Congressional Votes, Lab Rats & Florida Freezes – Top 3 Takeaways – October 19th
- A vote for any Florida Congressional Democrat has been a vote to support 100% of President Biden’s agenda. That’s nothing new, as only the retiring Stephanie Murphy has broken with President Biden’s position on any vote among Florida’s elected Democrats. It is however the conclusive reality of all of Florida’s Congressional Democrats as we're in the homestretch for their reelection bids in most cases, and attempted promotions in a couple of others. As illustrated in Today’s Q&A, there’s been zero distance between President Biden’s policy positions and Charlie Crist’s votes in favor of them. Ditto Val Demings who just debated Marco Rubio last night. Would you want Joe Biden governing Florida? Probably not, just 36% of Floridians approve of the way he’s running the country. So, do you want Charlie Crist, who voted 100% of the time with Biden while in Congress, to run Florida? That’s a rhetorical question. Likewise, Val Demings who’s voted 100% of the time in Congress with Joe Biden, do you want her to replace Marco Rubio who voted 28.8% of the time with Biden’s position? Actions have always spoken louder than words. For years Florida’s Democrats have moderated their tone at home while voting in lockstep with the hardest left positions in Washington. Conversely, there are no two congressional Republicans in the state of Florida with identical voting records in the current Congress. What’s evidenced when looking at the actual votes of Florida’s Republicans, is that they don’t vote in lock step with one another, or party leadership. Those who represent the most conservative communities tend to have the most conservative voting records. Those who represent the most moderate/politically neutral communities tend to have more moderate voting records. The point is there’s hard evidence that Florida’s elected Democrats have voted for the interests of their political party leadership. There’s hard evidence Florida’s elected Republicans have voting records which are more consistent with representing their constituents. There are two sides to stories and one side to facts. These are indisputable facts.
- What could go wrong? Am I the only one who’s freaked out by the news of Boston University researchers, with the help of scientists from Florida as well, messing around with COVID-19 in a lab? Am I the only one more than a little concerned with the news that they’ve claimed to have created a new Covid-variant which killed 80% of the mice they tried it on? The new Omicron-S as these researchers have called it, created by adding the omicron variant to the original Wuhan strain of COVID-19, is purported to be five times more contagious than the original omicron variant and evidently packs a bigger punch. Isn’t this a different version of a similar thing that likely led to the creation and spreading of the original virus from a Wuhan lab? Yes, scientists will justify this by saying the research is valuable in understanding the potential of the virus and to perhaps create vaccines to address future variants. But this isn’t a question of the chicken and the egg. If we don’t have human manipulation of these viruses, we don’t have the horrible variants of these viruses. There’s never been a virus in human history which has mutated into more severe strains with time. In fact, it’s the opposite. It takes human manipulation to achieve that. So now the argument evidently is that if we don’t do it first, someone else will and we won’t be prepared. But in reality, aren’t we showing bad actors around the world how this is done in addition to running the risk of a lab leak in the meantime here at home? Advances in modern science have been responsible for essentially doubling our life expectancies. Their tinkering around with deadly viruses may one day lead to our demise. Creating the deadliest strain of COVID-19 in an American lab? What could go wrong?
- Freeze watches in Florida, in October? It’s real. The National Weather Service has issued them for North Florida communities as the first legit cold front of fall has pushed its way into South Florida. And this was actually something I previewed recently. It was just a couple of Monday’s ago I said this as one of my takeaways… NOAA keeps data on various observation points on the east coast. All are well below the norms right now. In North Florida, the observation point in St. Augustine is over three degrees cooler than usual and currently cooler than typical May temperatures. At South Florida’s two observation points, The Lake Worth Beach Pier and at Virginia Key, it’s more of the same. Lake Worth Beach’s temp is two degrees cooler than usual for this time of the year and mirrors the typical May temperature and Virginia Key’s is the most dramatic of all with a water temp which is 5 degrees cooler than usual and is below the typical May temperature. It’s no secret that water temps are key to tropical development, and the Atlantic’s waters aren’t just relatively cooled on our coast but clear across the ocean. With temps matching or below May levels, the preseason May hurricane level of activity could be what’s currently on the table for the rest of hurricane season. Which again might mean it’s more or less over. We can certainly hope that’s the case. And btw, this phenomenon also portends a potentially cooler than usual winter on the horizon. But as we’re seeing, we didn’t even have to wait until winter. Potentially record setting lows are playing out across Florida right now.