Arizona Governor Ducey to delay end of lockdown?
According to this article, Republican governor Doug Ducey is delaying any action relating to ending his “shelter-in-place” order that is bankrupting one quarter of Arizona’s industries and putting that many people out of work.
The reason? He apparently has a financial interest in keeping the emergency going for as long as possible.
Insiders tell NATIONAL FILE that Ducey might not be a trustworthy leader in the cause of re-opening the state economy. Ducey is delaying setting a firm date on re-opening the state, citing safety concerns while testing is underway. Ducey presides over legislature-approved state emergency spending and also a portion of his state’s $1.5 billion from the federal government.
Ducey also…
…sits on the Board of Governors for an institute that is accepting state health department funding to conduct Coronavirus testing in the state of Arizona. That institute happens to be an affiliate of a nonprofit that is working to develop a Coronavirus vaccine that is not expected to begin clinical trials until late 2020.
In other words, as long as the emergency lockdown is maintained, Ducey is in a position to funnel money to this institute that he also is on the Board of Governors.
This is unconscionable, especially because the shut down is bankrupting private businesses across the state. Worse, it is par for the course.
When I called the local Republican office here in Tucson, they told me that Ducey is working closely with Senator Martha McSally (R-Arizona), which might also explain his position. One of the reasons McSally lost to Democratic Senator Kyrsten Sinema in 2018 is because the two are both pretty liberal. For conservatives there really wasn’t any point in voting for McSally, so many stayed home. This is also why she is presently trailing in polls to Mark Kelly, her Democratic opponent for the 2020 election. McSally doesn’t offer an alternative to the big government, Washington swamp politics that now dominate. She is part of it, as is Kelly and Sinema.
As apparently is Ducey as well. I have made several calls to his office, expressing my outrage over the shut down, all to no avail. They say they will call back, but never do.
And our political class wonders why they got Trump. This is why, and if they don’t change their behavior we will get more, and it will be far worse than Trump ever was.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
According to this article, Republican governor Doug Ducey is delaying any action relating to ending his “shelter-in-place” order that is bankrupting one quarter of Arizona’s industries and putting that many people out of work.
The reason? He apparently has a financial interest in keeping the emergency going for as long as possible.
Insiders tell NATIONAL FILE that Ducey might not be a trustworthy leader in the cause of re-opening the state economy. Ducey is delaying setting a firm date on re-opening the state, citing safety concerns while testing is underway. Ducey presides over legislature-approved state emergency spending and also a portion of his state’s $1.5 billion from the federal government.
Ducey also…
…sits on the Board of Governors for an institute that is accepting state health department funding to conduct Coronavirus testing in the state of Arizona. That institute happens to be an affiliate of a nonprofit that is working to develop a Coronavirus vaccine that is not expected to begin clinical trials until late 2020.
In other words, as long as the emergency lockdown is maintained, Ducey is in a position to funnel money to this institute that he also is on the Board of Governors.
This is unconscionable, especially because the shut down is bankrupting private businesses across the state. Worse, it is par for the course.
When I called the local Republican office here in Tucson, they told me that Ducey is working closely with Senator Martha McSally (R-Arizona), which might also explain his position. One of the reasons McSally lost to Democratic Senator Kyrsten Sinema in 2018 is because the two are both pretty liberal. For conservatives there really wasn’t any point in voting for McSally, so many stayed home. This is also why she is presently trailing in polls to Mark Kelly, her Democratic opponent for the 2020 election. McSally doesn’t offer an alternative to the big government, Washington swamp politics that now dominate. She is part of it, as is Kelly and Sinema.
As apparently is Ducey as well. I have made several calls to his office, expressing my outrage over the shut down, all to no avail. They say they will call back, but never do.
