There are people dying all over Florida from COVID -- let's hear from Ron DeSantis what his top legislative priority is. Directly from his own mouth. DeSantis’ top legislative priority: Stopping censorship of conservatives online DeSantis lamented the loss of Parler, a far-right Twitter alternative that was taken offline by Amazon Web Services after it allegedly failed to regulate hate speech and violent language. https://www.tampabay.com/news/flori...-stopping-censorship-of-conservatives-online/ Gov. Ron DeSantis laid out a top policy priority on Thursday, but it wasn’t shoring up the economy or slowing the spread of the coronavirus. Nor was it stopping protests from turning into riots. DeSantis said his top legislative goal “to get right” in 2021 and beyond is to prevent the censorship of conservatives online by technology behemoths like Google, Facebook, Twitter and Amazon, which isn’t an issue that Florida’s government has the ability to control. “We need to really think deeply about if we are a disfavored class based on our principles, based on having conservative views, based on being a Christian, based on whatever you can say that is not favored in Silicon Valley,” DeSantis said during a speech before a crowd of conservatives in Austin, Tx. Later, he added: “I think it’s probably the most important legislative issue that we’re going to have to get right this year and next year.” The Republican governor’s remarks were delivered at a conference convened by the Texas Public Policy Foundation. He complained in particular about the action taken against Parler, an alternative to Twitter that brands itself as a home for free speech and was growing in popularity among conservatives. On Jan. 6, a President Donald Trump-supporting insurrectionist mob stormed the U.S. Capitol, which led to five deaths. In the wake of the attack, Amazon Web Services, which kept Parler online, stopped hosting the site. That action rendered Parler essentially inoperable for users — and it’s unclear when the site might come back online. Parler sued Amazon in federal court, alleging the tech giant had breached its contract. For weeks leading up to the Jan. 6 attack, Amazon had been notifying Parler that the company needed to do a better job of policing hate speech and violent threats on its platform, lawyers for Amazon said in a recent court filing. Parler users openly called for election-related violence on the app, ProPublica has reported. Some Parler users posted to the site while storming the Capitol, Gizmodofound. To DeSantis, tech companies’ treatment of Parler was more evidence that conservative viewpoints aren’t welcome on the largest online platforms. In addition to Amazon’s action, the app is no longer available on the Apple or Google stores. Many of those same platforms also banned Trump, who still holds office for six more days, from posting. “They decapitated this company, Parler,” DeSantis said. “This was a coordinated assault on a company that was trying to compete.” In response to what happened to Parler, DeSantis called for the government to regulate technology companies more closely. In Florida, at least, that is going to be difficult — if not impossible. As DeSantis noted, large companies are not subject to the Constitution’s First Amendment, which protects government incursion on free speech. And the companies operate across state lines, making the regulatory landscape a federal issue. Unless the United States government steps in, Twitter, Facebook and other social media companies will likely continue controlling who gets to use their platforms. This week two Florida legislators said they are drafting legislation that will retaliate against the companies for engaging in what they call “selective censorship” of conservative opinions by the social media platforms. State Sen. Danny Burgess, a Zephyrhills Republican, filed SB 520, which would require social media websites to give 30-day notice to a user whose account has been disabled or suspended and explain why the user was punished. He next wants to amend the bill to prohibit social media censorship. Rep. Randy Fine, a Brevard County Republican, wrote a letter to letter to DeSantis and the Cabinet on Tuesday, urging them to divest the state’s billion-dollar pension fund of any stock it holds in Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, Apple and Alphabet (Google). He said he is also drafting legislation to prohibit state agencies for doing business with the companies for what he sees is “selective censorship” of conservative views. But neither DeSantis or the Republican lawmakers took note of the fact that platform censorship is allowed by the First Amendment and has been upheld in U.S. Supreme Court rulings, including by conservative justices. Any state legislation to regulate censorship on social media platforms would have to sidestep a constitutional challenge. Nevertheless, DeSantis promised movement on the issue. “We’re going to take action, I think you’re going to see Texas want to take action,” DeSantis said, offering no specifics. And in a rare acknowledgement of the incoming Joe Biden administration, DeSantis added: “I doubt you’re going to see very much from the federal government in terms of taking action.”
that's a good little populist, maybe he should push for nationalizing social media companies, that way the GOP can be the arbiter of speech.
