How You Know You’re Screwed
1. When Trump is your President.
2. When Greg Abbott is your Governor.
If you think that Trump has treated this catastrophe for political gain, then you haven’t met Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
His first plan of action again the virus was to ban abortion in Texas because it unnecessarily uses medical equipment. It took three days and God only knows how much tax money to get a federal judge to overrule that.
Now he has another idea. Remember how I told you yesterday about the preachers who want to keep churches open for services?
Churches, synagogues and mosques in San Antonio and Bexar County can technically resume in-person religious services under Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s latest emergency order handed down Tuesday.
Actually, it’s all counties, not just Bexar (pronounced Bear for people from foreign states) but this is a San Antonio (pronounced San An-tony-oh no matter what John Wane ever said) newspaper and people in San Antonio don’t give a Big Bexar’s Butt about the rest of the world.
He sits in his office handing down emergencies orders handed to him by the religious right.
As people freekin’ die.
“It took three days and God only knows how much tax money to get a federal judge to overrule that.”
It’ll take a lot more than that. We are the 5th circuit, which means this is just getting started. Abbot is still “winning” …
1I honestly think people who go to church or anywhere besides work at an essential service job should be denied a hospital bed when they come down with CV. If they don’t care enough to stay home, they shouldn’t be allowed to clog the health care system.
2Republicans really don’t seem to care how many of their core voters (old, Fox News-addicted Kristians*) die before November.
*Just as Krab is fake crab, Kristians are fake Christians.
3Adolph 45* – Intercepting state’s shipments of ventilators, essentially hoarding after accusing medical staff of stealing supplies.
‘Fanatical Cruelty’: As Pandemic Rages, Trump Refuses to Reopen Affordable Care Act Enrollment to Help Uninsured.
Edit: The annual ACA enrollment period ended in December, though some are still eligible for special enrollment despite the Trump administration’s tireless efforts to restrict eligibility.
While around a dozen states that run their own ACA exchanges have reopened enrollment, most states rely on the federal marketplace directed by the Trump administration, which is currently backing a Republican lawsuit that, if successful, would overturn the ACA and throw tens of millions more off their insurance.
“In the middle a pandemic that could kill hundreds of thousands, Trump and his toadies are deliberately blocking Americans from buying healthcare,” tweeted Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.Y.). “Theirs is fanatical cruelty that will kill people.”
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/04/01/fanatical-cruelty-pandemic-rages-trump-refuses-reopen-affordable-care-act-enrollment
4Sandy, ideally I would like to agree with you, but in the absence of a whole lot more money in the mailbox (I haven’t see my check, and even when I do it will cover only a fraction of one month’s expenses), paid sick leave, and medicare/aid for all, AND given the way our society is set up, a whole hell of a lot of people have no good options here.
Rent is due today. My imaginary bailout check wouldn’t cover that even if it HAD arrived.
5Well, if they all go to church, and we know who they are, they will soon be Making America Great Again because they are willing to die for the exonomy.
6Just another chapter in what will be “History of the Branch Covidians”
7So glad to be hunkered down in a blue state. Snow really ain’t that bad, honestly. Stay safe down there.
8JJ – for God’s sake, you and Bubba stay home. Those folks will all infect each other and then walk around in public coughing without covering and not washing their hands until their Saturday night bath and it’ll be everybody else who suffers without enough medical supplies.
We went to online church more than two weeks ago, before folks around here were getting sick…or, more accurately, before they started coming here from elsewhere and showing symptoms.
9Seems a little late for A-butt to be answering Dubya’s grammatical gaffe, “Is our children learning?” It’s doubtful that even our children will be learning, until Democrats have an opportunity to clean up the wreckage of Bitsy DeVile’s time as Education Secretary. Meanwhile A-butt is the personification of “allegedly adult Republicons are not learning.”
Basic to health care: establish a baseline. With Covid-19 that would have meant testing for everyone, symptomatic or not. Three months into this pandemic that has yet to happen. Greg and Donnie* want the “next best” measurement to be when they stop burying people dying of COVID-19. Yes, most of us can see measures easily available between those two data points, but Republicons have gone all binary brain in the age of Covidiot 45*.
10Trump and Abbott are doing Satan’s work. I’m sure he has a reward waiting for them.
11We know any decision our governor makes was after getting directions from his donors. My church already sent out information for worshiping together AT HOME via live streaming. BTW these GOP church goers May be shooting themselves in the foot by having all their donors in one place being exposed and then dying!
12The executive orders issued in San Antonio on 3/23 specifically state Worship Services may only be provided by video, teleconference or other remote measures. I think our paper is bringing to the city’s attention that our idiot governor has now made that attempt at keeping our citizens safe null and void. Here’s the executive order if anyone is interested. https://www.sanantonio.gov/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=qhM7e2V6CYo%3d&portalid=0
13I’ll see your Greg Abbott and raise you, unelected Governor and former small town sheriff, Mike Parson and his idiot Director of Health and Senior Services, “Dr” Williams, he of the Planned Parenthood shutdowns and proponent of coal ash (which is no problem in drinking wells.
Missouri’s Governor has not shut down schools and has not instituted any stay at home orders. Blessedly, the mayors of the 4 biggest cities banded together to do exactly that and some others have followed suit. There have been no provisions made to ramp up capacity in a state that has seen 15 hospital closures since 2014. We never expanded Medicare/Medicaid and we sued to block the ACA.
Last week cases of Coronavirus went up by 600%. That’s not a typo in one week our numbers went up by 600%. Part of that is because we just started testing, part of it is because we are doing NOTHING.
Missouri is so damn bad we routinely are the featured COVID 19 entertainment on Maddow’s show. Last week the State’s Associations representing Drs, Surgeons, Nurses, and hospital care workers ALL wrote to the Governor begging him to institute Stay at Home orders and to close schools. He refused.
Welcome to my nightmare.
14The reason A-butt wants people to attend church in person is money. His pastor buddies are shopping for a new jet plane.
Kenneth Copeland near Ft Worth has more aircraft than some countries have in their air force.
The late Frank Zappa wrote a song. Something about a “heavenly bank account.” (Yes, he passed almost thirty years ago.)
15okie-dokie says:
“The reason A-butt wants people to attend church in person is money. His pastor buddies are shopping for a new jet plane.”
Exactly. Like the Rev John Hagee and family org in San Antonio [Cornerstone Church]. The Hagees have not only an air force, but a private airstrip.
One of the most politically powerful, local, state, national, and international [CUFI, etc], of those megachurch honchos. BFF with Gov Abbott.
Just coincidentally, I was recently looking at the church website, checking to see if they had suspended services; they did, going online around March 16.
The church website mentioned that they had around 22,000 members. They enforce a strict tithing policy, asking a minimum of 10% of member’s income [I’ve been observing this for many years, used to have ‘temp’ long-term corp quarters in sight of their old Castle Hills location].
At that minimum tithe, assuming an average member AGI of $70K/yr, it adds up to $154 million plus of yearly church revenue [plus many extra ‘asks’], 100% untaxed.
16That kind of -untaxed- money pouring in every year buys a lot of high living, and political clout. And that’s just one megachurch of many.
Sandridge #16 – Jeez….what our little mountain church could do with an actual 10% of everybody’s income. I guess we realize that folks who don’t make much don’t actually HAVE 10% to give away, plus most people have other groups to help support, too.
Oh….and yes, between the money we raise for those same groups every year, and the % of the annual budget added to that, about 25% of the money coming in goes out again to local groups working with “the least of these”.
There IS a better way to do things than funding lavish lifestyles and private air strips. But I guess that takes actually paying attention to the red bits in your NT.
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