This afternoon’s death eater is Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts:
LINCOLN — At his regular coronavirus press conferences, Gov. Pete Ricketts makes a point of urging Nebraskans to wear a mask when they go to a store.
But when it comes to the state’s 93 courthouses and other local government offices, he doesn’t want local officials to require masks. In fact, he’s told local governments that they won’t receive any of the $100 million in federal COVID-19 money if their “customers” are required to wear masks.
I did a quick back-of-the-envelope about this morning’s death eater in Arizona, and, per capita, they’re doing a little over half of the testing that New York State does in a day. So, in addition to not masking, they sat around with their thumbs up their collective asses instead of getting their testing regimen organized.
Amir Khalid
I once met a woman from Lincoln who told me that her mother knew Charlie Starkweather.
Ricketts is all too typical of the incoherent and often complacent American official response to Covid-19.
JaneE
California’s Governor Newsom just made masks mandatory in public places throughout the state. I think he is trying to take the heat off local government/agencies who are getting a lot of flack from the freedumb brigades around the state. With any luck, in a couple of weeks we will see our numbers start coming down again.
dmsilev
@JaneE: Worth noting that the flak the local officials have been getting has included death threats and protests outside their homes. And for added shittiness, the anti-mask people have a strong overlap with the antivax asses:
Vaccine foes, anti-mask activists target public health officials — at their homes
Soprano2
I doubt masks will ever be mandatory anywhere in MO. Maybe in St. Louis and/or K.C. as long as the governor doesn’t stop it, but definitely never here in Springfield. They’ve got FREEDUMB, after all, even though right now we’re the U.S. capital for proof that masks work to prevent the spread of COVID. I am having fun on FB commenting on all the threads my Trump-loving friends post about “look at those undisciplined kids who grew up to be immature adults” that they mean to be about the protesters that of course those are the people who are now throwing a fit about being asked to wear a mask, and they certainly could have benefited from some discipline as children. LOL
MJS
In your calculations, did you take into account that there are different types of per capita?
Brachiator
Anti-mask people really should wear wrist bands noting that they have agreed to have treatment withheld if they become infected by the virus.
MJS
@Brachiator: Ye shall know them by their ever-present MAGA hats.
PsiFighter37
Even in NYC, where most people are wearing masks, there are still plenty of folks either not wearing a mask on the sidewalks at all, or not covering their noses when doing so. I don’t get it.
sstarr
THE BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN REFERENCE IN YOUR POST TITLE IS SAVAGE. Nebraska is a great album.
Gin & Tonic
@Amir Khalid: Badlands may well be my favorite movie of all time.
Arclite
@PsiFighter37: “Even in NYC, where most people are wearing masks, there are still plenty of folks either not wearing a mask on the sidewalks at all, or not covering their noses when doing so. I don’t get it.”
COVID 19 is a Dem plot to get Trump to lose the election, that’s why.
(Do I need /s?)
Another Scott
Cheers,
Scott.
dmsilev
@PsiFighter37: I see a fair number of people wearing masks pulled all the way down to the chin, exposing both mouth and nose. I guess the idea is you pull it up when near other people?
patrick II
Republicans tend to overgeneralize. Being exceptional doesn’t mean Americans have an exceptional immune response to new viruses.
MattF
@patrick II: Oh, immunity is just a matter of willpower.
PsiFighter37
@dmsilev: Probably. I do that at times, but I only do it if I see an empty stretch of sidewalk ahead of me. If there’s someone nearby, the mask comes back up.
A lot of people are really lazy about this kind of stuff, which is very frustrating.
Martin
@JaneE: Yeah, what happened here in OC is really shameful.
Consider the hypothetical where CA was also a stand-your-ground state where we could simply shoot anyone not wearing a mask, claiming they were a threat. We could solve soooo many problems.
Martin
@PsiFighter37: In my area, people are really good about wearing masks in shopping centers, etc. Virtually 100% compliance with only a few people not wearing them properly.
