Photo: AFP
Top Three Takeaways – August 23rd, 2021
- What if? Today’s the first day of school in Miami-Dade and the first day with a mandatory mask policy in Palm Beach County. With Broward having started school last week with a mandatory mask policy in place, all South Florida’s students and parents find themselves in the land of what if, that is should they attempt to challenge the school districts over what the state recognizes as illegal mask policies. Of the three, Palm Beach County stands to be the district with the most opportunity for rebellion. Notably, when Broward started the school year with a mandatory mask policy last week, only one student was noted as not having complied and that was seemingly resolved without escalation. While Miami-Dade's the largest district in the state, thus providing for the most opportunity for challenges to mask policy, they too are starting the year a mandatory mask policy as opposed to phasing one in. In Palm Beach County, they’re attempting to put the genie back in the bottle after nearly 12,000 parents opted their children out of wearing masks prior to today’s change in policy. The question I address in today’s Q&A, what if a student decides to defy what are currently unlawful mask mandates by South Florida’s school districts? The biggest what if isn’t what happens today, it’s the legal decision that’s likely to be rendered by Leon County Court Judge John Cooper on Wednesday. Three days from now we’re likely to know if the state’s mandate for parental choice over masks for their children in school will stand as the law of the land, or whether the current indigence of seven Florida school districts to prevent parental choice will be deemed legal. The other what if...without legal clarity for the next few days, how far might school districts go to punish “offending” students?
- Turning point? The summer surge of COVID-19 cases has simply been (insert your own adjective here). It wasn’t that long ago that when someone mentioned Delta you thought of flying. Now you could be flying on Delta and still think of the airline second when someone mentions it. But could we finally be at a turning point? Last week was previously targeted by University of Florida and John’s Hopkins researchers as the likely peak week for COVID-19 cases in Florida’s summer surge. The early returns are early, and not terribly impressive but potentially promising. Florida ended last week with a three-day decline in the weekly trend for daily cases. The numbers are still high, as Florida averaged 20,134 new daily COVID-19 cases last week, but the trend is about 1,600 daily cases lower than the pandemic high reached mid last week. What’s more, now the Mayo Clinic’s 14-day projection for new COVID-19 cases in Florida is looking more promising as well, as the best case and average scenario over the next two weeks show improvement with only the worst case taking new COVID-19 cases higher from here. Fingers crossed that last week was the turning point for the summer surge in Florida.
- We were warned. Donald Trump reminded us of that in his Saturday night rally before a crowd in Alabama. One that in its size and enthusiasm is indistinguishable from rallies during the peak of his presidency. The greatest change is the slogan. Gone is Make America Great Again or Keep America Great. The theme is now Save America. And who does America need saving from? Joe Biden and the Democrats, as Trump warned us last year – handing power over to them would present radical change. And guess what, most Americans now agree. For the first time in Joe Biden’s presidency, he has a net negative approval rating across the RealClearPolitics average of polls. And the more engaged one is the less likely they are to support Joe Biden. Biden’s net approval rating is now –1% across all polls but falls to –7% among likely voters. The first step in “Saving America”, comes in next year’s midterms. It’s been a few months since Donald Trump gave life to the thought, he might attempt to be part of the “saving” in Congress with a run for the House with an eye on replacing Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House. However, his messaging is such that it shouldn’t be dismissed. Florida’s about to gain a Congressional seat and it just might be one that has Donald Trump’s name on the ballot for it. The Democrats should be warned. Donald Trump’s name may well be on the ballot next year. And even if that’s only in one Congressional district in Florida, it wouldn’t play that way. He’d effectively be running for Speaker of the House in every district across the country.