Top Three Takeaways – April 8th, 2021
- Malicious. That’s what Governor DeSantis called the 60 Minutes hit piece on Florida’s vaccination distribution. The definition of malicious is intending to do harm. Incidentally, that’s exactly what Palm Beach County Mayor Dave Kerner had to say about their reporting, and that’s exactly what Emergency Management Director Jared Moskowitz agreed with as he was with Governor DeSantis during his “Facts vs Smears” presentation yesterday. In fact, Here’s what Jared had to say himself at the presser: It’s verifiably false because I know that decision was made in my office. I’m the one making the phone call, and I tried to go to Walmart first. So, the whole Publix pay-to-play thing is garbage. Jared also said any claims that Publix received preferential treatment were...
- False and Offensive. Which not only describes the reporting of fake news CBS, which as of this story, has only defended their lies, but also our Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried and our former Republican governor, turned Republican senate candidate, turned independent senate candidate, turned Democrat candidate for governor turned Democrat congressman – Charlie Crist. They along with their repeated lies, which were the basis for the false CBS News reporting, are also false and offensive people. People who put personal political ambitions ahead of Floridians they’re elected to serve in the middle of a pandemic. People who are willing to make up false, would-be felonious acts and repeat those lies for weeks. Though you already knew how phony Charlie Crist was. He’d run as a Whig if he thought that’d win him an election.
- Does free speech still exist on Florida’s college campuses? Are you concerned about the agenda of college professors? If the answer is yes, you’ll be happy to know about legislation which passed through the state legislature and to Governor DeSantis’s desk yesterday. The bill mandates access to free speech on college campuses – which is nice – albeit sad that’s it’s necessary in this country and in our state...and there’s more. Among the more intriguing elements of the legislation is a mandatory annual assessment designed to: Assess the status of intellectual freedom and viewpoint diversity. Every Florida University will have to conduct a survey measuring the level of every professor’s political predisposition as it applies to speech/agenda within the classroom. Now, this isn’t as overt as asking professors if they’re Democrats or Republicans but what we do know based on previous studies is that stereotypes of conservative repression on college campuses exists for a reason. A 2020 study by the National Association of Scholars found that for every professor who’s leans right – there are 8.5 who lean left. In other words, over 88% of college professors are Democrats/Socialists while fewer than 12% are Republicans/Conservatives. Clearly that doesn’t reflect society and certainly isn’t conducive for creating an open arena of ideas. While the soon-to-be law doesn’t mandate any action by colleges based upon the findings, it at least will bring the lack of diversity of thought to the forefront annually. I know how challenging it was to be an outspoken conservative student over 20 years ago. It’s even more repressive today. This is the first step to analytically expose the liberal echo chambers most colleges have become and the first step towards the restoration of freedom of expression, without the fear of retribution, on Florida’s college campuses.
Photo Credit: Getty Images