And our political class wonders why they got Trump. This is why, and if they don’t change their behavior we will get more, and it will be far worse than Trump ever was.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
“Trump’s angry words to Georgia governor reverberate in state capitals as governors move to reopen states”
* https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/27/politics/trump-kemp-georgia-governors-reopen/
“No governor wants to endure the same wrath as Brian Kemp,” a top adviser to a Republican governor said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to avoid drawing similar ire from the White House.
“We all watched that very carefully and no one wants to be called out like that by the President,” another aide to a Republican governor said.
…
After the President changed his tune and reprimanded Kemp last week, one ally of the President told CNN the hope among those concerned about Georgia was that it would send a signal to other GOP governors in red states to slow down. The concern was that other Republicans — already hearing from conservatives and seeing protests — would feel pressure to follow Georgia. Instead, Trump’s comments about Kemp gave them cover to reopen slower.
Would it be overly cynical of me to interpret your far worse than Trump ever was as encouraging even longer lockdowns?
I know that’s not fair, but from what I’ve read, Trump intentionally threw Gov. Kemp under the bus. Reporting is that Kemp had formulated his reopening plan without consulting D.C., but based heavily on the signals he was reading from the White House. He later spoke with both Trump and Pence and received nothing but agreement, support, and appreciation during the phone call. Then, before the COVID briefing, Trump was cornered by one of his advisors who convinced him that Kemp was going too fast. So instead of talking to Kemp first, he used the briefing to denounce Kemp’s plan and lie that he had disagreed with him over it on the phone. Earlier analysis I’ve read explained this a payback for Kemp choosing Kelly Loeffler over Trump’s favorite Doug Collins to fill the Senate seat Johnny Isakson vacated at the end of last year. Alternate analysis suggested that Trump wanted the GA plan to go ahead, but used his statement during the briefing both to placate his advisor and to cover his posterior in case the plan when badly. This is the first I’ve seen that Trump intended it as signal to other governors.
Rose: Trump’s attack of Kemp was a very big unforced political error on Trump’s part. Note, I am worried that if freedom is not restored soon so that people can start living their lives again, we shall not simply see peaceful protests, but real violence and revolution. This is what I was referring to, since such revolutions usually find some leader with power as his or her goal.
This is not a good situation, but unfortunately our power-hungry and somewhat brainless politicians from both parties don’t really seem aware of how dangerous it is. Trump himself does not seem to get it either.
And the longer they let this drag on, the worse it will get.
Last weekend, thousands of people were protesting around the state building downtown Salt Lake City. So the governor relented and opened the state parks. They were simply overwhelmed in the good weather. Here’s an example just a few miles north of Zimmerman on the Arizona border.
https://www.ksl.com/article/46745561/sand-hollow-gunlock-quail-creek-all-close-midday-saturday-as-crowds-overwhelm-state-parks
Spring break atmosphere, no social distancing or masks. Feels good to be alive again.
V for Vendetta:
“The Dominoes Fall” clip
https://youtu.be/yrwTDfdck7I?t=188
“..with so much chaos, someone will do something stupid. And when they do, things will turn nasty….
on a brighter note…
November 9, 1989
“Right Here, Right Now”
Jesus Jones
https://youtu.be/GYPBt4fZOUI
3:17
“A woman on the radio, talks about revolution,
Which already passed her by.
Bob Dylan didn’t have this to sing about,
You know it feels good, to be alive….”
Robert wrote: “I am worried that if freedom is not restored soon so that people can start living their lives again, we shall not simply see peaceful protests, but real violence and revolution.”
I heard something similar from a friend of mine, a veteran. He is angry enough to start thinking of taking up arms, if it comes to that.
The frog seems to be waking up to the fact that it is being boiled. A new meaning to the term “woke.”
He is angry enough to start thinking of taking up arms
Cool. Who is he gonna shoot? Will he livestream it? What’s his twitch account?
I posted the link to this article at Arizona Central today. Ducey has locked us down for another two weeks. Talk radio is on fire, and I suspect this is going to end badly.
kozanne: Thanks for the tip. Now posted.