Govs On Statewide Mask Mandates | Talking Points Memo

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) and Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) on Sunday explained why they issued statewide mask mandates in the past week after their initial reluctance to do so.


This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1321280

Too little, too late.

A mask mandate three months ago might have averted the current caseload explosions. As it stands, you need far more than a mask mandate (i.e. lockdown your state) to get the current outbreaks under control.

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They’ve squandered 4+ months now

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The lockdowns are coming. By mid-late August, I expect substantial parts of the U.S. to be on some version closer to what was in March, even if slightly modified.

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To see is to believe…
Trust but verify…
Proof is in the pudding…

A smart person would adhere to those phrases AND would learn from other people’s experiences…like from what happened in NY or Lombardy when they became Covid hotspots!

It’s months late and still short of PPE, testing, tracing and quarantine strategies later…

It’s not popular. It’s not something we want to do. It’s not the first lever we pull,” Hutchinson said. “But it is one that, when the data says it’s necessary, we do it.”

These RethugniCON elected state officials who wants to be more trumpian than safe - begrudgingly mandates face masks…
They are failing to do their jobs = protect public health in their states!

Don’t they know it that Trump is setting them up for the blame?

Trump MAL-administration referred to this as “state authority handoff,”

Stupid Rethugs…Morons Are Governing America!

Addendum:

Another stupid Rethug…Gov. Kemp wants to “restrain” Mayor Bottoms from issuing press statements and speaking to the press in addition to suing her re:face masks!

Hello Stupid Rethug…1stA Violation!

https://twitter.com/KeishaBottoms/status/1284836124821729281

Addendum2:

The stupidest Rethug of all…

The Unpresidented Idiot

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It is very likely that the new cycle is going to be far worse than what happened in March-April. When that started to take off, the nation shut down very quickly for the most part, especially the critical places like the NYC area. This time, Republicans played politics and didn’t take even the most basic steps, despite the fact that the outbreak had already grown worse than it was in NYC. They still refuse to do much of anything, even as the case counts grow…and they seem to think that it won’t be that bad for some unknown reason. The Republicans did this last time as well, until the death counts skyrocketed…that was due to nursing homes being infected, this time around it’s in the community more so it’s not killing people as quickly. But, that lag time is coming to an end, and allowing the virus to spread as far as it has without intervention means when the deaths start piling up there will be a lot of them coming.

There is an advantage in that the hospitals now understand better how to treat this without people dying so readily, so at least some people may be saved. But, that won’t happen if they get overwhelmed, which is already happening in places. And, this outbreak isn’t mainly in one spit, it’s all over the nation, and getting worse…even places like CA are trying not to lock down again despite the growing need to do so. No one wants to shut everything down, it will hurt people, but if the alternative is killing more people there just isn’t a choice.

Republicans are still playing politics over this, when what we really need now is a huge infusion of money to support states, small businesses, and the millions of people who are on the edge of being tossed out of their homes. The economic impact will be far worse if they refuse to step forward and do anything about it…and, right now, it appears that’s exactly what they are going to do. They really are responsible for all the pain and suffering that has happened since May, and that will happen soon…we could have recovered and gone on if they had only lead instead of played games for political power. We can only hope that they get what they deserve, and the Republican party ends up in the grave it is digging with so many American lives.

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Both of these governors are fools and liars. Both are guilty of murder of their own state citizens. I hope they see the faces of all the innocent men, women and children who have died because they refused to mandate wearing a mask. The government says you have to wear seat belts, says you cannot smoke in buildings, how is wearing a mask any different.

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You know who squandered 4+ months is Trump. Jan and Feb he thought about nothing else than the impeachment in the Senate, then he went on “victory tour”. And during that time what were the governors doing, waiting for the CDC to take charge? But Trump didn’t know or care what could happen, and nobody else was authorized to do anything but soothe the baby.

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Good luck with an uphill battle against the anti-mask crowd who have had those several months to become well indoctrinated.

All the things that work to control and even eliminate the virus have been sabotaged by Agent Orange. Masks stop the spread of airborne virus particles. Testing identifies carriers who can be isolated and treated. Contact tracing controls the spread. Unbelievable.

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“Well, we saw Trumpet’s numbers continuing to sink, and figured, ‘eh, safe enough’ at this point.”

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As a psychology researcher of my acquaintance once noted, there’s really little evidence that “common sense” is all that common. We’ve seen a situation where people refuse to do something very simple that can save their lives and those of their children and associates simply because they find it inconvenient, and feel that it affronts some bizarre extremist notion of “freedom”.

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Polis went on to explain his earlier reluctance to issuing a statewide mask mandate, which he said centered around not wanting to tell people “what to do in their lives.”

I really can’t wrap my head around a Governor or county executive that “doesn’t want to tell someone what do in their lives” and as governor you sign legislation effecting how people live their lives all the time.

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Isn’t that “Governing?”

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Florida, for one, is going to take a huge revenue hit if snowbirds and tourists stay away. DeSantis, who has already vetoed $1billion in budget items, doesn’t want to go full mask mandate, much less lock down, out of fear he’ll lose his big buddy’s help when the revenue shit really does hit the fan. But if Trump is gone (seems likely), he’s going to be looking at his own reelection hopes in two years.

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Click thru.

https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1284980984400797697

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All very true, and is clear evidence of dereliction of duty on the part of “president” Trump and HIS failure to “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.”

Seems to me that there is a clear-cut and simple basis for another impeachment vote. And while all this time is being wasted, more and more people are dying!

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Complete mush mouth gobbldeygook from Polis. He could easily have explained to his rootin tootin Colorado residents what the facts were. But he was afraid to lead. Afraid of ‘backlash’. Coward.

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GOP: “Mask mandates are Tyranny!”

Also GOP: “Secret police grabbing citizens off streets and whisking them to black holes is totes OK.”

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The work looked like something out of a Frank Miller graphic novel. Nice touch.

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