Greg Abbott, Dictator
Greg Abbott is a small government, local control, free trader. Until he’s not. Abbott is the worst kind of politician, one who doesn’t really believe in anything but his own power, who shifts his ideology to fit the situation that always advantages himself and his largest donors. Texas has always been very independent where local control has been sacrosanct, and the governor’s office was designed to be a weak position. No more. It started under Rick Perry, but Abbott put consolidation of power on steroids aided by a state house full of ideologues who are either stupid, corrupt, or likely both.
Abbott has seized power away from municipalities and counties on everything from oil and gas development to environmental regulation to even trimming trees. In good times the consolidation of broad local authority to a central point is bad policy. The US Constitution recognized the role of the states in limiting the power of the federal government. Abbott and Perry quoted that loudly and often with Barack Obama occupied the White House. No more. Now, Abbott cherry picks what he wants to control, like tree removals for some weird personal reason, and has done so again by abruptly ordering the reopening of thousands of businesses in Texas over the orders of municipal and county authorities all over the state.
What Abbott is doing is stupid; it’s not only stupid, he’s also doing it for precisely the wrong reasons. He’s not rushing to reopen the state’s businesses because he believes it’s the right thing to do, he’s doing it to kick hundreds of thousands of workers off of state unemployment rolls. The Texas Workforce Commission has already announced that if a business reopens and employees do not work ALL of the hours required by that business, the employees lose their unemployment benefits. Cisco Gamez, a Texas Workforce Commission spokesman even said that if an employee doesn’t feel safe working, they must refer their concerns to the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration, governed by the US Labor Department currently run by…wait for it…Eugene Scalia. Yes, that Scalia, the son of Antonin Scalia. The younger Scalia who’s made his career and is well known for undoing worker and safety regulations, was appointed by Trump to head the agency tasked with protecting workers’ rights (Yes, it’s a drinking game.) Since Gamez’s statement, the Texas Workforce Commission “clarified” the policy that the state “may” allow some benefits to survive if a worker doesn’t feel safe to go to work.
The dangerous feature of Abbott’s idiotic orders is that he’s going to damage the programs that adults, like Lina Hidalgo and Sylvester Turner, have been implementing round the clock to protect those in Harris County. The result is reduced cases here, but according to latest data from Johns Hopkins COVID-19 tracking program, Harris County new cases are still growing at an average weekly rate of 13%, which is low compared to other counties like Tarrant County, location of Fort Worth. That city is governed by Trump supporter Betsy Price, who has already ordered that churches can begin holding services and bars and restaurants can open. Their case growth rate? 51% this week. That’s right, THREE times that of Harris County. And those are just the cases we know about.
Abbott, like Trump, is literally getting people killed. And he’s covering it up. To keep the numbers low, I’m convinced Abbott is dragging his feet on broad distribution of testing. Like Trump, Abbott keeps promising millions of tests that never materialize. Texas has tested just over 200,000 people or less than 1% of the population. Every medical expert advises not to reopen businesses and public buildings until testing and contact tracing is massive. Abbot clearly doesn’t want that because then it would be hard to justify what he’s doing right now.
Abbott’s plan is dangerous. Overruling local officials who are actually listening to medical experts is nothing short of gross negligence.
I hope it’s going to catch up with him in 2022. Even west Texas areas are having bad outbreaks and those have also been GOP strongholds. People complain about having to wear masks, but who will they complain to when they get C-19 or give it to a loved one?
1Just looked at hte latest COVID map. Texas is pure red with cases. Is this guy color blind? Or is it a shame his mamma never had any children?
2At least you have awareness of the outbreaks. Not so in this state anymore.
YES, WE HAVE NO FATALITIES, WE HAVE NO FATALITIES TODAY! ( : – { p >
Sunshine State or God’s Waiting Room?
Florida is now blocking medical examiners from releasing COVID-19 death totals. The state of Florida has now stopped its medical examiners from releasing numbers about people who have died from COVID-19.
Edit : The Tampa Bay Times reports that Florida’s state health department intervened earlier this month to suppress the medical examiners’ reports, which regularly showed death totals that were 10 percent higher than the official tallies put out by the state. For the past nine days, no reports from the medical examiners have been made available to the public, and there’s no indication of when they will be released in the future.
Dr. Stephen Nelson, the chairman of the state Medical Examiners Commission, tells the Tampa Bay Times that state officials have told him they’re planning to remove probable causes of death from the examiners’ report, which would make it impossible to tell how many people the examiners believe have died from coronavirus.
“This is no different than any other public record we deal with,” Nelson said. “It’s paid for by taxpayer dollars and the taxpayers have a right to know.”
The Tampa Bay Times also notes the Florida state government has shown a pattern of suppressing information about the disease.
