Texas Re-Opening Announced

[Message Board User 12389]

13 hours ago, mchookem said:

i'm honestly really torn on this...my niece will be a freshman in the Honors College at UNT, she just did her online orientation this week and is SO stoked...

but the main issue is she has GOT to get out of the house (with my sister)...long, personal story/psych issues/parental issues that i wont go into here, but it's real shit.

suffice to say we are actually all praying that she CAN go... having to stay at home and not be able to GTFO is going to be a major psychological and emotional blow that we don't know how she will handle. she's already on edge. and that's not even considering how my sister will react...

honestly, given the statistically low risk the virus poses to her demographic, it's almost scarier if UNT decides to nix on-campus this fall and she has to stay home. that might sound fucked up, but it's the situation.  fucking family 😕

push comes to shove, we could maybe look at off-campus housing in Denton, but she got scholarships, i don't know how that would work money-wise...

gotdamn shit is fucked up 😫

I live close to Denton - I'll be happy to take your niece in.  PM sent.

[mchookem 16194]

uh huh...thanks, i'll, uh, keep that in mind 😋

[Ghost of LL 15477]

Jesus Christ--I did not have "GOLL is going to agree with Empower Texans" on my 2020 Apocalypse bingo card:

Quote

After the show ends in the unedited version, McDonald and Cheshire laugh about references they made to Abbott that could be perceived as highlighting the fact he has used a wheelchair since being partially paralyzed in a 1984 accident.

"I feel like before there was a switch I could flip to avoid that, and I’m just so frustrated that I’ve flipped it off," Cheshire says. "He’s such a revolting piece of shit."

More:

Quote

The sentiments by Cheshire and McDonald are not dissimilar from criticism of Abbott they have lodged publicly, though without profanity and reference to his disability. Empower Texans and some other hard-right activists have been generally critical of Abbott lately for ceding too much power to big-city Democratic leaders to fight the virus.

"It's like, I have created this riddle for you and you have figured out how to fuck your citizens with it — 'Great job, I'm with you,'" Cheshire says in the unedited podcast while talking about Abbott's mask confusion. "And it's like, you're an awful piece of shit."

McDonald adds that Abbott "created a shitty policy that's vague because he wanted to avoid accountability." As for Abbott's eventual clarification that counties and cities can require businesses to mandate mask wearing, McDonald says, “Well, just like, fuckin’ say it. Don’t clown around. ‘You read between the lines.’ Well, fuck you."

 

Edited June 19, 2020 by Ghost of LL

[Hank Scorpio 17721]

 

[InkaUtexas 25496]

Hays run down from KUT. 

1st case – 3/14

100+:  31 days later (4/14)

200+:24 days later (5/08)

500+: 34 days later (6/11)

1000+: 5 days later (6/16)

1400+: 2 days later (6/18)

*Note: Hays hasn’t always released numbers on weekends

[Beau Vine 53984]

1 hour ago, InkaUtexas said:

Hays run down from KUT. 

1st case – 3/14

100+:  31 days later (4/14)

200+:24 days later (5/08)

500+: 34 days later (6/11)

1000+: 5 days later (6/16)

1400+: 2 days later (6/18)

*Note: Hays hasn’t always released numbers on weekends

The river parks are closing on the 25th!  People losing their shit about it on Facebook.

[InkaUtexas 25496]

17 minutes ago, Beau Vine said:

The river parks are closing on the 25th!  People losing their shit about it on Facebook.

Fuck em. 

[achooloco 1065]

On 6/18/2020 at 2:43 PM, justhookit said:

He seems to be in panic mode. We will see the same thing in NY in a month or two when cases start rising again because they are reopening. I mean it was inevitable yet we still seem to be unwilling to do anything about it.

Require masks. Sorry bar/restaurant industry but you can do takeout only. NO TRAVEL.

 

I don't think you will see the same thing in NY. Least not in the summer and still too early to tell what the fall will bring in each area. Aside from the street drinking, the majority of people here wear masks almost all the time. Now, the street drinking might override that all even though it is mostly the youngs doing it, but I'm willing to bet/hope that it doesn't. 

