisbord, Empirical Insights into the Rural Estate Planning Crisis, JOTWELL (July 9, 2026), trustest.jotwell.com/empirical-in.... July 9, 2026 Jotwell
- Jotwell Torts: Nora Freeman Engstrom, Immunity Run Amok: Section 230 and the Distortion of Tort Law, JOTWELL (July 8, 2026) (reviewing Dominic Roschival, A Shield for Whom? The Disastrous Hidden Toll of Section 230 on Children, 94 U. Cin. L. Rev. 257 (2025)), torts.jotwell.com/immunity-run.... July 8, 2026 Jotwell
- Just using version numbers avoids tempting the word deities. July 7, 2026 Michael Froomkin
- Save a new version every 10 minutes. It's the only way. July 7, 2026 Michael Froomkin
That sort of thing is EXACTLY why it’s a bad idea to try to have one polity with two languages. It facilitates politicians saying one thing to one language group, and something entirely different to another. (Something they try anyway, but the two groups speaking different languages makes it more likely to succeed.)
Bilingualism is bad for democracy.
Actually, the more bilingualism there is, the harder it is to get away with this stuff. It’s two co-existing monolingualisms that cause the problem. Moral of the story: start teaching English to Spanish-speakers in kindergarten, and Spanish to English-speakers. Don’t wait until middle school to start the second language.
It’s monolingualism that is bad for democracy. The more languages everyone speaks, the less tricks like this can work. (Not to mention that multilingualism is good for trade and diplomacy too.)