Yesterday there were 51, 898 new Covid-19 cases in the United States according to Worldometers. Of those, 21,683 were in the state of Florida. That’s 41.8% of all new cases in the US yesterday. The next closest state was Texas at 5,704 cases (or roughly 11% of new cases).
Florida has 6.4% of the population of the US.
6.4% of the population.
41.8% of the new cases yesterday.
Also: there were 241 new Covid deaths yesterday. 108 were in Florida (44.8%). The next most were in Texas at 38 (15.8%).
The policies of the state of Florida are not working.
Steven L. Taylor is a retired Professor of Political Science and former College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
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Top 10 states in cases per million over the last week: Louisiana, Florida, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Missouri, Oklahoma, Nevada, Alaska, Texas.
TBF: a couple months ago, Michigan was having the worst of the delta outbreak. So it might be a case of outbreaks now vs. outbreaks later. But that’s one hell of a pattern there.
Here in TrumpLand Covid doesn’t exist. Less than 1 in 10 have a mask on anywhere.
I was exposed twice 2 weeks ago to people that later came down with Covid. 1 guy I sat next to for an hour in a meeting we are both vaccinated.
Last week, 9 people in my department are either positive or quarantined. Im going to move to split teams if we any more cases. Everyone cooperates with my covid rules at work…but after work they dont give a damn and ignore CDC guidelines.
I really hope Delta burns hot and quick or its going to lay waste to bumpkin towns across America
This is why I would never move to a blue city in a red state — there’s no escaping incompetence and malevolence at the top.
And, I do think DeSantis is malevolent. He doesn’t give a shit about the deaths in his state. He has options — he can follow his party, or he could show some leadership and try to steer the party — and he has chosen to follow.
What I don’t understand is that given that Trump takes credit for the fast development of the vaccines (absolute garbage of course, but his followers seem to believe it), and took the vaccines himself, why aren’t his followers lining up in droves to get the vaccines? At least from the outside, that would indicate that his influence is declining.
1) it’s often a big-gummint program takin away my parental rights
2) it’s based on ‘science’ aka Sorcery
3) it’s pushed by Libtard intellectuals in big cities who think they’re better than me
Scientists: we’ve got a new HPV vaccine that will prevent your daughters from getting cervical cancer.
Conservatives: you ain’t givin my daughter no Slut Pills!
I often talk about the incompetence of the state officials who have allowed the virus to run unchecked. But in my heart I recognize that the reality may be much darker. Their method of governance is to rile people up about one thing after another, keeping their supporters in a constant state of anger and fear, and then pointing to a small group of “others” who are the source of all evil, disorder, disease and dirt. In other words if you are constantly seeking to raise a fearful mob and rush to the head of it then a disease that “only” kills about one percent or less of its victims may be an opportunity rather than a problem.
Their method of governance is to rile people up about one thing after another, keeping their supporters in a constant state of anger and fear, and then pointing to a small group of “others” who are the source of all evil, disorder, disease and dirt.
This is the FOX News business model for getting eyeballs on screens, GOP pols assume what’s good for FOX is good for Republicans.
@charon: I agree that Fox has gone all in on this, but this method of governance predates them by thousands of years, if not tens of thousands. It is a crude and harmful method but it is probably the easiest to implement, and is primally satisfying to a significant segment of the populace, at least until a real threat arises. In the US this continues to be the method most used in the Trump states, but it had its roots in slavery and then Jim Crow.
@George:
This is a question I’ve often asked. I don’t know how MAGAworld explains this conundrum to themselves. I’ve seen references on pro-Trump websites to the vaccines as “Biden poison.”
4) DeSantis bragging and joking today about how he and his wife will never have their kids wear masks. He is the governor of the 3rd largest Us state and the most elderly state in the US with the most vulnerable retirees. #Florida
Too late in FL to mitigate meaningfully. FL has 2,038 in ICUs. FL needs to position to deal w/ the potential of 3-4 weeks of overwhelmed healthcare systems: plan for hospital surge, especially pediatric capacity. Neighboring states are strained & soon might not be able to help.
