Greg Abbott, death eater, reaps his reward:
Starr County once went about three weeks without a COVID-19 case at the beginning of the pandemic. It banned large gatherings, tested hundreds of residents a day, issued stay-at-home orders and required face masks — many of the same mandates now commonplace across the U.S. The poor and mostly Latino county on the Mexico border was containing COVID-19.
[…]In April, its aggressive and successful approach to beating the coronavirus was spotlighted by NBC News.
“We are very proud at this point that our numbers are very low, considering we are an at-risk population and the disparity in medical services and our low socio-economic population,” Joel Villareal, mayor of county seat Rio Grande City, told NBC News. “We rank as one of the poorest counties in the nation. However, that does not deter us.”
But after Gov. Greg Abbott issued orders for the reopening of the state, overriding local control and decision-making, COVID-19 cases surged.
Now Starr County is at a dangerous “tipping point,” reporting an alarming number of new cases each day, data show. Starr County Memorial Hospital — the county’s only hospital — is overflowing with COVID-19 patients.
The county has been forced to form what is being compared to a so-called “death panel.” A county health board – which governs Starr Memorial – is set to authorize critical care guidelines Thursday that will help medical workers determine ways to allocate scarce medical resources on patients with the best chance to survive.
A committee will deem which COVID-19 patients are likely to die and send them home with family, Jose Vasquez, the county health authority, said during a news conference Tuesday.
I’m not criticizing the Starr County health board, who I’m sure are just trying to save the most lives possible in a terrible situation brought about by a horrible human being (Abbott), but can you imagine the spread that will come from sending terminal patients home to die?
We’re the richest fucking country on earth and we’re goddam paralyzed by inaction at the top. Think about this – we can’t even take a dormitory or gymnasium in Starr County and put some beds in it with morphine drips and oxygen and a few hospice nurses, aides and doctors (with PPE, of course) so we can isolate these folks while easing their suffering. We offer them no more medical intervention than what they would have had in the Middle Ages.
Josie
Thank you for writing this, MM. I grew up in Hidalgo County, right next to Starr County. I feel so much pain for these good people. Their suffering is on Abbott’s and Trump’s heads. I have to hope there is payback some day.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Also, being forced to send people with a highly contagious disease back home to their families.
opiejeanne
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: That’s possibly the worst part of this story.
hells littlest angel
You are too kind. Calling what these rotten murderous motherfuckers are doing “inaction” is too kind.
Spanky
Don’t mischaracterize this as “inaction”. This is an active suppression of vital services by the Republican hierarchy in order to inflict as much damage and suffering as possible to a vulnerable population of “others”. Period.
MomSense
I want these officials prosecuted for what they are doing. Is there a stage of fury past pitchforks?
Salty Sam
The irony sucks- the original “Death Panels” were compassionate end-of-life consultations that were to be provided for by the ACA, then vilified and propagandized by Sarah Palin and Tea Party. “THE LIBERALS WILL DECIDE WHEN TO PULL THE PLUG ON GRANNY!” they shrieked. Now…
fuckit, you can finish the comparison in the time of COVID. I am so downhearted at this report.
ETA- just found out an old high school buddy in Houston has just recovered from Covid-19. These days are starting to feel like death-watches.
LongHairedWeirdo
Um… can’t we transport patients instead of sending them home? Hmm… (looks at map). Oh. Starr county is on the Mexican border, and no other hospital in Texas is likely to have capacity either.
Something still feels wrong about this. Except… well, I suppose if we had a FEDERAL response, we could coordinate between the states. Why hasn’t anyone thought of that? Instead of these articles of confederation, why don’t we have a constitutional republic? Oh, shyeah, *RIGHT*, we have a Republic, but the “President” just can’t be arsed to save lives. No, I’m sure I just dreamed about that “constitution” and them making General Washington a *president*, and another 200+ years of history….
Ocotillo
Yeah, Abbott was not going to get much support in the next election out of Hidalgo or Starr county so I am pretty sure he’s thinking, f*ck ’em.
Auntie Anne
@MomSense: I am right there with you. Boiling oil? Tar and feathers?
Calouste
From Wikipedia:
Abbott wants these people to die.
Josie
@Ocotillo:
Exactly.
