As unlikely as it may seem for such a puffy, prickly, unpleasant person to pull off, Ron DeSantis has created a cult-like following among the local MAGAs by outflanking his mentor Trump on COVID-19 denial and anti-mitigation measure demagoguery. That’s not DeSantis’s only shtick — he has also made it harder to vote, is attempting to dilute black Floridians’ political power, demonizes LGBTQ kids and adults, and intimidates public school teachers and administrators at every level.
That’s all standard red state stuff these days. But pandemic-related demagoguery is DeSantis’s signature flex, and by refashioning himself as the anti-Fauci, he has vaulted to the pole position for GOP 2024: The Race to the Bottom. So it must be kind of alarming for him to see the latest virus variant receding and the CDC and blue state governors rolling back mitigation measures.
“Our schools are open!” isn’t much of a boast when 99% of schools nationwide are open. The dumb screeching about the FREEEE state of Florida sounds even stupider when people in blue states are going about their business. Maybe a desire to revive the COVID wars is behind the latest pronouncement from the quack DeSantis imported from California to serve as the state’s surgeon general? Or maybe Ron DeSantis just hates kids? It would be irresponsible NOT to speculate. From the Tampa Bay Times:
TALLAHASSEE — The Florida Department of Health is poised to officially recommend against giving coronavirus vaccines to healthy children.
Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo made the pronouncement at a Monday roundtable discussion on coronavirus mitigations policies convened by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Ladapo, who leads Florida’s Department of Health, said his department’s recommendation would be the first of its kind in the country.
It came after a 90-minute discussion from medical experts skeptical of the benefits of various coronavirus mitigation measures such as vaccine mandates, mask requirements and business closures.
The article notes that more than 800K Florida kids under the age of 16 have contracted COVID-19, and 42 died. As we all know, the virus is much more dangerous for older people than it is for children. But while crackpots like Lapado focus on potential side effects from the vaccines (and masks!), they don’t talk about the possibility of long-term effects of the virus.
A recent study referenced in a CNN opinion piece from infectious disease expert Dr. Kent Sepkowitz of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center suggests those long-term effects could be significant, adding new urgency to the push to get the world vaccinated:
Compared with those who were never infected, people who had a coronavirus infection were more likely to have symptoms including inflammatory heart disease, heart failure, dysrhythmia, heart attacks, strokes and clotting in the long term. People with prior Covid-19 infections were more than 60% more likely to develop any cardiac issue. Many of these conditions, such as pulmonary embolisms, are life-threatening.
One of the researchers said the risk is elevated regardless of the severity of the COVID infection. I’m not a Harvard-trained doctor like Ladapo, but that suggests to me that the prudent thing to do from a public health perspective is to limit COVID infections across the board when we can, including in children, who mostly develop mild cases.
Dr. Sepkowitz emphasized that it’s just one study. He noted that it focused on patients infected with the variant that was predominant a year ago, so we don’t know if more recent variants have the same effect. He also noted that we don’t know how long these effects last. He doesn’t say, but I assume since the research used VA data on veterans, the study participants were adults. We don’t know if the disease affects kids the same way. There’s so much we still don’t know.
And that’s why Lapado’s recommendation is so profoundly irresponsible. We know this: vaccines are the best protection we have right now against the virus. Even if it turns out kids aren’t susceptible to post-COVID cardiac issues, if they’re unvaccinated, they are more likely to spread the virus to adults who are at an elevated risk. And failing to vaccinate kids leaves children open to picking up more lethal variants that may develop as long as there’s a large pool of unvaccinated people to serve as Darwin’s sandbox.
In his quest to inherit Trumpdom, DeSantis has gambled with our lives repeatedly. This latest gambit is especially vile, and after his bullying behavior last week toward high school students, I think it’s fair to conclude DeSantis just hates kids.
Open thread.
Reader Interactions
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Old School
Children should get better lobbyists.
Villago Delenda Est
Because they remind him of his shitty childhood, that made him the asshole he is today.
Spanky
I read the title as
Which is a question unto itself.
Tdjr
Kids have a tendency to see beyond the bullshit.
Shalimar
In fairness, DeSantis seems to hate everyone, not just kids.
J.
I effing hate DeathSantis and his cult of zero personality. And I hope whoever wins the Democratic nomination whomps him in the general. Even if he wins a second term here, I just do not see him becoming president. I still believe that Trump only won because of the fictional character he played on “The Apprentice” and because of Comey and the Republicans ability to smear HRC. DeSantis is still largely unknown in many places, doesn’t have a hit TV show, and is not charismatic. Also, remember how Jeb! was supposedly a lock to get the nod? I know that seems like light years ago, but I think RegeneRon is new, more despicable, Trump-enhanced version of Jeb.
RaflW
Related question: Why are leaders at Disney such spineless sacks of Dumbo dung?
Spanky
@RaflW: Is this a trick question?
Villago Delenda Est
@RaflW:
MBA assholes, every one.
scav
Because what’s found in Petri dishes is about all the culture winger Floridians can muster and protect?
JoyceH
What’s really astonishing about that event is that when he was done speaking, he just stalked off, never so much as looked at the kids brought in for stage props, much less talk with them. It’s weird because most people who make a career in politics make a point of being personable to people they meet and at least make a pretense of being interested in them. How the heck does this guy get people to vote for him?