Girard’s scapegoating mechanism used to provide a good characterization of this human capacity. Just to focus on the US, it still holds that we are driven by mimetic desire. Where it breaks down (at least in its simple form) is what happens next, particularly because the desiring parties are so fractured.
The scapegoating mechanism used to be activated in an attempt to relieve the tension between the desiring parties – this would then preserve society. In short, a person was singled out, blamed for all that is wrong, expelled/killed, and all was well again. Rinse, repeat.
But this assumed a broad social cohesion that we seem to have lost. These days, we have many mini societies (eg, political parties, social identity groups, etc). And thus, we have the tension of mimetic desire occurring within and between these mini societies (a multi level model for the stats nerds).
And each of these mini societies enacts their own scapegoating mechanism to relieve tension within their society. This does indeed serve its function – within the mini society – but it further fractures the broader society. So the scapegoating mechanism “works” locally but exacerbates things nationally.
It’s made even worse by what you rightly observe about riling people up as a method of governance. This is also a method of business. And a method of leisure. Indeed, it seems to be the dominant method of damn near everything we do.
So the “tensions” that activate the scapegoating mechanism are overwhelming in their abundance. And most of them are manufactured. The scapegoating mechanism cannot keep up (really, it’s the humans who do the scapegoating that can’t keep up), so instead of having different scapegoats to relieve different tensions, we settle on a few scapegoats to blame for all the things (eg, Soros, Kochs, Gates, etc.).
Related side note, I’m certainly not the first or only one to noodle this, but it seems to me that a lot of our social ills are born from a desire to live in momentous, historically epic times. Makes us all feel so special. And important. An easy substitute for meaning.
It is all the method of governing that the R’s have left, as they have abandoned any pretense to having a program beyond shoveling money to the rich. And they can’t admit that that is the only thing they are trying to do.
“Where do you currently stand on mandating masks and also on mandating vaccinations for your city employees?” Nobles asked.
“We’re not allowed to have mask mandates right now,” Gelber replied. “We were one of the first cities to require it. We charged a fine just to get people to do it. The governor stopped allowing us to do it, then immediately we saw a surge across our county and state when he did that. So we’re in a very tough position.”
“We are trying to do everything we can to get around the governor’s very wrong-headed desires,” he said. “The governor has made it as difficult as possible to make people safe.”
“Florida is leading the nation right now in all the worst data points,” he noted. “The governor is just trying to curry favor with a group of supporters that like to hear this red meat ideology. He should be focused on delivering what would be good advice. He could save thousands of people if he did that, because the people most likely to avoid wearing a mask and not want to get a vaccine are probably people who are among his most ardent supporters.”
@charon: Honestly, I’m now feeling about anti-vaxxers the same way I feel about motorcyclists who refuse to wear helmets: soon this will be a problem that corrects itself.
But this assumed a broad social cohesion that we seem to have lost. These days, we have many mini societies (eg, political parties, social identity groups, etc). And thus, we have the tension of mimetic desire occurring within and between these mini societies (a multi level model for the stats nerds).
You could sythesize Girard’s views with those of Ernest Becker that what defines a society is a shared “immortality project”. The US currently consists of multiple societies occupying the same geographic space, each with their own immortality project. As per Girard, the reason a person gets attached to a particular project (and thus chooses to join a particular society) is memesis. It would also explain what the scapegoat is actually being scapegoated for: threatening the success of the immortality project as a way of distracting people from their own failures to obtain success in a project that is often doomed to failure from the start.
Great cite on Becker. What you say makes sense. I would add a dose of Martin Gurri’s thesis in The Revolt of the Public. This mostly alters the part about people being attached to a particular project and thus a particular society.