Chetan Murthy
@hells littlest angel:
That’s right. That’s right. When we see indifference to the oppression of people of color or women, we don’t call that “the way things work”: we call it “structural racism/misogyny”. This is “sacrificing the weak for the economy”. This is Aktion T4, made flesh, -again-.
I don’t blame the poor doctors and people of Starr County, who must make these decisions: they’re just trying to save as many people as they can.
But the people who made this inevitable (not merely possible, but inevitable) are never going to pay for their iniquity. It really makes me angry.
piratedan
its a conundrum ain’t it, if someone would simply say, fuck the budget, we have to do what is right and set up some sort of emergency provision to address this or reach out for federal assistance… and instead we get…
Texas… masks? we don’t need no stinking masks
Fed: .. no you can’t touch our stockpiles and you can’t use the army or any other federal building because… reasons…
I’m just surprised that its been pretty much peaceful thus far (excepting federal provocateurs)
Marcopolo
@LongHairedWeirdo: Chris Jansing was on MSNBC this morning talking about this with a cardiologist who I guess is one of their regular medical contributors. His immediate remark out of the gate was there is no reason, you know aside from the fact they come from a dirt poor place in a really wealthy county, why these patients can’t be transported to other facilities either in TX or out state. He must have used the word ridiculous 4 or 5 times when talking about the Covid-19 response in the US, though I am pretty sure he’s have liked to have used a different word.
James E Powell
Slightly related to this topic, I was looking at B-J’s analysis page on alexa.com.
Top three topics by social engagement: diseases, death, judiciary committee.
Salty Sam
I want them slowly ground between two giant stones.
Patricia Kayden
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Yep, to spread the virus even further. I don’t see us coming out of the first wave until next year. Sigh.
LongHairedWeirdo
@Chetan Murthy: Don’t count on that. Really. Covid-19 is different from Iraq, torturing prisoners, separating children from their parents before it hits the news, abuse of power, and obstruction of justice. People will suffer and die, right here, where they can be seen, and noticed.
What makes me feel real rage and fury is, if this country had been remotely sane, we never would have elected Trump, and if he’d ended up President, he’d have been removed long before now.
Every Republican that pushed the narrative that the GOP has been remotely normal and sane has a hand in this.
Eventually, people will turn on them, because they’re still hoping they can maybe coast over the finish line, not realizing that they simply don’t know how to take any sort of effective action. And you can’t spin or sound-bite away this many deaths, and the tens of thousands more to come, where, eventually, nearly everyone will have been affected, directly or not.
Josie
@Marcopolo:
I’m pretty sure instead of “a really wealthy county” you meant “a really wealthy country.” Starr is not a wealthy county by any means, just the opposite in fact.
Marcopolo
Since this is actually a thread about the pandemic, reposting this from below:
So here’s the latest reporting on the pandemic in MO: Missouri sees record-high numbers of new COVID-19 cases.
In the meantime, our Governor has embarked on a statewide tour to talk about his efforts to, yes, combat crime & promote law & order. He’s also just called a special session of the legislature to address this most pressing topic. Add this to his remarks about re-opening schools:
I really think he is trying to give Nicole Galloway, our D nominee for governor a chance to win. Polling that came out last week had MO basically tied for President (which is absurd in a good way but here we are). Galloway trailed Parsons by 7 or 8 in that poll, but the way things are going here in MO, I think there will be a real contest.
PS, there weren’t any comments on that Post Dispatch story yet, but we have a regular stable of covidiots who post on Covid-19 reporting. If you want a taste of what sane folks here are up against take a look in a few hours.
Marcopolo
@Josie: Yep. My keyboard is starting to drop keystrokes every so often, though usually it is the e. Thanks.
WaterGirl
@Marcopolo: My computer did that a few years ago, with one of the letters I used in my password. Unbelievably annoying. What a relief when I got it fixed.
Benw
Fuck is wrong with ppl like Abbott
Josie
@Marcopolo:
Parsons sounds nice. He could give Abbott a run for his money.
Salty Sam
ARISTOCRATS! REPUBLICANS!pat
They are sending people HOME to DIE? Is this the middle ages? “Bring out your dead…”
How is this even legal? The dying will infect everyone around them and then more will die. I am dumbfounded. What kind of “medical professionals” can do this????
tokyokie
@Benw:
They’re Republicans. You know, the party that considers empathy a sign of weakness. But by Texas standards, Abbott is a moderate. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (not the sportscaster) is much worse. He’s the guy who said that granny should be happy to die to help the economy.
