DeSantis Does Us In? It Appears So.
With Help from a Friend in the Florida Senate, one Senator Colleen Burton
A quick intro to and context for this newsletter: Florida Representative Webster Barnaby and Florida Senator Joe Gruters introduced identical bills (HB 305 and SB 222, respectively), the Protection of Medical Freedom Act. Among other things, this act would amend the Florida Civil Rights Act to include medical freedom as a civil right. Among other things, it would prohibit discrimination based on “vaccination status” – any “vaccination status” (one of the most repulsive phrases to ever enter English vernacular). Senator Gruters filed his bill on 18 Jan 2023; Representative Barnaby filed his bill on 20 Jan 2023. These dates are important…
This past Tuesday, Mar 7, medical freedom advocates from all over Florida went to Tallahassee – myself included. After hearing from wonderful speakers, including Representative Barnaby and Senator Gruters, we made our way into the Capitol building.
First up was to visit our own legislators’ offices, which I did, to ask for their support of these civil rights bills. Ironically – and quite unbelievably – Walmart was there…Walmart’s Vision Center. While I did not see firsthand administration of “COV!D” vaccines, I have heard since that that indeed was taking place…
As we freedom supporters made our way through the House and Senate office buildings, a small group made a stop by Senator Colleen Burton’s office. It seems one person noticed a new bill – SB 252 – filed by Senator Burton. They stopped by to ask why Senator Burton would file such a bill and why she does not support SB 222. As you’ll hear in the video below, it’s not that she doesn’t support 222; it’s that the Governor’s office brought her 252…
DeSantis Has His Own Ideas. Who knew?
So. On the day that both HB 305 and SB 222 are slated for their respective formal introductions to the Legislature, we find out that the Governor has his own ideas. It seems that on 3 Mar 2023 (or thereabouts) Governor DeSantis gives this senator – Senator Burton – his bill to file in her name – a bill that obviates SB 222. From there, it goes to the Health Policy and Fiscal Policy committees arriving on 6 Mar 2023…
On Mar 7 – the day the Protect Medical Freedom Act gets its introduction, Senator Burton’s bill – I mean, Governor DeSantis’s bill – gets its introduction. Funny dat.
It doesn’t stop there.
Who is this Senator Burton? What possible reasons could DeSantis have for picking her?
Senator Burton, a four-term member of the Florida House, just got elected to the Florida Senate this past November. Ms. Burton spent time as a House member on the Health Policy committee – a committee that as senator she now chairs.
So. DeSantis gives the Chair of the Health Policy Committee his own bill. This bill aims to prohibit discrimination – by discriminating. His bill, which I think I’ll call the “Protect ALL Vaccination Discrimination Except Covid® Vaccination”, singles out discrimination based on “COV!D-19” while leaving all other vaccine discrimination an option??? What other option do we have for interpreting DeSantis’s bill?
The cherry on top of all of this? The third leading contributor to Burton’s senate campaign is the Pharmaceutical Researchers & Manufacturers of America “trade organization.” This “trade organization” lobbies on behalf of…pharmaceutical companies.
Ms. Burton received $25,500 in campaign contributions from them. Know who’s part of its leadership? Why, none other than the doctor of veterinary medicine himself, Al Bourla. The guy whose company enjoys liability immunity for its product that had, by February 2021, logged 1,223 deaths.
Jeff Childers over at “Coffee & COVID” Substack suggested the above is really “bad optics.” You don’t say.
As for DeSantis, what do we do with this? Does he have some super duper mysterious plan — a method to his madness — for intervening with his own bill just days before a major civil rights bill gets announced in the Legislature? A better plan we plebes will just have to wait for?
Who knows? One thing I do know is that I am sick to the back teeth (as my English friends would say) of these political types. Their fetishistic, incessant meddling, their seeking of power, their maneuvering, and their utter bullshit about “serving” the public. There really ain’t no “public.” There are only individuals, each one unique and worthy of their right to be left alone.
Speaking of that — and the English — Englishman J.R.R. Tolkien makes it all very clear:
“The most improper job of any man, even saints, is bossing other men. Not one in a million is fit for it, and least of all those who seek the opportunity.” – J.R.R. Tolkien
And that, Ron, includes you.
DAMN. If anyone jumped on the DeSantis train with zero research.......read this.
Thank you for filling us in about this. Floridians need to step up and show the rest of the country how to fight back. We need to stop this dead in its tracks. No time to waste.