However, everyone is out walking and biking, and none of them are wearing masks, which would probably be okay if the walking areas weren’t just jam packed with people with lots of them stopping to chat and let their dogs visit and all that.
West of the Rockies
These Republican morons (but I repeat myself)… They need to appeal to their base of Morlocks but know in their little bit of functional gray matter that the science is not on their side. “Freedumb demands I piss on the masks! But you really should wear a mask, cuz otherwise you might die.”
Republicans are basically dehydrating to death at sea. They know they shouldn’t drink the surrounding salt water but really have no choice.
They threw in with the Morlocks 50 years ago, and those Morlockian chickens have now come home to roost.
Baud
@dmsilev:
Man, they’re going to be pissed when the see what the Supreme Court does to abortion rights.
mrmoshpotato
@Brachiator:
Anti-vax idiots should have the same sewn into their 400-dollar yoga pants.
Just Chuck
A novel connotation of “Your money or your life.” And utterly depraved. We need bigger penalties for this kind of thing than just losing re-election.
oatler.
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/judicial-watch-founder-larry-klayman-suspended-for-90-days
Kay (not the front-pager)
I see this all the time and really don’t get it. It’s like fastening your seatbelt but then putting the part that goes across your chest behind your back. It just makes mo sense.
It occurred to me a couple of days ago that we rarely see influencers on TV or online wearing masks. Even folks like Dr Fauci will be talking about wearing a mask, but he won’t actually model wearing a mask. We talk about how suddenly gay marriage was accepted, after generations of hate and discrimination. One of the reasons was the public visibility of gay people on popular media and in public. Shows like Will & Grace, Ellen DeGeneres made people comfortable with gay people as just… people. Those of us in areas where mask wearing is ubiquitous already are comfortable seeing others in masks, but folks where the wave is just starting to break need to see and get used to masks. It would be so helpful if newspeople, personalities would wear masks. They could unhook one side to talk, but just appearing with the mask visible would send a powerful signal.
Baud
Maybe it hasn’t penetrated my bubble, but is there information about the effect of the BLM protests on COVID spread? The stories I’ve seen about new hot spots don’t seem to be related to the protests.
mrmoshpotato
@West of the Rockies:
No choice? Ummmm….
mrmoshpotato
@oatler.: Suspended over what – a pit of hungry, wild boars?
raven
@Soprano2: I taught at SWMS one summer!
raven
@mrmoshpotato:
Larry Klayman, founder of the right-wing watchdog group Judicial Watch and, later, Freedom Watch, was suspended from the practice of law for 90 days by the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.
Mike in DC
We need a Matt Gaetz thread…
PsiFighter37
@Mike in DC: So we can all collectively shit on him? The less we talk about that turd, the better.
JPL
@Mike in DC: No, just No..
Baud
@Mike in DC:
“Need” and “Matt Gaetz” do not belong in any sentence that doesn’t also include “go away.”
mrmoshpotato
@raven:
Well, the side he’s suspended from can alternate.
“Today, you’ll find Larry on the right side of the boar pit.”
Omnes Omnibus
@Kay (not the front-pager): Biden did that and people thought that he looked goofy.
raven
@Mike in DC: What you mean “we”?
SiubhanDuinne
@Mike in DC:
Ha! I was just going to suggest that! What a weird, creepy story.
Mike in NC
Had a doctor’s appointment yesterday about 30 miles away. Passed several shopping centers where few people coming or going had masks on. However, at the medical center they had two nurses stationed in the lobby to make sure that everybody coming in answered a health questionnaire, had their temperature taken, and were given a mask if they didn’t already have one.
mrmoshpotato
@Mike in DC:
I vehemently disagree with you on that, good sir! No one needs a Matt Gaetz thread.
ETA – Matt Gaetz for that matter. ?
Patricia Kayden
PsiFighter37
@Mike in DC: Now that I read Twitter…I need more context. Katie Hill is defending him, but everything else about this ‘reveal’ smells fishy AF.
Pangloss
@Brachiator: Most of them also want to let people without health care die or go broke. They should sign a waiver that if they get sick, the hospital will not treat them until they sign over over their assets.