DeSanity's panties in a bunch because his dear leader demagogue can't incite the loons further - while Rome "burns" with Covid. One day this nightmare will end.
‘Full COVID-19 resurgence’ in Florida, White House Task Force report says https://www.wfla.com/community/heal...n-florida-white-house-task-force-report-says/ TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – Florida is in the “red zone” with a “full COVID-19 resurgence,” according to the Jan. 10 White House Coronavirus Task Force Report. “They say we need aggressive mitigation to match a more aggressive virus,” USF Health epidemiologist Jason Salemi said, quoting the report. This post-holiday season surge in the Sunshine State is what Salemi worried about. “None of this should be a surprise,” he added. According to the task force report, “without uniform implementation of effective face masking (two or three ply and well-fitting) and strict physical distancing, epidemics could quickly worsen as more transmissible variants spread and become predominant.” ..............
This has nothing to do with Ron DeSantis' top legislative priority so therefore it is not important to him. He rather do his best to hide the COVID information and pretend it does not exist.... while creating his own fantasy narrative.
"DeSantis for the win" - No-Bid COVID Contracts to Trump buddy with nothing of value delivered. DeSantis gave son of billionaire Trump buddy millions in no-bid COVID contracts https://www.floridabulldog.org/2020...ump-buddy-millions-in-no-bid-covid-contracts/ Gov. Ron DeSantis’s administration has given more than $4 million in no-bid, coronavirus-related state contracts to a New York City-based social media startup co-founded and led by the son of a South Florida billionaire and prominent supporter of President Donald Trump. The Florida Department of Health signed a $2.75 million contract with Twenty Labs, LLC in June to provide the state a software license for a “Healthy Together COVID-19 contact tracing customer relationship management platform,” basically software that supports the state’s contact tracing efforts. More recently, the governor’s office signed a $1.5 million contract with Twenty Labs, which operates a COVID-19 mobile phone app called Healthy Together, to provide a “contract (sic) tracing application,” according to the state’s contract database. In both cases, the company was chosen without the competitive solicitation process that state law normally requires for such large contracts. Both no-bid COVID contracts are listed in the state’s contract database as among Florida’s numerous “emergency purchases” per an emergency executive order from Republican DeSantis that allows state agencies to suspend normal purchasing regulations. The CEO of Twenty Labs is Darren “Diesel” Peltz, known for his social media app Twenty, and for being the son of hedge fund billionaire Nelson Peltz. Twenty Lab’s corporate headquarters on the 41stfloor of 280 Park Ave. in Manhattan is also the address of Nelson Peltz’s Trian Partners, a $6 billion investment firm with large holdings in companies like Procter & Gamble, Comcast and Wendy’s. Peltz fundraiser for Trump The elder Peltz is a well-known backer and longtime friend of Trump as well as a major Republican donor: He gave $250,000 to the Republican National Committee in 2020, along with $75,000 to Trump Victory over three payments in 2016 and 2017 and more than $10,000 in maxed-out contributions to the Trump campaign itself. His wife, Claudia Peltz, also gave $250,000 to the RNC in 2020. Nelson Peltz even hosted a high-dollar fundraiser for Trump at his waterfront estate in Palm Beach earlier this year. DeSantis got up and left the fundraiser before Trump spoke, and that became a point of contention between the governor and the president,POLITICOreported in March. And theWashington Postreported in 2017 that a top aide to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuch in flew on Peltz’s private jet to Palm Beach. The Florida Department of Health paid out the full $2.75 million on Twenty Lab’s contract in September. The Executive Office of the Governor has paid out nearly $700,000 on its contract with Twenty Labs, including $200,000 since Florida Bulldog started asking questions about the no-bid COVID contracts. Florida wasn’t the first state to contract with Twenty for a contact tracing app. Utah’s no-bid COVID contract with the company generated controversy in the Beehive State amid a bumpy roll out of its Healthy Together app there. “It didn’t go well,” wrote New York Timestech writer Shira Ovide. Why contract with Twenty? For one, the Salt Lake Tribune reported in July that the app ended a key function used for contact tracing: tracking user location. Few users opted-in to the app’s GPS location tracking out of privacy concerns. It’s unclear why Florida contracted with Twenty for a contact tracing app amid the problems with the Utah rollout. Florida also had the option of using the exposure notification code developed jointly by Apple and Google, which could have been incorporated into the Department