Why Does Ron DeSantis Seem So Determined To Make His Pandemic Even Worse For Floridians?

 

Florida Man

On Thursday, Florida reported another 2,541 COVID cases and another 172 deaths (by far the worst in the U.S.). Only 7 full countries had more deaths on Thursday than Florida:

• India- 1,144
• U.S.A.- 942
• Brazil- 818
• Mexico- 601
• Argentina- 390
• Colombia- 178
• Iran- 175

Yesterday, Florida reported another 2,847 new cases-- bringing the state's total to 695,887, third worst after much bigger California and Texas. In fact, Florida now has 32,400 cases per million residents, compared to Texas' 26,243 cases per million and Califoirnia's 20,249, which is below the national average (21,767). Florida has 417,626 active cases, are than any state by far. In short, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, aided by Trump and a Republican-controlled legislature, has turned Florida into a COVID-basket case.

Yesterday DeSantis decided to make his pandemic worse by allowing restaurants at operate full capacity and preventing even the worst hit cities and counties from ordering businesses to close. This while new daily cases are spiking like mad in a dozen counties. Yesterday these were the 10 counties reporting new cases worse than some entire states!

• Miami-Dade- 503
• Broward- 191
• Palm Beach- 157
• Orange- 157
• Hillsborough- 155
• Duval- 120 (where Trump hel;d a super-spreader event Thursday night)
• Alachua- 98
• Polk- 96
• Brevard- 92
• Leon- 88

DeSantis announced that all restaurants in Florida will be allowed to operate with at least 50 percent capacity regardless of local rules. Additionally, the governor says local governments will have to justify any capacity restrictions between 50 and 100 percent. Those would require state approval... The governor says he will not allow local governments to close restaurants. As he has stated this week, he does not believe restaurant closures have made a difference in limiting the spread of COVID-19... [B]ars will be allowed to operate with at least 50 percent capacity, just like restaurants.

Meanwhile, DeSantis' boss, Donald, is reported to have "lost patience" with Dr. Robert Redfield the head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Preventio, "as well as with the other public health experts on his coronavirus team because their sober messaging on the future of the pandemic clashes with his rosy assessments.

Trump believes that breakthroughs are not coming swiftly enough, according to people familiar with the President's thinking. Trump's frustrations have caused some to question whether Redfield is on the chopping block, but a Trump adviser said they did not expect the President to make major staffing changes before the election.

The ever-looming threat, Trump's public undermining of the CDC chief and Redfield's tendency to fold to the White House are taking a toll on CDC staff, from top to bottom, employees say. Some have questioned whether their work is making a difference and others have even considered resigning-- and whether the sagging spirits may be hampering pandemic response.

Eight current and former public health officials described for CNN a crushing environment at the agencies charged with the coronavirus response brought on by a President intent on contradicting critical public health messaging and downplaying the threat of the virus, politically motivated pressure from the White House and baseless allegations from political appointees that government scientists are part of a disloyal "deep state."

"The morale is as low as I've ever seen it and we have no confidence in our leadership," a CDC official said. "People are miserable and it's a shame because this pandemic is still flying away and we still need a robust public health response."

Inside the White House, Drs. Deborah Birx and Anthony Fauci have struggled to compete with the growing influence of Trump's new favorite coronavirus adviser, Dr. Scott Atlas, a neuroradiologist with no public health or infectious disease expertise whose views are wildly out of step with leading public health experts. Birx has told people around her she is "distressed" with the direction of the task force and is uncertain how much longer she can continue to serve as the coronavirus task force coordinator.

And at the FDA, the agency's top career officials penned a Washington Post op-ed earlier this month reasserting the agency's independence and commitment to science amid political pressure from the White House and "deep state" allegations from the President.

In a nod to the dispirited mood engulfing his agency, Redfield registered his disappointment during a Senate hearing on Wednesday with since-departed top Department of Health and Human Services spokesman Michael Caputo's wild accusations that CDC scientists are part of a "deep state" engaging in "sedition."

Back to Florida for a moment. Matt Dixon reported at Politico that on Friday Bloomberg announced that he’s blanketing Florida airwaves with a $40 million TV ad buy, the first since he pledged to spend $100 million there to defeat Donald. "The massive buy, being made through the Bloomberg-funded Independence USA PAC, comes the same week that nearly 5 million vote-by-mail ballots are being sent to Florida voters in the the start of what effectively is a month-long Election Day in the nation’s largest swing state."