JPL
@PsiFighter37: Both could be true. He might have supported Nestor, but not legally adopt him. I’m not getting into the creepy factor though.
Mary G
@Baud:
debbie
These assholes need to be shamed. Not testing does not mean the disease is not spreading. How will they explain the growing bodies of dead people? Not very Christian of them.
Baud
@Mary G: Thanks!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@raven: My grandmother graduated from there.
PsiFighter37
@JPL: There’s evidence that this kid was a page for him in the State House. It seems like a Mark Foley situation, but worse.
Delk
Fuck Ricketts (and LBJ)
raven
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Cool! Bass Pro started there with a guy selling worms in his dad’s gas station.
Jess
@Omnes Omnibus: He did, but in a good way. I winced at first when he was talking all serious-like with his mask dangling off one ear, but then I started to see it as an endearing quirk that makes him all the more authentic and human.
JPL
@PsiFighter37: As much as I dislike his policies, there is no proof of that. Truthfully I hate to defend the guy, but I’m sitting this one out. More importantly How is the baby?
Redshift
@Kay (not the front-pager): DC Mayor Bowser has been wearing one for her briefings.
mrmoshpotato
thalarctosMaritimus
@Gin & Tonic: Which version–the 1973 one?
CaseyL
@Omnes Omnibus:
@Jess:
Well, you have to do something if you want to lower the mask but. not take it off. The choices are pull it down under your chin or let it hang from one ear.
I favor the under-chin, because it’s less likely to fall off entirely, but from-one-ear is more comfortable.
Both look goofy, tbh.
catclub
If they are growing,.. are they really dead?
patrick II
@Baud:
I read (somewhere, sorry) that the demonstrations have not caused large new outbreaks. Evidently being outdoors and having most people wearing a mask is actually helpful. Who knew.
An alternative theory is that pepper spray kills germs.
JaneE
@dmsilev: FWIW our local public health department (Inyo) never did relax the mask in public requirement, but there are too many out-of-county visitors who don’t know that, so relatively few masks in town, plus a few locals who just feel the rules are tyranny or some such. The grocery I go to requires them, gets mainly local traffic, and so far I haven’t seen anyone without one trying to get in.
Baud
@patrick II: Thanks. Most demonstrators were not pepper sprayed, so I doubt that made a material difference in the numbers.
rikyrah
Profile of Joe Biden ?
The Pale Scot
@Brachiator:
Fuck that. Have a flicker account where people can post pics of mask-less mouth breathers and let them get doxxed. Insurance rules are on state by state basis, I’m sure the insurance companies are mercenary enough to push state boards into having people who do reckless things lose their coverage. Try getting a large life insurance policy with a motorcycle license.
I had a summer job going thru the paper files of a life insurance company to throw out the outdated policies, interesting reading
PsiFighter37
@JPL: I will wait for more info, but it sure seems strange AF. Given the circumstances, usually where there is smoke, there is fire. I don’t think any single man in their late 20s adopts a teenage boy, no matter how good-hearted they are…
Baby is driving me nuts. Parenting 24/7 and working simultaneously is tough. I feel like I have a light form of PTSD…
?BillinGlendaleCA
@JaneE: I didn’t know it was a requirement up there, but I wore mine when I was outside in your beautiful county.
debbie
@patrick II:
Actually, the worry is about the demonstrators who got pepper sprayed. Coughing, gasping for breath, etc. could theoretically cause spreading or inhalation of the virus.
laura
In fact, he’s told local governments that they won’t receive any of the $100 million in federal COVID-19 money if their “customers” are required to wear masks.
That bs right there!
The adoption of the language of retail used in government settings pisses me off to no end. It changes the frame from a community chest to that of a vending machine. I am not a customer of my government I am a citizen and member of the community. Grrr.
PsiFighter37
@JPL: Also, because there’s a possibility of hawt sex involved, the mainstream media is going to chase this story hard. That was intentional.
danielx
@PsiFighter37:
Yup, it does seem to work out that way. “Sleep? What’s that?”
