☕️ Coffee & Covid ☙ Friday, September 10, 2021 ☙ The Mumbler Strikes! 🦠

It’s a triple-shot of espresso today at Coffee & Covid! First we review how Florida’s doing in the endless pandemic, which is super good. Then, I discuss what you're all tuning in this morning for ...

It’s a triple-shot of espresso today at Coffee & Covid! First we review how Florida’s doing in the endless pandemic, which is super good. Then, I discuss what you are all tuning in this morning to hear about, The Mumbler. Then a quick C&C army post update that you’re going to love.

📊*COVID IN FLORIDA AND ALACHUA COUNTY*

💊 On August 12, Florida opened its first monoclonal antibody site. Hospital admissions in Florida peaked just four days later on August 16. Since then, admissions have fallen every single day but one, for a total 36% reduction over the last three weeks.

It’s anecdotal, but we’ve heard that North Florida Regional does not stock the monoclonal treatment. For some reason. Just FYI. Let me know if you have different info.

Monoclonal antibody treatment centers might be the government’s single most effective pandemic response, ever. To my knowledge, only Florida and Texas are offering them.

📉 Florida’s seven-day-average new case positivity rate has fallen every since day but one since August 16.

📉 Florida’s seven-day average case count is now down under 13,000 — it was over 21,000 just TWO WEEKS AGO.

So.

🗞 *PROFILE OF A CITY IN COLLAPSE* 🗞

Since passing its “vaccinate or terminate” policy, the City of Gainesville, located in rebellious Alachua County, is watching its leadership crumble.

During the last 10 days in the City of Gainesville, the following charter officers have resigned:

— Director of Diversity, Inclusion and Equity, Teneeshia Marshall.

— City Clerk, Omichele Gainey.

— City Attorney, Nicolle Shalley.

— Also, City Commissioner Gail Johnson resigned.

— Yesterday, Mayor Lauren Poe asked outspoken Gainesville Regional Utilities General Manager Ed Bielarksi to resign. Bielarksi refused, saying in an email to staff that “there may be some consequences such as public commission votes and such. I want to assure you all that I will work to serve you all for as long as I can. You all know me well enough that I will not simply walk away from a job that I love so much, or the people that I care about as much.”

One wonders. What happens when a City loses key charter officers and managers during the implementation of an historically destructive, expensive, risky, and unpopular policy? One thinks that maybe — maybe — this might not be their best idea ever. Just saying.

🗞*THE MUMBLING MANDATE* 🗞

To set the table, your amuse-bouche if you like, let us recall candidate Biden addressing the Country less than a year ago on December 5th, 2020. He promised that, if elected, neither masks or Covid vaccines would ever be mandatory under his administration: “I don’t think it should be mandatory. I wouldn’t demand it to be mandatory. Just like I don’t think masks have to be made mandatory nationwide.”

As recently as July 25th, 2021, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki also confirmed that a vaccine mandate was “not the federal government’s role.”

How things change! It’s pretty clear now that, as Joe Biden gracefully tacks the light schooner of his life into the setting sun, or something, he’s learned to stop worrying and love the vaxx.

Last night, amidst approval numbers collapsing faster than a dam in China, Joe Biden gave an historic address to the Nation. At times rambling, at times whispery, at times angry, at times nearly incomprehensible, the former vice-president hectored, threatened, and lectured his fellow Americans about their person health decisions. You know, personal medical decisions he doesn’t have any business getting involved with. Biden must have missed the “mind your own beeswax” lecture in Kindergarten.

Anyway, he told the Country that somebody told him to say he was going to order OSHA to develop a set of simple, straightforward rules making every single medium-sized and large company in the U.S. force unwanted Covid vaccines on their employees, and for the next 75 days, make their unvaxxed workers show weekly negative test results.

Hahaha! Just kidding about the rules being simple and straightforward! They’re going to be a miracle of bureaucratic mumbo jumbo, don’t you worry.

OSHA will draft the mandate as an “emergency workplace safety rule,” which applies to any company with 100 or more workers. Who needs a constitutional republic, house, or senate, when you have an old guy and a government agency? According to news companies directed by the White House, the vaccine rules will be “done in a couple weeks” and will be immediately implemented. So get ready.

Not only that, but every federal employee and contractor will be immediately ordered to swallow the jabs or get the axe. News sources estimated that affects about 2.1 million government employees and millions of contractors that do business with the government. You want your money? Shut up and take the drugs, man.

Not only that, but all healthcare workers in any company that accepts federal money has to take the jab too, or else.