West of the Rockies
We hear about angry black men and women (they’ve got a lot to be angry about)…
But there sure is a metric shit-ton of angry (and stupid) white men. Sit down, shut up, and learn a damn thing.
Betty Cracker
@J.: I hope you are right! You make great points about The Apprentice, Comey and HRC’s pre-emptive demonization. On the other hand, DeSantis is on Fox News a lot, but I have no idea how that translates into popularity in MAGA-whirled nationwide. One thing that is worrisome about DeSantis is the positive coverage from gossip rags like Politico (“How Ron DeSantis Won the Pandemic”). But on the OTHER other hand, rags like that inflated nobodies like Tim Pawlenty, etc., before they crashed and burned, in addition to Jeb Bush, as you noted.
Have you settled on anyone in the Dem primary yet, or are you still kicking the tires? I am leaning toward Nikki Fried right now despite some misgivings — purely because she goes after DeSantis so hard. Maybe that’s what it takes to break through the bullshit. I just don’t know.
SiubhanDuinne
@BettyCracker:
Not about DeSantis, but about your Senator Rubio: I saw somewhere over the weekend that during President Zelenskyy’s zoom meeting with Senators, Marco Rubio flouted the security request to refrain from retweeting or sharing text and images from the meeting, as doing so might very well reveal Zelenskyy’s location. Of course Rubio immediately was all over social media with it. Is there no way to discipline this totally out-of-control loose cannon?
Alison Rose ???
Sure will be…interesting…to see him and Trump shit-talk each other on the debate stage. Followed of course by the mendacious love-fest once one of them drops out. (And of course, God let it be both of them who do.)
Kay
Anti-vaxx will be the official, mainstream Republican position by 2024.
Good riddance. They can have them.
Alison Rose ???
@SiubhanDuinne: Jeez, what a little twerp. I hope someone sees Rubio walking down the street and smacks him in the mouth.
Suzanne
@West of the Rockies:
But learning is sooooo haaaaaard.
Ruckus
@Villago Delenda Est:
That’s a possibility.
But. I wonder if he’s just a shit salesman. IOW he’s got nothing positive to say or sell, zero, zip, nada. All he has is hate. Also IOW the perfect conservative candidate, because their first requirement seems to be “You have to hate everyone who doesn’t look like you, talk like you, hate the same people as you. Easy peasy, their first and defining qualification is fucking hate. Number two is your entire personality has to ooze asshole. He’s fully qualified on their only two qualifications. He’s an oozing asshole and he hates everything that isn’t him. Of course he’s incapable of something as simple as marbles, maybe that’s because he’s lost the few he likely never had….
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@J.: “Cult of Zero-personality” really fits DeSantis.
He does seem to be prefabbed to say whatever the MAGA base wants to hear but that whole thing were some teenage kids got him squealing like a stuck pig just by wearing masks makes me think DeSantis is way to easily to troll for use outside a Red State.
Kalakal
@J.: I’m hoping he does a Scott Walker, going from favourite to ‘who he?’ in about 3 weeks
Betty Cracker
@RaflW: Yep. If this horrendous “Don’t Say Gay” bill and abortion ban, etc., pass, I hope some momentum grows for boycotting Florida. Sporting events, business groups, etc. — that kind of thing can work, particularly in a tourism-dependent state, and it might make Disney grow a spine in a hurry.
BTW, DeSantis’s vile press secretary just straight-up accused gay teachers of being pedophiles the other day.
We have to assume this is the official position of the governor.
@JoyceH: Here it is for anyone who missed it. That was nearly as shocking as the scolding before the speech. What an asshole!
trollhattan
@Kay: Will RFK Jr be the next Republican nominee’s running mate? Talk about reaching across the aisle!
scav
And would the Florida Department of Health care to congratulate itself on its adoption of Humorism despite its problematic to Islamic medical traditions? (They’ve certainly cornered the market on bile.)
kindness
Bless you Betty. We have right wing nut case politicians out here in CA but thank the FSM, they don’t control anything. We just have to listen to them whine, lie and tantrum.
Ruckus
@SiubhanDuinne:
I believe this country frowns on firing squads…
So, no.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@SiubhanDuinne: Maybe I am to conspiratorial minded but I suspect Zelenskyy deliberately made that request to smoke out the Putin stooges in Congress.
Hoodie
@JoyceH: Assholery has been a feature of the majority of GOP pols I’ve seen since Nixon. They want people who channel their anger and insecurity. Dem pols tend to be the glad handers.
Brachiator
Which medical experts?
Florida seems to be on the verge of rejecting the entire idea of public health.
ETA: DeSantis is a very weird and unpleasant little man. How is he popular at all?
Roger Moore
I honestly don’t think DeSantis hates kids anymore than someone who likes to eat steak hates cattle. He’s completely indifferent to kids, and sees them- and just about anyone else- as objects he manipulates in pursuit of power. If he thought it would get him ahead politically, he would just as happily push for policies that were good for children. It’s all the same to him. The only thing that matters is his ambition.
Old School
@SiubhanDuinne:
If you didn’t see it, someone faked a video of Zelenskyy saying he would be at Rubio’s house for the weekend. Adam featured it in one of the Ukraine posts.
Edit: Here it is.
