☕️ Coffee & Covid ☙ Tuesday, November 9, 2021 ☙ SETBACKS 🦠

Florida stands up and makes history; Biden’s approval ratings fall farther, faster; Dems pull back from Florida's governor's race; NYC’s new mayor signals he may end mask mandates; and more...

Happy Tuesday C&C army! The numbers: Facebook-17,601 friends and followers; Substack-32,802 subscribers; MeWe-1,334. Over 50,000 total. So.

Amazing, terrific news yesterday! Florida stands up and makes history, with what the Governor calls the strongest employee protection in the country. And I think he’s right.

In today’s roundup: A recap of yesterday’s historic press conference; Biden’s approval ratings fall farther, faster; the Democratic Governor’s Association is pulling out of Florida’s election, so DeSantis must be doing something right; NYC’s new mayor signals he may end mask mandates; Ted Cruz introduces a bill to protect kids that’s going nowhere; the NBA pulls a fast one on everybody who was “part of the solution;” a recap of the new Covid numbers in Florida (which look terrific), and more!

🦸‍♂️ *PRESS CONFERENCE SUMMARY* 🦸‍♂️

Yesterday morning, the Governor held a press conference with Senate President Wilton Simpson and House Speaker Chris Sprowls. Together, the three men represent the entire lawmaking part of the government of the state of Florida. They announced the legislative agenda for the upcoming November 15-19 special session, and — instantly resolving tons of apprehension and wild rumors of a fizz-out — it’s a KNOCKOUT. There are two major goals. Let’s talk injections first.

It’s genius. To get the injection mandates over the political hump, they solved what looked like an unsolvable problem. It just shows you what a bunch of motivated, smart, experienced lawmakers can do when they work together. I’ll explain how they cut the Gordian knot in a minute.

Governor DeSantis took the podium and was absolutely clear about one thing: no employee — public or private — is getting fired for not taking the shots. Full stop. That was a huge relief, since early versions of anti-forced-injection legislation floated around were more about remedies for employees after termination rather than stopping them getting fired. “You can’t fire people based on these jabs,” he said.

DeSantis promised, “we’re going to put people’s minds at ease, that they won’t be fired over these shots.”

Link to the handout for the event: (https://tinyurl.com/ye2mz6hb).

Here’s the gist:

— All public employers will be prohibited from requiring Covid vaccines from employees or anybody else (such as contractors).

— For private employers, all health and religious exemptions must be granted.

— All pregnant women or women anticipating pregnancy are exempt.

— All employees with natural immunity are exempt.

— Employers must give ALL EMPLOYEES (exempt or not) the option to choose testing or PPE as an option. At no cost to employees. Test frequency to be set by the Florida Department of Health.

— Employers who violate the provisions will be fined: $10K per violation for small businesses (under 100 folks), or $50K per violation for large businesses.

— No educational institution may require the injections. Period.

Watching the press conference, I felt like leaping around, yelling and high-fiving the staff and the guys who were here fixing the internet.

But wait, there’s more.

Next, the Governor announced some short-term “tune ups” to the Parent’s Bill of Rights:

— No face mask mandates. So.

— No quarantining of healthy students.

— And best of all, the PBOR will give students and parents a right to sue school districts for violations of their rights. And get this: it will provide for recovery of attorney’s fees. So the days of having to fund-raise to afford a lawyer are over. The schools will have to reimburse all the attorney’s fees.

I can’t wait. I’ve already started drafting lawsuits.

🔬 So, why did I say it was genius? Because the new laws won’t pitch companies into a demilitarized zone between the state regulations and the federal regulations. That was the Gordian knot. They just cut it.

How? Like all great ideas, it seems simple in hindsight. Trust me, it wasn’t easy. Here’s the thing: the Biden mandates do not require termination. They never explicitly say that anyone has to get fired. So you can ban termination without violating federal law. If Biden adds it, that would make his odious mandates even stinkier and less likely to hold up in court.

Next, the Biden Mandates provide — as they must under Title VII and the ADA — for medical and religious exemptions. So Florida is just telling employers how to apply those exemptions instead of leaving it up to each individual one. And even though the Biden Federal Mandate and the Biden CMS Mandate don’t allow for weekly testing, since it’s available under the Biden OSHA Mandate, Courts will probably allow it for all employees.

They threaded the needle. Great job, legislators!

🗞*COVID NEWS AND COMMENTARY* 🗞

🔥 Uh-oh! According to a new USA Today survey, Joe Biden’s approval rating is in the dumpster. He’s somehow managed to score a pathetic 38% approval rating. A ham sandwich could score 38%. Actually, a ham sandwich might be a better option at this point. Anyway, it gets worse. Independents said that Biden’s done a worse job than they thought he would, by a 7 to 1 margin.

It still gets worse. Somehow Kamala Harris managed to score even lower. Her approval rating is down to 28%. I’m not sure ANY vice president has ever scored so low. Ever. Is it the cackling?

It gets even worse. Forty-six percent (46%) of those surveyed said that if the congressional elections were held now, they’d vote for the Republican candidate, while only 38% said they’d vote democrat.

I have a feeling with these mandates, those numbers are going to fall even lower. Maybe democrats will make a course correction? On the other hand, maybe not.

👨‍⚖️ Biden filed his reply brief in the Fifth Circuit case staying his OSHA Mandate. It was pretty weak. Basically, he argued that, hey, nobody’s getting fired till December, so don’t enjoin us now. It didn’t take on the merits at all, or even try to argue that the jab mandate was constitutional.

