POLITICUSUSA
The University of Florida has initiated an investigation into researchers’ claims that they felt pressured to destroy COVID-19 data after a report said they were told “not to criticize the Governor of Florida [Republican Ron DeSantis] or UF policies related to COVID-19 in media interactions.”
Florida Representative Webster Barnaby (R) has filed the “Florida Heartbeat Act,” legislation that would prohibit abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected, only allowing them to be performed if the mother’s life is in danger.
Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker in Tallahassee blocked Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s anti-protest bill, saying that the backlash from officials to people celebrating Juneteenth and engaging in peaceful protest mirrors the racist backlash to protests against Jim Crow laws during the 1960s.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, slammed Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for being “completely wrong” about Covid-19 vaccines.
Fauci’s comments came after DeSantis insisted that whether or not a person gets a Covid-19 vaccine comes down to “personal choice.”
On Friday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) insisted that whether or not a person gets a Covid-19 vaccine comes down to “personal choice.”
“It’s about your health and whether you want that protection or not. It really doesn’t impact me or anyone else,” he said at the time.
The Delta variant has created chaos across the country during the month of August. And the virus has been particularly devastating in the Southern part of the United States. People in this deeply red area have refused to get the vaccine in high numbers.
Donald Trump, thankfully is out of office. And some may have hoped the the COVID situation would get better with him gone. Except it hasn’t gotten better at all.
Governors in red states had tried their best to emulate Trump by fighting any kind of COVID mitigation. And Ron DeSantis has fought harder than any others. This has resulted in Florida becoming the epicenter of COVID-19.
The GOP in one Florida county is struggling, and its leaders have enlisted the aid of Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) to bring the party back to relevance.
The Tampa Bay Times reports that the Hillsborough County Republican County has selected Greene to headline its annual Lincoln Day fundraiser.
In Florida, the Covid-19 pandemic is worse than it’s ever been.
A sobering New York Times report finds that Floridians are “being hospitalized and dying of Covid-19 now than at any previous point in the pandemic, underscoring the perils of limiting public health measures as the Delta variant rips through the state.”
For decades, Florida was the ultimate swing state. It regularly alternated from Red to Blue. And the presidential candidate who won Florida typically won the presidency.
The state, though, has become increasingly red. Democrats still managed to win the White House in 2020 losing Florida because Joe Biden won big in the mid-West.
Former NPA District 37 Florida Senate candidate Alex Rodriguez has pleaded guilty to two of four felony counts of violating election laws.
Rodriguez will receive one year of house arrest followed by two years of probation. He will not receive jail time and prosecutors are requiring him to testify against former State Senator Frank Artiles, who is facing four felony counts.
During an appearance on MSNBC, Florida School Superintendent Dr. Carlee Simon explained why she continues to defy Governor Ron DeSantis’s ban on mask mandates.
“Masks are not a medical device,” she said. “Masks are preventive. They are preventive safety devices. It would be just as though we were asking a student to wear a baseball helmet when they go up to bat at a baseball game,” she said.
Joe Biden recently ended America’s involvement in Afghanistan. And for a number of reasons, many of them not his fault, he is having a difficult time.
Ron DeSantis couldn’t be happier about cable news spending much of its airtime on Afghanistan. The Florida governor is getting a pass on the fact that the COVID surge in his state is getting worse, not better.
Ron DeSantis has helped his state of Florida to become the epicenter of the Delta variant in the United States. But he doesn’t seem at all concerned about stopping the surge.
Instead, DeSantis has focused on the COVID culture war. He has threatened to stop paying school administrators who instituted mask mandates (a number of districts have chosen to defy him.) And instead of urging vaccinations, the governor is instead pushing a treatment that people can’t access until they contract COVID and that costs $1200.
Ron DeSantis seemingly has bigger ambitions than just being the governor of one of the largest states in America. The Florida governor looks to be pushing for the 2024 Republican nomination.
In order to capture the nomination, DeSantis needs to appeal to Donald Trump supporters. He’s trying to do so by becoming a mask mandate culture warrior.
Back in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Donald Trump, Republican lawakers and Conservative media relentlessly pushed the drug hydroxychloroquine. And despite their repeated claims about the drug, it turned out to be pretty much useless.
Florida, right now, is experiencing a severe COVID-19 surge. You wouldn’t know it, however, if you listened to Ron DeSantis. The governor is much more concerned fighting a culture war then keeping his people safe.
The office of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) has confirmed that the governor has walked back his threat to slash the salaries of school officials who impose mask mandates in defiance of his executive order.
Ron DeSantis doesn’t seem to care much about what happens in Florida right now. The state is in crisis mode thanks to the Delta variant of COVID-19. But the state’s governor seems more interested in fighting culture wars than combating the virus.
Speaking to CNN, Broward County Public Schools Interim Superintendent Vickie Cartwright said that her school board will defy Governor Ron DeSantis, who threatened to withhold school officials’ salaries if they defy an executive order forbidding schools from implementing mask mandates to curb the spread of Covid-19.