Earlier today and faced with not having a single free ICU bed available in Arkansas as a result of the delta variant sweeping through unvaccinated Arkansas like me at an all you can eat standing rib roast buffet, Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson declared a public health emergency.
BREAKING: Arkansas Governor Hutchinson declares public health emergency, says masks will not be required and "we're going to be wide open"
— BNO Newsroom (@BNODesk) July 29, 2021
Governor Hutchison is not running for reelection. Any presidential hopes he might have had died with the emergence of Trump. He is unlikely to have a senate seat open up to run for. Basically, other than a sinecure at a think tank or research institute, this is it for him in Republican politics. And yet, with all of that providing him a significantly large amount of political freedom, he is still unable to do the right thing for the citizens of Arkansas. There are only three ways to stop the delta variant wave: vaccination, enforceable mask mandates, and/or mandatory, enforceable social distancing. We’d all prefer every do the easy thing and just get vaccinated. But given that in Arkansas, and dozens of other states, that’s just not going to happen, then the only other ways to defeat the delta wave are enforceable mask mandates and mandatory, enforced social distancing.
Governor Hutchinson’s public health emergency declaration is not worth the paper that it is printed on because it doesn’t do a damn thing, other than announcing that something has been done, that will have any positive effects in regard to the delta variant wave sweeping through Arkansas.
Given that he was Secretary of Homeland Security, I’m surprised he didn’t change the color coding or Arkansas to tangerine or something to show he was really serious.
Open thread!
Adam L Silverman
Current mood, still:
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Tonight on the O’Donnell show there was a clip of an Arkansas woman who didn’t get a vaccination for herself or her thirteen daughter, who is now on a ventilator. She blames “misinformation” but says she thought Covid was just… and I really would have liked to hear the end of that sentence
To her credit, she allowed cameras into her daughter’s hospital room and maybe the sight of that young girl on a ventilator will get through to some Bubbas.
mrmoshpotato
Sounds good. I’d even overlook the resaurant’s boneheaded decision to not buy any chairs.
Fair Economist
Republican response to a public health emergency:
Nothing.
Adam L Silverman
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: It will not. If you dive into the cross tabs for the most recent polling on this, from YouGov commissioned by Axios, what you see is that the will never get the shot category is overwhelmingly white and (evangelical) Christian. Of white Christian’s, and I’m working from memory here, it was something like 43% – might have been 46% – responded with will never get the shot. When you look at the other groups that are also lumped in under vaccine hesitant, Black and Latino Americans, the percentage of respondents who will never get the shot was under 10% for each. What we have is a group of vaccine hesitant Americans largely made up of Black and Latino Americans, who have some good historical reasons to be skeptical and then you have a huge chunk of white Christians who are not hesitant, they’re resistant and opposed to ever getting the shot. The hesitant can be persuaded. The resistant and opposed cannot.
Adam L Silverman
@mrmoshpotato: Well played.
Martin
This is the kind of stuff that I get into trouble at work. I’m the asshole that speaks up in the meeting and says ‘I’m reading through your declaration of a state of emergency, but there’s nothing here about actually doing anything. Is that in a supplemental document?’
mrmoshpotato
A public health emergency of mask wearing and being closed? ?♂️
The murderous stupidity in parts of this country
sometimes…Hunter Gathers
My cat leaves more useful shit in her litter box than this replacement level hack.
Variant Omega in 2031 is going to be fucking awesome.
dmsilev
The pace of vaccinations in Arkansas, while still anemic, has roughly doubled over the last few weeks. I guess that’s something, though it’s have been nice if the locals had embraced the jab before this latest wave.
Yutsano
@Adam L Silverman: BTW this:
It may be the single greatest sentence you have ever devised. It’s probably good your academic career fizzled.
The Dangerman
Society only works if we agree on certain rules. Green means go. Red means stop. Yellow means different things depending if you are in Los Angeles as compared to Little Rock.
That there is a debate about vaccines and masks is insane.
The Moar You Know
America’s unacknowledged oppositional defiant disorder epidemic (no other word for it) combined with the COVID epidemic are not going to end well for anybody.
Yeah, you see the same shit in Europe but their systems of governance won’t and aren’t tolerating the malicious, hateful disobedience we’re seeing here.
dmsilev
@Hunter Gathers: At the pace we’re going, The Omega Variant [*] is going to hit us in a year or so.
[*] Not one of Robert Ludlum’s better efforts.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
hmm Florida back up at the new infection rate it was last January.
mrmoshpotato
@Martin: Oh, you actually expect some sort of preventative action to be taken? I think I see the error of your ways.
