The 20 cases of "voting fraud" pushed by DeSantis are not going well. But the authoritarian never expected them to -- the entire intent was to suppress minority voting through fear. Florida's effort to charge 20 people with voter fraud has hit some roadblocks NPR - https://tinyurl.com/y55e8h8j
A complete set of leading anti-vax Covid-denying clowns who have done their best to kill hundreds of thousands of Americans -- while pushing completely false talking points and peddling nonsense like the Great Barrington Declaration. Meet Ron DeSantis’ New “Public Health Integrity Committee” Seasoned anti-vax, anti-Covid-protections advocates. https://www.motherjones.com/politic...santis-new-public-health-integrity-committee/
Cronies of the the authoritarian approve a kangaroo court to drive his political narrative. Naturally since nearly all the judges were appointed by DeSantis there was no doubt they would approve this "grand jury". What a sad anti-vaxxer spectacle this will turn out to be. Florida Supreme Court approves DeSantis call for coronavirus vaccine grand jury https://www.tallahassee.com/story/n...santis-covid-vaccine-grandy-jury/69752353007/ The Florida Supreme Court approved Gov. Ron DeSantis’ request Thursday to impanel a statewide grand jury that will investigate what he called “crimes and wrongdoing committed against Floridians related to the COVID-19 vaccine.” DeSantis has appointed a majority of the seven-member court, so the decision to comply with the governor’s request wasn’t a surprise. The Republican governor, widely seen as a potential presidential candidate in 2024, called for the probe earlier this month at the conclusion of a roundtable he staged with scientists, doctors and researchers, who are all vaccine skeptics. Among the panelists were Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a Stanford professor, and Dr. Martin Kuldorff, a biostatistician who has taught at Harvard Medical School. They are co-authors of the Great Barrington Declaration, which in the early stages of the pandemic advocated lifting COVID-19 restrictions on lower-risk groups to promote herd immunity, wrongly predicting that would help protect vulnerable people. Siding with vaccine suspicions and conspiracies DeSantis, clearly siding with those who’ve promoted vaccine suspicions and conspiracies, said that with the grand jury investigation, “we’ll be able to get more information and bring legal accountability for those who committed misconduct.” DeSantis’ focus includes companies which manufacture vaccines and the recommendations by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He also endorsed criticism from roundtable panelists who accuse vaccine manufacturers of withholding data regarding links between vaccines and heart problems. The hurry-up development and initial distribution of the COVID-19 vaccinations were a signature accomplishment of President Trump’s administration. DeSantis himself was an early booster of the vaccines, even arranging an on-air inoculation of a World War II veteran on the air on FOX News. Trump in many opinion polls among Republican voters remains a favorite for the 2024 presidential nomination, which DeSantis now also is expected to seek. Florida under DeSantis' state Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, has warned against males aged 18 to 39 from receiving Covid-19 vaccines, essentially going against the recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and numerous other scientific organizations around the world. Ladapo cited concerns about possible heart risks based on Florida Department of Health analysis. More than 1.1 million Americans have died with COVID-19, including more than 83,000 Floridians. The American Medical Association and the vast majority of medical professionals say vaccines remain safe and effective at slowing the spread of COVID-19. Labarga the lone 'no' vote Five justices, three of them DeSantis-appointees, approved the grand jury request. Justice Jorge Labarga, a moderate on the court turned sharply conservative under DeSantis, was the lone 'no' vote. Justice Renatha Francis, the governor’s most recent appointee to the court, did not take part in the ruling. The grand jury will be impaneled for 12-months and Judge Ronald Ficarrotta, chief judge for the state’s Thirteenth Judicial Circuit, based in Hillsborough County, will be the statewide panel’s presiding judge. Jurors will be drawn from five judicial circuits, according to the Supreme Court’s order. DeSantis earlier this year got justices to impanel a statewide grand jury to investigate immigration-related issues, including the smuggling of undocumented children into Florida. That panel is still meeting behind closed doors.