[justhookit 4177]

23 hours ago, justhookit said:

65 new cases today. I’ve looked, and this doesn’t seem to be related to anything like a prison or meat packing deal. The re-opening is a total clusterfuck.

Nueces county reported 63 new cases today. Not only is case count skyrocketing so is percent positive. Port A has at least two new cases, one that caused Shorty’s Kody’s and Giggity’s to shutdown.

[TexEx15 17456]

Put in a pool last year.  Did a lot of research at the time and weighed pros and cons of course.  We have 3 girls 9 and under and are happy in the house so we decided to go for it.  Loved it last summer and felt good about the decision.  Feel FUCKING FANTASTIC about the decision now.

[Woland 729]

Put in a pool last year.  Did a lot of research at the time and weighed pros and cons of course.  We have 3 girls 9 and under and are happy in the house so we decided to go for it.  Loved it last summer and felt good about the decision.  Feel FUCKING FANTASTIC about the decision now.

Feel the same about retiring from teaching and building a media room.

[hookemATL 11604]

4 minutes ago, Woland said:

Feel the same about retiring from teaching and building a media room.

Feel the same about stowing those Malaysian sex slaves in my basement. Rape from home has been a blessing!!

[safe sex 11678]

Is, uh, that supposed to be funny?

[hookemATL 11604]

I apologize profusely for offending any Malaysian rape victims on the board. 

[Beau Vine 53984]

Awww, you just hate to see it...

Quote

Two staffers for the hardline conservative group Empower Texans have been caught on an audio recording disparaging Gov. Greg Abbott with profanity and joking about his wheelchair use.

Upon the comments surfacing Friday morning, Abbott's office and other top Texas Republicans denounced them and Empower Texans said the staffers were "suspended from all public activities with the organization immediately."

The comments came on an unedited version of the group's podcast, Texas Scorecard Radio, featuring Empower Texans' vice president, Cary Cheshire, and general counsel, Tony McDonald. The audio was published — apparently inadvertently — Thursday. The unedited version was replaced with an edited episode later in the day.

The Texas Tribune thanks its sponsors. Become one.

After the show ends in the unedited version, McDonald and Cheshire laugh about references they made to Abbott that could be perceived as highlighting the fact he has used a wheelchair since being partially paralyzed in a 1984 accident.

"I feel like before there was a switch I could flip to avoid that, and I’m just so frustrated that I’ve flipped it off," Cheshire says. "He’s such a revolting piece of shit."

The two had been venting over Abbott's recent comments allowing local officials to order businesses to require customers to wear masks amid the coronavirus pandemic. The governor's approval of such policies came after a stretch of confusion over what exactly local officials could mandate regarding mask use under his statewide orders. In clarifying the statewide mask rules earlier this week, Abbott said Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff had "finally figured" out what was allowed.

The sentiments by Cheshire and McDonald, who did not respond to requests for comment, are not dissimilar from criticism of Abbott they have lodged publicly, though without profanity and reference to his disability. Empower Texans and some other hard-right activists have been generally critical of Abbott lately for ceding too much power to big-city Democratic leaders to fight the virus.

Keep tabs on Texas politics and policy with our morning newsletter

Keep tabs on Texas politics and policy with our morning newsletter

I agree to the terms of service and privacy policy.

Browse all newsletters at texastribune.org/subscribe.

"It's like, I have created this riddle for you and you have figured out how to fuck your citizens with it — 'Great job, I'm with you,'" Cheshire says in the unedited podcast while talking about Abbott's mask confusion. "And it's like, you're an awful piece of shit."

McDonald adds that Abbott "created a shitty policy that's vague because he wanted to avoid accountability." As for Abbott's eventual clarification that counties and cities can require businesses to mandate mask wearing, McDonald says, “Well, just like, fuckin’ say it. Don’t clown around. ‘You read between the lines.’ Well, fuck you."

An Abbott spokesman denounced the comments by Cheshire and McDonald.

"It reveals a lot about an organization’s character and morals that uses profanity to mock a person in a wheelchair, and this audio is disgusting and hate-filled," Abbott spokesman John Wittman said in a statement. "It is sad to think about what else this group may be saying about people behind their backs when they think they aren’t being recorded. Regardless of this despicable tape, the Governor remains keenly focused on containing the spread of COVID-19, while also unifying the state as we celebrate Juneteenth."

