"A Florida Man"

     Usually an essay which starts "A Florida Man" can be trusted to be about stupid human tricks. Not so this one, which is about something much worse - a Florida Governor who should be disembowled with a rusty gravy ladle.

    And now for something so venal that I found it almost hard to believe until I considered the moral bankruptcy of the individual in question: 

    Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has been criticized for efforts to ban mask mandates and vaccine passports. He has resisted forcing students, many of whom are under age 12 and ineligible for the vaccine, to wear masks during the upcoming school year. He has threatened to withhold funding from any school districts that don't let parents choose whether their children wear masks, though several counties have ignored the threat and kept their mask mandates or imposed new requirements.

         In the first case, having been an in school, high school, mentor/volunteer during the early stages (2020) of the pandemic, I am well aware that mask mandates work. Wildwood Middle/High school had a tiny number of student cases of Covid, and all were required to wear masks and the rule was enforced. Leap forward to the present following the “no mask mandate” directive.

        In Hillsborough County alone, the number of students and staff quarantined after exposure to the virus surged again on Thursday, August 19th. As of 3 p.m., more than 12,300 students and staff were told to stay at home under the district’s quarantine guidelines. The School Board voted to adopt a mandatory mask approach, despite the ban on said mandates, and were immediately attacked in media by DeSantis. This recalcitrance on the governor’s part is simply a continuation of the Trump approach to Covid – “Minimize the threat and find a way to profit.” Whereas in Trump’s case the “profit” (if any) came as possible positive poll ratings for looking knowledgeable and brave while being neither, DeSantis is even more base and depraved.

        I didn’t believe it was possible, but Ron DeSantis has one-upped (or "one downed"?) Donald Trump. Not only does he apparently not care if Florida’s school children get sick. but, “Should they become carriers of Covid and take it home to Nana, here’s what you do…” 

        DeSantis has been touring the state touting a COVID-19 antibody treatment in which a top donor’s company has invested millions of dollars. Death Satan has been promoting the effectiveness of Regeneron, a monoclonal antibody treatment. Make sure you get that: The guy who issued an executive order in an attempt to forbid local school superintendents and boards from protecting students by requiring masks has apparently adopted a new philosophy which is:  "You can't do something cheap which works, but if the inevitable happens, I recommend this new and expensive treatment."   Here’s the rub: Medicare and most insurers are waiving treatment costs, but only because the government is paying for the Regeneron itself, which adds to the bloated national debt, already a disgusting Trump legacy. That said, a mask would be far cheaper, huh?  But why so keen on Regeneron?

        Filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission show that Citadel, a Chicago-based hedge fund, has $15.9 million in shares of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals as well as options to buy its stock. Citadel CEO Ken Griffin has donated a verified $10.75 million to a political committee that supports DeSantis. Griffin is a Harvard guy, as is DeSantis and a Floridian, and DeSantis has rarely met a wealthy donor for whom he wouldn’t bend and spread! No one has yet been able to determine if rumors of Mrs. DeSantis also owning Regeneron stock are baseless or true. Any bets?