“Last month, it tried to persuade the medical examiner’s office in Miami-Dade County to restrict access to its death records, according to the Miami Herald and correspondence between the two agencies obtained by the Times,” the paper writes.
https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/florida-is-now-blocking-medical-examiners-from-releasing-covid-19-death-totals/
3Omnicide is what it is.
These muthafuckers like Abbott, Patrick, Paxton, Kemp, DeSantis, Pence, tRump, and the rest are actively managing an outright campaign of ‘omnicide’ on the US populace.
A wholesale killing of what will be hundreds of thousands of beings.
What they are doing is much more extensive than a targeted genocide like the Nazis, Pol Pot, Mao, et al., or the broader, more proper term here, a “democide”*, but an –omnicide–.
Since the SARS-CoV-2 virus attacks and kills not just humans but other species like your dogs, cats, and others.
They should all be brought to account for this after the blue tsunami in November. An accounting with trials similar to Nuremberg for Nazis, and suitable punishments, including the gallows or firing squad [or more suitably, deliberate massive infection with COVID19].
Y’all really need to treat anyone who still supports these vermin as deadly enemies from now on. No ‘high road’ shit, no ‘let’s get along/bipartisan’ crap. Just full on 100% antipathy, no mercy, no quarter; splash a bucket of seething hatred in their faces every chance you get. That’s the way they regard -you-, just reciprocate.
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democide
4Hey, hiding the bad stuff “off the books” worked so well for Enron..
5Sometimes, you get what you put up with. This suppression of the numbers of COVID-19 cases in Republican-led states is very wrong. So is the way-too-early “re-opening” of states, and the cutting off of unemployment benefits for people who are rightfully afraid to go back to work. I know it’s hard, when you don’t want to get in the middle of a crowd, to show your displeasure–but you don’t have to march and carry signs to protest. What else is being done to combat governors and others determined to increase (but hide) a spike in COVID-19 deaths?
6Sandridge @ 4 Even though I posted a couple of good news, blue tsunami articles, I feel the permutations have an wild card quality at the moment.
– An impotent House incessantly ceding its majority to Corporate and MSM donor owners & Moscow McKremlin and quislings
– Servile GOP Governorships following the manifesto playbook including bald faced vote suppression
– The unopposed farce in DC of massive crimes of extortion, cruelty and psychotic destruction of the Constitution
– Nero’s shock troops walking around with slung AR 15s in public, waiting for a thumbs up for civil war.
– Capitalism’s roaring laughter at another 500 billion, no strings attached tribute.
– Children in cages seems like it never happened.
– Impeachment was snooze news.
Will mass murder be heinous enough to move long dead asses out of government comfy seats of power to a Nuremberg moment?
7“Will mass murder be heinous enough to move long dead asses out of government comfy seats of power to a Nuremberg moment?”
no, because that would be considered “political persecution”, and therefore quite “uncivil”. can’t have that, now can we?
8It Was Only Temporary Scene (7/11)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALfuWSv9YVc&list=PLOL4N1P3WTYl1C4PJ6drdrbALCBB4j-St&index=40&t=0s
9Out of our last 3 governators, Shrub was the smart one. THAT is the scary part.
10Mike@10,
11OMG you’re right, George WAS the smart one! That is truly alarming
El Jefe – This isn’t ‘gross negligence’. This is murder, premeditated and intentional.
12I think I might understand the tree thing. Isn’t he in a wheelchair because a tree fell on him while he was out jogging? At least that’s what I heard years ago.
13Yes Mr.B, abutt is in the wheelchair thanks to a tree fall. After he secured a huge financial payout he then worked tirelessly to make sure no other Texan ever had access to such a generous recovery – all that Tort Reform and elimination of Frivolous Lawsuits which corrected our citizens access to the Courts to address the wrongs we suffered. Don’t worry, closing the Courthouse doors to us commoners is a small price to pay for the unceasing quest for increased Profit!
14According toe fox4news, workers who can’t return to work will still be eligible for unemployment, but will be “investigated.” I’m in Cali–I don’t know what to believe. (tho I prefer Juanita Jean to any Fox station…) https://www.fox4news.com/news/twc-workers-who-cant-return-to-work-due-to-covid-19-issues-still-eligible-for-unemployment-benefits?fbclid=IwAR3lZlrkQv8FWByrhBlXBdjRP7YklVUwCRT9PZM8NVld0DK8rjaVtzuUyEo
15Pelosi is not a Democratic activist, she’s a legislator and legislative manager. Those who continue to expect her to be more of an advocate for progressive politics will continue to be dissappointed.
16megasoid @7, As a usually cynical pessimist, agreed, you’re probably right; but at times like this, a little optimism helps get through these weeks.
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