And, Biden called on states to mandate vaccinations for teachers and other school staff. I can’t wait to see what some of the teachers’ unions think about all that.

The Nation’s top administrator described a series of “incentives” for companies to work with his new plan, like a $14,000 fine per violation — in other words, a $1.4 MILLION DOLLAR FINE for a company with 100 workers, the withholding of federal contractor payments, and the withholding of Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement payments. Strings! Pulled! See, I told you so.

Some media calculated the the combined mandates will affect over two-thirds of the nation’s entire workforce. Boom. Mic dropped.

While a lot of media suggest that workers can just take a weekly Covid test to avoid the jab, White House press secretary Jen Psaki told newsmakers the feds will end the testing option within 75 days. So. Not so much.

Remember the good old days? Back ten minutes ago when democrats said the reason they opposed Florida’s ban on school mask mandates was because it was an inappropriate use of executive power to override local control? Good times, good times.

Whatever. Let’s take a look at what Joe managed to say last night.

📣 *THE SPEECH* 📣

First of all, Joe Biden is very, very frustrated with us. Just like China. He said, “We’re in a tough stretch, and it could last for a while. What makes it incredibly more frustrating is we have the tools to combat covid-19, and a distinct minority of Americans, supported by a distinct minority of elected officials, are keeping us from turning the corner.”

Now, I can remember back when it was good to be a minority. I remember when minorities had rights. That was SO 2020. Shut up, minorities!

My favorite line, which I’m going to have to come back to in a minute — it’s that good, and I promise I am not making this up — was when he said, “We’re going to protect vaccinated workers from unvaccinated coworkers.”

Biden appears not to have gotten the memo about federalism. Maybe it fell behind the Oval Office desk or something. Anyway, back in the old days, we had these things called “states.” Like about fifty of them, or fifty-seven, I can’t remember. Anyway, the “states” had these things called “governors.” Which, according to the former VP, nowadays can be easily swatted aside when they interfere with important federal project. He said, “If these governors won’t help beat the pandemic, I’ll use my power as president to get them out of the way.”

Where’s he going to put them? Alaska? In a box? Will they be a prize, like in Cracker Jacks?

Biden thinks that the science is settled. He hasn’t been reading the CDC lately, I guess. He said, “What more is there to wait for? What more do you need to see?” Well, I don’t want to pick nits here, but I could think of about several dozen things that —I— would like to see. Like how the Israel experiment goes. Or whether boosters do any better than the vaccines. Or whether VAERS is going to calm down. You know, stuff like that.

He also seems to have lost the thread about where the federal government’s money comes from. He said, “We’ve made vaccinations free, safe and convenient.” Free? One of these days somebody’s going to figure out the cost per taxpayer of the vaccines and then we’ll find out just how free they were. I’m thinking not so much.

Convenient? Please. They have to give people sick leave after they take the shot. How is that “convenient?” It’s a pretty odd definition of convenience. Just get sick for a few days and recover in bed, it’s totally “convenient.” It’s not like you had anything else to do.

I’m going to leave “safe” alone so I don’t get put in social media jail. Just saying. You know what I’m saying. I’ll just add that I plan this weekend to interview a nice, local young lady who now has Epstein-Barr syndrome after taking her first shot. So, there’s THAT.

Biden’s speechwriters coined a cool new term, “pandemic politics,” which Biden immediately took the credit for: “These ‘pandemic politics,’ as I refer to it, are making people sick, causing unvaccinated people to die. We cannot allow these actions to stand in the way of protecting a large majority of Americans who have done their part.”

Again with the logic of, if you take the vaccine you are now at MORE risk from everybody else, instead of less. Anyway, it’s not the virus killing people anymore. It’s pandemic politics. So now we have a new pandemic of politics to defeat. That could take a while.

Don’t agree with the Administrator-in-Chief? Watch out! Biden said he would get all Old Testament on us, like when God struck down the Israelites for grumbling about their daily manna ration. “We’ve been patient but our patience is wearing thin — and your refusal has cost all of us,” he said. “If you break the rules, be prepared to pay,” he added, straining his cracking voice to make a point.

But, wait a second. HAS it cost all of us? What does he mean by that, exactly? That vaxx people are still getting sick and dying of Covid? I thought that wasn’t supposed to happen?

Biden ended the speech, drooping over the front of the lecturn like a ten-day-old cut flower, and creepily whispered: “Get vaccinated.” I guess the “or else” was implied.