Count your blessings, the daughter unit was 2 lbs 11 ozs when she was born. Talk about cranking the anxiety quotient to 11…..
Kay
@laura:
It’s really profoundly not-conservative. Local control, for one thing, so usurping small d “democratic” local leaders, and government “closest to the people” makes the practical judgment calls, for another.
They have no coherent ideology, really. They violate their own rules constantly.
PsiFighter37
@danielx: She sleeps perfectly fine. It’s when she is awake that has been driving me nuts. It is also driving my wife a bit to the edge – she has had some serious insomnia for a couple weeks now, and had a serious anxiety attack of sorts at 1 AM or so last night (I don’t even know what time it was). This is really difficult, and I think the mental repercussions of quarantining and having to handle a much different pace of life at such a quick adjustment is going to take a toll on many folks, us included.
JPL
@PsiFighter37: hah It’s only just begun, but well worth it
MomSense
No one in my office will wear a mask and I’m so angry about it. As a consequence I also wear a mask at home and basically stay in my room or outside so I don’t infect my elderly mom.
Our office manager is complaining because she doesn’t think we should be back in the office and is worried she will be exposed and in turn expose her mom (undergoing chemo for cancer). Will she put on a fucking mask? Nope. She can’t breath with a mask on. Today she was dry coughing non stop. WTAF is wrong with people?
These are not right wingers. These are educated, entitled white people who really don’t give a shit about anyone else if it means the slightest inconvenience or discomfort to themselves.
One of the fiber people I follow had this long post about how we can build our immune systems if we drink elderberry syrup and that illnesses, even corona, make us stronger.
I almost ranted at her but decided not to bother. She’s isolated on her farm in VT and there’s nothing I could ever say to change her mind.
Jay
patrick II
@debbie:
Wow. I was just kidding, hadn’t really thought of the actual implications.
debbie
@MomSense:
I think many people have to actually experience COVID-19 before they will take it seriously. We are doomed.
By the way, I wear masks and use elderberry syrup. Just in case…
Jay
debbie
@Jay:
We already know he supports concentration camps. He told Xi they were a perfectly good idea.
debbie
@patrick II:
We should know within a week or so if the spraying victims fall ill. A prominent politician here (Joyce Beatty) got sprayed, so if she tests positive, she’ll be all over the air waves here and in D.C.
Omnes Omnibus
@Jess: @CaseyL: My point is that he was apparently modeling appropriate mask technique and the consensus here was that he looked funny.
debbie
@Jay:
Is Parscale running the Trump War Room account?
Jay
@debbie:
the worry is about protestors who get kettled or arrested. The cops arn’t wearing masks or gloves, are taking the protestors masks, and confining them in closed spaces where social distancing is impossible along with hand washing.
It is a deliberate tactic by the Cops to sicken and kill protestors.
Jay
@debbie:
yup.
debbie
@Jay:
That too.
Jay
Jay
MisterForkbeard
@JaneE: I know a few fairly conservative folks who are outraged by Newsom’s actions. Lots of references to the constitution for some reason, as well as a “Masks are a placebo!” “Who’s going to enforce it?” or “He’s just so afwaid!” or “The sheriffs say they won’t enforce it at all”.
Didn’t unfriend any of them, but I did turn off all notifications and remove them from my feed for a few months. They’re insane, angry little toddlers.
Frankensteinbeck
@Jay:
Notice they picked the tiniest rally they could find. It’s a whole political party of chickenshits.
Jinchi
@dmsilev: That’s my experience. Some people wear masks down when outside and pull them up to cover their faces when inside. It’s not unreasonable if they’re well separated outside.
Gvg
@Omnes Omnibus: I got the total opposite impression, that he was modeling correct medical mask useage, and only 2 people thought he looked goofy.
Jinchi
@Baud: Wired has an article on that right now.