Searcher
Isn’t Texas one of the last states without the Medicaid expansion?
Roger Moore
@MomSense:
Tumbrels.
VeniceRiley
Jill Biden vitual roundtable with 2 texas dems
https://www.c-span.org/video/?474164-1/jill-biden-holds-virtual-roundtable-texas-leaders
dmsilev
Don’t worry, the Senate Republicans are acting with the alacrity that they are renowned for (WaPo):
Roger Moore
@Marcopolo:
The article about it I read said they had been transported to hospitals in neighboring areas, but those hospitals are also full. This is what it looks like when the medical system is getting overwhelmed not just locally but regionally.
Roger Moore
@Benw:
Bigotry. As long as the damage is happening to Those People, it’s fine in his book.
mrmoshpotato
Money doesn’t really come into this though.
TIE A FUCKING T-SHIRT AROUND YOUR HEAD WHEN YOU MUST GO OUT, STAY AWAY FROM OTHERS IF POSSIBLE AND WASH YOUR HANDS, YOU SELFISH FUCKING BRATS IN ADULT BODIES!
But waaahh, I wanna go to the beach!
Josie
@Searcher:
Yes.
mrmoshpotato
@hells littlest angel:
Yeah. When the mobster motherfuckers are stealing states’ PPE…
LongHairedWeirdo
@Marcopolo: I’m glad there was at least some media mention of the question, but I think what it comes down to at the moment is, if there was a way to spread out capacity interstate, you’d need some federalization of the response, at least with guarantees that any hospital accepting a transfer under these conditions will get paid appropriately, and the funds to carry out those transfers.
Hell, even Trump’s whine about the US not being a shipping clerk, damn it, a shipping clerk would be a *hell* of a good idea. Massachusetts (as a made up example – I haven’t checked their recent numbers) might say they don’t need as big a pile of PPE because their case counts are dropping, so delay their order by a couple weeks and send what we’ve got to Texas and Florida. Oh, and did we mention, PPE is now only 3-5x as expensive as normal, since there’s less competition driving retail arbitrage?
The worst thing is, all he’d probably have to do is sign another executive order. And doesn’t he love showing off his signature (that numerous handwriting analysts say shows compensation for… um… well, let’s just say they think he was lying through his teeth about what *else* is small on a short fingered vulgarian)), and looking at the camera with a special kind of contempt that says “ya’ll have to kiss my ass, I’m the President, nyah nana nanah!”
Oh, wait. It wouldn’t show him – what did he say he wanted to be shown doing? Vanquishing? Right, it wouldn’t show him vanquishing his rivals, so he doesn’t care.
mrmoshpotato
@Salty Sam:
Yeah. They weren’t death panels at all. No one was being deemed obsolete.
Jager
@Benw:
The earliest indication was after the tree limb fell on him and he landed in a wheelchair for life, he sued the living shit out of the homeowner, he got a multi-million dollar settlement, when he got into office he backed a bill that limits liability in cases like his to 500k. As my niece, who lives in Austin, says, “He’s an unrepentant dick.”
Frankensteinbeck
@dmsilev:
The thought of helping the vermin is grinding McConnell’s gears. He has devoted his entire life to being Senate Majority Leader, but what is it worth if he has to give even crumbs of kindness to the filthy commoners who elected a black man to be his boss?
raven
@WaterGirl: About a month ago a neighbor needed a mac keyboard because she spilled coffee in her hubby’s. I had an extra so I gave it to them and, like clockwork, I had keys stop working. I just got a replacement from OWC.
mrmoshpotato
@Auntie Anne:
Make sure it’s used, don’t waste fresh cooking oil.
Aleta
Imperial Wars Always Come Home, by Patrick Wyman
There’s more detail about history at the link.
The Thin Black Duke
@Aleta: Thank you.
oatler.
@mrmoshpotato:
Use boiling lead, it can always be reused.