Ruckus
@Suzanne:
But learning is sooooo haaaaaard.
Only when one goes around with their head firmly inserted in the exit orifice. I hear it’s difficult not to have a shitty outlook in that position.
SiubhanDuinne
@Alison Rose ???:
I’d like to be that person. Wouldn’t at all mind spending a night or two behind bars for simple battery, and I’m pretty sure the Jackaltariat would stand bail for me if necessary.
:-)
Kay
@trollhattan:
You watch. They’ll all be forced to oppose all federal funding of vaccines, which is hefty, and the only reason some of these diseases disappeared.
If forcing your child to show vaccination status for covid is tyranny, then so are all the rest of the vaccines.
At birth. Required. They’ll be dancing to the tune of the anti-vaxx nutters and it isn’t going to stop with covid. Why would it? It’s an issue of “liberty”.
SiubhanDuinne
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Hmmm, hadn’t thought of that. Perhaps.
SiubhanDuinne
@Ruckus:
Maybe it’s time to turn that frown upside down!
SiubhanDuinne
@Old School:
Ha! I did see that but I think at the time I didn’t have the larger context so it didn’t make a lot of sense to me. Now, of course, it does. Thanks!
Betty Cracker
@SiubhanDuinne: Zelensky had to ask our other shitty US Senator, Rick Scott, to mute his microphone during the meeting. Called out by name! Didn’t see any details on what sort of noise Scott was making. Probably biting the heads off of small, helpless creatures.
laura
All of what Roger Moore said! DeSantis is using children as a marketing tool and will move on to newer fetish objects to keep the dopamine hits coming to his target market- the always aggrieved always put upon white rage junkies. He’s got big shite-bag energy and he’s surrounded himself with the sleaziest operators he can find while he builds his private army and readies his run for higher office in 2024.
Matt McIrvin
Shit. Given the trends in Texas and Florida, the next step will be to outlaw giving them to healthy children, characterize it as abuse, and have Child Protective Services or whatever take children away from parents who vaccinate them. I’ve had antivaxxers call me a child abuser already; can only imagine the situation when they have the state behind them.
Matt McIrvin
@RaflW: Disney’s current leadership is not very much on the ball. Besides, demand for theme parks is so white-hot right now that the problem isn’t attracting visitors, it’s getting enough staff to serve them. They can likely to stand to lose a lot of potential business and still rake in cash in that sector.
The Moar You Know
The whole “hate kids” thing is apparently a workable strategy for the wingnut crowd.
Our Nazi school board member who started off his tenure by saying at his first board meeting that he “didn’t give a fuck what the students thought about anything” is cruising to re-election. I am floored. Parents seem to love the guy. Hostile to parents, teachers, admin and kids, and he’s gonna get another term. What the actual fuck.
Emma from Miami
@SiubhanDuinne: I have formally disowned him from the Cuban nationality. Either he is really thick as two short planks or he was betraying an American ally on purpose.
Young promising pol my fat arse.
danielx
@J.:
Well, there you go. From the MAGAt perspective, the more despicable he is (from my/our viewpoint), the better they like it.
J.
@Betty Cracker: I haven’t settled on anyone yet. I was Annette Taddeo-curious, but I haven’t seen or heard anything from her in a while. Ditto Crist. But that may be because our local rag, the News-Press, sucks, and I haven’t seen or read about them in the WaPo or the NYT. I voted for Nikki Fried, but I don’t know if she can beat DeSantis. This is totally sexist of me to write, but I don’t think she’s attractive or charismatic enough to lure enough white males. Ask me again right before the primary (which is in August — UGH).
Benw
Not giving vaccines to healthy kids I can’t even
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: I’m glad to see that the Democratic side of the Governor’s race hasn’t been very divisive. The candidates don’t seem to have much to fight about besides who can beat DeSantis.
There don’t seem to be a lot of heated Democratic primaries this year. Amy Villela’s challenge to incumbent Dana Titus in the Las Vegas-centered Nevada 1st District is a big ideological fight. But Titus will probably trounce Vilela despite Villela’s support from Cory Bush and Nina Turner, or maybe because of that support.
Turner is waging a grudge rematch against Shontel Brown in the Ohio 10th. That will be a big fight on Twitter as well as in the district. I’m curious too see how many of the Progressive Caucus Representatives who endorsed Turner last year will this time.
The Pennsylvania Senate race has very much polarized the fans of Fetterman and Lamb, but so far the candidates haven’t gotten too rough. Fetterman has been sitting on a big lead, and things might start heating up if Lamb closes the gap. But I don’t think most Pennsylvania Democrats will carry a grudge if their preferred candidate doesn’t win the May primary. I guess some will.
May is also when the runoff will be held between Henry Cuellar and Jessica Cisneros in the Texas 28th. That’s been a hard fought contest.
Brachiator
@The Moar You Know:
Sounds like an extreme “kids should be seen and not heard” attitude. The little fuckers should shut up, pay attention to their elders, and then wreak bitterness on the world after they grow up.
Some people believe that this is the best way to raise kids.
trollhattan
@Kay:
Years before covid we had the spectacle of homeschooling parents hosting chicken pox and mumps “parties” for their unvaccinated broods, to just get it over with and “build their immune systems.” Monsters.
They’ll keep at it and we’ll again have measles and rubella galloping through the population. Who can guess what else?
