A Potpourri of Republican Folly
Trump lost. Wear a mask and get over it.
March 4 was, according to conspiracy-minded folks in MAGA-land, supposed to be the day when Dear Leader would return from the golf course to assume his rightful place as commander in chief.
It didn’t happen. Instead, the former office holder spent the day denouncing those who still hadn’t got the message that fealty was the only test that matters when it comes to party loyalty.
The date for the Q-Resurrection has now been reset to March 20, and word among the faithful is that yesterday was a ‘false flag’ operation, designed to entrap patriots of the tin foil hat persuasion.
“No one is doing anything today,” said a prominent thread on Patriots.win, a successor to TheDonald.win, a site that played a central role in planning ahead of the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol. “This is a lie the government created to make YOU the bad guy.”
https://twitter.com/dfriedman33/status/1367490831586889731?s=20
Thursday, March 4 was a watershed day for supporters of President Biden’s covid rescue plan. GQP Senator Ron Johnson attempted to stall progress on the legislation by demanding that clerks read the entire 628 page bill aloud.
Eleven hours later, there were no Republicans in the chamber. Democratic Senator Chris VanHollen simply got up, proposed shortening the debate from 20 hours to 3 and there was nobody around to oppose it. Net gain = 6 hours.
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Republican Governors in Mississippi and Texas thought they’d stick it to the liberals by lifting pandemic restrictions including -especially-- mask wearing. More GOP state officials around the country were expected to join in, but the chorus of boos from around the country may have discouraged them.
Paul Krugman, writing for The New York Times, starts his essay Thursday evening by comparing the so-called “right” to not wear a mask to the “right” to take a piss in public. Both are potentially health-threatening, offensive behaviors, but for some reason there isn’t a raging outcry about local municipal governments passing restrictions on relieving yourself in a public space.
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Republican officials nationwide spent much of the day being offended by the President’s declaration that dropping mask mandates amounted to “Neanderthal thinking.”
https://twitter.com/MSNBC/status/1367826501996081154?s=20
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On Capitol Hill, Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren quietly released a 2000 page social media report on GOP colleagues who voted to overturn the election. From CNN:
"Like former President Trump, any elected Member of Congress who aided and abetted the insurrection or incited the attack seriously threatened our democratic government. They would have betrayed their oath of office and would be implicated in the same constitutional provision cited in the Article of Impeachment," Lofgren wrote in her foreword to the report. "That provision prohibits any person who has previously taken an oath as a member of Congress to support the Constitution but subsequently engaged in insurrection or rebellion from serving in Congress."
Congressman Darrell Issa has a cameo in this report, with a series of Tweets questioning the election results and a video in which he claims liberals have made too much of the January 6th insurrection.
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Locally, the Union-Tribune reported on a lawsuit filed by a woman whose claim to fame was a barista’s video of her being maskhole.
She’s suing the creator of a Go Fund Me account set up (which raised more than $100k) to reward the Starbucks employee for doing the right thing.
Cowan said he started the GoFundMe as a way for him and friends to get the money to the barista’s tip jar. His post included a screenshot from Gilles’ Facebook posting.
More than $100,000 poured in. He said he turned all of it over (save for fees and taxes) to Gutierrez.
Shortly after the story exploded last summer, the Union-Tribune reported that Gutierrez posted a video to say he had tried to explain the store’s mask policy to Gilles and offer a way to still serve her, but that Gilles cursed, called other customers “sheep” and left.
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If you think California has issues with vaccine distribution, look no further than Florida to feel a bit better about what’s going on.
The state, which is getting ready for spring break travelers to flock to its sunny beaches, is considered to be in an “active outbreak,” and I’m sure that’s why Gov. Rick DeSantis made it clear during his annual State of the State address Tuesday that he welcomes more visitors to Florida in his drive to keep the state’s economy thriving.
While municipalities can mandate masks, they are prohibited by the state from charging fines or penalties for violations.
If you’re wealthy in Florida and likely to donate to DeSantis, early priority access to vaccines is available.The exclusive Ocean Reef Club, a massive Key Largo private country club where “an array of amenities are just a golf cart ride away,” received special treatment for its residents, who just happen to be heavy hitters when it comes to coughing up campaign cash.
All 17 of the [Ocean Reef Club residents] had given the governor contributions of $5,000 each through December 2020, according to the Florida Division of Elections.
But on Feb. 25, one resident of Ocean Reef, Bruce Rauner, the former Republican governor of Illinois and former chairman of the Chicago-based private equity firm GTCR, increased his contribution and wrote a $250,000 check.
The Sunshine State has one of America’s worst vaccination rates in communities of color. A quarter of their vaccine supply went to the Publix Supermarket chain—another major DeSantis donor—without bothering to track outcomes.
According to CBS Money Watch, Broward, Florida’s second-largest county with a majority-minority population doesn’t have a single Publix Supermarket delivering vaccines. Affluent Boca Raton, on the other hand, has ten locations for its mostly white residents.
https://twitter.com/TheRealHoarse/status/1367847711945424898?s=20
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