Monday, March 23, 2020

The Weekly Pandemic Pandemonium Wrangle *updates

With this edition of the best lefty blog posts, Tweets, and news from around and about our still-Great State, the Texas Progressive Alliance has all the TP it needs for a two-month quarantine, but is already running out of potato chips and beef jerky.

(Ed. note: There have been so many developments since yesterday morning that this post contains only a few of the most significant updates.  Additional Wrangling to come for Tuesday, 3/24.)

Greg Abbott has postponed the May 26 primary runoff elections to July 14.

Holding the election in May “would cause the congregation of large gatherings of people in confined spaces and force numerous election workers to come into close proximity to others, thereby threatening the health and safety of many Texans and literally exposing them to risk of death due to COVID-19,” Abbott said ... It “would therefore prevent, hinder or delay necessary action in containing the COVID-19 disaster.”

[...]

The Republican Party of Texas supported a delay “to allow for time to ensure that Texas voters and their votes are protected and safeguarded.” In a letter released publicly, the Texas Democratic Party said it wanted a process that “reduces the need for in-person voting and enhances Texans’ ability to vote by mail.”

The Democratic Party has since filed a lawsuit in Travis County (.pdf) to expand ballot-by-mail voting, “instead of bringing our democratic process to a halt.” The lawsuit seeks to “allow any person who does not want to risk their health or that of their family’s [sic] during this coronavirus pandemic to vote by mail.” Specifically, the suit claims that Section 82.002, Election Code, already allows voters to cast ballots by mail “under the circumstances of this pandemic” and seeks a declaratory order.

Kuff looked at expanded vote by mail possibilities, the subject of the TDP's lawsuit.


Abbott has deferred to local governments the decision as to whether to take further action locking down their communities.

Abbott will not be ordering a statewide shelter-in-place at this time, pointing to the lack of positive novel coronavirus cases in more than 200 counties.

Update:


The governor had previously fallen in line behind the leaders of the state's major urban metropolitan areas in closing schools, assisted living facilities, restaurants and bars, and other large gathering places in order to stop the spread of the contagion.


Abbott has come under withering criticism for rolling too slowly on protecting the state's citizens against the rapidly-expanding pathogen.


But at least the governor hasn't been as big an embarrassment as John Cornyn ...


... or Louie Gohmert ...


Update: ... or Dan Patrick.


But Texas Democrats have lowlights of their own: Rep. Marc Veazey tried to earmark additional spending for F-35s as part of one of the governmental stimulus spending bills.



There is likely an overload of helpful -- and unhelpful -- information in your inbox, social media timelines, and on your teevee, radio, and podcasts about the pandemic.


Texas bloggers also had the topic foremost on their minds.  Here's a sampling:


Alex Birnal at the Rivard Report highlighted how coronavirus demonstrates the need for paid sick leave.  Lisa Gray at the HouChron interviewed vaccine expert Dr. Peter Hotez about the state of COVID-19.  Space City Weather shares their thoughts also, including social distancing and flattening the curve.  And The Bloggess tells her social distancing story.


A very strange story from the legal world makes news.

These are just some of the bizarre details of the years-long feud between former Proud Boys attorney Jason Van Dyke, who was also a member of the group and briefly led it, and Thomas Retzlaff, the man who Van Dyke alleges is trying to destroy him.


Now new evidence in a Texas police file obtained by the Daily Dot reflects that Van Dyke threatened Retzlaff’s life a little more than a year ago.

No excerpt can really do justice (pun intended) to this case, so click over and read.  The Southeast Texas Record offers a drier account.

Restaurants and their employees are suffering the worst of the economic body shots.  But no small entrepreneur adapts quicker to adverse business conditions, or takes better care of their own.



Here's something for us to watch while we shelter in place.


Kam Franklin, in Texas Monthly, tells how her band, The Suffers, got their start.


And music fans across genres said goodbye to Houston native Kenny Rogers.

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Sunday, March 22, 2020

'Socialism Won' Funnies






But Democrats are missing the boat ...