The Texas Tribune thanks its sponsors. Become one.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick also condemned the remarks, tweeting: "The hateful [Empower Texans] attack mocking Governor Abbott is outrageous, vulgar and completely unacceptable. [McDonald] and [Cheshire] are persona non grata in my book and anyone [at Empower Texans] who does not condemn this behavior."

A number of other GOP leaders added their voices to the chorus of condemnation Friday afternoon, including U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn and Attorney General Ken Paxton.

Sullivan issued a statement Friday afternoon saying he was "heartbroken by the language and tone" used by Cheshire and McDonald and that he has already personally apologized to Abbott.

"Both have been suspended from all public activities with the organization immediately, and additional internal actions will be taken," Sullivan said. "Whether it was a private conversation or not is unimportant; it was wrong and unacceptable."

The Texas Tribune thanks its sponsors. Become one.

There is a layer of irony to the situation. Empower Texans' leader, Michael Quinn Sullivan, forced House Speaker Dennis Bonnen, R-Angleton, into retirement last year after secretly recording a meeting with Bonnen where Bonnen proposed teaming up to politically target 10 House Republicans.

Bonnen weighed in Friday afternoon on the remarks by Cheshire and McDonald, saying they are part of a political "sickness" in Texas.

"While I’m sure the scar tissue on my psyche developed while dealing with their ilk will last long past the end of my time as Speaker, I would love for my successor to have the freedom to lead in a climate that is free of this self-serving, hateful mindset and its outsized influence," Bonnen said in a statement.

Empower Texans has been a major force in the Texas GOP’s civil war over the last several years, pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into primaries, particularly for the state House. It had a much lower profile during the most recent primary season, picking its fights more selectively and not donating as much from its PAC as in recent election cycles. The group reemerged in a big way last fall, though, when it went public with claims about the meeting with Bonnen and after a long tease, released the audio. Before that, McDonald privately played the tape for any Republican who was interested.

The Texas Tribune thanks its sponsors. Become one.

While the tape's release prompted Bonnen to announce he would not seek reelection, the episode further clouded Empower Texans' reputation at the Capitol. Several GOP lawmakers piled on Friday with long-building grievances against the organization, including some members who have benefitted from the group's support in the past.

"Now the masses get to see what many of us have known for a long time: A once reputable & respected policy organization, ET has turned in to nothing more than a sanctimonious sewer," Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, tweeted.

Rep. Jared Patterson, R-Frisco, said the hot-mic moment illuminated how Empower Texans has been "seeking to destroy the Republican Party from within.""They are the ANTIFA of the right," Patterson wrote on Facebook.

Patrick, Leach and Patterson have each received campaign contributions from Empower Texans in the past.

The Texas Tribune thanks its sponsors. Become one.

The hard-right House Freedom Caucus, which includes some of Empower Texans' closest allies, tweeted it "strongly condemn and reject the incredibly vile statements and sentiments" that surfaced.

While ripping Abbott's mask maneuvering, Cheshire also takes aim at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, the influential conservative think tank in Austin, criticizing it as subservient to the governor.

"TPPF isn’t gonna say a damn fuckin’ thing today, and then he’s gonna come out tomorrow and be like, 'You know, I think we need block grants for Medicaid,' and they’re gonna go applaud it," Cheshire says.

The foundation's executive director, Kevin Roberts, was among those condemning Cheshire and McDonald on Friday over the Abbott criticism. Roberts tweeted the staffers' "reprehensible words ... have no place in Texas politics and the conservative movement."

 

Edited June 19, 2020 by Beau Vine

[BradInATX 9208]

Hey RayDog is back

[elfenix 34171]

So did Texas Tribune not post the wheelchair comments or am I not getting something about flipping a switch?

[HenryJames 65887]

24 minutes ago, Beau Vine said:

Two staffers for the hardline conservative group Empower Texans have been caught on an audio recording disparaging Gov. Greg Abbott with profanity and joking about his wheelchair use.

Staffers? It’s the fucking vice president and general counsel.

[Beau Vine 53984]

So did Texas Tribune not post the wheelchair comments or am I not getting something about flipping a switch?

