Disney rejects DeSantis mask order for Florida's theme parks https://www.alternet.org/2021/05/disney-rejects-desantis-mask-order-for-floridas-theme-parks/
Ridiculous tweet. You even told us that many stores in Texas still required mask. No big deal... those with fear may go to Disney...those of us who think it's ridiculous to have kids wear mask outdoors may not go. I suspect Disney will find that they would do better not requiring masks outdoors. But I don't really know.
Disney should be able to do what they want. Their theme park, their business. If they want the ability to make people wear plastic bags over their head in order to come to their park, that's their prerogative. DeSantis has no say in it, nor should he. Of course, I can't imagine it is different than Busch Gardens here in Tampa with the same rules. I know the Dir. of Park Marketing for BG and she was telling me how their staff believes no one is coming because of the mask rules and that's why audience returns have been so limited. Of course, this is anecdotal, but I know that's the reason I am not going to BG - I'm not going to wear a mask around outside in the Florida heat. You can piss right off on that.
Dad who pulled his daughter out of woke $43k-per-year NYC school and moved to Florida urges others to do same because curriculum 'teaches kids to feel bad about the color of their skin' Harvey Goldman was angered his daughter was tutored on her 'white privilege' On Tuesday Goldman said parents were not aware of the extent of the issue He moved his family to Florida, and on Tuesday said others should follow suit The NYC school said he told them the move was planned for financial reasons Heschel School said he informed them in the summer they were leaving Goldman said that schools in Florida have never heard of critical race theory A growing movement of NYC parents are challenging 'woke' ideology in schools A father who pulled his daughter out of her $43,000-per-year New York City school said other parents are unaware of how bad the 'woke' teaching in the city's schools has become, and should follow his lead and withdraw their children. Harvey Goldman took his nine-year-old out of Heschel School, a Jewish day school on the Upper West Side, because he felt its curriculum 'teaches children to feel bad about the color of their skin'. 'They are teaching these kids terrible things,' he said on Tuesday. 'Teaching them to feel bad about themselves and it is really awful.' Goldman and his family moved to Florida after learning that the fourth-grader was being tutored on her 'white privilege'. On Tuesday night, he told Tucker Carlson that other parents had got in touch with him to seek advice, and he recommended they follow suit. 'I've gotten quite a few calls from parents of the school and they are pulling their kids out,' said Goldman. 'They are not happy about what is being taught to their children. 'I'm not sure what else they could do but teach the school lesson by pulling their kids out. And getting their money out.' Goldman is just one of many parents and teachers who have complained about the 'woke' curriculum in New York City's schools, private and fee-paying. He said that his family was much happier in Florida, where critical race theory (CRT) was not taught. CRT is a theoretical framework which views society as dominated by white supremacy, examines systemic racism, and categorizes people as 'privileged' or 'oppressed' based on their skin color. Asked why other parents did not follow his example, he said many were unaware of the extent of the problem. 'I think a lot of them are unaware about how bad this really is and what they are teaching the kids in these schools,' he said. 'And also, if you are in New York, it's really difficult to find another place to go because so many schools are teaching this critical race theory. 'And they are together in this. Someplace like Florida, never heard of it.' Carlson asked whether he was finding the situation better in Florida. 'Much better,' Goldman replied. 'The schools never heard of critical race theory. They don't teach critical race theory. 'They don't know about it. These children go to a park and they want to play. 'They don't care what color the other kids are. They care that they are having fun.' Goldman has said he first questioned the curriculum change after reading about it in a newsletter. He approached the head of the school in a supermarket, and was rebuffed. He then wrote to the school in September calling it 'child abuse, not education'. The school said in a statement: 'We are a Jewish day school and very proud of our secular and religious curriculum, which Mr. Goldman is fundamentally misrepresenting. 'His family informed us last summer that they would likely relocate to Florida for financial reasons. 'We were surprised to read about his new explanation for the move and question his motives for making such statements at this time.' Goldman acknowledged the family had planned the move to Florida, but said he wrote to them last September. In that letter he wrote: 'First and foremost, neither I, nor my child, have 'white privilege,' nor do we need to apologize for it. Suggesting I do is insulting. Suggesting to my nine-year-old child she does is child abuse, not education.' +8 The head of Heschel School is Ariela Dubler Goldman told The New York Post that administrators were 'arrogant and dismissive' in response, suggesting he pull his daughter out of the school if he was unsatisfied. He did, and moved the family to Florida, where his daughter now attends a free public school, which he vetted to ensure CRT was not part of the curriculum. The head of Heschel School is Ariela Dubler. There is a growing backlash against 'woke' ideology on race in New York's elite private schools with a number of parents speaking out on the issue. Riverdale Country School parent Bion Bartning said he was so upset with the ideologies being taught there that he pulled his children out of the $54,000-a-year school. Bartning then went a step further, founding the Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism (FAIR) to fight back against what he calls a dangerous new 'orthodoxy'. Bartning, who is Mexican and Yaqui on one side and Jewish on the other, said he was shocked to learn that schoolchildren are being forced to label themselves as privileged or oppressed by skin color. 'I don't fit into any of those race buckets,' Bartning told the Post. 'I think it is wrong to be teaching kids these socially constructed race categories.' 'It's a destructive ideology, teaching children to be pessimistic and full of grievance rather than being optimistic and full of gratitude. It goes against all the values I was raised with, and there are many out there who feel as I do,' he said.