WaterGirl
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: and there was one more, so not just Rubio!
MattF
Another case where the cruelty is the point. DeSantis is being cruel and there’s a large market for that.
Alison Rose ???
@Betty Cracker: Sweet fucking lord. I really cannot comprehend how people are still on this “all gays are pedos” bullshit. It’s so utterly repugnant.
Cameron
@The Moar You Know: Let me guess…..he vigorously opposes any increase in school taxes, and that’s the only issue he cares about.
gene108
@J.:
Being a mean angry asshole is the new charisma on the Right. The meaner and angrier you are the more appeal you have.
@Kay:
Anti-vaccine crap is just the beginning. God only knows how many other public health measures they will come after over the next few decades, because getting their way on one thing is never enough for them.
I think at some point the common practice of covering your mouth when you cough or sneeze, with your hands or cough into your arm or a tissue, will come under assault because no one can be the boss of them.
Alison Rose ???
@SiubhanDuinne: We’d raise bail funds, then throw you a party.
Betty Cracker
@J.: You could be right about that. I don’t know. Fried did win the Ag Commish race — narrowly — but I’ve got to think some of that was due to bad blood among Republicans that ultimately landed on her opponent’s head.
Taddeo and Crist have been mostly invisible, but Fried is out there hounding DeSantis, which motivates me to support her. If she could channel the disgust for DeSantis’s hard-right heel turn (disgust which I think but cannot prove exists) and get the pro-pot people to turn up, maybe she could win.
HinTN
@Alison Rose ???: Look at the tweet at the top of Adam’s post last night. It’s pitch perfect
OOPS, duplicated below. I blame Obama.
sab
@Alison Rose ???: It is pure projection.
scav
@Cameron: Well, if you keep the school population down (guns and germs being FL’s current favored methods) it does help curb expense in schooling. Pop out the quiverfull, offload a bunch direct to Jebus to keep costs low.
Kay
@trollhattan:
Absolutely. And substack contrarians will be arguing that rubella kills very few children, so vaccination mandates in schools are excessive.
See? Very low risk. Once they made the measure “childhood deaths” we were off to the races.
All of the covid vaccine objections apply to a whole host of other childhood vaccines. If public schools can’t require covid vaccines, under this analysis, then there’s absolutely no reason they should be able to require any of them.
I’m all for Republicans pandering for the anti-vaxx vote. There’s a limit. I’d rather Democrats never win another election than Democrats be responsible for the reintroduction of these diseases. We will regret coddling these people. It doesn’t end well.
HinTN
@Alison Rose ???: Look at the tweet at the top of Adam’s post last night. It’s pitch perfect.
ETA – I see @Old School: got there first.
James E Powell
Does he have the full support of the white people of Florida for all these things? Or is he just trying to position himself for the Iowa caucuses?
The Dangerman
Speaking of pole positions, Trump is expecting Desantis to give him a a dandy handy for 2024; rooting for injuries.
Brachiator
@Matt McIrvin:
In California, Disneyland raised prices in an attempt to slow attendance.
People said, “fuck it. You can raise prices all you want. We are still coming. We want that year pass, too.”
I don’t know if this is also the case in Florida, but it would not surprise me it is is the same.
And Disney has that new Star Wars hotel that costs $6,000 for two nights. Seems to be popular now.
Baud
@Kay:
Interesting. I’ll have to rethink my pro-scurvy stance.
Ruckus
@Benw:
Not giving vaccines to healthy kids I can’t even
None of these people are smarter than a used Kleenex. They allow hate to be their highest level emotion. They are followers, not thinkers. The murdochs of the world have lowered bullshit to it’s lowest common denominator, hate, and used it to create a political class of people who operate only around hate. They have gotten them to believe that hate is their friend, that hate protects them from that horrible thing called the world around you. And they have done this with conservative people because they are the people they want the rest to follow, those people who believe they are thinking but really are just following. Look at the people in the Jan 6 attack on congress. These were people who are followers, followers of hate.
There is nothing more to their goals than hate.
Mart
@Matt McIrvin: Years ago we went cheese, milk, and egg vegetarian. Lots of beans and nuts. Obliviously tons of protein. Many friends and associates thought it was bad enough my wife and I were doing it, but the child abuse was criminal.
Kay
We’ll be able to measure the difference between Republicans and Democrats in health of their children.
We can already measure it in premature deaths from covid- now we’ll just extent that to children.
Wacky. It’s now verbotten on the Right to prevent childhood illness. No one should be surprised really- these are the people who objected to Michelle Obama advocating for healthy lunches. They demanded garbage food in school lunchrooms. They’d rather feed their kids crap than listen to the black First Lady.
sab
@Kay: I am so old that I still have scars from chickenpox, and I have friends who have spent their lives on crutches from polio. I remember having mumps, it was so horrible and I was only four. I hate strawberries and orange juice to this day. My mom thought they were comfort foods.
Kay
@Baud:
Oh, blue states will still vaccinate their children and require vaccines in public schools. They’ll be protected, all but newborns and children with compromised immune systems. It’s counties like mine where 5 year olds will be hacking up their lungs with whooping cough.
There will be an ideological divide in the health of children. Conservatism demands they offer up a sacrifice.
sab
@Kay: Unfortunately, lots of lefties are also on the antivax bandwagon. Eat healthy and your kids will live forever.