I wondered the same thing.
I also completely agreed with their other comments.

[BradInATX 9208]

Looks like 34 new hospitalizations in Austin today - not great. The last two days have put us back on an upward trend on the 7-day moving average. It looked like we might be flattening for a bit, but maybe not. 

Good time for the new mask regulations that Austin and SA passed (we decoded Hot Wheels' little semantic game/riddle - yay). Hopefully someone will actually enforce it.

 

ETA: honestly though, looking at the explosions in Hays County and San Antonio, Austin isn't doing too bad for the general area. Also looks like Waco is blowing up without much fanfare, because nobody gives a shit about Waco.

Edited June 20, 2020 by BradInATX

[TexEx15 17456]

1 hour ago, hookemATL said:

I apologize profusely for offending any Malaysian rape victims on the board. 

Rape is not funny even if you are being facetious.

[Sii 6]

Another troublesome up kick for San Antonio again. Hospitalizations and positivity rate climbing as well. Several hospitals in town are very busy from what I’ve heard

[Wanker Bob 379]

34 minutes ago, TexEx15 said:

Rape is not funny even if you are being facetious.

He doesn't understand. He went to Baylor where they give degrees in it. 

[Born to Run 6565]

Rape is not funny even if you are being facetious.

This

[NotActuallyALonghorn 4968]

Kinky. 

[NameAlreadyInUse 5106]

7 hours ago, TexEx15 said:

Put in a pool last year.  Did a lot of research at the time and weighed pros and cons of course.  We have 3 girls 9 and under and are happy in the house so we decided to go for it.  Loved it last summer and felt good about the decision.  Feel FUCKING FANTASTIC about the decision now.

Was looking for a new house when this hit mainly so we could get a pool. Would be a lot less surly about this whole thing if I could at least go swimming every day. 

[safe sex 11678]

13 hours ago, hookemATL said:

I apologize profusely for offending any Malaysian rape victims on the board. 

So, I just want to make sure I'm reading you right in that you don't particularly care about offending the rape survivors on this board who aren't Malaysian?  

[BradInATX 9208]

So, I just want to make sure I'm reading you right in that you don't particularly care about offending the rape survivors on this board who aren't Malaysian?  

Maybe he doesn't care about Malaysians who haven't been raped. Did you think about that?!

[Message Board User 12389]

 

[BradInATX 9208]

Saturday night, Buda Texas

[justhookit 4177]

7 hours ago, BradInATX said:

Saturday night, Buda Texas

My only guess is that most people just don’t give a shit anymore. I hit you on the new thread I started maybe we will get new good discussion there. It’s laughable/sad/insane that pretty much everywhere in Texas we are doubling the numbers we had in April when we were all staying home, and in many places it’s way worse, yet we are barely talking abou it. I’m guessing we just don’t have enough people dying yet and hoping that trend continues. Maybe @ChiTownDoc is onto something there.

 

[kevwun 15620]

We are definitely going to find out.

[justhookit 4177]

If we are alive, yes.

seriously though I’ve got a question that probably belongs in CR. One girl here that was all over Facebook this week saying she was going in for the test went in and tested positive. Since then, she deleted all of her posts and is threatening to sue the business owner for disclosing HIPPA info. If any of you are bored you can probably connect the dots from my previous posts.

but that’s not really my point. If I tested positive I would tell everyone I know, and a bunch of people I don’t know that might have maybe waved at me on the street. I’d be screaming from the rooftop that I was covid positive, almost literally.  What the fuck is wrong with people? And that is part of the reason why we are in this mess and I don’t see an easy way out.

[kevwun 15620]

It's not going to be stopped in the US by anything we do.  Our leadership has failed us and turned wearing a mask in to a political issue.  The virus will either burn itself out or there will be a vaccine, but it's going to keep going until that happens.  Thousands of people will have needlessly died before that happens though.

[Texas Jeff 1932]

This is probably obvious.  When reopening you either get to choose a date-driven policy or a data-driven policy.  You don't get to choose both when relaxing restrictions.  We picked the date-driven policy because people were evidently sick of staying at home and there was a lot of economic pressure to turn on the machines again.  And so here we are...

