I think we need to consider the possibility that the Texas GOP is populated by morons. https://t.co/RMsFGTn4uS
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) July 3, 2020
Texas Republicans to host in-person convention despite a surge in coronavirus cases in Houston, where it will take place https://t.co/YO4reChjwP by @bradleybrooks pic.twitter.com/kOgOGaD3k5
— Reuters (@Reuters) July 3, 2020
Because The ‘Rona Is Not The Boss of Us, they just doubled down, per the local ABC affiliate:
The Texas GOP’s executive committee voted Thursday night to proceed with plans to hold the party’s in-person convention in Houston later this month.
The convention, scheduled for July 16-18, will be held at the George R. Brown Convention Center, where roughly 6,000 people are expected to attend…
Thursday’s vote came hours after Gov. Greg Abbott ordered most counties in Texas to require masks in public – a notable turnaround for a governor who spent months resisting calls for such a requirement. Under Abbott’s latest action, Dickey said during Thursday’s meeting, convention attendees would now be required to wear masks for most of an in-person event.
Over the past week, demands have mounted for the party to cancel plans for an in-person convention, with some Republicans stating they would not attend such an event due to safety concerns. Others have also cited concerns about the optics of attending a large gathering while small businesses in their districts remain shuttered under the governor’s orders.
Meanwhile, a faction of activists has argued that canceling an event focused on selecting delegates for the national convention and voting on the party’s platform, among other things, would not reflect well on a party that dubs itself the party of personal responsibility. Some have also suggested that a virtual convention could disenfranchise certain delegates…
Legal liability notice, tucked into the middle of the story…
The SREC is scheduled to meet again Sunday to consider changing the party’s rules. Those rules will include a tweak that allows the party to act on an “emergency fallback contingency plan,” if necessary, to hold a virtual convention, party Chair James Dickey told members as he kicked off Thursday’s virtual meeting…
Earlier note, from the Texas Tribune:
… On Tuesday, Abbott granted local officials the power to restrict outdoor gatherings of more than 100 people, but made no mention of indoor gatherings. The Texas GOP convention is expected to draw about 6,000 attendees, roughly half of what it would expect for such a convention in normal times, according to Whatley. The party’s website brands its biannual convention as the “largest political gathering in the free world.”
Whatley said registrations are “increasing exponentially” as the convention nears.
David Lakey, the former commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services, said he believes large indoor gatherings of more than 100 people are not advisable at this time.
“I think, right now, I wouldn’t hold a group larger than 100 individuals,” he said. “I think people need to be very cautious about making — especially in the month of July — any plans for a big conference.”
The party does not plan to require masks at the convention, though chairman James Dickey acknowledged Tuesday that Harris County is currently under an order mandating that businesses require customers to wear masks.
“The Republican Party isn’t considered a commercial entity so they themselves are not required to comply with the mask order,” said Melissa Arredondo, a spokesperson for the office of Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, who issued the mask order….
I’m beginning to think we need a new category tag for the next few months: GOP Death Cult.
mrmoshpotato
Not Texas but related.
Wyatt Salamanca
Speaking of Texas and stupidity:
h/t https://www.texastribune.org/2020/07/03/steve-hotze-texas-greg-abbott-rioters/
Poe Larity
What some see as a problem might be a feature here.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
My, don’t we have an overinflated opinion of ourselves? I guess everything is bigger in Texas.
Phrasing!
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Wyatt Salamanca:
He seems nice
Yutsano
Well I WAS thinking about going to Texas in February…
I’m not sure what’s up in Washington. Our case loads are going up probably because of loosening restrictions. It’s getting pretty bad on the east side. I might have to push moving back over there.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Wyatt Salamanca:
Also Hotze, back in April:
GOP activist Steve Hotze sues Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo over coronavirus mask mandate
He’s a total asswipe
Benw
@mrmoshpotato: it’s catchy and got a good beat. Let’s do a hip-hop remix. I’ve got 2 Chainz on the line
Mary G
Bummer:
@mrmoshpotato: Brill!
