Retiring Guy's Digest

Ohio

GUN CRAZY USA: More guns, more carnage (Dallas Texas edition)

Top headline: The Texas Tribune, 2/16/2023

Bottom headline: Dallas Morning News, 3/18/2023

From The Texas Tribune:

In the past six decades, the state has experienced at least 19 mass shootings that have killed a total of nearly 200 people and wounded more than 230 others. Yet state leaders have repeatedly batted away measures that would limit access to guns, opting instead to ease restrictions on publicly carrying them while making it harder for local governments to regulate them.
As the state Legislature convenes for the first time since the Uvalde school shooting last May, lawmakers have once again filed a slate of gun control bills. If history is an indicator, and top legislative leaders predict it will be, they are unlikely to pass.

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2023

More gun, more carnage. (Wisconsin edition). (2/18)

More guns, more carnage. (Virginia edition). (1/11)

More guns, more carnage (Kansas City edition). (1/3)

2022

More guns, more carnage (New York City edition). (12/29)

More guns, more carnage: Philadelphia edition. (12/19)

Gun Crazy vicious circle: More guns, more gun violence, more death and injury, more guns...... (11/28)

Gun crazy Texas edition. (10/29)

GUN CRAZY collage: More guns, more gun violence. (series)

GUN CRAZY collage: More gun sales = more gun deaths. (8/13)

Gun crazy in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin: Library board votes to allow guns inside the building. (7/17)

Exhibit A of how sick the USA has become as a society. (5/26)

Look in the mirror, Janel; you're the problem. (4/5)

Rep. Shae Sortwell (R-Two Rivers) introduces bill to increase gun violence. (1/18)

2021

Sunday doubleheader: (Gun Nonsense League) (6/6)

USA!!! USA!!! USA!!! We're boogying our way to doomsday. (5/30)

GET ME REWRITE: Montana GOP fights crime and inflation by playing phobic version of the Dictionary Game

Top headline: NBC, 10/16/2022

Bottom headline: Great Falls Tribune, 3/16/2023

From the GF Tribune:

Sen. Mary Ann Dunwell, D-Helena, said a bill that would define sex in Montana code as male and female is one of the most extreme anti-LGBTQ pieces of legislation in the country.

“It erases human beings from our legal code. It erases trans people, and tens of thousands of Montanans with differences in sexual development. It erases them from law,” Dunwell said on the Senate floor Wednesday.

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Ohio

Trump beats DeSantis by 14 percentage points in Quinnipiac GOP presidential primary poll

Source: Real Clear Politics

Quinnipiac, 3/15/2023

Related posts:

2023

With all of his grandstanding of late, Ron DeSantis is unable to move the needle in national presidential polls. (2/26/2021)

Another day, another meaningless GOP presidential primary poll. (2/21)

2022

Trump 1 and Trump 2 continue to duke it out in 2024 GOP presidential primary polls. (12/20)

Trump nearly laps DeSantis in ourtlier Harvard-Harris poll, maintains comfortable average margin. (12/19)

Feast on this pre-Thanksgiving 2024 GOP presidential nomination poll before you chow down on turkey. (11/23)

Trump remains a winner, according to Australia's United States Studies Centre. (11/22)

Trump still has a hammerlock on the Republican voters. (11/19)

GOP horse race to the presidential nomination: Just 620-some days left until the Republican National Convention. (11/17)

Trump beats DeSantis by 3 percentage points in latest Florida GOP presidential primary poll

Source: Real Clear Politics

Forbes, 3/17/2023

Florida voters narrowly prefer former President Donald Trump to the state’s Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) in a head-to-head matchup for the GOP’s presidential nominee in 2024, a new Emerson College poll finds, as the Florida governor has started slipping in polls following a post-midterms bump as Trump has escalated his attacks against him.

Forbes takes this dubious poll at face value, but Retiring Guy suggests it be taken with more than a grain of salt. Emerson appears to be entering Trafalgar territory.

GET ME REWRITE: Ron DeSantis rips page out of the Hitler playbook to attack his 'enemies of the state'

Headlines: Facing History. 4/20/2022; Yahoo, 3/17/2023

From Yahoo:

DeSantis' administration moved to pull the Hyatt Regency Miami's liquor license after one of its partner facilities hosted a drag queen Christmas show where some children were in attendance.
In a previous statement to Insider, DeSantis' press secretary Bryan Griffin told Insider that the governor "stands up for the innocence of children in the classroom and throughout Florida."
But advocates like Equality Florida say the incident is an example of the DeSantis administration "selectively weaponizing state agencies" to target drag performers and venues that are not harmful for children.