Unfortunately, the latency from super spreader event to folks crashing in hospitals is really long, so data based policy is tough.  Getting the test sucks and it takes too long to get a result, aggravating the data problem.

We could choose a data based policy based on some leading indicator.  Consider if we could randomly deploy thermometers to the public and require everyone to just take your temperature once a day, with an automatic anonymous data report to the cloud.  Aggregate the data and decide what to do in real time based on the data coming in.  Shut down if it gets hot and relax if it cools off.   Or, send some people out to count mask wearing at some sample businesses.  If you see mask wearing at 20%, slow down.  If you count 90%, maybe open up a bit.  Nothing needs to be invented here and there is no magic, just metrics.

You could supplement that with a date based policy to further limit the spread.  What if we agreed to put in two week "firewalls" every three months where we really tried hard to lockdown, then relaxed more during the other times.  This would allow people to plan ahead for a two week break from in-person work and be less disruptive.  We could even plan to provide paychecks to people for those two weeks so that they can eat, pay rent, keep going with their lives.

You can combine date and data driven policies together to add to the solution, but when you just pick a date-driven policy and ignore the data, you should expect what we have now.  It should not be a surprise.

[HenryJames 65887]

Mini outbreak in my hometown of 4,000 people. At least a dozen cases in the last week including one of the coaches and the Baptist preacher.

[justhookit 4177]

1 hour ago, kevwun said:

It's not going to be stopped in the US by anything we do.  Our leadership has failed us and turned wearing a mask in to a political issue.  The virus will either burn itself out or there will be a vaccine, but it's going to keep going until that happens.  Thousands of people will have needlessly died before that happens though.

Well yes and no. We, the people have turned this into a political issue. I choose to wear a mask and it has nothing at all to do with my political leadership or identity. At some point it just is a matter of personal choice and responsibility. 

[justhookit 4177]

3 minutes ago, HenryJames said:

Mini outbreak in my hometown of 4,000 people. At least a dozen cases in the last week including one of the coaches and the Baptist preacher.

Young boys in your town are screwed.

[Biff Tannen 45491]

Walking the dogs this morning and a woman coming the other direction, on the other side of the street, was wearing a mask and gave us a WTF? gesture.  She went down a side street about 30 yards and waited for us to pass before coming back and going on her way.  People REALLY don't understand the science. 

[gmr548 16491]

6 minutes ago, justhookit said:

Well yes and no. We, the people have turned this into a political issue. I choose to wear a mask and it has nothing at all to do with my political leadership or identity. At some point it just is a matter of personal choice and responsibility. 

Yes to it being the responsible move regardless of political affiliation. Unfortunately that isn't enough. We the people didn't make it political, we all know how that happened, and a vocal minority who is very devoted followed that in lock step.

Skipping the mask is  really increasing the potential to harm others, not yourself. I don't think we can just shrug that off as irresponsibility and just deal with it. That's the opposite really. That's appeasing irresponsible and/or selfish dumbfucks at the potential expense of everyone else. That's why, unfortunately, it needs to be mandated from the top down.

3 minutes ago, justhookit said:

Young boys in your town are screwed.

He said Baptist, not Catholic. Football coaches and Baptist preacher getting it does have implications for innocent young women though.

[Beau Vine 53984]

58 minutes ago, Texas Jeff said:

We could choose a data based policy based on some leading indicator.  Consider if we could randomly deploy thermometers to the public and require everyone to just take your temperature once a day, with an automatic anonymous data report to the cloud.  Aggregate the data and decide what to do in real time based on the data coming in.  Shut down if it gets hot and relax if it cools off.   Or, send some people out to count mask wearing at some sample businesses.  If you see mask wearing at 20%, slow down.  If you count 90%, maybe open up a bit.  Nothing needs to be invented here and there is no magic, just metrics.

BUT MAH FREEDUMB!!!

[gmr548 16491]

1 hour ago, Texas Jeff said:

 Nothing needs to be invented here and there is no magic, just metrics.

"Same thing amirite" - GOP

[justhookit 4177]

9 minutes ago, gmr548 said:

Yes to it being the responsible move regardless of political affiliation. Unfortunately that isn't enough. We the people didn't make it political, we all know how that happened, and a vocal minority who is very devoted followed that in lock step.