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Sunday 'Roll Models' Funnies






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Friday, March 20, 2020

Race for the White House Update

-- Anybody seen Joe Biden this week?  Is he in quarantine?  Extreme social-distancing?

Can he be bothered to make a statement about COVID-19?

-- So much for that "Russian asset" crap.  On the other hand, I hope she hasn't somehow managed to compromise the presumptive nominee, in three-D chess/Manchurian fashion.

Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, whose unsuccessful but unstopping campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination seemed to have slipped the normal bounds of political narrative and public opinion, startled her supporters and whoever else was still watching on Thursday when she suspended her candidacy and endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden.

In a video statement, a beaming Gabbard said that, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, she had concluded that her duty was to serve in Congress and to await a possible call-up to active duty with her state’s National Guard.

The Democratic primary voters had chosen Biden, Gabbard said, and she had faith in his character. ...

As with everything else she has said and done, Major Gabbard exits with some observers parsing the meaning of her words (is "offering my full support" an endorsement or not?) and the intention of her actions.  Relative to her lawsuit against the 2016 standard-bearer:

“It should have been for $50 billion,” she told NBC News. “This is who I am. And so to so directly dismiss the value, the honor, the loyalty and sacrifices, not only for me, but for any service member in this country, it can't go unchecked.”

A few last words.

That acrimony, and Gabbard’s idiosyncratic positions, had led to speculation about a third-party spoiler candidacy. At various times, in various segments of the politics-consuming public, she was criticized or praised for being a committed anti-imperialist, or an apologist for the brutality of the Syrian regime, or a vector for Russian mischief, or a sympathizer with Indian Hindu fascism, or the most genuine leftist in the race, or a secret far-right theocrat.

Yet in the end, though her video included praise of Bernie Sanders and one more repetition of her standard denunciation of “regime-change wars,” Gabbard seized the banner of normalcy and party discipline before either Sanders or Elizabeth Warren did. It was the most surprising thing left for her to do.

Whose workout videos will we miss the least?  Hers or John Delaney's?

Update: Mike Bloomberg breaks what's left of his promise to keep staffers employed through November in battleground states.  Texas politicos will recall -- or won't forget -- he furloughed them earlier.  Now he's contributing to the nation's unemployment rate, firing everybody else and donating the remaining $18 million to the DNC.

Bloomberg had hired his campaign's field staff with the assurance that they would have jobs through the November election, even if he dropped out of the race -- which he did, on March 4, while throwing his support behind former Vice President Joe Biden. The DNC plans to use the money from Bloomberg to hire their own staff, although NBC News' Maura Barrett notes that "the campaign is encouraging everyone [not involved in the transition of a few battleground state offices] to apply to the DNC," despite them also being advised that the pay would not likely be the same.

[...]

Bloomberg's $18 million transfer to the DNC is far more than the legal limits for individuals, but campaigns are allowed to make unlimited transfers to political parties. As of March 5, the New York Post reports that the Bloomberg campaign had 2,400 paid staff members in 43 states.

-- Bernie is still raising money.  Just not for his campaign.


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Wednesday, March 18, 2020

Nevertheless, He Persists


Voters in Florida, Arizona, and Illinois (made a choice yesterday) that goes beyond their preference for Joe Biden or Bernie Sanders. With Americans being urged to stay at home or risk infecting themselves and others with the coronavirus, they also have to decide whether they want to put their health on the line to cast a ballot.

Sarah Watts Wisniewski lives and votes in Illinois. She said that her husband cast his vote this morning, but she may not head out to the polls. “I’m not sure it’s worth the risk, since so many older people go vote, and I don’t want to expose them to anything unintentionally,” she said.

Multiple states have postponed primaries, most notably Ohio, where state officials called off the election last night because of health concerns. Others include Georgia and Louisiana, whose primaries weren’t slated to take place until late March or early April. But officials in the three states that chose to move forward with their elections say they expect everything will run smoothly.

“We’re dealing with it in a thoughtful way, but we’re not going to panic,” said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. “The fact of the matter is these things can be done in ways where you’re not going to have large crowds, because it’s just one vote.”