"DeSantis for the win" -- Let's outrage all the local officials looking out for people's health. Florida officials denounce Gov. Ron DeSantis' lifting of COVID-19 restrictions "Our health has become politicized," St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman said. https://abcnews.go.com/US/florida-officials-denounce-gov-ron-desantis-lift-covid/story?id=77483466 Local Florida officials are voicing their outrage over Gov. Ron DeSantis' suspension of all local COVID-19 emergency orders -- with the St. Petersburg mayor warning his county may never hit herd immunity. The Republican governor issued the executive order Monday, as the state has 28.27% of the population fully vaccinated, according to Johns Hopkins coronavirus data. DeSantis also signed Senate Bill 2006, which was passed by lawmakers last week and goes into effect July 1. The law will force local government emergency orders to expire after seven days, and they can only be extended for up to 42 days. The law also allows the governor to invalidate any local emergency order. The governor said his Monday order was to enact some of the provisions of that new law faster. “I think that’s the evidence-based thing to do,” DeSantis said during a press conference in St. Petersburg on Monday. “I think folks that are saying they need to be policing people at this point, if you’re saying that, then you’re really saying you don’t believe in the vaccines.” Businesses can still mandate patrons wear masks and practice social distancing, and the order does not apply to schools, according to the Tampa Bay Times. St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman lashed out at DeSantis for the move. "Forgive me if I want to follow the experts and the opinions of experts like the CDC," the Democrat said on ABC News’ podcast "Start Here" on Tuesday morning. "Not even quite 44% yet of the population of my county has been [at least partially] vaccinated. I was really hoping ... to get at least above 50% vaccinations before we start looking at scaling back. But we've scaled back." "Truthfully ... 70%, we're never going to see that," he said citing the 70% vaccinated population threshold experts say needs to be reached for herd immunity. "I mean, I'd love to say we would ... [but] I don't think we'll hit it. Because for whatever reason, it's become politicized. Our health has become politicized. And that should have never, ever happened in this country." The virus still poses a threat. On Monday, around 3,100 Floridians were hospitalized with COVID-19 as the primary diagnosis, per state data. St. Petersburg currently requires masks, and while indoors people must socially distance, but there is no limitation on restaurant capacity. Large-scale events are allowed outdoors with masks and other guidelines. Kriseman said DeSantis should be thanking cautious local officials for keeping cases down, especially as the state surpassed a devastating 2.24 million COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic and more than 35,000 resident deaths, according to state data. When asked if a governor or state legislature should have the right to invalidate a city’s COVID-19 restrictions, Kriseman said, “I don’t think that’s appropriate.” "I know what my community needs," Kriseman said. "The governor doesn't always know what each individual community needs because they're not here. They don't live here." A string of other local officials have also denounced DeSantis' lift of COVID-19 restrictions. Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said, “I’m deeply concerned by this decision. We are still in a public health emergency, and our economy has not fully rebounded from crisis." Florida Rep. Charlie Crist, the state's former Democratic governor who announced Tuesday he will run for governor again, said DeSantis “failed to lead during the pandemic, leaving local officials as the last line of defense against the pandemic, forcing them to make the hard decisions to save lives,” the Tampa Bay Times reported.
