I think that what you were seeing starting with Bush Sr. was the rise in conservative media influence as heralded by Rush Limbaugh’s radio show. The Tea Party was more or less the psychotic break for the party.
This was heralded by a few things that set the stage- Gingrich’s Contract with America was a big one, as was the party’s hitching itself to the religious Right some 50-60 years ago (Barry Goldwater was griping against that in the 1960s). Those two set the stage for iron party discipline as well as the lack of compromise on ideological grounds. Then the conservative media was the platform by which they indoctrinated the rank and file GOP voters with it, and the Tea Party was basically the point when the crazies took over the asylum.
[sad parody]Well surely if you actually cared about transparency and weren’t just a hypocrite biased liberal, you’d be just as upset if not more about the failing-upward useless son of the POTUS Hunter Biden and his art sale scandal as you are about this, right? [/sad parody]
Heh, I was moving when this thread was in its heyday and missed it. Man, I always knew Abbott was a fucking idiot. Maybe a little smarter than Perry, and surely not quite as evil a numbskull as Paxton.
Nope, shows what I know. Slips in with the anti-democracy wing (yeah, majority) of the Republican party as fast as he can. Fuckin’ is absolutely too good for him. I wish that something far more unpleasant than that happens to him. What the ends of that would be, I leave to the reader’s imagination. Maybe he could arrange for himself to be dropped into a teeny black hole.
Sadly, it does seem the statistics indicate if you had a Republican governor, your state fared (and likely continues to fare) poorly in the pandemic. It remains to be seen if this will help remove these morons from power.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland told Abbott in a letter Thursday that the governor’s executive order “violates federal law in numerous respects, and Texas cannot lawfully enforce the Executive Order against any federal official or private parties working with the United States.”
Garland said the Department of Justice “intends to pursue all appropriate legal remedies to ensure that Texas does not interfere with the functions of the federal government” if Abbott does not rescind the order.
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Here is a CLASSIC example of Republican doublethink (from the same article):
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On Wednesday, Abbott issued the order, allowing Texas Department of Public Safety troopers to reroute civilian vehicles back to their origin point or a port of entry, or seize the vehicles, if police suspect the driver is transporting migrants who are infected with the virus.
Abbott said in a statement that his order “will reduce the risk of COVID-19 exposure in our communities," though the governor will not allow local government officials to issue mask mandates even as coronavirus infections are again increasing across the state.
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As the school year starts at the same time as COVID-19 rates surge, Texas Republicans seem to be trying to make the pandemic worse and get people killed.
It’s old news, at this point, that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is not only refusing to mandate masks in schools—as the CDC recommends—but is blocking schools from requiring masks. And, of course, Abbott won’t mandate vaccination, either for staff or for students 12 and over. (Texas students are required to be vaccinated against diphtheria/tetanus/pertussis, polio, measles/mumps/rubella, hepatitis A and B, and varicella.)
…
CDC guidelines for safe in-person learning include vaccination for those who are eligible, universal indoor masking, at least three feet of distance between students, screening testing to quickly identify cases, ventilation, hand-washing and covering coughs and sneezes, staying home when sick and getting tested, contact tracing in combination with isolation and quarantine, and cleaning and disinfection.
Texas officials have looked at that list and knocked off vaccination, masking, and contact tracing. What’s next—requiring that schools share desks? Banning hand-washing? Requiring each child to cough directly in the face of at least two of their classmates every day?
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Not all local officials are going along with Da Gov. Some are responding by quoting the subject line of this thread.
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Abbott’s July executive order says “no government entity, including a county, city, school district and public health authority” and “any public or private entity that is receiving or will receive public funds” can enforce mask or vaccine mandates. Offenses could lead to fines up to $1,000. Private businesses, however, still have the right to require customers and employees to wear masks.
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The big problem is that it takes balls and a willingness to face the consequences of defying that order, which could include removal from office for some elected officials.
Most elected officials are rather gutless, and will just roll over for this, rather than get angry and tie it up in court until after the crisis has passed. (what they probably should do, IMO).
What I haven’t figured out is how to interpret this (the penalty part of the executive order banning masks):
Pursuant to the
legislature’s command in Section 418.173 of the Texas Government
Code and the State’s emergency management plan, the imposition of
any conflicting or inconsistent limitation by a local governmental
entity or official constitutes a “failure to comply with” this executive
order that is subject to a fine up to $1,000
Does that mean ONE fine of $1000 per entity? If so, I’ll happily show up at my kids’ school with 10 crisp new $100 bills and a big middle finger for Abbott. Or is it something that needs to get hammered out in court? Is there some unwritten part to it that would say something like “per person” that would make it crushingly tough to defy?
But, and here’s a big ol’ but, that entire chapter of the code starts off with the purposes outlined. The very first one given is:
reduce vulnerability of people and communities of this state to damage, injury, and loss of life and property resulting from natural or man-made catastrophes, riots, or hostile military or paramilitary action;
IANAL, but since that is the opposite of what he is doing with his threats, I’d request that the judge fuck the governor with a leech-egg-covered poker.
Wouldn’t the text of the Executive Order only specifying the fine (what I quoted) narrow it down to ONLY be the fine that’s applicable here? IANA lawyer, but that’s how I’d read it.
Arizona is Neville - wants to be a player, and coming up strong late in the game. But then you have to start giving credit to Missouri - we were in the lead there for a while as the fourth musketeer.
The biggest Texas school districts are increasingly telling Abbott to pound sand on his executive order banning mask mandates. Dallas and Austin are requiring masks for teachers and students, and Houston (the largest ISD in the state) is voting on a mandate this week.
Not as crazy as it sounds; first the executive order is vaguely worded, so it’s unclear what the $1000 fine refers to.
So if it’s something like “per student per day”, the fines would be so enormous that the school districts would be bankrupted, and by state law, be the State’s problem to fund anyway. If it’s something lesser, then it’s probably well within the districts’ ability to pay.
Either way, that interpretation will have to be hammered out in court, and that takes time. So at worst, the districts are playing for time with their mandates- maybe the surge will be over by the time some sort of restraining order comes down, etc…
Part of me wonders if it’s some kind of “read-between-the-lines” type order like his earlier one- he’s issued the mandate, but the penalty is so small that any organization that wants to enact a mask mandate can do so for a trivial fee.
What’s crazy is that Abbott has basically doubled-down on his prohibitions, in the face of solid science, public health recommendations, etc… And what makes it doubly so is that he’s sticking to it for elementary school students… who can’t be vaccinated yet. It’s mind-blowing that he’s putting small children at ANY risk, and risking even intense community spread… for political advantage vs. his right-wing primary rivals. And more so that a significant percentage of the state agrees with him.
I think it’s telling that Abbott has gone radio silent on these ISDs essentially blowing off his executive order. With ICUs reaching or at capacity in Texas and the surge in hospitalizations growing, the politics of this could be changing for him. He put out a statement requesting (but not requiring) hospitals to put off nonessential procedures.
So far he’s paid no political price for pandering to the “muh freedom” crowd. But between suburban parents anxious about their kids picking up COVID at school and West Texas oil millionaires irate that their trophy wives can’t get their boobs done, he may quickly start to get pushback from constituencies he actually cares about.
It looks like Abbott has found a solution to deal with the surging cases in Texas.
And if those healthcare workers from other states get sick with COVID, he’ll follow up by asking for help from other countries. And after that, from other planets. See, he’s got it all under control. Texans don’t have anything to worry about.