Let's take a look at DeSantis' panel of Covid experts anti-vax nutcases. Jay Bhattacharya, MD, PhD (From Wikipedia) "On March 24, 2020, Bhattacharya co-wrote an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal entitled "Is the Coronavirus as Deadly as They Say?", which argued there was little evidence to support shelter-in-place orders and quarantines of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.[12] Bhattacharya was a lead author of a serology study released in April which suggested that as many as 80,000 residents of Santa Clara County, California might have already been infected with COVID-19.[13] The study and conduct of the research drew wide criticism for statistical and methodological errors and apparent lack of disclosure of conflicts.[14][15] The study was later revealed to have received undisclosed funding from JetBlue founder David Neeleman, according to an anonymous whistle blower.[16][17]" Martin Kuldorff, PhD (From Wikipedia) "In 2020, Kulldorff was invited to meet with leaders, lawyers and staff at the American Institute for Economic Research (AIER), an American libertarian think tank.[25] Following the meeting Kulldorff took the lead in an effort to oppose lockdowns in favor of pursuing COVID-19 herd immunity before vaccines became available. His efforts resulted in the Great Barrington Declaration, an open letter co-authored with Oxford's Sunetra Gupta and Stanford's Jay Bhattacharya for the AIER.[25] The document stated that lower-risk groups would develop herd immunity through infection while vulnerable groups should be protected from the virus.[26][27] The World Health Organization, the National Institutes of Health and other public-health bodies said such a policy lacked a sound scientific basis.[28][6][29][30][31] Scientists dismissed the policy as impossible in practice, unethical and pseudoscientific,[4] warning that attempting to implement it could cause many unnecessary deaths with the potential of recurrent waves of disease spread as immunity decreases over time.[6] Kulldorff and the other authors met with officials of the Trump administration to share their ideas on October 5, 2020, the day after the declaration was made public.[32] " Tracy Beth Høeg, MD, PhD (Her own twitter) Joseph Fraiman, MD (From a podcast he was on): And a special guest in Dr. Joseph Fraiman, a Louisiana ER doctor who admits he was wrong in supporting lockdowns and has made an apology for it. He also got an exemption for the jab and is studying what might be going wrong with mass vaccination programs. Christine Stabell Benn, MD, PhD Furthermore, Stabell Benn says the mRNA injections-i.e. the Moderna and Pfizer "vaccines"-are clearly associated with a "cardiovascular danger signal." Bret Weinstein, PhD Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying go unvaccinated for Covid, take and promote Ivermectin instead September 16, 2021 • 9:30 am Since Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying left Evergreen State under trying circumstances, they've made a living doing podcasts on YouTube, and have become somewhat notorious for their stand on Covid-19 and the dubious remedy Ivermectin. Steven Templeton, PhD "According to Templeton, this would be an alternative to quarantining students and entail having students exposed to people with a confirmed COVID case regularly submit to rapid testing for a limited period during which they may reasonably be believed to be contagious. "Children are so low risk," Templeton said, "that they shouldn't be quarantined at all."