of Health’s existing StrongerThan C19 App that currently serves as little more than a survey platform. The Apple/Google code aims to get around privacy concerns about location tracking by using anonymized Bluetooth data to track when phones have been near each other. More than a dozen other states — including Alabama, California, Colorado, Maryland, Minnesota, New York and Washington — have taken advantage of the code. The Florida interface of the Healthy Together app, which was rolled out last month, does not have any location tracking function for contact tracing, nor does it have any similar function to the Apple/Google exposure notification code. It does allow users to see their test results based on their phone number, and prompts people who test positive to take a contact tracing survey. It also provides some links to the Department of Health website related to COVID-19. Twenty Lab’s Healthy Together app has gotten plugs on the Today Show and from the White House by Vice President Mike Pence. ‘Not what was asked’ Jared Allgood, Twenty’s co-founder and chief strategy officer, told Florida Bulldog in a phone interview, “We’re capable of delivering Apple and Google within the Healthy Together app, but that is not what was asked of us by the Florida Department of Health.” He said the survey function of the app serves to cut down on the time the state’s contact tracers need to spend on the phone with people who test positive. Andie Weissman, a contracted public relations representative for the company, said Healthy Together has more than 300,000 registered Florida users. The company would not provide a copy of the contact tracing survey, deferring to the Florida Department of Health, which likewise did not provide a copy of the survey. Jason Mahon, a spokesman for the Florida Division of Emergency Management (DEM) who also serves as spokesman for the Florida Department of Health (DOH), did not answer any questions about the contracts. Similarly, the governor’s spokesman, Fred Piccolo, would not answer any questions about the contracts. Some of the questions sought basic information, such as who signed the contract and when. In addition, neither Piccolo nor Mahon addressed what role the fact the CEO of the company is the son of a prominent GOP donor and Trump friend and ally played in the decisions to give Twenty more than $4 million in state contracts. Nor did they address why the state is not using the Apple and Google technology for contact tracing efforts. Distance from no-bid COVID contracts Emergency Management director Jared Moskowitz, a Democrat the incoming Biden administration is reportedly considering to head up the Federal Emergency Management Agency, sought to distance himself from the contract in an email to Florida Bulldog. “This is a DOH contact,” he wrote about the contract that’s identified in the state’s contract database as belonging to the Executive Office of the Governor, the parent agency of DEM. “DEM was not involved in selection or administration of contract.” However, Moskowitz’s claim conflicts with those made by Twenty’s Allgood, who said, “that contract was with both FLDOH and the [Division] of Emergency Management, so the people at FLDOH and the [Division] of Emergency Management both spoke to us about doing the mobile application.” The state has not made the governor’s office’s contract available in response to a public records request. The DOH contract, which is available on the state’s contract tracking website, was signed by Darren Peltz using an email tied to Trian Partners, his father’s investment firm. Twenty’s public relations representatives said the younger Peltz does not work for Trian Partners even though his company is based at Trian’s New York City headquarters, that the email address tied to the firm was the result of a clerical error, and that Trian Partners is not invested in Twenty. They declined, however, to comment on whether Nelson Peltz has a financial interest in Twenty.
Of course where else would Chumpie find fiends err friends. Meanwhile Palm Beach County is trying to get out of the land lease deal with him for Chumpie International Golf Course, across the street from the county jail. Literally riiiight across the street.
"DeSantis for the win" - Governor DeSantis actively funneling Covid vaccine only to counties where Trump won. As of now, Publix is only offering vaccine in Florida counties won by Republicans https://www.cltampa.com/news-views/...accine-in-florida-counties-won-by-republicans A common trait of the counties that are part of Florida’s growing COVID-19 vaccination partnership with the Publix supermarket chain is that they are all safely Republican. As of Thursday morning, 105 Publix stores were offering limited numbers of shots to people 65 and older in Bay, Citrus, Collier, Escambia, Flagler, Hernando, Marion, Okaloosa, Santa Rosa, St. Johns, Volusia and Walton counties. All 12 counties were won comfortably by Republican President Donald Trump in November and by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2018. (More at above url)