Kent
Having lived for over a decade in TX and having spent some time down in those border counties I would also suspect that a not insignificant number of those patients are undocumented. The way that ICE operates is that they have permanent checkpoints on all roads leading out of those border counties. Anyone who has ever driven to South Padre knows what I’m talking about. So if there was going to be any patients transported north to San Antonio or Corpus Christi they would have to run through the ICE checkpoints where they would do doubt be snatched up and sent to ICE holding cells no matter how sick they were.
I have no doubt this is some sort of nefarious coordination plot between the State and ICE to force these patients into making the choice between dying and getting deported (or preferably self-deporting back to MX to get medical care).
Timill
@Auntie Anne: “Something lingering with boiling oil in it, I fancy.”
LongHairedWeirdo
@oatler.: What, are you trying to make a replacement Han for Jabba’s estate?
Kent
Not one of the last . Most of the confederate south still hasn’t expanded. LA ad AR are the only two confederate states that have done so https://www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/status-of-state-medicaid-expansion-decisions-interactive-map/
Doug R
@LongHairedWeirdo: To be fair, trump* got at least 2,800,000 fewer votes
J R in WV
I went to our local Kroger’s store today, I get my meds at that pharmacy, they’re pretty good. At the in door, where a staffer sprays disinfectant on the handles of the shopping carts, I noticed his cart had several dozen packages of medical grade masks, for shoppers who didn’t come i the door wearing a mask. So, FREE masks.
Yet as I moved from the produce area on the left side of the store to the pharma area on the right side of the store, what do I see but a fat arrogant bastard with his wife and equally arrogant spawn, the two males were not wearing masks. Not because they couldn’t afford a mask… but because they don’t care about becoming super-spreader plague vectors.
Was violently repulsed… had a violent impulse to attack older far bastard. Did not, am a pacifist willing to defend myself, my culture. Just rolled on over to the pharma counter. My script was $2.73, plus the doctor appointment, which for prescriptions is usually free unless, well — never mind. Sometimes free, sometimes $197.00 so…
germy
republicans in diss ahh ray
Kent
@J R in WV: Here in SW Washington all the stores now have signs out front that say something to the effect that State Law prohibits entry into the store without a mask covering BOTH the nose and mouth. Most of the stores also have a supply of disposible masks available at the front door if you need one.
The store clerks and store managers no longer have any fucks left to give. They won’t argue with customers anymore. They will just speed-dial the local cops if you make a scene. I haven’t seen anyone in any local stores going maskless in at least 2 weeks.
mskitty
@pat: Pragmatic medical professionals with extremely limited resources. By July 4 Starr County Mem Hosp was at 100% capacity and transporting patients out. No longer transporting patients – maybe ran out of places to send them? They don’t even have oxygen & tubing to send home with those patients. Starr County is also largely uninsured, so … who do you call? Feds won’t answer, Abbott is an unmitigated swine …
J R in WV
@Kent:
No doubt. Border Patrol is as fascist as it can get, without authorization to just shoot suspects dead when apprehended.
I was once chained in shackles by Border Patrol agents who spoke exclusively Spanish among themselves, leaving those of us who only knew English to wonder if they were preparing to shoot us in a west Texas arroyo in order to steal the construction equipment we were driving east with on I-10, in Texas.
Then when they allowed us to continue east towards home, our confiscated pocket contents were in a box full of Hello Kitty cell phones and purse contents confiscated from teen girls being held for a joint in their car. So… totally incompetent at the details of their job no matter how you structure the appearances.
Dread
Because we’re not really rich as a country.
We’re a country that has riches in the hands of a few wealthy individuals and families that have rigged government and have an entire political party looking out for their interests while the rest of us struggle and some live in conditions worse than what you’d find in third world countries.
oatler.
https://www.12news.com/article/news/local/valley/arizona-democratic-party-headquarters-catches-on-fire/75-83fc2c47-b0cb-439a-a709-6e6fb6caba9e?fbclid=IwAR3bfnmxig7aKZ2U6SiftQqn9F_7jNoxoj-BEgWT3k0j2hoN01MqfVf1Qyg
mrmoshpotato
rikyrah
This story broke my heart :(
And enraged me.
Ruckus
@MomSense:
Just catching up so I’d bet someone has said this – the guillotine, when applied to people who should know better but do the asinine thing anyway and get pissed when people complain, is very good at getting their attention. And if not the problem is still solved, abet messily but still an effective solution.