Sure Lurkalot
About a week ago, there was an article in the NYT about a study showing how the effectiveness of the vaccine waned more vs. omicron in the 5-11 age group.
It seems this preprint adds fuel to the fire of the “doctors” in Ladapo’s universe and of course they will not consider layering mitigations as the findings suggest.
Still and unfortunately, the uptake rate among children is low…26% for kids 5-11 and 57.7% for the 12-17 year olds (these are “fully” vaxxed stats). For those of you with kids in these brackets, do you know parents who are vaxxed themselves but won’t vax their kids? Because it seems there are quite a few out there.
Roger Moore
@Brachiator:
In fairness, the galactic starcruiser thing is not just a hotel stay. It’s more like a piece of participatory theater that takes place over 3 days and 2 nights. It’s still as expensive as hell, but you’re paying for an immersive experience, not just a hotel room.
Villago Delenda Est
@Brachiator:
Witch Doctors. You know, like Dr. Bombay.
CaseyL
DeSantis hates kids because, by and large, they don’t buy his bullshit.
GOPers hate kids, including their own, because of the chance kids may grow up to be better than they are, or different from them, or not want the same things as them, or not see things the same way.
They’re shit, their lives are shit, and they resent anyone who might aspire to be something more.
Kalakal
@Kay: I’m waiting for the “Tetanus is only fatal in 10% of cases” and ” Diphtheria never really hurt anybody” brigade
Kay
@sab:
You know, there’s enough pain and suffering in the world. Why do these people go out of their way to cause more? Coddled, pampered and not enough real problems.
We’re watching Polish mothers leave baby carriages for mothers arriving in Poland from Ukraine and these people want to whine some more about vaccines? I’m done with them. They can have rubella parties for all I care. There’s no cure for stupid. My kids were vaccinated and my grandchildren are vaccinated. We avoid pain and suffering in children. We think that’s normal.
Geminid
@Kay: Pandering for the anti-vaccine vote seems like bad play for any politician. Over seventy-five per cent of the voting population is vaccinated, and most of them are skeptical of if not hostile to anti-vaccers, even if some of them say they just oppose mandates. But it looks the party’s most radical and least pragmatic elements are driving it, and most of the politicians are going along. This may catch up with them this fall, in tight House and Senate races.
Roger Moore
@sab:
There are some, but I’m not sure I would classify it as a lot. I guess there were enough that in some communities dominated by that kind of leftist, vaccination against measles fell below herd immunity levels. But it’s not even close to right wing opposition to COVID vaccines.
RaflW
@Betty Cracker: I don’t get how people like DeSantis and Pompeo amass power. Being such obviously petulant jackasses to much of the public seems like the wrong strategy, but I guess conservative voters who want ‘leaders’ think that rudeness and dismissiveness is what strength looks like? So f’n weird.
Matt McIrvin
@Brachiator: Disney has realized that they’ve got a core of very affluent visitors who will pay so much for a premium experience that they can focus a lot of their efforts on just taking these people’s money. The experience meanwhile gets progressively more unpleasant for everyone else, as they keep tweaking their skip-the-line pass systems to squeeze more money out of people while the hoi polloi wait for hours to go on rides they already paid jacked-up prices for.
The early publicity for the Star Wars LARP hotel went over badly–many aspects of it look just plain disappointing–but they seem to have no trouble booking the place solid anyway.
So they don’t have a lot of incentive to be better at this point. It’s kind of sad because I do appreciate the level of the game they generally play. They’ve built a lot of really cool attractions in the past few years with more under construction. But the overall experience seems to be deteriorating.
On the other hand, Universal is gaining on them, starting to build a gigantic third major theme park in Florida that has the potential to eat their lunch. But right now, demand all around is so high that I don’t think they see anything as a threat.
Kay
@Geminid:
I don’t care if it works. There’s some things you just take off the table. But I’m not suprised. Republicans never, ever call out their base. The GOP base could tell these pandering weaklings they all need to oppose food safety inspections and they would do it. The nuts are running that Party. It gets worse every year.
Jim Appleton
@Geminid:
How many of those elements also form relevant blocs in states eager to overturn the popular vote?
RaflW
@Matt McIrvin: Sure. But who TF does Disney think are the performers that make the Disney magic? If most of the talent that goes to work for them are anti-gay conservatives, the showbiz quality is gonna tank. Fast.
Brachiator
@Roger Moore:
True enough. I have seen a couple of videos about it.
Crazily enough, I might want to pay $6k for a Hogwarts experience more than the Galactic Star cruiser.
But it is still madness.
Sure Lurkalot
@Geminid: In my post above, I cited the vaccination status of kids-26% (5-11) and 57.7% (12-17).
The stats for those 25-39 is 65.8% and 40-49 is 73.7%, which I cite here as parental age more or less. So, there seems to be a subset of vaxxed parents who aren’t vaccinating their kids, for whatever reasons.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Apparently we are sliding back to the divide on states we had before the New Deal and Great Society.
Kay
@Geminid:
Disagree. Stop making excuses for them. This is the popular governor of Florida who is already running as their 2024 nominee. This is the Republican Party. Florida is the absolute epicenter of their national base. If the governor of California came out with some nutjob Left wing policy no one would say “well, that’s not ALL DEMOCRATS though”. They’d peg Democrats with it, and they should.
