☕️ Coffee & Covid ☙ Tuesday, October 12, 2021 ☙ THE TROUBLE WITH TRIBBLES 🦠

In the roundup, Southwest Airlines keeps telling fibs about why it isn’t flying; its pilots’ union files suit; Governor Abbot makes a HUGE move that will send tremors all around the country ...

Happy Tuesday! Terrific news today, you’re going to love it. In the roundup, Southwest Airlines keeps telling fibs about why it isn’t flying; its pilots’ union files suit; Governor Abbot makes a HUGE move that will send tremors all around the country and hopefully bring fruit to Florida; media kind-of covers the latest self-inflicted Covid injury in the form of log jammed container ships; and we have a truly terrific set of new Covid numbers from Florida.

🗞*COVID NEWS AND COMMENTARY* 🗞

🤥 Southwest Airlines is still lying about the reason thousands of their flights have been cancelled. As very non-gruntled stranded passengers gazed up at the beautiful cloudless night sky, stars twinkling, a cool breeze blowing gently across the tarmac, Southwest Airlines’ professional dissemblers were announcing that “extreme weather” had grounded all flights. Uh huh.

In a statement released yesterday, the Texas-based carrier said “Although we have some new weather in parts of our system, today’s operation has vastly improved from the weekend, with a much smaller number of cancellations linked to our weekend recovery efforts.”

Give me a break.

Now, we believed in this whole pandemic thing but, I mean, come ON. You have to draw the line SOMEWHERE. Why not just blame the flightless planes on pixies or faeries or something? Or how about gremlins, or — wait — maybe Tribbles! That’s it! They can really jam up the machinery if you let them get loose. Just look what happened on Star Trek. It was probably Tribbles.

And, how garbage is the media? How hard would it be to “fact check” Southwest over its bogus claims of weather shutting down its flights WHEN ALL THE OTHER AIRLINES ARE STILL FLYING! Oh, I guess the weather is getting pretty selective these days. One airline at a time now. Please. Y’all know I take a pretty dubious view of most national reporters. But really. How credulous can these nescient reporters actually be? Check your weather app! JUST LOOK OUTSIDE, DUMMY! What weather??

One of my personal pet peeves is how unremarkable it has become for corporations to lie without any consequences. What on Earth? It’s NOT okay to lie. Lying is morally reprehensible. Liars should be fired FOR CAUSE. Lying is a clue to a bad character, suggesting more profound ethical infirmities.

I have some advice for Southwest Airlines’ president, Gary Kelly (linkedin.com/in/garyckelly): STOP. LYING. Maybe it’s not illegal, I get it. But there’s this thing, what’s the name again? It’s the rules or regulations or commandments or something. Moses found them engraved on a granite cutting board someplace. Anyway, there’s like ten of them or so, I can’t remember exactly, but the point is they are pretty clear on the whole lying thing. The Bible says “all liars” will share in the Lake of Fire. All. That’s broad enough to include lying airline executives. Just saying. Sounds like someplace you might want to avoid flying to, Gary. ‘Cause that’s your current destination.

All this makes me want to buy some Southwest stock so I can bring a shareholder derivative lawsuit to fire Kelly for breaching his fiduciary duty to TELL THE TRUTH. Do I have to do everything?

🔥 Maybe not. On Saturday, Southwest Airlines pilots’ union filed a federal lawsuit against the carrier, asking for a temporary injunction and claiming that the airline violated U.S. labor laws. At least ONE union is doing something useful for its members. And after all the airborne particulate finally lands, I hope all you union folks remember how useless your union leadership was during this pandemic.

🦸 In related news, Super-Governor Greg Abbott of Texas issued an executive order yesterday BANNING PRIVATE VACCINE MANDATES. Yep. He did it. His executive order says “the Biden Administration is now bullying many private entities into imposing Covid-19 vaccine mandates, causing workforce disruptions that threaten Texas’ recovery from the Covid-19 disaster.”

Workforce disruptions. I wonder what he could be referring to? As I mentioned before, Southwest Airlines is headquartered in Dallas, Texas. Probably just a coincidence.

Anyway, Abbott’s order also says “vaccines are strongly encouraged for those eligible to receive one, but must always be voluntary for Texans.” Voluntary. Not mandatory. Here’s the money part, paragraph one:

> “No entity in Texas can compel receipt of a COVID-19 vaccine by any individual, including an employee or a consumer, who objects to such vaccination for any reason of personal conscience, based on a religious belief, or for medical reasons, including prior recovery from COVID-19. I hereby suspend all relevant statutes to the extent necessary to enforce this prohibition.”