But don’t worry! The least-popular president in history “encouraged” private businesses to get on with it anyway. Pay no attention to that court behind the curtain! Jabs away!

🔥 The Democratic Governor’s Association is reading the tea leaves, and it announced that it’s not going to waste money on the governor’s race in Florida this year. In the last two gubernatorial election cycles, the DGA spent more than $15 million in Florida. Politico called the DGA’s stinginess a “setback” for democrat candidates in Florida. Politico might be on to something.

“I do think, and I can’t stress this enough, the DGA is playing mostly defense this year, and that’s a monumental change,” said Jonathan Ducote, a Democrat consultant.

A monumental change. What on Earth could have caused this? The experts are baffled.

🔥 New York City’s new mayor-elect Eric Adams announced Sunday that he wants to end school mask mandates, and called himself “conservative” on public safety. “If we can find a safe way to do it, I look forward to getting rid of the mask,” Adams told CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday morning. “Part of the socialization of a child is that smile.”

💉 Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) introduced legislation last week to stop the federal government and public schools from mandating injections for kids. The proposed bill would ban any entity at the federal, state and local level that receives federal funding from requiring the shots for minors. It’s going nowhere, of course. I mean, Biden would sign it if they slid it in front of him, but they’ll never let Biden near the bill with a pen, even if it could get past the dems in congress.

🔥 It’s now day twelve (12) since Gavin Newsom was last seen, although Covid rates are spiking, cargo ships are piling up offshore, and wildfires are burning all over the state. On November 7, Newsom’s wife Jennifer tweeted ambiguously that “When someone cancels something, maybe they’re just in the office working; maybe in their free time they’re at home with their family, at their kids’ sports matches, or dining out with their wife.” That’s a lot of maybe. She offered a bunch of possibles but, since she obviously KNOWS where the governor is, it’s weird that she didn’t just say, “he’s fine.” See what I’m saying?

Anyway, Jennifer deleted that tweet yesterday. So.

I know what you’re thinking. Please stop. It has NOTHING to do with the fact that Newsom disappeared right after getting his booster shot on October 27. How could it? Safe and effective.

He’s probably just on a bender or something. You know how it is with these high-pressure type-A folks.

If you think about it, California is at a political standstill. If the lieutenant governor signs anything, it will be an admission that something is wrong with Newsom. They have to explain why the governor can’t sign for it to be legal. And they can’t have that. So, absolutely nothing will happen while he’s out of pocket. A reprieve for beleaguered Californians. Thanks, boosters! Oops. I mean, “thanks, cause of mysterious coincidental gubernatorial absence!”

💉 Haha, suckers! The NBA announced yesterday that players who took the J&J shot will be treated as unvaccinated unless they get the booster. J&J-injected players who aren’t boosted will now have to be tested before every game, just like uninjected people. Same thing for Pfizer/Moderna jabbers starting six months after injection. Thanks for being part of the solution! Enjoy your spike proteins!

💊 Last month, Nebraska’s Attorney General Doug Peterson issued a legal opinion that healthcare providers can legally prescribe ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine to treat Covid. In the opinion, AG Peterson noted the reprehensible Lancet study — later retracted — finding that hydroxychloroquine increased risks of heart attack. “The Lancet’s own editor-in-chief admitted that the paper was a ‘fabrication,’ a ‘monumental fraud’ and a ‘shocking example of research misconduct’ in the middle of a global health emergency,” Peterson wrote.

In his legal opinion, Peterson concluded that evidence showed ivermectin was strikingly effective in preventing and treating Covid-19, and side effects were mostly minor and transient. “Thus, the UCA does not preclude physicians from considering ivermectin for the prevention or treatment of COVID,” Peterson wrote.

So.

The opinion arose from a request for clarification by the Nebraska Department of Health. Maybe somebody should send the same letter that prompted AG Peterson’s opinion to Florida AG Ashley Moody.

💉 In Ghent, Belgium, the majority of patients at University Hospital are now injected breakthrough cases. And, ALL of the ICU patients are fully injected. So weird.

🔥 Parallel systems! Pano Kanelas, the former president of St. John’s College in Annapolis, has left his post to start a new university in Austin. The announcement says that the traditional university model is broken, and the new college will be dedicated to “the relentless pursuit of truth.” The professors include luminaries such as Niall Ferguson, Bari Weiss, Heather Heying, Joe Lonsdale, Arthur Brooks, Kathleen Stock, Dorian Abbot and Peter Boghossian. Here’s a link to the website: [The University of Austin (UATX)](https://www.uaustin.org).

📊 *COVID IN FLORIDA AND ALACHUA COUNTY* 📊

Florida’s Covid numbers are crashing. Check this out:

📉 Our R0 — the measure of whether Covid is growing or shrinking in the state — fell again to 0.53. Anything under 1.0 says it’s shrinking. So.

📉 Patients in Florida’s hospitals fell dramatically from 2,139 to 1,577. That’s an average of only 23 folks per county.

📉 The positivity ratio continued dropping, from 3.0% to 2.6% — the false positive rate. Alachua County’s is down to 2.0% — below the FPR.

📉 Cases per 100,000 are now at only 50, down from 58 the week before. In Alachua County, the rate is even lower — 38 per 100K.

📉 Total positive tests (‘cases’) are down again, from 12,880 to 11,069.

📉 And best of all, Covid-related deaths are down a LOT from 56 the week prior to 39 this last week. That’s a drop of almost 70% in one week.

This is HUGE news. We have a lot to celebrate.

I’ll see you caffeine addicts back here tomorrow for more C&C.

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