TaMara (HFG)
Not sure I’m seeing the problem here…
(yes, I’m going to hell, but I was going anyway)
dmsilev
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Louisiana is already a bit above their January peak in terms of cases, and the curve doesn’t look like it’s going to bend over anytime soon. That’s, uh, not good.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Adam L Silverman: Yep, it’s their weird ass religion beliefs driving this. In fact all these stories of “I was COVID denier until the ventilator” fits that thinking. They’re repenting.
Chetan Murthy
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
“Not perfect, just forgiven”
Adam L Silverman
@Yutsano: I’m glad you liked it. I was undecided between the all you can eat standing rib roast buffet, the all you can eat BBQ ribs buffet, or the all you can eat bacon at the breakfast buffet.
Frankly, if given the choice of which one to chose my answer is always: yes. I’ll take them!
scav
His Tourist Board are on it.
Adam L Silverman
@The Dangerman: I’ve lived in Little Rock, yellow means go faster.
Okay, I lived about 35 minutes outside of Little Rock in Conway when I taught at University of Central Arkansas.
Another Scott
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: One of the really bad thing about news coverage of this pandemic is the lack of images and video of hospitals.
There are several documentaries of the early days in Wuhan. E.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XU9FVqwO4TM (33:14). And MTV’s “76 Days”.
AFAIK, there haven’t been widely available similar documentaries in the USA, and it’s too easy to ignore what people can’t see.
:-(
Cheers,
Scott.
Adam L Silverman
@The Moar You Know: I like to refer to it as adult onset oppositional defiant disorder.
Adam L Silverman
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Just remember, they’re not reporting the numbers every day. And they’re not reporting deaths as frequently as they were.
Chetan Murthy
@Adam L Silverman: “Red light: stop; green light: go; yellow light: go very fast”
https://youtu.be/g3WtvzmKCQQ?t=61
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Adam L Silverman: I gather that 17K today is like for two or three days, but the active case number for Florida is shooting right up.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
The Senior (!) Senator from the state that represents, IIANM, 20% of new infections (and 6% of the population) for the last week
O, Marco. You strutting bantam capon. Also:
NotMax
@mrmoshpotato
Tsk-tsk. Longstanding grammatical pet peeve (collect ’em all!).
“What does it preventate?”
/inner schoolmarm
mrmoshpotato
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: The willing idiocy of these bastards…
Adam L Silverman
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: That’s our senator, Micro Rubio.
Adam L Silverman
I’m going to rack out. Catch everyone on the flip.
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax:
All of them, Katie.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to boil some water using some inflammable gas.
Sister Golden Bear
@Adam L Silverman: I’ll have the all-you-can-eat rib roast wrapped in bacon with a BBQ ribs garnish buffet.
NotMax
@Chetan Murthy
Unquestionably obligatory, also too.
:)
mrmoshpotato
@Sister Golden Bear:
Why aren’t BBQ ribs used as a garnish more often?
Feels like a missed opportunity – to give people more ribs.
Dave
@Hunter Gathers: I’m forever struck by the complete absence of even the smallest portion of courage from people who would assuredly be comfortable no matter what.
Can’t even remember the last time I was pleasantly surprised by this collective of sub-par humans
NotMax
@mrmoshpotato
Work quite nicely as a garnish for … more ribs.
;)
Kent
There are so many potentially decent places in this country that are utterly ruined by statewide GOP politics. My daughter attended the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville and graduated in May 2020 into the heart of the pandemic. Fayetteville is an utterly charming town in a very pretty part of the country. There are endless bike trails, good restaurants, decent museums, beautiful state parks, and all kinds of interesting things happening in that corner of the world. But unfortunately it is in Arkansas so you have to deal with this utter criminal stupidity in the rest of the state. And the Fayetteville area is just not tolerable long-term because it is in Arkansas where the utter dumbfuckery of the evangelical right will always be in control.
Asheville is another city I would put into that category. Although there is more hope for NC than AR frankly.
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax: Wait. Which is the garnish? Oops, ate them all.
Quinerly
Ron Pompeil has died. Age 86.
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/infomercial-pioneer-ron-popeil-dies-at-86-010226753.html
Anne Laurie
Speaking of Red States, the Governor of Oklahoma has taken advantage of the Delta surge to visit Azerbaijan. So while he’s off polishing his forpol credentials, a bunch of anti-maskers are petitioning the Lt. Governor to sign a no-masking-requirements mandate, for FREEDUMB!!!
NotMax
@Anne Laurie
Read in passing somewhere that the gallivanting gov made a thing of “presenting challenge coins” to Marines stationed at the U.S. embassy there.
Pace Mr. Rogers: “Can you say photo-op? I knew that you could.”