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@mrmoshpotato:
Governor Kristi Noem: “Why do you hate America, libtard?”
counterfactual
@Mary G: So Don Jr., who’s trying to cast himself as heir apparent to the presidency and Dad’s favorite, hasn’t actually been in Dear Leader’s presence in two weeks.
My schaden is freuded.
NotMax
Caught a shot of the backdrop of the stage platform for Dolt 45’s Rushmore Drekfest.
With the holiday, it would be naturally symbolic to display 13 flags on poles in a line. There are 14.
ThresherK
Yeah, we’ve seen it with your gun owners just this week.
danielx
Texas Republicans gonna be thin on the ground by September at this rate.
Neighborhood is getting noisy. There’s a raccoon hiding under the back porch and boy is he pissed.
Wyatt Salamanca
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Given the flood of stupid comments coming from Texas politicians, I’m thinking maybe someone should create an NCCA style bracket to identify the dumbest politician in the state.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@NotMax:
Are you serious?
*Looks it up*
Oh my god you’re right. The media better not fucking ignore that little detail
NotMax
As pointed out in a snippet downstairs,
mad citizen
@NotMax: I counted them as well but just wondered why 14? Interesting.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Wyatt Salamanca: No one can defeat defending champion Louie Gohmert.
Martin
@mad citizen: Executive order to proclaim MarALago one of the original colonies. Trump wants his own stripe.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@mad citizen: 14 words.
ETA: Or the advance team can’t count.
zhena gogolia
We celebrated July 3 by watching Act 1 of Hamilton. The filming is beautiful, the whole thing is so engrossing and exciting. Looking forward to Act 2 tomorrow. It’s too rich and dense for us to watch the whole thing at once.
Wesleyan University can truly be proud of its graduates Miranda and Kail.
Mai naem mobile
@NotMax: he’s such a fucking Nazi.
I hope these GOPrs are signing a waiver. Also a waiver not to be treated at a Houston hospital although maybe it would be a good idea for them to be treated at a Houston hospital so they can experience the real thing in all its glory.
Yutsano
@NotMax: I’m not much for conspiracy theories but something in my brain tells me that’s not an accident…
Gravenstone
@mad citizen: Donnie needs one to hump
eta: apparently I’m not wired into enough conspiracy theories. The “14 words” allusion never crossed my mind.
Mai naem mobile
@Martin: yellow stripe because he’s a big whiny coward .
Ruckus
GOP Death Cult.
I believe that’s already taken as the internal name the gop have given themselves. What else can they call themselves, given all they’ve done over at least the last 4 yrs?
trollhattan
@Mary G:
Gov Gav must thank his lucky stars daily that didn’t, uh, work out.
trollhattan
Here’s hoping Texas Republicans get Herman Caine as keynote. Winning!
It should be illegal for a state to be this big and this dumb. Can we break it into tiny bits?
Wyatt Salamanca
@NotMax:
Trump is surrounded by a rogue’s gallery of incompetence and ineptitude
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I agree that Gohmert will be tough to dethrone, but Texas appears to have a very deep roster of brain dead politicians.
The Moar You Know
@mad citizen: The 14 words. He’s going full Hitler.
If you were wondering:
“We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.”
Been a white power slogan for decades.
Ruckus
@trollhattan:
So, many more dumb states? At least this way they are all in one container. No less dumb, but only two senators.
Martin
@Mary G: Oh.
6 days ago. So, maybe it just needs another few days of marinading for Don Jr.
jimmiraybob
No shit? Fortunately, I’m not caught flat footed since I used to follow Molly Ivins.
Jinchi
That’s gotta hurt.
Martin
@Martin: Wonder if there will be any subpoenas for contact tracing from the good state of NY. I would not be able to resist issuing them, personally.
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax:
Fitting for these idiots.
Catherine D.
@zhena gogolia: Wonderful cinematography! I think it helped that the set was essentially a cube so moving between the closeups and the whole choreography wasn’t jarring.
Jinchi
Easy fodder for the rumor mill if Don Jr. doesn’t catch coronavirus in the next week. Just how close is he with his girlfriend?