Similar to Texas -- most businesses and schools in Florida will ignore the anti-masking stupidity from their governor. Defying DeSantis to sue the businesses if he doesn't like their stance. DeSantis emergency order does not convince Publix, Florida public schools to ditch masks DeSantis’ executive order does not block businesses or schools within the state from requiring mask or social distancing https://www.foxnews.com/politics/pu...ask-mandates-gov-desantis-emergency-order.amp
What does DeSantis think about all those biatches known as businesses disrespecting him -- seeing that he has an intolerably thin skin and demands that Florida officials cover up anything that would portray him in a negative light including COVID data that clashes with his rosy pronouncements. Of course his current policies are just screwing over the business recovery -- by undermining public health at every opportunity. This is coupled with DeSantis' efforts to undermine vaccinations by pushing COVID-denier conspiracy nonsense while refusing public education campaigns about vaccination. Florida Gov. DeSantis’ politics-over-health approach is bad for business recovery https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/fabiola-santiago/article251155109.html Ron’s gone wrong again. Blindsiding local officials — most egregiously, in the COVID-19 epicenter of Miami — Gov. Ron DeSantis declared Florida fully opened on Monday. Without enough Floridians vaccinated and virus mutations a new concern, issuing a sweeping executive order that overrides local restrictions was a highly irresponsible move. It sends false free-for-all signals at a time when the governor’s message to the public should clearly be first and foremost: Please, vaccinate. VACCINE HESITANCY Vaccine hesitancy is all too real, thanks in large measure, to politicians like DeSantis, who have downplayed the virus since the beginning, giving wings to debunked mythology and conspiracy theories over science. The way to a real safe new normal depends on whether enough Floridians vaccinate. Yet, only 27 percent of the population is fully vaccinated and only 42 percent has received one dose as of this writing. Experts estimate 80 percent to 90 percent of the population has to be vaccinated to reach COVID-19 immunity. So, no, we’re not in a place where we can throw caution to the wind, vaccine-wise. Nor are we free and clear to abandon mask-wearing and social distancing when cases of infection bycoronavirus variants more than doubled in Floridaduring the past two weeks. “This pandemic is real and it’s still a present danger to our public health,” Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava tweeted after the DeSantis announcement. “Pretending it’s over won’t make it go away. Lifting orders won’t make it go away.” She added: “What will: Getting vaccinated.” A recent study by the University of Miami published in the American Journal of Emergency Medicine confirms the correlation between stringent public safety measures against COVID-19 and lower cases of deaths in Florida and Miami-Dade County during the first two months of the pandemic. Once restrictions were loosened, researchers note, there was a surge in transmission between the Memorial Day and Independence Day holidays. When statewide restrictions reached their lowest enforcement during October, a second surge in coronavirus cases was seen immediately after. That’s the science, not the lip service DeSantis gives COVID-19 to justify his premature, politically motivated decisions. But what else can Floridians expect from DeSantis? He has waged a political culture war over the highly contagious and deadly disease since the pandemic reached our shores. And now, he’s endangering not only Floridians’ health, but also threatening, with his haste, business recovery. He contradicts himself with this new edict, when in the same breath, he signs a bill banning businesses from asking for proof of vaccination, the so-called “anti-vaccine passport” law. Cruise liners were counting on asking people for proof of vaccination to ensure a safe return to cruising. Now they can’t do that — and guess what? A substantial number of people aren’t going to patronize businesses that put their health at risk. Certainly not when 41 percent of Republicans say they aren’t getting the vaccine, according to a PBS NewsHour/NPR/Marist poll. They are DeSantis’ base, and he should be doing the hard work of persuading them, not dissuading them by giving them a free pass to contaminate others. Florida needs — has always needed — a public-education campaign, but it hasn’t gotten one from its top leader. BUSINESS LEADERS, STEP UP The state needs business leaders to step up and, if only for their own survival, publicly encourage people to vaccinate. They must reach their hesitant populations, and workplaces must provide incentives like time off or a bonus to vaccinate. If Target, for example, gives customers a $5 gift card when they get the flu vaccine at store pharmacies, why don’t COVID-19 vaccine providers like Publix do so as well? And also CVS and Walgreens, which have wasted more COVID vaccine doses than most states combined? It’s a crime to see empty seats at these vaccination sites, no lines when the rest of the world is in need. But that’s what happens when a governor plays to political division instead of facts. Late responding to the pandemic, which DeSantis downplayed, the governor plays blind man to the horrors that families sickened by COVID have endured, then calls his latest move “evidence-based.” And he does so to the rousing applause of Republican legislators and the lieutenant governor from Miami flanking him, acquiescent despite the losses of her people. Let’s see that evidence. DeSantis doesn’t show it because: First, he doesn’t have it; second, it doesn’t swing in his favor, so he hides it from the public and won’t discuss it with journalists, whose questions he won’t answer. And, what he does say, is deeply flawed. He touts a COVID mortality rate of 2 percent, as if that’s some kind of a success measure when the death toll is a horrific 35,399 in Florida — and counting. Deaths have slowed, but they’re still happening. Just ask the family of a beloved school worker who died of COVID-19 infection in Jacksonville last weekend. The school is shut down for two weeks of quarantine. Maskless during mass political rallies he allowed during the worst of the infection, DeSantis is impetuous and premature during economic recovery. His politics-over-health approach is bad for business.