Skipping the mask is  really increasing the potential to harm others, not yourself. I don't think we can just shrug that off as irresponsibility and just deal with it. That's the opposite really. That's appeasing irresponsible and/or selfish dumbfucks at the potential expense of everyone else. That's why, unfortunately, it needs to be mandated from the top down.

He said Baptist, not Catholic. Football coaches and Baptist preacher getting it does have implications for innocent young women though.

See some of my other posts. While I don’t think you are wrong I’d argue that we would have this exact same problem if Obama was still president (I’m hopefully still in CR). We have a bunch of idiots in this country. We will find out this week because masks become mandatory here (Port A). I will tell you exactly what will happen. Almost nothing.

you are definitely right about the girls though.

[gmr548 16491]

2 minutes ago, justhookit said:

See some of my other posts. While I don’t think you are wrong I’d argue that we would have this exact same problem if Obama was still president (I’m hopefully still in CR). We have a bunch of idiots in this country. We will find out this week because masks become mandatory here (Port A). I will tell you exactly what will happen. Almost nothing.

you are definitely right about the girls though.

Yeah, we would, and it'd be for the same reason. You think the "muh freedoms" crowd looks dumb now, imagine if Barack HUSSEIN Obama was promoting wearing masks lol. And GOP politicians would be pouring gas on that fire. The root cause is the bold.

[ChiTownDoc 21098]

5 hours ago, justhookit said:

My only guess is that most people just don’t give a shit anymore. I hit you on the new thread I started maybe we will get new good discussion there. It’s laughable/sad/insane that pretty much everywhere in Texas we are doubling the numbers we had in April when we were all staying home, and in many places it’s way worse, yet we are barely talking abou it. I’m guessing we just don’t have enough people dying yet and hoping that trend continues. Maybe @ChiTownDoc is onto something there.

 

I’m more worried about if/when the virus gains strength in the fall and we have this attitude.  It could get ugly.  Whatever we see in most places right now ease handled fairly easily in most cases.  Definitely different from what I saw in March.  But if it’s bad in fall we are gonna be caught with our pants down.  

[Mrs Whiggins 13049]

8 minutes ago, ChiTownDoc said:

Definitely different from what I saw in March.  But if it’s bad in fall we are gonna be caught with our pants down.  

Wait, I thought the virus mainly affected the respiratory system? Did it mutate again after its time in Lubbock?

[Texas Jeff 1932]

6 minutes ago, ChiTownDoc said:

I’m more worried about if/when the virus gains strength in the fall and we have this attitude.  It could get ugly.  Whatever we see in most places right now ease handled fairly easily in most cases.  Definitely different from what I saw in March.  But if it’s bad in fall we are gonna be caught with our pants down.  

Just curious, what effects are you seeing regarding the seasonality of the virus and why do you think that is happening?  Mortality does seem to be dropping.

Some possible causes I have considered are the higher temps, the higher intensity of sunlight and more hours of sunlight, and behavior patterns in the summer vs in the fall (at the beach vs stuck in school).  Hopefully our health care heroes are just getting better at treating this or maybe viral loads aren't as high because of masking/hand washing/distancing.

Hopefully the decline in deaths is not seasonal, but I'm interested in thoughts on what might be causing the summer decline in deaths.

[ChiTownDoc 21098]

Just now, Texas Jeff said:

Just curious, what effects are you seeing regarding the seasonality of the virus and why do you think that is happening?  Mortality does seem to be dropping.

Some possible causes I have considered are the higher temps, the higher intensity of sunlight and more hours of sunlight, and behavior patterns in the summer vs in the fall (at the beach vs stuck in school).  Hopefully our health care heroes are just getting better at treating this or maybe viral loads aren't as high because of masking/hand washing/distancing.

Hopefully the decline in deaths is not seasonal, but I'm interested in thoughts on what might be causing the summer decline in deaths.

In general coronaviruses do worse in the summer for a variety of reasons.  You listed a few.  It’s really not a surprise.  I am surprised it’s not talked about but I get that you don’t want even more people to let their guard down.  

[Longhorn_Fan68 33834]

418 new case in Travis County yesterday. Up from 295 the previous day. Sigh

[Pig Bellmont 8691]