… Now that I mention it, I don’t remember hearing news that Steve Miller ever tested positive. Short honeymoon, I guess.
oatler.
@Wyatt Salamanca:
Gohmert’s ears are burning…
Leto
@Mary G:
We won’t know until the check bounces.
zhena gogolia
@Catherine D.:
Yes, it works really well. I don’t enjoy the Met broadcasts so I was a little nervous, but this is terrific.
Aleta
Bizarre
NotMax
Odds are 3:2 he’ll bring up Revolutionary era airports again.
//
oatler.
trump’s rally is happening now on Youtube .If his base was sitting any closer to each other they could swap spit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gszuevu_s8M&feature=emb_logo
Jinchi
If the Trump presidency were written as a literary tragedy it would end with him succumbing to coronavirus after getting a peck on the cheek from his one true love (Ivanka), just after receiving word that he’d lost his re-election in a massive landslide.
Jinchi
@oatler.: If that’s a youtube link to Trump’s rally you need a major trigger warning on it.
Mike in NC
Several years ago I met a fellow naval officer who went through flight school at NAS Corpus Christi, TX. He said one time in the head (toilet) somebody wrote on the bulkhead, “Here I sit with my bowels flexin’, giving birth to another Texan.”
danielx
@Aleta:
General comment about 2020 so far, or is there some particular incident?
NotMax
@Jinchi
On the cheek because he has a mouthful of hamberder?
;)
ant
@Jinchi:
my guess is that he’s already had it.
different-church-lady
@Jinchi: Oh you romantic!
different-church-lady
@Jinchi: More like a detonator warning.
Leto
@Mike in NC: I’ll be honest when I say that I miss the dumb Chuck Norris jokes in all the portapotties in theater.
Shalimar
@NotMax: So what was thr extra flag?
scav
GOP 2020? Git Our Plague!!
mad citizen
@Shalimar: look up “14 words” on wikipedia.
Suzanne
So since Kimberly Guilfoyle has the Trump Plague, what are the odds that Uday has it?
BruceFromOhio
Fixt. Personal accountability means I get to do what I want and you can fuck right off.
Suzanne
@Jinchi:
And he would be dying in prison, or immediately out of prison, and Tiffany would be his attorney.
Mary G
Dusty in here…
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Trump still pinning for Quebec, the one that got away?
Kineslaw
I can only hope the video of thousands of GOP Death Cult members gathering maskless in Houston accelerates the trend of suburban women voting for Democrats.
Texas is an urban, diverse, state with lots of college graduates. We’re working on turning it blue. If the GOP loses some voters via self-inflicted wounds, it can only help.
Also, Lina Hidalgo (Harris County Commissioner) is only 29 and becoming a presence on newscasts everywhere. The future is bright for her.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
And then Ivanka looks up after Trump tweets his last tweet and says “With this, the world loses a great artist”
Wyatt Salamanca
@Jinchi:
I always imagined Trump dying of a heart attack while rage tweeting on the toilet.
Jeffro
@Jinchi:
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Tragedy or comedy, just LET IT BE WRITTEN, as in OVER, and let us be done with this colossal waste of a human being.
Jinchi
A little off topic, but this question has been brought up several times at this blog and I figure most of us still online are Californians or other West coasters.
cain
@danielx:
I’ve been seeing more skunks of late. No raccoons though and I used to see a lot of squirrels but not so much now.
oatler.
Dude actually brought up “manifest destiny”. Waiting for Lebensraum to pop up.
Sebastian
@NotMax:
You fucking kidding me.
Why 13?
Mary G
Mary G
NotMax
@oatler.
Cribbing from the MacGuffey Readers.
(A citation for the curious.)
cain
Nothing like a fire works display on stolen land.
NotMax
@Sebastian
Is that a serious question?
13 original colonies.
NotMax
@NotMax
Typo.
Should read: McGuffey.
cain
This music is kinda meh. I think we’re gonna here a lot of country music – only that genre seems to like to do a shit ton of patriotic songs.
ETA and you know this is not Der Trumper Von Asshole’s favorite type of music.