Bloomberg told Dixon that "This fall, the path to the presidency goes through Florida-- and with mail-in ballots going out this week, voters will soon start deciding who gets its 29 electoral votes. That’s why we’re doing everything in our power to tell the story of Donald Trump’s failed presidency and why we need Joe Biden as the next president of the United States."

Florida Republicans can't stop his ads but they are trying to stop him and others for paying the fines of felons so they can vote. Former Orlando Congressman Alan Grayson, one of the first supporters of the idea of re-enfranchising felons who had served their time, told me that "The threat to investigate Bloomberg is the best illustration so far of the psychopathology of the Florida GOP. Florida voted by almost two-to-one in favor of the principle that no one can take away your right to vote, even if you’re a convicted felon. That’s one of those 'INALIENABLE' rights-- a right that you cannot lose-- that the Founders said was 'endowed by the Creator.' But to the Florida GOP, that’s just LOL."





NPR reported yesterday that Ashley Moody, Florida's crackpot, right-wing attorney general, urged on by Matt Gaetz, the furthest right of the Florida congressional delegation, is demanding law enforcement agencies open an investigation into Bloomberg's contribution to the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition. The Republicans are whining that Bloomberg and other contributing to the Coalition are trying to buy their votes.

Northeast Florida state House candidate Joshua Hicks, endorsed yesterday by President Obama, isn't buying DeSantis' bullshit. "Last I checked, the pandemic is still present," he told me, "we haven't found a cure, people are still getting sick and dying. Yet, today's decision to reopen Florida by Gov. DeSantis was another example of his severe incompetence and his obvious need to please Donald Trump. This decision made by the Governor places lives in danger-- young and old-- and he's playing political games with all of our lives. It's shameful and unbecoming of a Governor. Instead of addressing this virus head on, the Governor has been spreading lies and hiding the facts from the people. He continues to do so and I look forward to holding him fully accountable when I'm elected to the Florida Legislature on November 3rd. Or, he added... as The Atlantic put it Thursday: "In present-day politics, we have one party that consistently seeks advantage in depriving the other party’s adherents of the right to vote."

Bob Lynch is a state House candidate in Miami-Dade, running against one of DeSantis' top allies in the legislature, Daniel Perez. Bob told me yesterday that "You have to remember that Ron DeSantis is doing this AFTER doing nothing to shore up our state’s unemployment, deliberately making it hard to access Federal PUA money, and not rejecting the extra $300 a week in Federal unemployment assistance. So what choice do people have who work in the restaurant industry? Go to work and get sick while bringing the virus into your home or stay home and get no assistance and risk starvation? If we had had a comprehensive state and Federal response since he beginning of the Pandemic we would not be facing this brutal decision.  We should have acted like other modern countries and paid people to stay home. Instead, the Republicans just want to send people to their deaths while providing immunity to business owners that don’t follow whatever messed up version of the CDC guidelines appear from day to day. There is no gray area on the science here. Dining indoors helps spread the virus. The negligence is criminal. The GOP has a very fluid position on states and local rights. They are all in favor of them as long as The will of the people is bent to their vision of what’s 'best'."

Lynch said that "Residents of Florida already overwhelmingly approved a ballot initiative in 2018 to restore voting rights for felons. There was no provision for a poll tax to make them pay their fees. Michael Bloomberg, LeBron James, and Michael Jordan have honorably stepped in to assist in this effort as many ex-felons can’t even find out what they will be required to pay to exercise their Constitutional rights. Overturning the will of the people is nothing new in Florida. It happened with Medical Marijuana, it happened with disenfranchising felons, and it will happen again. Hopefully not with the results of the election in November. DeSantis will not provide a critical check on the Trump Regime and Florida Republicans will never provide a check on DeSantis. Our only hope is to vote them all out and elect Democrats who believe in science and the constitution. People will continue to die due to Ron DeSantis’ decisions."

If Rachel Brown wins her state Senate race in Lee County on November 3 you will read the next day that the Democrats, despite the party leadership-- and particularly despite Gary Farmer-- have flipped the chamber from red to blue. This morning Brown told me, referring to DeSantis and his puppets in the legislature, that "they are sacrificing people, school children, for the sake of 'normalcy.' A leader does not pretend everything is ok. A leader deals with an issue head on and is honest with their people. It was absolutely devastating, revolting, apocalyptic... the news. Now that the schools have adapted in these tough times, now this? Now they will have to deal with parents not sending their kids to school with a mask? ... Now it's not safe to go to the grocery store... or go out and vote? That was their plan all along. Discusting."