The menu of possible desires has expanded from a standard meat and three to a Vegas style buffet. Hence, the single immortality project of each mini society is now complicated by a metric shit-ton of desires.
This has disrupted all the things – the immortality projects, the mini societies, the general society, and the scapegoating mechanism. None of these “work” anymore and we’ve yet to find a new equilibrium.
@grumpy realist: I’ve met too many cyclist who survived to believe in this brand of Darwinism and SARS CoV2 doesn’t kill nearly as many sufferers as driving helmetless does. Sadly, we’re destined to have another bunch of people who are, unavoidably, drains on society. This will not play out well.
@Dr. Taylor
They’re working as intended; to piss of liberals and anyone not fully embracing Trumpism.
Top 10 states in cases per million over the last week: Louisiana, Florida, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Missouri, Oklahoma, Nevada, Alaska, Texas.
TBF: a couple months ago, Michigan was having the worst of the delta outbreak. So it might be a case of outbreaks now vs. outbreaks later. But that’s one hell of a pattern there.
Here in TrumpLand Covid doesn’t exist. Less than 1 in 10 have a mask on anywhere.
I was exposed twice 2 weeks ago to people that later came down with Covid. 1 guy I sat next to for an hour in a meeting we are both vaccinated.
Last week, 9 people in my department are either positive or quarantined. Im going to move to split teams if we any more cases. Everyone cooperates with my covid rules at work…but after work they dont give a damn and ignore CDC guidelines.
I really hope Delta burns hot and quick or its going to lay waste to bumpkin towns across America
Florida is owning the libs by dying – and experiencing long covid for the rest of their lives.
And giving the libs the benefit of all the census adjustments in 2030.
Please continue, Florida man.
This is why I would never move to a blue city in a red state — there’s no escaping incompetence and malevolence at the top.
And, I do think DeSantis is malevolent. He doesn’t give a shit about the deaths in his state. He has options — he can follow his party, or he could show some leadership and try to steer the party — and he has chosen to follow.
I hope he dies of covid.
Please remember that Rich Lowrey and the rest of the intelligencia wing of the right said we owe DeSantis an apology because he did everything right. https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/where-does-ron-desantis-go-to-get-his-apology/
@EddieInCA:
What I don’t understand is that given that Trump takes credit for the fast development of the vaccines (absolute garbage of course, but his followers seem to believe it), and took the vaccines himself, why aren’t his followers lining up in droves to get the vaccines? At least from the outside, that would indicate that his influence is declining.
This is horrible. It’s like some people are on the side of the virus.
@George: conservatives tend to be anti-vaxx.
1) it’s often a big-gummint program takin away my parental rights
2) it’s based on ‘science’ aka Sorcery
3) it’s pushed by Libtard intellectuals in big cities who think they’re better than me
Scientists: we’ve got a new HPV vaccine that will prevent your daughters from getting cervical cancer.
Conservatives: you ain’t givin my daughter no Slut Pills!
FL is ahead of the curve on an exponential rise, look for TX to be closing the gap.
I often talk about the incompetence of the state officials who have allowed the virus to run unchecked. But in my heart I recognize that the reality may be much darker. Their method of governance is to rile people up about one thing after another, keeping their supporters in a constant state of anger and fear, and then pointing to a small group of “others” who are the source of all evil, disorder, disease and dirt. In other words if you are constantly seeking to raise a fearful mob and rush to the head of it then a disease that “only” kills about one percent or less of its victims may be an opportunity rather than a problem.
@MarkedMan:
This is the FOX News business model for getting eyeballs on screens, GOP pols assume what’s good for FOX is good for Republicans.
https://twitter.com/KHOU/status/1421805111836295171
“Hold my beer” – Greg Abbott
@charon: I agree that Fox has gone all in on this, but this method of governance predates them by thousands of years, if not tens of thousands. It is a crude and harmful method but it is probably the easiest to implement, and is primally satisfying to a significant segment of the populace, at least until a real threat arises. In the US this continues to be the method most used in the Trump states, but it had its roots in slavery and then Jim Crow.