HumboldtBlue
Here’s a happy dog.
Redshift
@Another Scott:
I remember reading that TFG lackeys issued HIPAA guidance intended to make that kind of coverage impossible. Yet another way they sacrificed people’s lives for their political benefit.
HumboldtBlue
Daddy gets baby dancing.
Redshift
@Adam L Silverman:
I’m pretty sure the new numbers that put them on top are seven-day averages, which are a good idea in general with the added benefit of counteracting Florida data shenanigans.
Frankensteinbeck
He’s an asshole. It’s why he was elected. Thinking elected Republicans do awful shit for personal gain is ‘economic anxiety’ mark II.
@Quinerly:
I based a mad scientist superhero off of Popeil. I mean, it’s obvious, right?
opiejeanne
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I was pretty sure she said she just thought it was like the flu.
It’s possible that I just finished her sentence for her.
Dan B
Not much new to say here except that neo-conservative leaders are not leading. They are cowards. They are afraid of the mob mentality. It encourages that mob.
I find myself imagining the rage I will express to people who resist vaccines because they hate liberals. They are causing the deaths and serious physical damage of children and vulnerable. They too are cowards who surrender the health of the old, young, and medically vulnerable to feed their spite filled cohort. They accept a certain level of death and debilitation since they feel they are at war, or at least they like to believe they are bold warriors. Nothing is further from the truth.
Dan B
@opiejeanne: “Flu” is just one option that fits. My father came close to dying of the Spanish Flu. Flu was never “just the flu” in our house. I had Hong Kong Flu and recall the pain as like Appendicitis but in every cell.
Just the flu. There are no words!
opiejeanne
@Dan B: I had H1N1. I thought I was going to die, and almost found death desirable at one point.
Juice Box
@Dan B: Most people who think they have “the flu” really have a bad cold, not influenza.
JPL
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Tucker Carlson mocked the Secretary of Defense on his show. I just wish that Carlson faced some type of back lash for his mistruths and lies.
Quinerly
@JPL: was this over Sec of Defense wearing mask and face shield? That seems to be a big deal right now in RWNJ circles. Never mind whatever country he was in (Philippines???) was requiring it.
My spirits are very low this week. Been unable to sleep tonight.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
Florida
manwoman on CNN, in early 40s, nearly died after refusing to take vaccine, now believes it should be mandatory.She said she didn’t take it because it was no worse than flu and because “just that it had not been around long. And honestly, I think I listened I think I’ll let people influence me. Like saying, oh, you know, this is the government just trying to fill our bodies with stuff.” She undoubtedly meant microchips in the vaccine.
Dump and Fox News have killed more americans than the Wehrmacht, the Viet Cong, and bin Laden (combined).
Brachiator
From a recent news story about Atkansas
But they are going to try to get additional hospital resources from other states and the federal government, and try to increase vaccinations.
In Arkansas, Covid hospitalizations and deaths hit the unvaccinated.
Conservatives who claim to have an alternative strategy for dealing with the pandemic and bringing the numbers down need to prove it or STFU.
rikyrah?
No ICU BEDS IN THE STATE???
rikyrah
The inability of others to see the seriousness???
JPL
@rikyrah: It’s a total lack of empathy.
Patricia Kayden
Ken
Five of Arkansas’ neighbors – Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Tennessee – are also on track to run out of ICU beds, if they haven’t already. Not sure about Texas.
Uncle Cosmo
@TaMara (HFG): Those bozos think they’re putting the fun in fundamentalism when what they’re actually flaunting is the mental part…
SFAW
@TaMara (HFG):
Since I’ll likely get there before you, I’ll try to get it prepped for a B-J meetup.
SFAW
@Patricia Kayden:
Oh, that Larry, what a kidder. Since when do laws and the Constitution apply to the Greatest
PresidentHuman EVAH! ?SFAW
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch:
Can probably add the Traitor States of Slaverica (a/k/a CSA) to that mix.
Mrearl
@mrmoshpotato: Since this thread began with Arkansas, I suppose I am obliged to mention that venerable Herman’s Ribhouse in Fayetteville does in fact garnish your filet mignon–for which they are deservedly famous–with a barbecued rib. As we all here say, “Forget it Jake, it’s Arkansas.”
TaMara (HFG)
@SFAW: Don’t forget the green balloons.
Chief Oshkosh
@The Dangerman:
Clearly you’ve never been to Boston.
Green means you should’ve already been into the intersection.
Yellow means speed up.
Red is strictly advisory.
KithKanan
@Chief Oshkosh: @The Dangerman: For that matter, a red light in Los Angeles means “the next two cars get to turn left.”