ETA – umm.. wasn’t there a fire issue here? I hope we don’t see a wave of fire.
Sm*t Cl*de
@trollhattan:
Cain’s supposedly not on a respirator, but I doubt he’ll be speaking publicly for a while.
Kelly
Charles Blow replying to Donald Trump Jr on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/CharlesMBlow/status/1279203188223115264
Kent
They are lying.
Kent
@Mary G: Is it on TV? I deleted Fox from my cable favorite channels so I can’t easily find it and it’s not on MSNBC or CNN.
So I can’t quickly train-wreck gawk.
Bodacious
And its a WIN!!
Jr’s gal pal’s got the virus. Yep – masks don’t work……. when you don’t wear them.
Per CNN -Kimberly Guilfoyle tests positive for Covid
opiejeanne
@oatler.: Trump brought up manifest destiny? Did he also mention the white man’s burden?
Amir Khalid
It’s the Fourth of July already on this side of the International Date Line. For me, this Bruce Springsteen song has never felt more
appropriateneeded than this year: Tomorrow there’ll be sunshine, and all this darkness past …Ken
So now that he knows Kimberly Guilfoyle doesn’t have a top-notch immune system like his own, will Trump forbid Don Jr. from seeing her?
Kent
Did you miss the 1488 discussion?
debbie
@Mary G:
I’ve heard a few snippets. “They want to wipe out our history and indoctrinate our children.” ?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Amir Khalid: No it’s not, it’s July 3rd, unless you’re a wizard.
debbie
@Amir Khalid:
I’ll take this Springsteen: Live version of Dylan’s Chimes of Freedom.
jl
@Mary G: The new fangled ‘fat rich old man with gut flowing over tight jeans and fancy cowboy boots’ Ford 150?
Ken
Have they set off the fireworks yet? Also, does anyone know the print schedule for morning papers? I’m wondering how many front pages tomorrow might feature a huge picture of Mount Rushmore in flames.
Amir Khalid
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
As I type this, the calendar on my laptop says 12:11pm 4/7/2020.
Mallard Filmore
Its over. No indication of a brush fire.
The Thin Black Duke
@Mallard Filmore: Not with a bang.
Leto
@Amir Khalid:
April 7th? What kind of sorcery are you practicing?
Jay
Amir Khalid
@debbie:
That one’s fitting for the occasion too, and great as well.
Amir Khalid
@Leto:
It’s international date format lah.
jl
I’ve read history books about failing empires with ruling oligarchies that have become so corrupt, decayed and depraved, so hollowed out of any knowledge of the world other than how to grab more power and money using their increasingly rickety and disintegrating machinery of domination, that in retrospect it is clear that they went insane. Apart from the evil and maliciousness, there is the independent factor of rulers corrupted and depraved into sheer insanity.
Never thought I would see it right here in my lifetime in this country. But, here we are.
It isn’t just Trump, it’s the entire GOP and their fraudulent media and think tank propaganda wings.
Chetan Murthy
@Amir Khalid: My understanding is that the US is one of the few countries that do it MM/DD/YYYY instead of DD/MM/YYYY.
Leto
@Amir Khalid: burn the witch!
Amir Khalid
@Chetan Murthy:
And for the usual reason: just to be different.
NotMax
@debbie
Even worse was the rest of the sentence: indoctrinate our children to hate their country.
NotMax
@Amir Khalid
What is that in metric?
:)
jl
Josh Marshall at TPM is saying that the new Trump/GOP motto is ‘Accept it, buck up and deal with it.’
Nah, I don’t think so, That gives the Trump/GOP complex far too much credit. I think all of it follows from Trump’s chaotic fugue states and magical thinking. It will disappear soon, sometime in October the perfect vaccine will appear, and instantaneously administer itself to half the population of 340 million people. Other countries suck more than the US, and we are actually doing better if you look at it right. Just the young get it and they don’t get really sick and die from it (both false…).
I think it will be a chaotic senseless, unexplained and unexplainable push forward, with self-contradictory lies and BS issued seemingly at random.