Betty Cracker
@Geminid: I hope to hell it catches up with them in gubernatorial races too. I will throw a week long party if DeSantis gets deposed!
Villago Delenda Est
@Brachiator: When I win the lottery, I’ll consider it, seeing as I’ll have money to burn. Right now, as much as I’d like to experience the Imperial Starcruiser thing or a stay in the dorms of Hogwarts, I’ll pass.
Gin & Tonic
The woman in Kyiv who knocked down a Russian drone with a jar of pickles wants it to be known, that they were pickled tomatoes, not pickled cucumbers.
CaseyL
@Kay:
The GOP has outsourced everything that a political collective is supposed to be about. It doesn’t make policy (it has the AEI for that); it doesn’t chose or vet nominees for appointment (it has the Federalist Society for that); and while it does run campaign fundraisers, those are mostly grifts, with a hefty percentage of the $$ going into various pockets.
The GOP isn’t about “governing” per se, and hasn’t been for quite a while. When you have no actual governing philosophy, or at least no coherent one, the only voters who still hear your siren call are the ones who have the same attitude as you do. I.e., anti-government nuts and nitwits.
Roger Moore
@Brachiator:
There’s nothing crazy about preferring one fandom to another. I would have a hard time justifying spending that much on the experience. For quite a bit less, I could have a very nice 2 week trip to the less explored parts of Utah, which seems like a better way to spend my money. Maybe that just shows what my priorities are.
Kay
@CaseyL:
The US already has horrible health outcomes for children and pregnant women and childbirth compared to other wealthy countries. We already suck. Maybe if Republicans work real hard they can lower those rankings even more.
Sure Lurkalot
@Matt McIrvin: My niece (who was born in SoCal but lives (unhappily) in Texas), has gone to Disneyland hundreds of times. She just canceled a trip because of a sick pet, but she was there with her daughter not 3 months ago. They almost go nowhere else for vacation. I worked with an attorney who was the same about Disney World.
It’s more than the “premium” experience Disney offers to the affluent. Some people are just hooked on it and I can’t explain what would compel anyone to go to the same place time and again.
The Moar You Know
@RaflW: replaceable robots who will work for peanuts because there are no other jobs in their fields. And who have a line behind them of people just waiting for Disney to call.
Disney is sadly not wrong about that.
TheFlipPsyd
@Sure Lurkalot: I know of at least 10 of my kids’ friends who have not been vaccinated, but their parents are vaccinated and boosted. A few of the kids are just starting the process (literally in the last week, my kids told me 3 of their friends (ages 11, 11 and 12) just got their first shot.
sab
@Kay: I read a lot of historical fiction, so I am very nostalgic for the Middle Ages.
scav
@Gin & Tonic: Ha! Pickled tomatoes! I’ve some in my fridge. I’ll have to work on my aim though.
Geminid
@RaflW: Mike Pompeo benefitted from the Koch brothers patronage. After he left the Army, Pompeo and a couple friends were able to purchase a Wichita, Kansas aircraft component manufacturer with a loan from the Kochs. The headquarters of Koch Industries is in Wichita, so it wasn’t hard for the Kochs to put Pompeo in Congress, and then somebody talked Trump into making him CIA Director. Pompeo. I guess Pompeo can claim that he advanced himself to Secretary of State with his own brown nosing.
Pompeo’s claim to wide appeal among Republican voters is speculative. Republican elites like him enough. The same elites seem to like DeSantis also. They’d be glad to push either of the two in 2024 if they can just figure out a way to neutralize the loser Trump.
Sister Golden Bear
@Alison Rose ???:
Because if your opponents are pedos, anything is justifiable against them. Anything. As with the Q folks, it’s not a conspiracy theory, it’s a justification for eliminationist action. Whether through legalized harassment or outright violence.
CaseyL
@Sure Lurkalot: Granted, I haven’t been to either of the US Disneys in decades, but I have been to them more than once. (Disney World more often, because I lived in South Florida for many years.)
I had a good time, but not THE BEST TIME EVER, and cannot imagine making a point of going every year, much less multiple times per year.
(Though I understand how having an annual pass might change that calculus – not so much because Disney is “all that,” and more about amortizing the cost of the pass.)
It saddens me to think of all the places those people aren’t seeing and experiencing, all the real stunning beauty and real adventures, opting instead for Disney ersatz.
Peale
@Sure Lurkalot: I’ve been to Disney World, Disneyland, and Tokyo Disney. And I’ve really not been excited about it. Yay, I got my picture taken with Pooh 3 different places. The rides aren’t that thrilling. The vision of the future seems stuck in 1960. I kind of question why anyone over 10 would be excited by it.
sab
@Geminid: My rwnj brother loves Pompeo. Working in the oil patch is an infectious brain disease.
gene108
@sab:
The political power those lefties have to influence one of the two major political parties is much less than conservative anti-vaxxers have. Sure, a town in California can get an outbreak of whooping cough from New Age lefty anti-vaxxers, but they aren’t driving Democratic policy the way anti-vaccine conservatives are.
Almost Retired
@RaflW: I dunno. Maybe there’s an audience for Sean Spicer and Tucker Carlson dancing on the back of a flat bed truck during the Disney electrical parade?