Lapassionara
@Doug R: And if you consider the people who voted for a third party candidate, about 10 million more people voted for someone other than Trump than voted for him.
I recall thinking that surely he would try to broaden his appeal, but he has not. He has narrowed it, actually.
Kay
@Dread:
It’s true and it won’t get better until we start investing at the bottom because the people at the top are insulated from competition from below so they’re getting worse and worse.
It’s not just that it’s designed for a small group at the top. It’s designed that no one can knock them off the top rung. I don’t think people realize that function of a healthy middle class- it prevents the people at the top from getting stupid and lazy because they have to work to stay there.
Kay
The most appalling part about the unaddressed crisis in Texas to me is reading their senators and congressional representatives.
They spend all day tweeting about stupid shit – nattering on and on about “cancel culture” and calling people Marxists. It’s all just so CLEVER.
Get to work! Jesus Christ. Your STATE is on fire. How do they have time to do all this…commentary?
Ruckus
@Dread:
Absolutely this. We have a huge underclass, a huge class with shitty health, even with the ACA, because the SC decided that we can’t force anyone to have healthcare and are starting with those who can’t otherwise afford it. We have a wealth class that is still structured into people that earn a more than decent living, and those who earn far, far more than ever necessary and pay a smaller tax percentage than a lot of people who work for them. Rampant racism, now storm troopers sent out by the president, formed by the last republican president to “protect” the citizens from outside sources and sent to stifle them. And on and on and on.
Jerzy Russian
@Auntie Anne:
Swift kicks in the nuts?
Jinchi
The only time I ever saw anyone trying to go into a store maskless was literally the day after the mask mandate came down. He didn’t make a fuss, he just hadn’t heard about the rule yet. It’s amazing how different the culture is from place to place.
Kay
All fucking day it’s like this. A useless collection of commentary. Ted Cruz can’t find any work to do when the state he represents is reeling under a pandemic?
No use to anyone, for anything.
Roger Moore
@Kay:
It also gives people at the bottom something they can reasonably aspire to. If there’s an enormous chasm between the ordinary people and the elite few, the many give up on aspiring for anything higher than what minimal comfort they can achieve. But if there’s a better life one achievable rung higher on the ladder than them, they’ll fight to climb up that rung.
Kay
Here’s Ted Cruz’s Twitter. Try to find something about 1. Texas or 2. the pandemic ripping thru Texas.
It’s not a mystery why they haven’t DONE anything for their states. They don’t work. At all. They OPINE. They SCOLD. They LECTURE.
Salty Sam
When we lived aboard our boat in S. Texas, we had a slip in a working harbor- during oyster season all the oyster boats brought in their daily catch to be offloaded and sold to the broker. Most of the deckhands were undocumented, but in five years I never saw one of them detained or deported.
In the fall of 2017, Trump’s first year as president, I watched as CBP, ICE, Tx Hwy Patrol, and Tx Parks &Wildlife coordinated a dragnet- in some cases, they pulled undocumented deckhands off their boats while still underway, but mostly they just waited for the boats to pull into the harbor to sell their catch, and hauled them away from there.
What struck me, particularly with the ICE and CBP officers, was the obvious glee they were experiencing. They were finally getting to flex some muscle. Fascists, every one of them.
Searcher
@Kay:
Seveneves touches on this, where the world is ending and like everyone is still carrying on their stupid social network bullshit. The descendants of the survivors look back and decide not to rebuild the internet when the time comes.
Kay
@Roger Moore:
It’s increasingly static. There’s not enough movement. It’s why we’re seeing such dumb ass, low quality powerful people and so much nepotism. The increase in nepotism is alarming.
We’re not getting “the best people”, as Donald Trump might say. Or his daughter. Or his son in law.
They’ve set this up so they can just kind of SQUAT up there, and it shows!
Kay
@Searcher:
Incredibly, Jake Tapper brought this up. He wondered how they have time for this, considering the shape the country is in. I read he said it and then it occurred to me to look, and sure enough! That’s ALL they do.
They spent the day discussing Paw Patrol. These are not grown ups.
Baud
@Kay: Too bad he isn’t facing Beto this year.
