Governor Rambo
September 23, 2021
To Florida or not to Florida … that is the question. Is “wintering” in the Sunshine State a good idea? It is a decision that has nothing to do with the weather or expenses but is a clear-cut issue of safety. For starters, there’s the fact that the structural integrity of an untold number of the state’s high-rise condos or hotels is questionable, given the lack of regulations that led to the Champlain Towers’ collapse. But worse, the place is run by Governor Ron DeSantis – a zealous right-wing Republican who’s never met a wedge issue he hasn’t parlayed into a headline including public health issues.
DeSantis has turned Florida into ground zero in MAGA’s wacko war against masks and vaccinations. This is notably moronic considering that DeSantis’s jurisdiction — nicknamed God’s Waiting Room because of its elderly demographic — is now downright dangerous for anyone over 65 years of age. Predictably, Covid-19 cases and deaths soared this summer there as he doubled down and sued cruise ships, school boards, and hotels for imposing mask mandates to protect staff and clientele.
Governor Rambo outperforms all other Republican Presidential hopefuls who populate America’s anti-immigrant, anti-mask, and anti-abortion brigade. He has gone that extra mile, threatening to punish teachers and principals and their local school districts for defying his ban against mask mandates. He has ignored two judges who have told him to back off because he hasn’t the authority to operate the schools and is now in contempt of court.
DeSantis has also prohibited all businesses, cruise ships, and government entities from requiring proof of vaccination or even from asking customers whether they have been vaccinated. All this is despite polls that show that 60 percent of Floridians think masks are a good idea.
The payback for his draconian measures is name recognition through Fox TV interviews and headlines. And he games this. Recently, he thumbed his nose at the President’s Chief Medical Advisor, Dr. Anthony Fauci., then began peddling “Don’t Fauci my Florida” merchandise on his website.
Meanwhile, Florida’s hospitals are crammed with Covid-19 victims and the Governor poses as a freedom fighter. “We can either have a free society, or we can have a biomedical security state,” he said in a speech and then pledged “and I can tell you: Florida, we’re a free state. People are going to be free to choose to make their own decisions.”
The caveat is, Floridians are only “free to choose” the Governor’s choices.
Rambo is a one-man masterclass on how to run for Vice President or President in 2024. Why else would a Florida Governor push out policies against the wishes of his electorate or take a camera crew to the US-Mexican border to tear into the Biden Administration over its immigration policies? In that photo op, he admonished President Joe Biden and said toughly: “why don’t you get this border secure, and until you do that, I don’t want to hear a blip about Covid from you.”
His game plan is obvious. Attacks against Biden become national stories and raise his level of importance above those in the other Red States. It pleases the “boss” in Mar-A-Lago. It’s how a guy who came out of nowhere in 2018 to win the governorship by a paltry 32,463 votes gets into the Rolodexes of donors. And he’s red meat for the Trump base because his shamelessness is bottomless. As one expert said, if Florida was a foreign country, Washington would likely ban travel to and from it. “The viral load in Florida is so high right now, there are really only two places on the planet – Botswana, and Louisiana -- where it’s higher,” said Dr. Jonathan Reiner on CNN.
DeSantis is no stranger to amoral politicking. This year, he actually opposed gun controls in a state where two of history’s worst mass murders took place just a few years before. In June 2016, a man killed 49 people and wounded 53 more at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando Florida. In February 2018, a student killed 17 and injured 17 more at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland Florida.
But he’s indifferent because he’s on Donald Trump’s speed dial and his fascistic flamboyance has risen him to the top of a Republican roster of potential Vice Presidential running mates for the Big Orange Man in 2024.
What’s surprising about DeSantis is that he is a Harvard-educated lawyer who became a Navy SEAL and served in Iraq. Now all those impressive credentials have led him to become, according to a Sun-Sentinel reader, “a cheap Trump knockoff”, who never misses an opportunity to adhere to the anti-government MAGA party line while, at the same time, never refusing hurricane relief, emergency funds, or ventilators from Biden’s federal government.
Frankly, I’m not heading down to Florida as long as he’s in power and neither should the million-plus other Canadian snowbirds. Last winter very few made the trek because of lock-downs, and this year numbers will be trimmed but many will once again go there to escape Canada’s bloody awful winter. Frankly, that’s inadvisable unless you have medivac, and can get out of there in a hurry by ambulance helicopter. With the populace running around maskless, and bars, restaurants, and schools breeding grounds for the Delta variant, Florida is certainly not a destination for those who remember Walter Cronkite. Even going into a Florida clinic or hospital for a jab or because of a bad case of sunburn or a stubbed toe is dangerous.
This Governor is just plain nuts and he has made the state deadlier than an indoor Republican rally.
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Re Champlain towers . . .
Only one structure built of concrete in North America has ever been built with a 100 year warranty on the concrete . . . The Confederation bridge to PEI. Sand 'which always contains salt, had to be washed and tested before mixing. All the steel rod in the structure was rubber coated to prevent corrosion. Slump tests were mandatory, warrantying crushed stone content. I wager none of these things are even on the planning books anywhere else . . . SOO . . . concrete begins to fail after 40 years and goes down from there . . . Depending on all the salt, rust and gravel content and the local environment as well . . . Salty air anyone ?
Yup . . . that's the first amendment for ya . . .
OH . . . Has he banned pre school Vaccines yet ?
Measles, mumps ,rubella anyone ??