Geminid
@Kay: Stop telling me I’m making excuses when I’m stating facts.
sab
@gene108: You are correct, but they are everywhere. Dominant at my niece’s parochial school in Ohio.
Jeffro
And the great thing is, this is true for ALL viruses. So it should be a pretty easy layup for DeSantis’ Democratic opponent (and the FL Democratic party in general) to ask him: well then, what’s your position on measles, mumps, and rubella vaccines? And when exactly did you become so anti-vaccine? And why does that date coincide with Joe Biden becoming president/you deciding to run for president as “mini-trump, only with lots more unnecessary death”? And do you have anything to offer voters other than…being anti-Fauci and hating on kids & their schools? And so on.
It’ll take someone willing to pound on him every day to break through all his dumb little dog-yapping and point out his multiple insanities. But hey, no lack of opportunities
ETA: I see you got there first, Betty, at #13 ;)
Gravenstone
@Shalimar: Was going to suggest that Ron DeSantis hates everyone else not named Ron DeSantis.
sab
@sab: Forgot the snark tag// When half of women died in childbirth.
Gravenstone
@SiubhanDuinne: Would a cattle prod to the testicles be excessive?
Repatriated
@Kay:
And they plan to lose in the larger scheme. That is, they’re counting on everyone else — other parents, other cities, other states — to do the right thing by vaxing and masking and so on. Their leaders and media figures already are.
They don’t want a pandemic. They want to be the non-custodial parent who takes the kids for ice cream and pizza, and expect the custodial parent to make them eat their vegetables and brush their teeth. Not good for the kids, but you want them to like you, so..
And yeah, that’s evil.
Gin & Tonic
@scav: Every Ukrainian household, bar none, has at least one large jar of pickled tomatoes. It’s a thing that takes a little getting used to, but they are ubiquitous.
Alison Rose ???
@Sister Golden Bear: True, sadly. I get it from these people for both being gay and Jewish. Such fun.
sab
@Repatriated: You do seem to have these people pegged.
sab
@Gin & Tonic: Weird science facts that I did not know.
scav
@Gin & Tonic: I will have to check out recipes for next year.
gene108
@Kay:
Unless Democrats do something generationally transformative regarding social spending, the environment, making the criminal justice system fairer, etc. that was its our social outcomes atop those of other wealthy countries, Republicans relentless assault on good governance in all its forms will invariably make things worse.
I really feel Democrats are a dam holding back an infinite amount of terribly shitty Republican ideas from flooding us.
It’s only a matter of time before the damn breaks.
I think Biden’s low approval numbers, despite a strong economy, no active wars, etc. is an indication of the cracks in the damn. Even when things are relatively good, they can’t overcome the suckier aspects of social problems Americans find themselves mired in, like overly expensive healthcare, childcare, etc.
RaflW
EPCOT in the 80s mystified my parents and me (I was about 20 at the time). We wished we’d just gone to Disney and ridden the attractions, but we only had one day and felt like the former would be more interesting. It wasn’t, at least not to us.
Jeffro
THIS.
See the world (preferably while hiking, biking, or kayaking).
Miss Bianca
@Brachiator: Jesus. Once again, I am forced to ask: Who are all these people who all have so much more money than I do?
Matt McIrvin
@Sure Lurkalot: I’ve enjoyed the place, but even when Disney is at the top of their game, going to Disney World once every, oh, 5 years or so is quite enough. I would like to visit Disneyland someday; it has partisans who insist that it’s superior.
Also, the Tokyo resort, which sounds like it’s on a whole other level (it’s actually only operated and designed under license by Disney, but owned by another corporation called the Oriental Land Company, which seems to have deep, deep pockets, so a lot of the budgetary compromises that happen at the other resorts just don’t happen there).
Gin & Tonic
@scav: Here’s a pretty classic look. *Everybody* has a few of these. They are actually brined, not pickled.
Miss Bianca
@Gin & Tonic:
Well, I’m glad we got *that* straightened out.
Rob
I’m late to the party, but, I cannot believe that the Florida surgeon general recommended against vaccinating healthy children. I mean, wtf?!
WereBear
Disney is perfecting vacationing in fantasy land and it will do until we get Westworld.
LARPing an inevitable next step.
trollhattan
@Miss Bianca:
We must get the story details updated in Awesomepedia.
trollhattan
@WereBear:
They would sell the absolute hell out of Westworld memberships. Bigger draw than Bohemian Grove.
Gretchen
@Kay: anti-vax is already the mainstream Republican position. I called Sen. Marshall (KS) today to object to his holding up aid to Ukraine. He said he wouldn’t vote for it until the mandates were removed from the bill. He couldn’t answer the question of what mandates – I assume its for vaccines for federal contractors – but he was firm that this was too objectionable to vote for.
Ella in New Mexico
Once again, Ron is just playing to the rubes and conspiracy theorists watching FOX et.al and making his corruped health department support on his Presidential campaign.
His pronouncement will change the minds of exactly ZERO people in Florida, either way, because the smart ones know he’s essentially turned once apolitical agencies in the state into dysfunctional ones, unable to be trusted.
My take on him is not so much he really believes in all these damn “agendas” he’s constantly imposing on the people and state of Florida. I believe his goal is to destroy the citizen’s faith in government all together. No public schools, no regulatory agencies, no oversight of upper echelon folks criming.