Now they prepare the way for prominently displaying sickness and death among their own leadership, their celebrity boosters, their most fervent base of support. Timed perfectly for the height of the election campaign.
Wonder how soon the whole WH executive staff is down sick and so understaffed that it can’t function any more. (edit: would be a blessing in disguise? I don’t know)
Mary G
@Kent: I don’t watch except through the eyes of the people on Twitter, but I seem to remember they stream everything on the WH YouTube channel.
jl
I have progressive friends in Texas, so I can’t join in with any schadenfreude over the disaster. Reality will make Texas miserable enough without my help. I’m trying to keep my friends’ spirits up.
Another Scott
Happy 4th everyone.
A depressing, but I fear accurate, thread:
[…]
[…]
Be safe, everyone.
Cheers,
Scott.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Amir Khalid: April 7th? You are a wizard!
prostratedragon
@NotMax:
Oh thank you. The chickenshit’s birthday is of course on a 14th, and happens to be a date important to the history of his heroes.
Some wave music for them. Despite the dedication, the composer is known to have had a broader scope in mind.
NotMax
@Mary G
Probably on one of the C-SPANs as well.
Although why anyone would voluntarily subject him or herself to it is quite beyond me.
Amir Khalid
@NotMax:
It’s the international standard, so it’s already metric.
smike
@Ruckus:
McConnell = The Grim Reaper, and proud of it.
Amir Khalid
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Sigh. Expelliarmus!
NotMax
@Amir Khalid
Thought you might enjoy this.
Something to eat up time adapting for and practicing on the electric axe during lockdown.
;)
Mary G
Martin
@Another Scott: Uh, that’s not simpsons paradox.
But the answer is ultimately correct – deaths trail infections by at least 11 days, up to many weeks. Shits going to get real at the end of the month.
TS (the original)
@Mary G:
Nothing like having a dad who tells you to find your own plane to get to the party.
jl
@Mary G: Air horns, bull horns, out of tune calliopes, train whistles and concussion grenades. Might still be a dog whistle in there, but I can’t hear it for the rest of the deafening noise.
NotMax
@TS (the original)
Courteous time saver. Airport in Rapid City is much closer to Rushmore than is Ellsworth AFB, where Air Force One touched down.
Ever the thoughtful dad.
:)
jl
@Martin: The term is kind of generic. Seems to have become a catch all phrase for several different paradoxes of aggregation.
Way I learned it, it strictly speaking refers to paradoxes from aggregation over nonlinear functional relationships. The truly ‘paradoxy’ thing about that version is that with any aggregation, paradoxes are generic and inescapable. The linear examples, you stratify correctly, the paradox is gone. Man, that’s no fun. The real test is to say, gimme some data and ratios of your choice and I’ll give you back a paradox.
Simpson’s paradox
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simpson%27s_paradox
Royston Vasey
Funny enough, here in New Zealand my computer says 5:24pm 4/07/2020
RV in nZ
Martin
@jl: Yeah, that’s correct, but there’s a structural and unambiguous variable between infections and deaths. So there’s no anomaly here to reconcile, nor an aggregation problem. It just takes time for people to die. That’s it.
Simpsons paradox would describe a situation where national infection rates appeared to be climbing while the state level rates appeared to be falling. That can happen due to the size differential of the states and how the data aggregates. Unusual, but it happens.
NotMax
@Royston Vasey
Testing (as this may or may not show as intended in FYWP; fingers crossed). Looking at your computer from here it reads:
0ᘔ0ᘔ/ㄥ0/߈ ɯd߈ᘔ:5
:)
prostratedragon
@jl: Is it Simpson’s if current observations on one variable are related to lags of the other? I guess one could conceive it that way, but seems unnecessarily roundabout to me.
Edit: Or what Martin said at 123.
jl
@prostratedragon: I agree with Martin.
WestTexan70
@trollhattan: Don’t do that — I’ve lived here for almost 60 years. You don’t want more than two senators out of this place for another decade.
David Evans
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): “Exponentially” is a lost cause in everyday speech. It might as well be “bigly”.