DeSantis Intimidates Whistleblower? - 12/8/20

12/08/20 • 17 min

For your quick news today, we cover the possible intimidation of a Florida whistleblower by Governor Ron DeSantis and his goons, new possibilities for the Biden/Harris inauguration, and all things related to the COVID vaccines. We also take a quick break for humor and talk about Trump floating the idea of holding a rally in Florida on inauguration day instead of attending.

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(Mostly Accurate) Transcript:

OPEN

Today is Tuesday, December 8th, thanks for choosing Quick News Daily. For our stories today, they may seem like they’re all local stories, or stories that only affect a certain community or city, but what I try to do with this show is explain how everything is connected. We really do have an impact on people everywhere around the world. The world is so interconnected now because of the internet and transportation being easier (well, in a non-COVID world), so I think it’s crucial to try and cover stories from almost anywhere. I’ll try to show you what I mean today. Let’s get caught up!

FLORIDA

Let’s start with a scary situation that went down in Florida yesterday that was all because of a small, weak, pathetic governor. For all of you Florida listeners, I’m sure it’s no secret down there that Governor Ron DeSantis, whose face just says “my wife doesn’t love me”, has handled the coronavirus absolutely terribly. He tried to deny it and keep everything open for as long as he could, and because he went full Trump, many people died that didn’t need to die. I mean, he did this knowing that he’s the governor of the retirement capital of the United States.

Based on that, I’m sure it won’t surprise you if I tell you that he hasn’t exactly been transparent with reporting the COVID stats in his state. In fact, he was so misleading that, thankfully, the geographic information system manager for the Florida Department of Health spoke out and got fired for it. Since that time, this employee, named Rebekah Jones, decided to create her own website that reports information about Florida’s COVID numbers, including the numbers for hospital bed availability for specific facilities and nationwide COVID cases by school, which DeSantis did not allow to be released publicly.

Well, yesterday morning, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement raided her house at 8:30 am, with guns drawn, because they said that she hacked into the state email system and sent a message to other government employees, which isn’t allowed because that system is supposed to be for emergencies only. They say that they entered the home so forcefully because Jones wasn’t opening the door and hung up on an agent, but Jones says she was taking her time opening the door because she was getting dressed since she thought she was being arrested.

It’s not confirmed that this raid was ordered by DeSantis himself, but it does seem pretty suspicious that the officers on this raid were so heavily armed for a “data breach” that was really just an email telling other employees to not be afraid to speak out. Jones denies that she even wrote the email, and I think she’s hinting at this email being part of a plot to frame her and silence her for reporting these numbers. I think the most unforgivable part of this is these thugs came in and pointed guns at her and her kids, including her 2-year-old. What does that accomplish? Is the baby really a threat?

Jones thinks that this wasn’t really about the email, and that it was more to scare her into silence and stopping her work on her COVID website. I think that certainly makes sense. She also thinks it’s funny that she’s being accused of being a hacker because “DeSantis publicly said I’m not a data scientist, I’m not a computer scientist and I wouldn’t even know what to do if I saw a database”. He said that back in May after she was first fired. That’s the sort of two-faced attack that Trump uses. It’s like when he said that John Bolton’s book was nothing but a bunch of lies, but at the exact same time, he was suing Bolton for revealing classified national security information in the book. How can it be lies, but also contain this super secret national security info? The “bunch of lies” attack is just for Fox News to play clips of on their shows, and the national security accusation is for the courts.

I think my favorite quote of hers is when she said “I’m not a hacker. I don’t hack. I don’t know s--- about computers. I know how to do statistics.” I think I’m going to put that on my resume. She also said “I’m going to buy another computer tomorrow and go back to work.” So good for her for still being that determined. Let’s actually listen to a bit of her on Cuomo Primetime last night...

I’m not quite sure what to think on this one. I think maybe two things could be true at o...

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(Mostly Accurate) Transcript:

OPEN

FLORIDA

I’m not quite sure what to think on this one. I think maybe two things could be true at o...

Previous Episode

Quick News Goes International - 12/7/2020

On this Monday episode of Quick News Daily, we have a strong international theme going since I take a deep dive into the protests across France and South Korea's response to a large (for them) COVID infection spike. Then, I talk about Trump's relationship with Twitter going forward, as well as Rudy Giuliani's COVID diagnosis.

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Here's the link to my story https://www.quicknewsdaily.com/e/hitler-failed-first-too-gop-election-2020/

Find where to listen to Quick News for free: https://www.podpage.com/quick-news/latest

Mostly accurate transcript:

OPEN

Hello again everyone, once again coming off the long weekend. Today is Monday, December 7th, and this wouldn’t be a news show unless I played the most cliche soundbite that every show plays on this date...Yes, it has been 79 years since the attack on Pearl Harbor, and I actually forget how many people died: 2,335 servicemen, plus 68 civilians. There were also 1,143 service members and 35 civilians wounded, with 3 civilian aircraft being shot down. I honestly don’t know which one would be worse: the people caught on the sinking battleships, or trapped inside for hours as they slowly sunk, or to be some random dude out for a Sunday morning flight with my new plane and then out of nowhere, here comes the Japanese army shooting at me! I choose neither. Certainly, our thoughts go out to any families still affected by this.

As for the rest of our show, it’s certainly a more internationally-focused show than usual, with stops in France and South Korea. Let’s get right to it and get caught up.

FRANCE

In fact, we’ll start in France, where they’ve had some pretty substantial protests these past two weeks. This article says “hooded anarchists launched projectiles at riot police, smashed up shop fronts, torched cars and burned barricades during a demonstration in the French capital on Saturday against police violence and a draft security law.”