Just a happy little “Everyone gets outta the way of the rich and powerful banana republic liberatarian oasis” where it’s every man, woman and child not in that category for themselves.
WereBear
I spent 10 formative years in Florida. Seemed to me that those in power HATED “the citizens” and wished they would shut up and be grateful they got anything.
trollhattan
Lucy, who is a Good Dog, did NOT want to leave that piece of ice.
Gretchen
@Gretchen: My Fox-watching sister explained to me the other day that it builds up your immune system to get sick. Ok.
Ruckus
@sab:
We sound about the same age, we have some of the same experiences of friends and diseases. Also a lack of affinity for oj. I’m not sure the diseases are the cause of that. I’m also not sure they aren’t. Not as affinity lacking with strawberries but I sure don’t go out of my way for them.
HinTN
@Gin & Tonic: Back in the day, by which I mean those times when I could raise a big garden, I used the time grubbing in the dirt as therapy time and the produce therefrom as the prime component of further canning and pickling therapy. (Can you tell I had an office job?) This Tennessee hick always had a jar of pickled tomatoes handy, even if I didn’t know I needed it to take out a drone!
Ruckus
@Brachiator:
DeSantis is a very weird and unpleasant little man. How is he popular at all?
His admirer’s are as weird and unpleasant as he is? So kinship?
Matt McIrvin
@RaflW: EPCOT has a coterie of fans who insist that that strange early-1980s World’s Fair vibe it originally had was the greatest thing ever, and all attempts to make it over into something more exciting are desecrations. I have to admit, it fascinates me. Disney always had these odd notions of a futurist/”educational” mission that usually amounted to very well-produced shilling for their corporate partners.
I never went there in the early days but I *did* attend the 1982 World’s Fair in Knoxville which had essentially the same styling… but on a smaller scale.
Matt McIrvin
@Gretchen: Being dead makes you absolutely immune to dying again.
Ruckus
@RaflW:
Think of it from the other direction, if you are a petulant jackass, are you more likely to think better or worse of other petulant jackasses? Yes I know to understand this you sort of have to think like a petulant jackass, unless of course you live around petulant jackasses. And of course most all of us do to some degree.
Ruckus
@Gin & Tonic:
Does a jar of tomatoes fly any better than a jar of cucumbers?
BTW I think she’s pretty bad ass either way.
Brachiator
@Matt McIrvin:
I know some non-rich people here in Southern California who had yearly passes to Disneyland. This was their one extravagance. They love Disney-stuff and the occasional visit throughout the year is a stress reliever.
Disney has very successfully associated their park with happiness.
This may be PR and BS, and I haven’t been to Disneyland in years, but friends and family who go there still say that it is more kid friendly than other theme parks.
I have taken visiting family to Universal, and I think I see their point.
Disney claims that they are willing to reduce attendance in order to make the experience better. People are eager to throw their money down, especially with the acquisition of Marvel and Star Wars properties.
It might not be just about catering to the affluent or making it unpleasant for everyone else.
During the pandemic, they reduced allowed attendance. People liked it and yet the crowds are bouncing back.
trnc
And maybe because any of them probably has a better chance at being elected president than he does.
Tony Gerace
DeSantis just hates people in general. Kids are just an easier target than adults
Bill Arnold
This languished in peer review for close to a year
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/07/health/covid-brain-changes.html
Actual just-published Nature paper:
SARS-CoV-2 is associated with changes in brain structure in UK Biobank (Nature, peer reviewed, 7 March 2022)
Looks reliable. It doesn’t cover kids, but anyone not vaccinating their kids should assume that they might as well be feeding them lead paint chips.
In a just world, (Florida SG) Joseph Ladapo would be strongly encouraged to dive into a large wood chipper.
Bostondreams
@Betty Cracker:
His press secretary pretty much straight up called state Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith a pedophile when he tweeted a response. Something along the lines of ‘a hit dog hollers’.
Brachiator
@Miss Bianca:
One person in the office I used to work in scrimped, saved, and borrowed a little from her parents and other family to get a Disney pass. Instead of buying some new clothes, mended and re-sewed and repurposed older wardrobe. Other little things.
J.
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Exactly. Just hoping he continues to show his true awful whininess when it’s time to vote.
JustRuss
@Sure Lurkalot: Yeah, we went once a year when I was a kid, and I took my daughter a few times when she was a teenager. Rode Star Tours the first day it opened. Don’t feel the need anymore, and I hear it’s pretty much always jam packed. Bah humbug.
Gvg
Disney is a lot more fun if you are taking a small child. My nephews loved it at 2 to about 11. I loved taking them when they were in love with it.
Some non rich adults love it. Usually love the movies. My parents used to travel a lot when we lived in Orlando. They found their flights were filled with people from abroad coming to Disney who had saved and many did it every year. Who loves it seems almost random to me but every place i have evet worked had afew who were obsessed with it. Shrug.
I do like their water parks though. Of course i like nearly every water park.
sab
@Ruckus: I think you are about 5 years older than me.
SFAW
@Alison Rose ???:
“Hey, Senator Dorko Rubio, I’d like you to meet my friends, Mr. Hillerich and Mr. Bradsby, up close and personal.”