The Next Step In Fighting The Coronavirus Pandemic Is In The Hands of Governors?

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I guess we’re all fucked now.

The Washington Post reports, Biden tells governors next steps to fight pandemic are at the state level:

The next steps in fighting the coronavirus pandemic have to be taken at the state level, President Biden told a group of governors Monday.

“Look, there is no federal solution,” he said after joining the White House covid-19 response team’s regular call with the National Governors Association on Monday. “This gets solved at the state level.”

Seriously? You are going to leave our fate to the machinations of a criminally negligent pro-Covid Trump Death Cult governor?

In response to a question from Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R-Ark.) about production and distribution by the federal government of rapid coronavirus tests, Biden said: “We just have to stay focused and continue to work together. My message to the governor is simple. If you need something, say something. And we’re going to have your back in any way we can.”

But, but … Governor Ducey doesn’t want to work with the federal government. He prefers confrontation because he thinks this makes him look like a “he man” to his insurrectionist pro-Covid GQP crazy base.

Gov. Ducey and his partisan hack Attorney General Mark Brnovich aka “Nunchucks” (or is it Numbnuts?) are suing the federal government in an effort to block federal vaccination requirements for businesses. Ducey keeps flailing issuing unenforceable executive orders to undermine federal Covid efforts that even his Attorney General Nunchucks says he does not have the legal authority to issue.

Mr. President, please don’t leave the fate of Arizonans to these criminally negligent Trump Death Cult acolytes.

Related: Remember when Republican governors across the country decided to end Pandemic Unemployment Assistance payments early in June and July (Arizona) because they argued that you lazy “lucky duckies” were all couch potatoes watching TV or playing video games all day rather than going to back to work and causing an employee shortage? Wall Street Journal, States That Cut Unemployment Benefits Saw Limited Impact on Job Growth; New York Times, Cutoff of Jobless Benefits Is Found to Get Few Back to Work; Politico, ‘No evidence’: State cuts in jobless aid have little effect on unemployment.

Now these same fucking geniuses are incentivizing pro-Covid Trump Death Cult anti-vaxxers to refuse to get vaccinated and to be rewarded with unemployment benefits. 5 GOP-led states extend unemployment aid to workers who lose jobs over vaccine mandates:

At least five Republican-led states have extended unemployment benefits to people who’ve lost jobs over vaccine mandates — and a smattering of others may soon follow.

Workers who quit or are fired for cause — including for defying company policy — are generally ineligible for jobless benefits. But Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Kansas and Tennessee have carved out exceptions for those who won’t submit to the multi-shot coronavirus vaccine regimens that many companies now require. Similar ideas have been floated in Wyoming, Wisconsin and Missouri.

Critics contend that these states are incentivizing people to skip shots that public health experts say offer the best line of defense against the coronavirus.

Fearless prediction: You will see a bill introduced by pro-Covid Republicans in the Arizona legislature in the coming weeks to carve out exceptions for those who won’t submit to the multi-shot coronavirus vaccine regimens to receive unemployment benefits (likely an ALEC sponsored model bill), and it will be supported by Trump Death Cult governor Governor Ducey. Stay tuned.