We're Going to Ban Plastic Bags in a Pandemic
We're Going to Ban Plastic Bags in a Pandemic
Going to take more than coronavirus to stop Ohio's love of Big Business.
Good news, Ohioans — our governor spent some quality time with a man called “Mike Dense” by his college fraternity brothers. I’m sure this conversation unleashed a tidal wave of testing kits and PPE for workers that have been forced back into the capitalist meat-grinder:
Love how DeWine’s team tweeted this from his “personal” account instead of his work account to post a picture of him working. You almost have to
What I don’t love is what in the hell is a hairbrush doing on the governor’s desk? Kinda gross to be honest but probably belongs to one of his 48 grandchildren.
Housekeeping: I’ll be raising my rates on June 1st. Haven’t decided to what, but this is your last chance to support independent writing from someone who isn’t accountable to corporate bosses. If you’ve been on the fence, click the above box and take 30 days to decide if my writing is worth $5 a month.
OHIO SENATE TACKLES THE BIG ISSUES OF THE DAY
The Ohio House gets a lot of flak from me due to the amount of theocratic fascists running amok on the well-being of people who actually have to work for a living.
The Ohio Senate is just as diseased. Republicans have a super-majority in that chamber, too. That means the Democrats are as powerless as I am when dark-money group ALEC snaps their fingers and commands their minions to pass something as asinine as a moratorium on plastic bag bans in the middle of a pandemic in which the state hasn’t touched a cent of its $3 billion rainy day fund as millions of Ohioans have lost their job.
From Catherine Cadinsky of dispatch.com:
The Senate on Wednesday passed legislation prohibiting local governments from banning the use of plastic bags by groceries, restaurants and other businesses, authorizing their continued use for a year.
The Senate voted 23 to 9 to approve House Bill 242, sending the controversial measure back to the House for concurrence with the addition of a one-year moratorium and other changes.
Sen. Michael Rulli, R-Salem, and sponsor of a similar measure in the Senate, said the coronavirus has revealed potential health and safety concerns of banning plastic bags, justifying their continued use despite environmental and other concerns. Many retailers, he noted, are now prohibiting shoppers from bringing reusable bags into their stores
Cleveland politicians put in the work to ban plastic bags. It took years to convince even Democrats that, hey, there is only one Lake Erie and these bags are bad.
All that work is now on the verge of being undone thanks to Senate Republicans who love nothing more than campaigning on “letting local communities decide what’s best for them.” It’s all horseshit.
What chaps me most is the incredible power these guys have that could be wielded to improve the material conditions of millions of Ohioans’ lives. Instead they’d rather do favors for their corporate cronies that prevent cities like Columbus raise the minimum wage or preventing Cleveland from nonsensical moratoriums on passing plastic bag bans.
Normally I would say something trite like, “And then these assholes wonder why people are leaving the state!” But the truth is they don’t want people moving here because they saw what happened to California and Virginia and will soon happen to Arizona and North Carolina. Political power is more important to them than helping people.
CANDICE KELLER DOESN’T RESPECT HER COLLEAGUES ENOUGH TO MAKE SURE SHE’S NOT SICK AT WORK
Mike DeWine is currently imploring Ohioans that masks are not about politics.
He is having a problem getting that message across to people because members of his own party can’t even be troubled to CHECK THEIR TEMPERATURE before going to work in indoor spaces with colleagues, staffers and workers.
From Jessie Balmert of cincinnati.com [brackets mine]:
Butler County Rep. Candice Keller refused to have her temperature taken at work this week, calling the practice an invasion of her privacy.
“The reason I’ve had to put up with so much opposition over the last 4 years as a Representative is that NO ONE GETS TO CONTROL ME,” Keller, R-Middletown, wrote on her Facebook page Wednesday morning. “I mean, NO ONE. I have civil rights and I have a right to privacy.”
…
“It is required for staff and visitors to have their temperatures taken and it is offered for members,” [Ohio House Speaker Larry] Householder said. “I cannot mandate elected representatives have their temperatures taken as much as I cannot keep them from coming to the Statehouse to represent the people who elected them.”
