I just posted a few days ago how the COVID pandemic is on an upswing in Florida - and the whole nation - and yet our state's Republican leadership isn't doing a goddamn thing to fight it. Hell, the supposed Governor of the Sunshine State is fucking mocking the pandemic with his campaign merch (via Digby quoting from the Washington Post):
“Don’t Fauci My Florida,” read drink koozies and T-shirts that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s campaign team rolled out just as his state sees some of the highest coronavirus hospitalizations, new infections and deaths per capita in the country. It’s the latest example of Republicans running on their opposition to virus-fueled shutdowns and mask mandates. A pandemic hero to some and villain to others, Fauci has become a high-profile target.
While the merchandise is focused on Florida before the 2022 gubernatorial race there, DeSantis is seen as a potential front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination in 2024. A key part of his pitch: He resisted public health experts’ calls for stricter measures against the spread of the coronavirus, spurring criticism on the left and praise from the right for keeping his state’s schools and economy comparatively open...
While discussing the Florida budget this summer, DeSantis said his state’s rosy financial outlook would not have been possible “if we had followed Fauci.”
“Instead we followed freedom,” he said.
His campaign’s “Team DeSantis” Twitter account announced the new merchandise Monday. The Fauci items are listed alongside “Keep Florida Free” hats and red koozies that take aim at face coverings with a DeSantis quote: “How the hell am I going to be able to drink a beer with a mask on?”
Every ICU doctor and nurse would like to ask DeSantis' marketing geniuses this: "How the hell are they going to drink a beer with a ventilator tube down their throats?"
The campaign team did not respond to The Washington Post’s questions Tuesday, and Fauci did not respond to a request for comment...
DeSantis and his Republican buddies are touting "freedom" but what they're really doing is KILLING THE UNVACCINATED IN FLORIDA.
Christ. This isn't freedom: This is genocide.
As Digby herself notes:
That (fighting the pandemic) is meaningless to him. He’s owning the libs and that’s the key to success in the GOP.
He’s also killing his own voters — only the unvaccinated are dying at this point and most of them are Republicans — which seems to be politically foolish but whatever. But now that kids are getting it, and young parents, this seems even more cruel than before. In fact, it should be criminal that these right wing nihilists aren’t doing everything they can to tamp down this virus...
Our state leadership can't be bothered with deaths unless it's something that screws with their Narrative. Like the unborn fetus they so brazenly defend except for the point after that fetus is born because then that newborn has no postnatal care or social aid waiting for it.
In this situation, DeSantis can't be bothered with COVID not because our vaccination program defeated it - our vaccination rates haven't reached that point - but because he never really believed COVID was a serious threat to Florida's residents, and he'd rather push the narrative that he's been great for state business.
But DeSantis isn't all that great for business or our schools or our communities because at this rate in another two weeks our hospitals are going to be overwhelmed and half the state is going to have to close down no matter what with half the workforce and half the school populations sick or dying on us.
Let me repeat. This isn't freedom: This is genocide.
And it's DeSantis' responsibility, which he's refusing to accept. Which makes it his fault.
Goddamn him.
1 comment:
“How the hell am I going to be able to drink a beer with a mask on?”
I think Brett Kavanaugh would say to "boof" it, but I'll just cut to the chase and tell him to stick it in his butt.
-Doug in Sugar Pine
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