Related posts:

Chapter 1. (3/2/2023)

Chapter 2. (3/2/2023)

What's the matter with Iowa? Plenty!

As the state boogies its way to deeper irrelevance with its growing support of an increasingly homophobic and transphobic legislature.

Top headline: Des Moines Register

Middle headline: Des Moines Register

Bottom headline: Los Angeles Times, 2/23/-23

From the L. A. Times:

I am a former Iowan and a graduate of the University of Iowa, which had highly regarded programs in many disciplines. But with the advent of extreme conservatism in state government, funding for education and especially higher education has eroded to the point where these once highly competitive academic institutions can no longer maintain their level of excellence.
There are no Democrats representing Iowa in Washington and a pitiful few in the state Legislature. The current governor, in my opinion, is a threat to social progress and basic academic freedom. She has supported banning books from school libraries, eliminating gun safety, banning almost all abortions, restricting LGBTQ rights and more.

Related posts:

2023

What's the matter with Iowa? Well, you can start at the top of state government. (1/14/2023)

2022

It looks like a case of cause and effect. (11/9/2022)

2021

Actually, it appears that 58% of Iowans, many of them nice, are slowly being poisoned to death. (11/26/2021)

What's the matter with Iowa? (series)

2018

What's the matter with Iowa? Health benefit plans mean you're screwed when it comes to pre-existing conditions. (10/5/2018)

Friday, March 17, 2023

GET ME REWRITE: West Virginia GOP fights crime and inflation with transgender care ban

Top headline: NBC, 10/16/2022

Bottom headline: Washington Post, 3/11/2023

From the Washington Post:

A bill that would ban evidence-based health care for transgender minors in West Virginia, the state estimated to have more transgender youth per capita than any other in the nation, is headed to the desk of Gov. Jim Justice.

The Republican governor has not taken a public stance on the measure and it’s unclear whether he will sign it into law. A spokesperson said he was unavailable for comment Saturday.

West Virginia. Rudderless.

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Ohio

COVID CHRONICLES. Chapter 4: Covid Impacts the Workplace and Sports World

Read chapter 3 here

Photo by Retiring Guy

(Sport Bowl: Friday, 3/13/2090)

Friday, March 13

JoAnna is working from home today. Andy may soon be in a similar situation. The Dane County Board is planning to meet next Thursday, but only ‘essential items’ will be included on the agenda. (More on this later.)

And to think I could have chosen to serve as county board chair two months ago and now be in the middle of all this. Best ‘no’ answer I ever uttered when County Board Chair Sharon Corrigan asked me, “Is this something you want to do?” I expected there’d be some turbulence during the last weeks of the term, but nothing like this.

I haven’t read or otherwise learned how LeBron James reacted to this latest news, to which Andy alerted me via an 8:30 p.m. phone call yesterday. (Which in itself was concerning as he never calls that late in the evening.)

New York Times

I do know that, a few days earlier, LeBron gave an explosive response to the idea that teams play their games in empty arenas.

“We play games without the fans? Nah, that’s impossible,” James said. “I ain’t playing if I ain’t got the fans in the crowd. That’s who I play for. I play for my teammates, and I play for the fans. That’s what it’s all about. So if I show up to an arena and there ain’t no fans in there, I ain’t playing. They can do what they want to do.”

No uncertain words, or so it sounded at first,

Then he did an Emily Litella -- “Never mind!” — walking back his comments.

Perhaps he took the follow-up news in stride, as the virus continues to spread exponentially.

Andy seemed to be a little shell-shocked during our conversation. This season held the tantalizing promise of a championship season for the Milwaukee Bucks, led by the charismatic Giannis Antetokounmpo. Now there’s the possibility of an asterisk, or worse, a blank space in the record book for the 2019-20 season.

Earlier in the day, the NCAA announced that all of the games in the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments would be played without fans present. Obviously they still need referees, scorekeepers, broadcasters, and sportswriters in attendance. How weird, though, for teams to play without crowd noise. And what a letdown for people who had purchased tickets before the coronavirus shit hit the fan and were looking forward to an extended weekend getaway, as JoAnna and I were eagerly anticipating three years ago.

