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   From: js@phendrie.con   
      
   By Felicia Sonmez and Hannah Knowles   
      
   08/11/2021 at 12:48 p.m. EDT   
      
   In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott has banned local governments from implementing mask   
   requirements even as he pleads for emergency medical help in combating a surge   
   in coronavirus cases from the delta variant. In South Dakota, Gov. Kristi L.   
   Noem welcomed hundreds of thousands of revelers to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally   
   that last year bore characteristics of a superspreader event for the virus.   
      
   And in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis is waging war on school districts seeking to   
   defy his executive order prohibiting mask mandates for students — while the   
   state sees its rates of hospitalization from covid surge past the worst levels   
   of 2020.   
      
   The three Republican governors — all frequently mentioned as potential   
   presidential candidates in 2024 — are at the vanguard of GOP resistance to   
   public-health mandates aimed at stemming the tide of the delta variant, which   
   has caused a new spike in coronavirus cases as the country attempts to reopen   
   schools, restaurants and other businesses.   
      
   They and other national and local GOP officials cast their opposition to such   
   measures as an effort to protect personal choice. But some fear the party is on   
   track to make itself the face of the delta variant — endangering fellow   
   Americans while also risking severe political damage in the long term.   
      
   “They’re making a political bet on the lives of the people they serve,”   
   said   
   former Republican National Committee chairman Michael S. Steele, who has been   
   sharply critical of former president Donald Trump and has formed an exploratory   
   committee for a potential 2022 Maryland gubernatorial bid. “The party   
   leadership   
   has gone so far out on this limb that there they stand with a saw in their hand   
   and they’re sawing it off.”   
      
   https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/republicans-delta-masks-   
   accines/2021/08/11/639c6862-fa0c-11eb-9c0e-97e29906a970_story.html   
      
   The Republiscums/QAnon *are* the face of the delta surge.  This is a *very good   
   thing*.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)