How ‘authoritarian’ Ron DeSantis has made Florida a ‘laboratory of fascist politics’ https://www.towleroad.com/2022/12/h...ida-a-laboratory-of-fascist-politics-scholar/
Never seem to hear from the clown on ET anymore who claimed that Florida Covid rates only were high during the summer when people were indoors in the warm state. At this point, Florida has led the country in Covid deaths on a raw and per-capita basis for every summer during the pandemic. But this year is extending the record run of leading the nation for many months in Covid deaths well into winter. Must be the great leadership of the authoritarian DeSantis to thank for this --- you know, his ignore Covid policy and all. Florida COVID weekly update: Miami-Dade County returns to high transmission risk level https://www.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article270402637.htmlhttps://www.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article270402637.html
A perfect record of failure case after case after case -- all the time wasting taxpayer money to drive his political narrative. But this is what authoritarians do. A Fourth Election Fraud Case Under DeSantis’s Stunt Goes Nowhere https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/a-fourth-election-fraud-case-under-desantiss-stunt-goes-nowhere
This is how the regimes of authoritarians operate. In related news - What does the DeSantis' staff have in common with Hannibal Lecter? DeSantis’ safety czar used private email, code name ‘Clarice Starling’ to plan migrant flights https://www.wfla.com/news/politics/...ame-clarice-starling-to-plan-migrant-flights/ Amid ongoing legal battles over September’s migrant flights from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, paid for by Florida tax dollars, the Office of Open Government reported Larry Keefe, the public safety czar, had used a private email with a codename while planning parts of the flights. Using a private email, Keefe and Montgomerie discussed different aspects of the planned flights from Texas. Keefe told OOG that it was an account he sometimes used during his days of private law practice. The safety czar’s use of a private email led to relevant communications from being included in prior record disclosures related to the migrant flights. After the 48 migrants were transported from San Antonio to Martha’s Vineyard on Sept. 14, multiple civil lawsuits and an investigation by the U.S. Treasury were opened. Keefe’s use of a private email was disclosed in response to requests for further documents from a lawsuit filed by the Florida Center for Government Accountability. WFLA.com has reached out to the governor’s office about their knowledge of the private email and codename used while conducting state business. When asked by OOG about missing records and additional documents related to the migrant flight relocation program, OOG said Keefe told them to look for a keyword in their search, “Heat.” OOG said Keefe told them “Heat 19” was a call sign he had been known to use during his military career. Subsequent search led them to a private Gmail account called “heat19.heat19,” with the name “Clarice Starling,” an FBI agent from Robert Harris’ Hannibal Lecter novel “The Silence of the Lambs.” Keefe told OOG the Starling name was also a call sign he’d been given during previous “private work with people in the military community.” Communications from Keefe to Montgomerie using the “Heat19” email show he communicated with Montgomerie’s own private email, rather than one for the Vertol company he owned. Their correspondence contained discussion of invoice drafts for the flights, as well as the proposal by Vertol to the Florida Department of Transportation to bid on the relocation program. The emails show Keefe sending Montgomerie draft language for the program submission, detailing the pitch. In the draft sent by Keefe to Montgomerie, relocation of migrants to Massachusetts was a specifically mentioned goal, though it also mentioned “other, proximate northeastern state” designated by FDOT for the program. “The proposed Services include, but are not limited to, the management, aircraft, crew, maintenance logistics, fuel, coordination and planning, route preparation, route services, landing fees, ground handling and logistics and other Project-related expenses,” Keefe’s draft proposal to Montgomerie reads. It included a proposal to cap flights at 65 passengers. Both the proposal by Keefe and the subsequent submission by Montgomerie refer to the relocation as humanitarian projects. Among details for the program, the only portion left blank in Keefe’s email was a price estimate for “Project 1.” That project, the only flight to have been carried out, ended up costing $615,000 from the $12 million appropriated for relocation by the Florida Legislature. Montgomerie’s memo to a state purchasing administrator for the program refers to a total of three planned projects, with the second and third totaling $950,000. While the $950,000 was paid to Vertol, shown in records from state-operated TransparencyFlorida, the flights were to be split. Project 2 was proposed for a $425,000 cost, while Project 3 had the remaining $525,000 of the nearly $1 million from the second payment to Vertol. Additional documents published by OOG show text messages between Montgomerie and Keefe regarding travel planning, hotel information, FDOT funds, and the planes used. Montgomerie texted a preview image of sorts to Keefe on Sept. 7, showing the Fairchild Dornier 328 plane, the type used to fly the migrants to Massachusetts. Montgomerie texted the picture with the message “Wednesdays ride x 2,” to Keefe, who responded “Copy. Very nice,” as the two coordinated the flights. Additional texts between Keefe and Perla Huerta, who helped recruit migrants for the flights in Texas, date back to mid-August, including hotel reservation details, plans for rental vehicles, and food reimbursements, among other discussions. WFLA is still awaiting response from the governor’s office, regarding the use of private email for coordination from Keefe.