BOOM. Microphone, dropped.

Governor Abbott: 01. Lying Airline Liars: 0.

Your move, Southwest.

I should note that Governor Abbott’s EO also adds the item to the next Special Legislative Session, stating it will expire once the legislators pass a permanent law. This will be Texas’ THIRD special session. None for us so far. What’s up, Florida lawmakers? We’re being beaten by a Texas mile.

💉 MedPage ran an opinion piece last week asking the obvious question, “Why Are Highly Vaxxed Colleges Implementing Strict COVID Policies?” The author points out that 98% injected Duke University issued an OUTDOOR masking requirement. Brown University closed its dining halls last month and told students that they can’t gather in groups larger than five folks. Oberlin requires masks indoors AND outdoors and only allows mask removal when eating alone or with the student’s roommate. So. Dumb.

Um, the Ivy League is not suffering from a virus. The Ivy League is suffering from a perspicacity deficit.

🔥 Speaking of lying liars, one major developing story is the stalled container ships. They are literally starting to clog up the ocean around the U.S. as they wait for docking and unloading. You could probably walk across the Gulf of Mexico on them. But the corporate media is reporting the story as though there are some obscure “transportation constraints.” CNN ran an oblique article this weekend, headlined “Grocery store shelves aren’t going back to normal this year.”

But why?? CNN says it’s “because of labor, commodity and transportation constraints throttling supply chains[.]” Or maybe it’s extreme weather, or Tribbles. Who knows. According to the story, “A spokesperson for the multinational food and beverage company said in an email that the company is facing ‘high demand for labor’ and ‘logistics challenges.’” In a sub headline, CNN suggested this was “the new norm.”

Thanks for all the details, media.

Nowhere in the article can you find a single reference to vaccine mandates, Covid restrictions, or wacky quarantine procedures. Just “constraints.” What a load of horse hockey.

Winston Churchill wrote in “The Gathering Storm” about the UK’s political failures after World War I, which led inevitably to World War II. “The multitudes remained plunged in ignorance… and their leaders, seeking their votes, did not dare to undeceive them.” He bitterly complained about politicians’ “refusal to face unpleasant facts, desire for popularity and electoral success irrespective of the vital interests of the state.”

The free states need to step up before this shipping problem becomes a REAL crisis. If the ships can’t dock in California, let them come to Texas and Florida. We’ll take ‘em. How about some executive orders expediting the docks and expiring when permanent laws can be passed?

📊 *COVID IN FLORIDA AND ALACHUA COUNTY* 📊

We have a new weekly Covid report for Florida this morning. It provides yet more evidence that the experts and the media have been lying dogs.

U.S. Covid hospital admissions fell sharply from 2,127 to 1,724. That’s an average of only 35 per state. We’re keeping an eye on the northern states but this is a really good sign.

Florida’s Covid-19 “in use” hospital beds are down, a lot, from 5,216 last week to only 3,945 this week. That’s about 60 PER COUNTY. I guess that’s why the “overwhelmed hospitals” meme has drained out of the news tub. So much lying. Where are the hospital CEOs now? PLEASE don’t fall for the “overwhelmed doctors” lie next time.

Florida’s cases are down again, from 37,772 last week to only 25,792 this week. The peak on August 26 was 151,749. Somehow we survived. Again. At least, we survived Covid. I’m not sure yet about all the self-inflicted injuries. We’ll see.

Alachua County’s cases (positive test results) are down to minuscule levels — dropping from 427 to only 264 for the week, or 37 per day on average, even though the local school board continues to defy the State’s quarantine rules and is pumping out Covid tests faster than a jackrabbit driving a Tesla.

Florida’s positivity ratio fell remarkably from 6.5% last week to only 4.8% this week.

Alachua County’s positivity ratio is even lower, falling from 5.5% last week to only 3.4% this week — just above the false positive ratio.

Florida’s cases per 100K are also down, from 179 last week to 117 this week. Remember, it peaked in late August at 690.5. So.

And, deaths are finally down sharply too, falling from 233 last week to only 147 this week, or only 21 on a 7-day average. Again, all we hear from the media is the sound of chirping crickets on a cloudless night, perfect for flying.

So. Third time’s a charm, right? The experts have been wrong three times now. How many chances do they get?

Enjoy all this great news! I’m speaking at an event in Pensacola tonight at the Wahoos stadium, which starts at 6:30pm. Come on out if you’re close by, it should be great. In any case, I’ll be right back here tomorrow, jumbo-sized coffee mug at hand.

---

Join the C&C Army!
You can also find me on MeWe, mewe.com/i/coffee_and_covid.