Roger Moore
@Kay:
I would say the nepotism is as much the cause as the result. When we reward who you know more than what you know, the obvious outcome is to keep deserving people from being able to advance. Of course the deeper problem is that we’ve stifled fair competition in favor of cronyism, so who you know really is more important than what you know.
Calouste
@Kay: I’m more and more convinced that people are conservatives because they are just lazy, and that that is the sole reason. They don’t want to think, and they want to eliminate all the competition for their cushy sinecures via racism, sexism, and above all nepotism. Everything else flows from that.
Roger Moore
@Calouste:
I think this is related to the reason there are so few conservatives in academia. Conservatism goes against the academic spirit by its very nature. Academia is supposed to be about exploring new ideas and seeing where they take us, while conservatism is about justifying why we should stay just where we are.
Crashman06
@Aleta:
I love Wyman’s podcast, Tides of History. He’s on to something here and this post sent a chill up my spine when I read it.
WaterGirl
@raven: Of course it did!
jonas
I think I found the buried lede that’s really the key to understanding this whole story…
Kent
I think that is true.
Evangelical conservatives don’t want to actually have to compete with other religions and faiths in the marketplace of ideas. They want theirs imposed by fiat.
White racists don’t want to have to compete with any sort of multi-cultural environment in the workplace, in entertainment, in music, etc. They just want “white culture” to be pushed forward despite it’s merits or lack of them. That’s where a lot of this “white culture” crap comes from and how no-talent scum like Ted Nugent make their living.
White politicians don’t want to have to compete for the votes of POC so they take the easy way out which is voter suppression.
Business conservatives would rather acquire monopolies and restraints on trade instead of actually competing in an open marketplace.
And so forth. Lazy is one word for it. But there are others. I like “venal” and “perfidious”
Kent
And why so many conservatives in academia are such utter flaming assholes.
cmorenc
Governor Abbott is one of the only people confined to a wheelchair for whom I have absolutely NO empathy whatever, as well as among the few people about whom news that he had contracted a severe COVID infection and was barely hanging-on miserably in the ICU would bring the immense joy of schadenfreude, and a huge grin to my face. It disturbs me that people like him are such evil sociopaths that I wish terrible suffering upon them, which means I myself have become infected by them with callously wishing painful harm upon others, even if only them.
jonas
Not always, actually. That’s been a sea change in academia over the latter half of the 20th century, accelerating into the 21st. Colleges and universities were built around the idea of transferring a fixed body of knowledge (“The Canon”) and certain cultural and social traditions to the next generation of young (men). While there have always been certain rebels and iconoclasts in academia (e.g. Charles Beard), in the 60’s academic inquiry (particularly in the humanities) took a “critical” turn, focusing instead on challenging and critiquing received narratives and assumptions (particularly around class, gender, and race). Conservatives went from being the “in” group to the “out” group in the course of a generation. Some things, I think, were lost in that upheaval, while much was gained. I highly recommend Michael Berube’s What’s Liberal About the Liberal Arts if you’re interested in a highly thoughtful and provocative discussion about whether there’s any place for “conservative” thought in today’s academia.
LongHairedWeirdo
@Kent: One interesting correlation I saw (when people were pretending there was an “economic anxiety” reason for Trump) was that a lot of Trump supporters had lost the age advantage from yesteryear. Time was, if you were a 40 year old worker, you made significantly more than you did as a 30 year old, even though you might not be doing *that* much more work, and it might not be *that* much more brilliant.
This is largely a result of tax policy, union hostility, and deregulation; it is, in fact, why our current state of income inequality is bad. It’s not because some people are too rich; it’s because too few people are reaping the benefits of the wealth being created.
But the Republicans simply insist that the real problem is “illegals” and affirmative action, and if we’d stop being politically correct, we’d deport the undocumented, and “level the playing field”, and the Republicans would come up with another reason why jobs are lousy because of Democrat [sic] Party ideas and principles. Maybe because Democrats don’t use the phrase “Radical Islamic Terrorism” – it’d be just as sensible being used as an excuse why your job sucks as it is for its current uses.
The Moar You Know
We could do it. The military could have a field hospital open there tomorrow.
We won’t do it, which is another issue entirely. Not the same as “can’t”
lawnorder
I thought the same thing.
They accused Obama of the death panels they are making, of the kidnappings they are performing