COVID-19

Where Things Stand: Airlines Buck Abbott’s Confusing Anti-Mandate Mandate Prime Badge
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Two Texas-based airlines plan to follow federal regulations about vaccination mandates, defying the state’s Republican governor’s recent mandate barring such mandates in the Lone Star State.

How many times can we say mandate?

Gov. Greg Abbott’s whole positioning on COVID-19 vaccine mandates in Texas would be amusing if it weren’t so dark. Abbott passed an executive order on Monday, banning “any entity” from adopting vaccine requirements in the state, even if private businesses want to implement them and/or follow federal requirements on vaccinations for employees. His order is hyper-focused on the badness of government mandates, while being a mandate in and of itself.

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Where Things Stand: Are Workers Getting Fed Up With COVID-Era Aggression? Prime Badge
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TPM has been covering the way in which the pandemic and the public health measures necessary to tamp it down have resulted in periodic eruptions of anger, often egged on by opportunistic, MAGA-aligned politicians. It’s become a theme for us: the specter of violence in politics that’s simmered for the last few years, predating the pandemic but inflamed by it.

But of course, the current level of public outrage is not limited to the political sphere of life. Anecdotal reporting — and, increasingly, data — suggest there might be an economic corollary to this trend as well.

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Where Things Stand: DOJ Will Probe Violent Threats Against Teachers, School Board Members Prime Badge
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The Justice Department announced this week that it will soon start investigating violent threats against school teachers and school board members around the country — a concerning trend that escalated in recent months as students returned to the classroom amid a lingering pandemic and GOP-instigated culture wars violently boiled over during school board meetings across the U.S.

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Protesters Shouting Threats Shut Down Meeting With New Hampshire Guv And Top Officials
Where Things Stand: Pastor Trades Vax Exemptions For Church Dues Prime Badge
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Jackson Lahmeyer is a Tulsa-based 29-year-old pastor, small business owner and GOP candidate challenging Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) in 2022. And he’ll get you out of getting the COVID-19 vaccine for religious reasons if you pay the right price.

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Fifth Conservative Anti-Vax Radio Host Dies Of COVID Within Six Weeks
MIAMI, FL - AUGUST 29: Governor Ron DeSantis gives a briefing regarding Hurricane Dorian to the media at National Hurricane Center on August 29, 2019 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Eva Marie Uzcategui/Getty Images) Where Things Stand: DeSantis Again Threatens Fines For Those Who Dare Defy His Deadly COVID Rules Prime Badge
This is your TPM evening briefing.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is re-upping his main and, seemingly, only defense against those in his state who dare to buck his rules against COVID-19 mitigation measures: He’s threatening more of the little guys with fines again.

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Biden Takes Aim At The Unvaccinated Who Keep Country From ‘Turning The Corner’
UNITED STATES - AUGUST 30: House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., makes remarks during a roundtable discussion with House Republican ranking members and veterans on the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in the Capitol Visitor Center on Monday, August 30, 2021. (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call) McCarthy Wants To Take His War On COVID Mitigation Rules All The Way To SCOTUS
WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 06:  Protesters gather storm the Capitol and halt a joint session of the 117th Congress on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) Where Things Stand: Jan. 6 Lawyer Who Went AWOL After Possible COVID Infection Reemerges Prime Badge
This is your TPM evening briefing.

The whereabouts of conservative lawyer John Pierce, who is representing 17 Capitol insurrectionist defendants, have been fuzzy for some time.

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