Florida Republican Party And Voter Suppression-- It's Who They Are

 

In 2018, Florida voters passed Amendment 4, which ended the state’s lifetime ban on voting for most former prisoners, giving the right to vote to something like 1.4 million more Floridians. It was a lopsided referendum-- 5,148,926 (64.55%) in favor to 2,828,339 (35.45%) opposed. If you think that overwhelming support would end Republican Party opposition to this kind of expansion of voting rights... you just don't understand the Republican Party and the nature of conservatism. With the connivance of Trumpist Gov. Ron DeSantis-- America's most despised governor-- the GOP-controlled legislature passed a poll tax, forcing "people with felony records pay 'all fines and fees' associated with their sentence prior to the restoration of their voting rights." Last year Judge Robert Hinkle of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida threw out the bill but DeSantis appealed the decision to a right-wing controlled appeals court-- the 11th circuit-- ruled the law constitutional. Court battles continued, with Republicans still refusing to submit to the will of the voters and earlier this month, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the law on a 6-4 ruling, handing a significant victory to Trump, DeSantis and their puppet legislature. Politico noted yesterday that "One of the judges who voted to uphold the law is Barbara Lagoa, who is now a contender for the U.S. Supreme Court after the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg."

Gary Fineout wrote that "The Florida Rights Restoration Coalition had previously received support from people such as NBA superstar LeBron James before the ruling. But coalition leaders say that the court ruling has sparked a huge outpouring of aid and they have now taken 44,000 donations in total. 'This outpouring of support for returning citizens is reminiscent of the type of support we received from people from all walks of life during our Amendment 4 campaign,' said Desmond Meade, executive director of the coalition. 'Just as in our campaign, this effort is about placing people over politics. The democracy that we envision is not one where an American is forced to choose between putting food on the table or voting.'... [They've] now raised more than $20 million to pay off outstanding court debts before hitting the registration deadline in less than two weeks."

Bloomberg, who is helping finance the Democratic efforts in Florida, is one of the big donors. Michael Vick and John Legend are two others. In a joint contribution, MTV, Comedy Central and VH1 kicked in $250,000. And the Miami Dolphins Social Impact Committee donated $100,000 last week.

Bloomberg’s decision to funnel money into paying off court debts came shortly after he also pledged to spend $100 million to help defeat President Donald Trump in Florida. Trump narrowly won the state with less than 113,000 votes and a defeat in the Sunshine State would likely doom his re-election.

Florida’s voter registration deadline is Oct. 5 and as many as 775,000 felons may have outstanding court debts-- which include fines, fees and restitution-- that preclude them from registering under the law passed last year by the Republican-controlled state Legislature.

Neil Volz, the coalition’s deputy director, said the group had already paid off fines and fees for nearly 5,000 people so far and averaged to about $1,000 per person. He said that the average could drop because “our goal is to help as many people as fast as possible” but he said the infusion of new help could lead to 20,000 people having their legal financial obligations paid off.

These extraordinary efforts by the Democrats are all about beating Trump and replacing him with moderate Democrat Joe Biden. The Republicans certainly want to save Trump's presidency, but they are even more interested in mainstaining their own power by holding onto congressional and state legislative seats. I asked some of the Democratic candidates running down-ballot races what the expanded voting rights would mean in their own campaigns and how they feel about the latest stunts. Everyone's busy campaigning today, but in between campaign stops, Joshua Hicks, the progressive Democrat working to replace Trump-DeSantis enabler Cord Byrd in a state House district that includes Nassau County and part of Deval reminded me that "Amendment 4 was passed by the voters with a clear majority. My opponent Cord Byrd, and his Republican friends schemed and passed a modern day poll-tax to prevent Americans who have served their time from being able to vote. It's un-American and it's wrong. But it's not surprising. That's what they do because if more people vote, they lose. My opponent is the guy who believes in QAnon and is fine with his supporters waving confederate flags during civil rights protests over George Floyd's murder. So it's not surprising he continues to support efforts that violate Floridian's voting rights and civil rights. This November, we have a chance to send a message-- let's place equality over racism and bigotry. Candidates in Florida need your help now more than ever... we need the resources to take advantage of the climate. Help place Democrats in the Florida Legislature, who will fight to enact Amendment 4 as it was meant, so we can stop the GOP from violating our civil rights."