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DeSantis Hits, FBI Issues & SFL Migration – March 18th, 2022
- Meritless. How much time was dedicated to former, discredited, FDOH data scientist Rebekah Jones’ claims of the state rigging COVID-19 reporting data? You know the allegations that the DeSantis administration was engaged in direct manipulation of COVID-19 information? The answer, enough that she’s gone from being fired for cause by the state – for doing her own data manipulation - to currently being the lead Democrat candidate for Congress in Florida’s 1st Congressional District. Anyway, it's not a random reason why my top takeaway involves her or this topic today. It’s because news media which dedicated countless hours of coverage to her baseless claims – have seemingly ignored a huge development in the case. As part of the alleged coverup – it was alleged the University of Florida, research partners with the Florida Department of Health and CDC, were complicit with “data fixing”, that is rigging, Florida's COVID-19 reporting to make the impact of the pandemic seem less severe than it really was in our state. On Wednesday, the investigation into the University of Florida’s conduct produced this conclusion. The accusations were “meritless”. How much time has been dedicated to cover this determination? Especially in light of all the time that was originally spent advancing the false narrative and propping up liars? Have you heard anyone other than me even mention it? These claims were meritless, just as Nikki Fried’s claims that Governor DeSantis was running a pay-for-play COVID-19 vaccine program was meritless (amid other efforts to slander Governor DeSantis and his administration). Its increasingly apparent that Florida’s Democrats and news media who carry their water are also meritless.
- Is the FBI fixed? 40 settlements, $127.5 million, zero admission of guilt. That’s the scorecard from the FBI’s terms to settle all cases pending against it involving victims' families of the Stoneman Douglas attack. This after the FBI received two separate tips warning of Nikolas Cruz prior to the February 14th, 2018, attack – one of which specifically warned of Cruz threatening the very actions he carried out that day. We’re always told if we see something say something. People did and they did. It didn’t work. And alarmingly it wasn’t the first time. We need to look no further back than the previous mass shooting in our state – the Pulse Nightclub terror attack to see a different version of the exact same thing. So, the question is, is the FBI fixed? The settlement agreement’s non-admission of guilt means nothing in reality. The FBI dropped numerous balls, numerous times, on multiple occasions – which led to the two worst attacks Florida’s seen. It’s my hope internally the FBI has had a reality check and has fixed itself, but they’ve been less than forthcoming with anything other than our tax dollars.
- South Florida’s the center of the universe. As Governor DeSantis was in South Florida this week addressing growing affordability issues with rent rises skyrocketing, he said as much. Quoting the governor - There’s a lot of demand to live in Florida. Rents are going up all across the country. But in a place like South Florida, this is kind of the center of the universe right now. DeSantis’ visit included the announcement of the $362 million budgeted for “affordable housing” projects in the just agreed to state budget for the upcoming year. But as he acknowledged – that will only help “some”. As he pointed out there’s the perfect storm of conditions driving the ever more challenging affordability issues. The CDC’s eviction moratorium which led to pent up demand from landlords to recoup losses – many of which led to rentals being sold to investment firms along with record demand to live in South Florida by former blue staters seeking sunshine and freedom. And the thing is – there's no indication South Florida is becoming any less desirable...so we’re likely to remain at the center of the universe for now – which means there’s going to be continued pressure on affordability for the foreseeable future. There are a lot of pros for already being where the rest of the world wants to be...though it does come with a few expensive strings as well.