What Minnesota’s Protests Are Revealing About Covid-19 Spread
WaterGirl
@Gvg: Yeah, a lot of us were really pleased to see that Joe knew how to wear a mask, and modeled the right way to do it.
Go Joe!
Omnes Omnibus
@Gvg: There were enough that it was annoying.
WaterGirl
@MomSense: That must be maddening. Times 100. Would they let you work from home since they won’t wear masks?
Jinchi
@Baud: It would be interesting to compare infection rate among protesters who were arrested compared to those who weren’t.
Mathguy
I’m late to the party, but just wanted to add that I despise the LexLuthor cosplayer that pretends to be the governor of the state I live in. It’s appropriate that his last name is also a disease. F*ck Ricketts with a rusty pipe.
Jinchi
@debbie: He also built a few concentration camps himself.
UncleEbeneezer
You’d think that the Chamber of Commerce or some other group would be up in arms about the fact that small-business owners have no way to protect themselves from customers who refuse to wear masks.
Mathguy
@UncleEbeneezer: The order is only relevant to state and county agencies, not private businesses.
Anne Laurie
My money’s on Stephen Miller. Parscale is fascist enough to use a red triangle for ‘political enemies’, but I doubt he’s well-read enough.
laura
@Kay: The distain in which their hold their fellow community members is one of the lowest of all the low things rightwing media has done. The civic disengagement, the refusal to govern and the adherence to an incoherent set of policy principles of lack of principles in the blind unquestioning following of the worst among us. It has got to stop. We cannot remain a democracy when a large minority of the citizenry cannot even agree to acknowledge the legitimacy of the opposition party.
Geoduck
@West of the Rockies:
That’s an insult to Morlocks, who were the closest thing their society had to scientists and technicians; the Eloi were the brainless sheep.
NYCMT
@PsiFighter37: we have an eight and a two year old,and I know exactly what you mean. We left our two bedroom apartment in Queens a month ago for a family beach house on the jersey shore for exactly those reasons.
MisterForkbeard
@laura: There was a republican MoC who talked about this the other day, if inadvertently. In response to the LGBTQ ruling, he started screaming about how they had this bargain with Republicans that they’d push and vote for bills that protect and succor the rich, excuse children in cages, fuck the budget and so on… because they’d get Supreme Court Justices that would overturn Roe v Wade and go after gay people, but that the Justices weren’t holding up their end of the bargain.
They know exactly what they’re doing, too. That’s what makes it so awful.
Bishop Bag
@JaneE: Hey Jane…I went to Von’s yesterday morning and Dwayne’s Pharmacy yesterday afternoon. I was very pleasantly surprised. I did not see anyone without a mask in either location. Yay! Only 20 cases in Inyo county so far but I am terrified that we are going to get a big outbreak. Since Fishing Season opened and the Forest Service and the County opened up all of the campsites traffic has doubled or tripled in town. Yesterday there were campers, RV’s, Fifth Wheels and boat trailers all over Main Street. I am afraid that everyone from Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties has decided that the pandemic is over…Very happy to see Gov. Newsome impose mandatory mask wearing in public statewide about an hour ago.
TerryC
@JaneE: my son runs a profitable disc (Frisbee) golf pro shop. After he was allowed to reopen here in Michigan he found that every one of his customers truly appreciates his very strict social distancing rules and that includes 100 percent mask usage
Ruckus
@dmsilev:
I’ve seen people out for a walk doing just that, they pull it up as they approach. My masks all tie, but like a surgical mask, lower around the neck and upper around the upper back radius of the head. Stays on, IOW works well and you can, if you have to, just pull the top tie forward off your head and back on when needed. Yes you have to tie the damn things on but I hate the elastic ones because they always start annoying me after an hour or so.
Brantl
@dmsilev: No, they’ve been told they have to wear it “and it’s too HOT!!!!” , and they haven’t figured out how to wear it as a thong, yet.
MLC
Nebraskan here. Ricketts looks and acts like a walking penis that forgot its hat.
That is all.
Jay Noble
@MLC: Fellow Nebraskan. Yup. or is that ‘ope?