The police then took those as invitations to launch back tear gas and charge at the protesters, I’m sure with clubs and riot shields or something of that sort. Other protests took place in Marseille and other French cities, but they’re not Paris, so our American news services don’t really ask for details on those.

The official story for the Paris demonstrations are that they started peacefully with folks waving banners that said things like “France, land of police rights” and “Withdrawal of the security law”. Then, police said 500 hoodlums or rioters, depending on the translation, joined in on the protests, which is when the “violence” started happening. In the end, 30 people had been arrested.

So what’s the reason for these protests? One reason is that President Emmanuel Macron is advocating a new bill that wants to increase surveillance tools and restrict sharing images of police officers in the media and online. Boy, doesn’t that sound like a fun little mix: the police can watch you and do who knows what with your personal information, maybe even your picture, but you can’t share pictures of the police. Awww, are the widdle police officers scared of consequences for their actions?

And it’s not like the protesters are just protesting something theoretical. As recently as the end of November, video footage came out of police beating up music producer Michael Zecler, who is black.

I’m honestly pretty disappointed by Macron here. I was really hopeful for him since he won with 66% of the vote, but I guess maybe it’s because he was going against a right-wing crazy. Although, if that happened in America, the right-wing crazy would have been elected. I also read this really interesting article from a journalist who followed him throughout the campaign and in the early days of his presidency, and there was that awesome behind-the-scenes documentary about his campaign, and Macron really seemed like a great new leader. That’s why it’s so disappointing to see him make this turn. There was one thing that I never understood: just a few weeks after Macron took office, his approval rating was in the high 20s or mid-30s. And they’re not like us, they’re smart, they only have a week or two from the election until they take office. So he just immediately went down like 40 points? What’s up with that?

Back to this bill though, apparently, he’s already gearing up for the 2022 elections, so this bill is part of his pitch to seem like a tough “law and order” guy (thanks Richard Nixon).

He’s not totally oblivious though, because after Macron saw these protests ramping up, he said on Friday that of course people of color are more likely to be stopped by police for ID checks than whites, and he promised the creation of an online platform for people to log unwar...

Next Episode

Biden Chooses His Health Experts - 12/9/20

On this episode of Quick News Daily, I go over President-elect Biden's latest nominees and appointees, including his surprising (to me) pick of retired Gen. Lloyd Austin for Defense Secretary, as well as the great news that Dr. Fauci will be his COVID expert. Also, we talk about Chris Krebs' lawsuit, a follow up to the raid on Rebekah Jones' home, and that useless executive order from Trump.

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Find how to listen on your favorite podcast platform: www.rebrand.ly/QuickNews

Transcript:

BIDEN NOMINEES

Flipping over to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which wackjob Dr. Ben Carson is currently leading, Biden has selected Rep. Marcia Fudge as his nominee. She has been lobbying to be the first Black female Agriculture Secretary, but the rumor is that Biden is planning on choosing former Obama agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack, so here she is.

This is kind of interesting because as early as last month, Fudge had an interview with POLITICO where she said “As this country becomes more and more diverse, we're going to have to stop looking at only certain agencies as those that people like me fit in. You know, it's always ‘we want to put the Black person in Labor or HUD.’” I’m not exactly sure what changed in that time period, but I suppose you never know how you’re going to react until you get the call.

She will have an important job since a lot of folks are going to be facing eviction and back-rent bills, as well as the existing homelessness problems. She will also be reinstating the rule from the Obama era that aims to help fair housing. That rule required local governments to track patterns of segregation with a checklist of 92 questions in order to gain access to federal housing funds. Lastly, she’ll be stopping a Ben Carson rule that required plaintiffs to meet a higher threshold to prove unintentional discrimination, known as disparate impact, and gave defendants more leeway to rebut the claims.

Honestly, the one downside to Marcia Fudge being nominated here: it’s not Cory Booker! Remember how Trump was campaigning at the end and kept telling “suburban women” that big, scary Cory Booker was going to come in and destroy their neighborhoods? What a shame.

BIDEN COVID PLAN AND NOMINEES

Sticking with Biden just a bit more, he also unveiled a three-point plan to fight the coronavirus in his first 100 days in office. Point one is to get at least 100 million Americans vaccinated in his initial 100 days, point two is his pledge to sign a face mask mandate on his first day in office, and point three is getting kids back to school safely. I was actually surprised about the mask mandate because I thought he said he wasn’t going to do that, but actually it seems like it’s a little more targeted and specific than just saying everyone has to wear one. His mandate would require masks in places like federal buildings and on planes, trains and buses for interstate travel. Biden also said that he would work with governors and mayors to pass masking mandates in communities across the country.

In terms of getting kids back to school, which helps kids’ learning as well as opening up the economy since parents don’t have to be home with them, Biden says Congress will need to provide the necessary funding to protect students, educators and staff.

This plan came on the same day that he announced a lot of his nominees for key public health positions. He announced that his chief medical adviser on the pandemic will be Dr. Fauci. Xavier Becerra, California's current attorney general, will be his nominee for secretary of Health and Human Services (I’m sure Kamala Harris had some say in that, seeing as that was her old position). Dr. Vivek Murthy, who was US surgeon general for President Obama, will be his nominee for surgeon general.

Biden transition co-chair and former Obama administration official Jeff Zients will serve as coordinator of the Covid-19 response and counselor to the President. Natalie Quillian, who is also a former Obama person, will be the deputy coordinator of the COVID response.

This list goes on: Dr. Rochelle Walensky will be his CDC Director (she’s currently Chief of Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital). And, finally, Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith will serve as the chairwoman of Biden’s COVID Equity Task Force (she’s currently serving as a co-chair of Biden’s transition team).

Guys, I don’t know if I like this: t...