Texas Governor Fights Vaccine Mandates

To quote the great Ozzy Osbourne, “We’re going off the rails on the crazy train.” ...

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To quote the great Ozzy Osbourne, “We’re going off the rails on the crazy train.” In today’s podcast, our hosts look at Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s ban on vaccine mandates, the DOJ memo aimed at school boards, an update to the January 6 committee, and President Biden’s slumping numbers among independents. And finally, what does all of this mean for 2022 and (even though it’s way too early) 2024?

Show Notes:

–Abbott says businesses control their merchandise

–Abbott says businesses cannot control who is vaccinated in their store

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  1. Tflo

    After a very long and very heated debate over masking, the Anchorage Alaska assembly passed an emergency mask ordinance. Per the ordinance everyone, unless specially excluded, must wear a mask when indoors a public space or in communal areas with people outside this household. One of the exclusions is the mayor and his executive team (who vetoed and was against the ordinance from the onset). Additionally the ordinance has no specific penalties or fines- generally saying the municipality “reserves the right to use all available enforcement options to assure compliance”.

    I know this might seem rinky-dink as it deals with such a small community but I am interested in your opinion. How can an ordinance specifically exclude a single individual(s) rather than groups (religious, people with disabilities, etc)? Also, is it common for an ordinance to be so vague as to enforcement?

    Thanks (and love the pod up here in the land of the midnight sun)

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  2. Pohl

    David’s voting criteria for candidates are oddly idealistic for someone who’s usually about practical approaches. Since he elsewhere this week said he has an abortion litmus test, he obviously didn’t vote for Biden and, thus, had he not lived in Redland, merely risked a Trump victory. I respect some don’t like the lesser of two evils way of voting, but I wonder if he’s just been writing in candidates most of his life. No wonder a third party sounds tempting. But that’s just the most expensive version of a hopeless write-in.

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    Ben Connelly

    Ha, “even though [Steve Bannon] wears a lot of shirts…”

    Steve (Hayes, not Bannon), I’ll definitely check out the Conversation between Kristol and Baude. You’re absolutely right that we should be worried about the same thing happening to the Democratic Party as has happened to the Republicans. In some ways, HR 1 is an example of this (or Hillary saying a Trump 2020 victory should not be accepted). Jonah was correct in what he wrote at the end of last Friday’s G-File.

    Sarah, I think you made an important point about 1/6 and the recent revelations. Steve also echoed this. I thought it was terrible on 1/6 and I would have impeached and removed DT on 1/7. But this latest info about Eastman etc. DOES change how I view 1/6. I now think it’s even worse than we thought.

    Guess I will write in Mitch Daniels in 2024 too!

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    David Burke

    https://youtu.be/7PCkvCPvDXk

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    Young Riprock

    I really like David Shor, but I think his forecasts of the future electoral chances for Democrats are far too pessimistic. But I think his pessimism is what is driving the panic of the Democrats who are desperate to change the rules (new statehoods, abolish filibuster, etc) to either entrench or otherwise gift Democrats a fighting chance.

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  6. David Lancaster

    Missing from yesterday's discussion was any consideration as to whether the DOJ letter was the *right thing to do*--it absolutely was. The larger problem here is that responsible local officials are being harassed and chased out of public service by a vulgar minority. (Side note: it's basically a larger manifestation as to what's happened in GOP the last several years!) At the same time, there seems to be a vested interest on the right in normalizing the most extreme outlier behavior, and then arguing that *any* response to that behavior is oppression against anyone that is even remotely sympathetic to their views. That's going to happen either way. We can talk about the crass political angles here (looking at you Sarah), but there's already more than enough commentary on that out there. David seems to appreciate that more than the rest of the gang.

    Also, I think that Jonah is conflating local public officials (e.g., county supervisors, elected school board members, etc.) and the unions representing those that work under them. We're largely talking about management vs. labor here. Were it just up to elected school boards, most kids probably would have been back in school for much of last year.

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    Rev Snow

    I think Jonah has misunderstood the meaning of the #FreedomFlu hashtag. It does not appear to be, as he suggests, an exhortation that the manliest of manly men set out to intentionally catch COVID like Davy Crockett heading out to wrestle a bear. Instead it appears to be an expression of support for apparent protests among pilots and others who call in sick with the "freedom flu" rather than conform to vaccine mandates imposed by their employers.

    Say what you will about vaccine mandate resistance, I think there's some clear distance as a matter of sanity between that and seeking covid infection in the manner of the chicken pox party of years gone by.

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      Mike B

      There may be some verbal difference between vaccine resistance and seeking to catch Covid, but in practice they amount to the same thing.

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    KMG

    I am old enough to remember when Abbott was a good lawyer and then a judge on the Supreme Court of Texas. Now, he's just "basey."

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    Silvertide

    Jonah you condemn the democrats for speaking to elites while republicans for years have been cheering on the stupid. I don't agree that's what democrats are doing but I'd rather take my vaccine and talk elite speak then get freedom covid and speak moron to idiots.

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  10. Richard Fulmer

    Again, the grifter’s number one rule is: Never give up the con. Trump’s minions are not going to look at the emerging evidence that Trump was trying to steal the election, slap their foreheads, and acknowledge that they've been wrong all along. Instead, they’re going to pump their fists and say: “Look how hard Trump worked to stop the steal! Look at how much he was fighting for us!”

    The big danger is that they will embrace the arguments that Eastman made in his memo and run with them when they lose future elections.

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    1. Richard Fulmer

      This reminds me of a joke my Psychology 101 professor told us. He was trying to illustrate the point that many insane people act quite logically if you assume that their underlying delusion is correct (e.g., a guy who thinks he's Napoleon and acts accordingly is acting logically if you assume that he really is Napoleon).

      Anyway, the story is that a young psychiatrist is being shown around the mental institution on his first day on the job. The head of the institution, acting as his guide, introduces him to some of the more interesting cases. He points to one patient who thinks he's dead.

      The young psychiatrist says, "Watch this. I'll have this guy out of here in five minutes." He walks over to the patient, introduces himself, and says, "I understand that you think you're dead."

      The patient nods and says, "Yes, I've been dead, now, for 15 years."

      "Let me ask you," the psychiatrist says, "Do dead people bleed?"

      After thinking for a few seconds, the patient says, "No, dead people don't bleed."

      At that, the psychiatrist whips out a pin, sticks one of the patient's fingers with it, and draws out a drop of blood. Shocked, the patient stares at the blood for a minute, and finally exclaims, "Oh my God, I've been wrong all these years! Dead people *do* bleed!"

      The true MAGA believers are never going to admit that Trump is anything but a patriot who loves his country and is fighting to stop the steal.

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      George.Skinner

      The bizarre thing is that Trump and his supporters seem to have given no consideration to the end game. In what scenario does a majority of the nation that already loathed Trump acquiesce to him overturning the result of a democratic election? If he'd eked out another electoral college win while losing the popular vote, the outrage would've been explosive. If he actually succeeded in co-opting Congress, certain states, or the Supreme Court to agree to rig the results in his favor, it would've been another civil war.

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      1. Mathew A

        Agreed. But I would argue passing HR1 would get the same result

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      2. Richard Fulmer

        Wait..., you're using logic and reasoning and you're expecting to sway the MAGA right?

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          George.Skinner

          I know. Insofar as they've considered this outcome, the conclusion seems to be "hey, we're the ones who have guns and join the military. What are those blue sissies going to do?" Forgetting, of course, that this is basically what the South thought prior to the Civil War.

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