Larry Householder is smart enough to know the 10th Amendment allows state governments to mandate masks in public in the same way it requires you to keep your weird-looking penis in your pants while dining at Applebee’s.
Somehow workers and visitors are required to have their temperature checked, but it can’t be enforced on the people they elected? That’s insane dumb-assery that trickles down to everyday people who then think it’s no big deal to act normal like we’re in the middle of a pandemic without a vaccine until the end of the year — at the very best and likely impossible timeline.
SPORTS BETTING COULD COME TO OHIO BY THE END OF THE YEAR BUT PROBABLY NOT KNOWING THESE BUMS
You can go to communist states like West Virginia and Indiana and pull off at the first exit you see, download an app and a place a bet on a sports game.
Somehow the free-market-loving Ohio can’t figure that out. Our politicians would rather squabble over which of their rich cronies get to profit on sports betting.
From Matthew Credell of legalsportsreport.com:
H 194 advanced through the House Finance Committee on Wednesday with one dissenting vote.
The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Dave Greenspan, tells Legal Sports Report that he expects the Ohio sports betting bill to pass on the House floor Thursday.
“We’re moving it now to start negotiations with the Senate over the summer so, when we come back early in the fall, we’ll be able to get a bill on the governor’s desk by the end of the year,” Greenspan said.
…
Even if it does pass in the House on Thursday, some key differences exist between itself and the Senate bill that was introduced by Sen. John Ekuland. Most notably, the House bill calls for the Ohio Lottery Commission to oversee sports betting, while the Senate bill puts the Casino Control Commission in charge.
Sports betting will be ran by casinos. People will go to casinos to gamble and collect their winnings. Seems like an easy dunk for the Casino Control Commission.
But Larry Householder and Dave Greenspan think it should go to the lottery commission for some reason?
Feel free to google, “Does the lottery help schools?” to read the ample research that says, no, they do not. The casinos were supposed to be some big bonanza for public schools and we can see how that turned out.
Knowing Householder, he will use his office to try to sway public money into the coffers of his business friends who will then kick back that money into the swamp network he uses to elect patsies throughout the state and maintain his vise grip on the Lincoln Chair.
REAL G’S MOVE IN SILENCE LIKE LASAGNA
I have been a Browns fan since 2007. Every year since 2014 has ended with me saying I was going to quit watching them until they proved they were worth watching.
The 2019 season was no different despite my midlife crisis.
As soon as the season ended, I said I was done with these bums until they were 1-0. I tweeted something like I didn’t care if we signed Jesus of Nazareth; he was still a bum in my eyes until we went 1-0.
What I didn’t realize is there would be a global pandemic that would derail the sporting world and sentence me to two months of solitary confinement in my Franklinton palace.
The Browns have been creeping back into my mind. First we hired a handsome coach who has won with such QB legends as Case Keenum and Kirk Cousins. Now our quarterback, last seen arranging a blow job in the parking lot of a Cheesecake Factory, says he now sees the error in the participating in the preseason hype of a team that had gone 7-8-1 the previous season.
From Mary Kay Cabot of cleveland.com:
* “I have a different approach this year. I think everybody who has been interviewed on our team has hit the nail on the head over and over about this is time to work. It is time to do our thing, instead of talking about it. This is the first media thing I have done, just because there is no need to be talking about it. It is just time to go do it and right now, It is moving in silence, which is fine with me.
"That is how I used to do it before getting on a bigger stage, so I am happy to get back to those roots. Like I said earlier, get back to the fundamentals to where I can accomplish the goals when the season comes around.”
I like Baker. I still think he could win a Super Bowl, though this season will say a lot about this theory.
But c’mon, Baker, you have been a talker his entire career. Ravens Super Bowl QB Trent Dilfer coached him at a youth camp and said that he was a fat kid who didn’t understand why he wasn’t ranked higher.
All Baker can do right now is talk, so at least he’s saying the right things. I want to believe so bad, and the problem is I need to believe since we’re living in unprecedented times.
THOSE WMDs. She gets calls and texts meant for Elon Musk, and some of them are pretty weird… Beach towns are the next to take a hit… Doctors say smoking marijuana could worsen COVID-19 symptoms… The gruesome and heroic afterlife of Peter the Dog… Are you storing your producer properly?