Now there’s a possibility the tournaments will be cancelled. (The inevitable happened shortly after I wrote this.) As a result, fans of the Wisconsin Badgers men’s team, who finished the regular season with 8 straight wins, will be reduced to fantasizing about how deep their team might have gone in its bracket. Sportwise, the rest of March is ruined for Andy, as he is someone who lives and breathes sports during most of his waking hours.

April is not likely to provide any relief. I won’t be surprised if Major League Baseball delays the start of its regular season.

Actually, the news was announced just 32 minutes ago, as I learned with a quick Google search. And the rest of the spring training schedule is cancelled.

Well, there’s always disc golf, which Andy has been playing throughout the winter, whenever possible. He and a few friends participated in a Milwaukee tournament a couple of weekends ago.

Saturday, March 14

The world has changed so rapidly this week. As soon as one announcement is made, a qualifying or more definitive statement is released, such as with NCAA basketball. Conference tournament games to be played in empty arenas. No plans to cancel March Madness. NCAA tournament games to be played in empty arenas. Big 10 cancel its conference tournament after one day. (As did all other conferences.) March Madness cancelled.

Then a wide net is cast. All spring sports are put on hiatus.

As for public schools, rumors swirled earlier in the week that Madison and other district planned to extend their spring breaks. Yesterday Governor Evers announced that all schools, public and private, would close on Wednesday – or is it Thursday – through April 5, leaving open the possibility of an extension.

JoAnna worked from home yesterday, spending more of her time on conference calls – with the Governor and his staff and with the Department of Workforce Development leadership team. Not to mention numerous one-on-one phones calls. Based on the determination made by the Governor’s office, all closings will close starting Thursday, but the news release sent out by staff specified 5 p.m. on Wednesday, which resulted in the confusion you see illustrated in the above headline. JoAnna was incensed over this misstep. It’s troubling that Evers’ staff, collectively, appear more bumbling than competent.

“I am SO happy I’m retiring,” she reiterated. “In fact, I wish I could leave right now.”

“But that would look as though you’re just walking away at the wrong time,” I cautioned, even though I knew she was just blowing off steam.

Meanwhile, Andy has moved toward a restrictive, almost fearful response, giving the much-used phrase of late, “out of an abundance of caution”, a vigorous workout. He declined our invitation to join us for fish at the Sport Bowl yesterday evening. (Not nearly as busy as it usually is on a Friday, which allowed to practice proper social distancing.)

Three Covid cases were diagnosed in Sun Prairie yesterday, remotely affiliated with Andy’s workplace. Nonetheless, his company is going to offer employees the option of working remotely, a decision driven by the statewide school closings. I texted Andy a little while ago to get a sense of how he’s doing. Sounds like he plans to be a hermit today. He didn’t give me a flat-out ‘no’ when I invited him to dinner since JoAnna and I will probably cook out tonight.

His response: I know I don’t want to be a hermit but idk I still worry. It’s so hard to decide with so many conflicting reports.

Andy, I fear, is getting too much unfiltered information from social media and his group chat, in particular, which is a politically diverse group of UW-Milwaukee friends – lacrosse teammates, for the most part. One of the Trump fanboys in the group suggested that all of this will blow over by Monday.

“He must be watching a lot of Fox News,” I suggested to Andy when he shared this tidbit of nonsense with me.

Over by Monday? Yeah, right!

Read chapter 5 here

GET ME REWRITE: Texas GOP fights crime and inflation by restricting abortion in multiple ways

Top headline: NBC, 10/16/2022

Bottom headline: Texas Monthly, 3/13/2023

From Texas Monthly:

Republican lawmakers have introduced bills in the House and Senate that would restrict abortion in eighteen different ways. Some of these bills appear unlikely to advance, filed by lawmakers without much sway in the Capitol. Others, which would also affect issues identified as priorities by state leaders, are more likely to become law.

Most of the bills focus on a few specific areas:

Financially punishing businesses that have promised to cover employees’ out-of-state abortion–related expenses

Punishing abortion funds that help Texans seeking abortions in other states pay for travel, lodging, and medical bills

Creating alternative routes for prosecution in counties where district attorneys have pledged not to charge abortion providers

Other bills would open the door to broader and more creative restrictions:

Finding ways to prevent Texans from even attempting to seek mail-order abortion pills

Invoking the possibility of the death penalty for patients who obtain abortions or emergency contraception

Restricting emergency contraception in addition to abortion

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