@George:
This is a question I’ve often asked. I don’t know how MAGAworld explains this conundrum to themselves. I’ve seen references on pro-Trump websites to the vaccines as “Biden poison.”
https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1421724112695795712
https://twitter.com/TomBossert/status/1421551063300194305
@MarkedMan:
Girard’s scapegoating mechanism used to provide a good characterization of this human capacity. Just to focus on the US, it still holds that we are driven by mimetic desire. Where it breaks down (at least in its simple form) is what happens next, particularly because the desiring parties are so fractured.
The scapegoating mechanism used to be activated in an attempt to relieve the tension between the desiring parties – this would then preserve society. In short, a person was singled out, blamed for all that is wrong, expelled/killed, and all was well again. Rinse, repeat.
But this assumed a broad social cohesion that we seem to have lost. These days, we have many mini societies (eg, political parties, social identity groups, etc). And thus, we have the tension of mimetic desire occurring within and between these mini societies (a multi level model for the stats nerds).
And each of these mini societies enacts their own scapegoating mechanism to relieve tension within their society. This does indeed serve its function – within the mini society – but it further fractures the broader society. So the scapegoating mechanism “works” locally but exacerbates things nationally.
It’s made even worse by what you rightly observe about riling people up as a method of governance. This is also a method of business. And a method of leisure. Indeed, it seems to be the dominant method of damn near everything we do.
So the “tensions” that activate the scapegoating mechanism are overwhelming in their abundance. And most of them are manufactured. The scapegoating mechanism cannot keep up (really, it’s the humans who do the scapegoating that can’t keep up), so instead of having different scapegoats to relieve different tensions, we settle on a few scapegoats to blame for all the things (eg, Soros, Kochs, Gates, etc.).
Related side note, I’m certainly not the first or only one to noodle this, but it seems to me that a lot of our social ills are born from a desire to live in momentous, historically epic times. Makes us all feel so special. And important. An easy substitute for meaning.
@MarkedMan:
It is all the method of governing that the R’s have left, as they have abandoned any pretense to having a program beyond shoveling money to the rich. And they can’t admit that that is the only thing they are trying to do.
https://www.rawstory.com/florida-ron-desantis/
Sociopath prick
@charon: Honestly, I’m now feeling about anti-vaxxers the same way I feel about motorcyclists who refuse to wear helmets: soon this will be a problem that corrects itself.
As we said here last year: Covid doesn’t care about your beliefs. They have no impact on it’s life cycle.
@Mimai:
You could sythesize Girard’s views with those of Ernest Becker that what defines a society is a shared “immortality project”. The US currently consists of multiple societies occupying the same geographic space, each with their own immortality project. As per Girard, the reason a person gets attached to a particular project (and thus chooses to join a particular society) is memesis. It would also explain what the scapegoat is actually being scapegoated for: threatening the success of the immortality project as a way of distracting people from their own failures to obtain success in a project that is often doomed to failure from the start.
@Stormy Dragon:
Great cite on Becker. What you say makes sense. I would add a dose of Martin Gurri’s thesis in The Revolt of the Public. This mostly alters the part about people being attached to a particular project and thus a particular society.
The menu of possible desires has expanded from a standard meat and three to a Vegas style buffet. Hence, the single immortality project of each mini society is now complicated by a metric shit-ton of desires.
This has disrupted all the things – the immortality projects, the mini societies, the general society, and the scapegoating mechanism. None of these “work” anymore and we’ve yet to find a new equilibrium.
@grumpy realist: I’ve met too many cyclist who survived to believe in this brand of Darwinism and SARS CoV2 doesn’t kill nearly as many sufferers as driving helmetless does. Sadly, we’re destined to have another bunch of people who are, unavoidably, drains on society. This will not play out well.