Oh! And I almost forgot. The half-million employees of the United States Postal Service will be exempt from the Biden mandates. Because science. Or something.

💉 *THE SAFE AND EFFECTIVE JABS* 💉

Let’s go back to that one comment. “We’re going to protect vaccinated workers from unvaccinated coworkers.”

I have SO many questions. It sounds like Biden is saying, vaccinated people are going to get infected and die from unvaccinated people. Which implies that being unvaccinated is SAFER.

This whole thing is so confusing. Vaccinated people need to wear masks, socially distance, and keep away from unvaccinated people. What about their risk from other vaccinated people who are infected? I mean, if they can GET infected by unvaccinated people, can’t they ALSO get infected from sick vaccinated people?

I think the idea is that if everyone gets vaccinated then the virus will somehow magically disappear. But nobody’s explaining exactly how that is supposed to happen if vaccinated people still pass it to each other.

Remember when I talked about how sustained levels of anxiety develop into paranoia? And about how paranoia is a strong delusion? Do you think that has anything to do with all this? Now read 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. Let me know what you think. Am I the crazy one?

🔥 *REACTIONS* 🔥

🪳 Fauci said, “I’m very much in favor of making and encouraging mandates.”

Well, okay then.

What would we do without civil rights firms to protect us? Back in Ancient America, after the bird flu pandemic, the ACLU said this in its 2008 report on pandemic preparedness:

Not all public health interventions have been benign or beneficial, however. Too often, fears aroused by disease and epidemics have encouraged abuses of state power. Atrocities, large and small, have been committed in the name of protecting the public’s health … coercion and brute force are rarely necessary. In fact they are generally counterproductive—they gratuitously breed public distrust and encourage the people who are most in need of care to evade public health authorities … Too often, fears aroused by disease and epidemics have justified abuses of state power. Highly discriminatory and forcible vaccination and quarantine measures adopted in response to outbreaks of the plague and smallpox over the past century have consistently accelerated rather than slowed the spread of disease, while fomenting public distrust[.]

Times change! Yesterday the ACLU came out in favor of coercive vaccine mandates backed up by punitive police powers, and said this on Twitter: “Far from compromising them, vaccine mandates actually further civil liberties. Vaccine requirements also safeguard those whose work involves regular exposure to the public.”

Alrighty then, case closed! Never mind about all that 2008 pandemic preparedness nonsense.

But not everyone agrees.

The Republican National Committee vowed to sue the Biden administration: “Joe Biden told Americans when he was elected that he would not impose vaccine mandates. He lied. Now small businesses, workers, and families across the country will pay the price. Like many Americans, I am pro-vaccine and anti-mandate,” RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said yesterday.

“Many small businesses and workers do not have the money or legal resources to fight Biden’s unconstitutional actions and authoritarian decrees,” she continued, “but when his decree goes into effect, the RNC will sue the administration to protect Americans and their liberties.”

Representative Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas): “Are you people trying to start a full on revolt? Leave the people the hell alone. This is insanity.”

Senator Rick Scott (R-Florida): “The Biden admin is filled with career bureaucrats & academic elites – people who have no idea what it means to run a business or create a job. This is what you get electing people who support socialism. They want government controlling, compelling & mandating what people do.”

Representative Jeff Duncan (R-South Carolina): “A forced vaccine should never be a condition for employment & this is nothing short of tyranny.”

Representative Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky): “People will remember those who did this to them & who did not speak out.”

Log Cabin Republicans: “The key to vaccinating more Americans and boosting public health is education and dialogue, not bullying and blaming like we saw from President Biden tonight.”

Matt Walsh (to Tucker): “We had to elect this rotting bag of oatmeal to get a real tyrant… Maybe this, in the end, is a good thing, in the sense that it’s a time for choosing for Americans… Are we going to comply and lie down to this, or are we finally going to stand up and say, ‘You know what, it’s not gonna happen.’”

Let’s check in with the governors.

🔥 *SEVENTEEN REPUBLICAN GOVERNORS REACT* 🔥

Gov. DeSantis (Florida): “How could we get to the point in this country where you would not let them earn a living because of their choice on the vaccine? I just think that’s fundamentally wrong. I do not believe that people should lose their jobs over this issue, and we will fight that.”

Gov. Greg Abbott (Texas): “Biden’s vaccine mandate is an assault on private businesses. I issued an Executive Order protecting Texans’ right to choose whether they get the COVID vaccine & added it to the special session agenda. Texas is already working to halt this power grab.”