"Just one vote".

Not everyone agrees. Hundreds of polling places across the three states are shuttered, as many poll workers did not show up, citing health concerns. Election volunteers are typically older Americans, one of the most susceptible populations right now. Many polling locations were set up in nursing homes and assisted living areas, but those have been shut down, at least in Florida, causing state Democrats to demand a list of closures.

As no such list exists, many counties are trying to keep their constituents informed the best way they can, either by making their own local lists, or having people onsite to help direct people to their new polling locations. ...

Some citizens have self-quarantined, but will still show up to cast their ballots, like Katie Stitzer from Arizona. “We only have 18 confirmed cases statewide, and none in our county,” she said. “I’m not super excited about it since [Elizabeth] Warren is out, but I’m going to vote anyway, with my hand sanitizer.”

The results -- not to mention the outcome -- were predictable.

-- The Coronavirus Outbreak Has Made Voting In Illinois Today A Full Mess

“A functioning democracy should not have this,” one person trying to vote said.


-- Florida:


-- Arizona:


-- Not forgetting Ohio.

Politicians of all stripes expressed frustration Tuesday after Ohio's primary was postponed until June by the state's elected officials amid concerns attendance at polling places would contribute to coronavirus pandemic.

The Ohio Democratic Party sued Tuesday afternoon over Secretary of State Frank LaRose's decision to set a new date, saying that power rests only with the Legislature. Messages were left seeking comment from LaRose, a Republican, and the state attorney general, who represents him.

The state's top health official, Dr. Amy Acton, cited the need to contain the pandemic in calling off the election hours before voters were supposed to cast ballots Tuesday morning.


Democratic state chairs in primaries still on the calendar understood there would be a price to pay that was beyond, you know, people's lives and health.


"Exit polls? We don' need no steenking exit polls!"


Because Landslide Joe was going to win anyway, right?  Might as well keep those MSDNC interns safe in the studio; they're not getting paid much more than an unemployed bartender anyway.

And it's not as if the exit polling has been all that good.


As I understand it, the CIA has overthrown governments in countries whose elections demonstrate lower percentages than these.

So is there a plausible case to be made for this?


Once the news networks reported former Vice President Joe Biden was the winner of all three primaries, Biden appeared via livestream from his home in Wilmington, Delaware. “This is a moment, where we need our leaders to lead.”

“It’s also a moment where the choices and decisions we make as individuals are going to collectively impact on what happens, make a big difference in the severity of this outbreak and the ability of our medical hospital systems to handle it,” Biden added.

What he declared was rather hypocritical. Biden likely secured an insurmountable delegate lead over his opponent, Senator Bernie Sanders. But he also showed zero leadership, put his base of elderly voters, who have overwhelmingly supported him, at risk, and his campaign disregarded CDC guidance to a degree that likely resulted in dozens of people becoming infected with the coronavirus because they believed what they claimed about how “safe” it was to vote. 


Alas, it does not seem that Bernie is going to make that case at this time.

Sanders may have skipped the traditional election night speech but he did hold a live-streamed event on Tuesday evening and rolled out a proposal for counteracting the potential looming recession from the coronavirus: $2,000 monthly cash payments to every household for the duration of the crisis.

The live-stream was, almost unintentionally, an encapsulation of where Sanders is in the race: a candidate pressing more for his ideas than himself -- and wedded deeply to the platform that running for president provides his agenda. Sanders urged that any fiscal countermeasures from Washington to the pandemic would not amount to “another money making opportunity for corporate America and for Wall Street.”

Still, some members of the Sanders team seem to be itching for a prolonged primary fight, even as few know what exactly he and his wife, Jane, plan to do next.

Sanders made one other announcement on Tuesday: that he had processed more than 10 million contributions in his 2020 campaign, adding up to more than $191 million.

That includes $2 million on Sunday, even as the nation was facing a financial standstill from the mass closures of businesses and “stay home” edicts from health officials.

In other words, Sanders is likely to have the money to keep running if he wants to.

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