Gov. Kristi Noem (South Dakota): “South Dakota will stand up to defend freedom. Joe Biden, see you in court. My legal team is standing by ready to file our lawsuit the minute Joe Biden files his unconstitutional rule. This gross example of federal intrusion will not stand.”

Gov. Brian Kemp (Georgia): “I will pursue every legal option available to the state of Georgia to stop this blatantly unlawful overreach by the Biden administration.”

Gov. Kevin Stitt (Oklahoma): “As long as I am governor, there will be no government vaccine mandates in the state.”

Gov. Kay Ivey (Alabama): “Once again, @POTUS has missed the mark. His outrageous, overreaching mandates will no doubt be challenged in the courts.”

Gov. Mark Gordon (Wyoming): “Not now, and not ever.”

Gov. Bill Lee (Tennessee): “The Constitution won’t allow this power grab, and in the meantime, I will stand up for all Tennesseans.”

Gov. Pete Ricketts (Nebraska): “Americans, not the federal government, are responsible for taking charge of their personal health. It is not the role of the federal government to mandate their choices. Nebraska will stand up…working with the Attorney General to explore all our options.”

Gov. Brad Little (Idaho): “Today’s actions from President Biden amount to government overreach. Government should stay out of decisions involving employers and their employees as much as possible. I’ve advocated for and championed fewer government regulations and mandates on business.”

Gov. Kim Reynolds (Iowa): “As I’ve said all along, I believe and trust in Iowans to make the best health decisions for themselves and their families. It’s time for President Biden to do the same. Enough is enough.”

Gov. Henry McMaster (South Carolina ): “The American Dream has turned into a nightmare under President Biden and the radical Democrats. They have declared war against capitalism, thumbed their noses at the Constitution, and empowered our enemies abroad. Rest assured, we will fight them to the gates of hell to protect the liberty and livelihood of every South Carolinian.”

Gov. Mike Parson (Missouri): “Vaccination protects us from serious illness, but the decision to get vaccinated is a private health care decision that should remain as such. My administration will always fight back against federal power grabs and government overreach that threatens to limit our freedoms.”

Gov. Doug Ducey (Arizona): “The Biden-Harris administration plans on fining businesses $14,000 for every employee not tested or vaccinated — but somehow they’ve exempted one of their largest federal agencies [the USPS] from the mandate? Maybe it’s because they realize this is pure government overreach. Maybe it’s because they realize this will only make workforce shortages worse. Or maybe it’s simply a case of ‘rules for thee, not for me.’ It’s hypocrisy and Arizona will not stand for it.”

Gov. Tate Reeves (Mississippi): “The President has no authority to require that Americans inject themselves because of their employment at a private business. The vaccine itself is life-saving, but this unconstitutional move is terrifying. This is still America, and we still believe in freedom from tyrants.”

Gov. Mike Dunleavy (Alaska): “This is ridiculous and unenforceable. If there was ever a case for the 25th Amendment…”

Gov. Asa Hutchinson (Arkansas): “…federal government mandates on private businesses are not the right answer … the same principle should protect the private sector from government overreach that requires them to vaccinate all employees.”

Regular readers will note that I’ve been predicting a Civil-war style separation of states coming on the horizon. This is how it begins.

🗞 *THE C&C ARMY POST* 🗞

🔥 It’s working! Florida Politics reported yesterday that “Republican members of the Pinellas County Legislative Delegation faced scrutiny Thursday morning from a slew of conservative commenters calling for a Special Session to ban mask and vaccine mandates.”

“Scrutiny” is one way of putting it. “Withering criticism” might be a smidge more accurate.

“You are in a really unique position to uphold our constitutional rights to make ethical decisions for our community,” said Christine Bauhs, with Florida Freedom Keepers. “For all the conservatives sitting before me I’m putting you on notice — if you will not take a stand for bodily autonomy in Florida, we will replace you.”

“We already plan on giving you a Primary from hell. We already have people,” said Audra Christian, of Pinellas Community Patriots, about Latvala’s seat. “I’ve been a registered Republican since I was 18 years old. You have left us.”

“My last concern is the lack of response I’ve seen from this delegation on these issues. Your silence is deafening,” Isaiah Niel continued, advocating once again for a Special Session banning Covid-19-related mandates.

Keep it up, happy warriors!*

(*not actual warriors, in the hand-to-hand combat sense. Don’t freak out. Just fun, good-looking folks who want everybody to be free and happy.)

Have a fabulous Friday and we will soldier* on!

(*see footnote above.)

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