(CNN) – A covid-19 rebellion is brewing in Pennsylvania, where Republican-led counties and some businesses have said they will challenge the restrictive orders of Democratic Governor Tom Wolf.
Wolf has said he will withhold stimulus funds from those counties if they ignore his orders. He took a staggered strategy to reopen the state and moved dozens of counties to a new, more open “yellow” phase. Some of those still in “red” no longer want to wait for the state.
President Donald Trump naturally cheered counties on Twitter on Monday and accused Democrats of trying to move slowly through the opening to hurt him in November. (For Trump, it’s always about Trump, even if it’s actually about public safety.)
This was the president’s tweet:
“The great people of Pennsylvania want their freedom now, and they are fully aware of what that implies. Democrats move slowly, everywhere United States, for political purposes. They would wait until November 3 if it was up to them. Don’t play the politics. Be careful, move fast! ”
Wolf then tweeted:
“The politicians who are encouraging us to abandon the fight are acting in the most cowardly way.”
It’s the opposite in South Dakota: Republican Gov. Kristi Noem is struggling with Native American tribes who want more restrictions, in part because they don’t have easy access to health care. They have erected checkpoints to keep people away.
Disagreement everywhere
In the impossible debate about when and how to reopen it continues everywhere.
States are stepping aside from the decisions of individual counties and cities.
Some companies that can open are not.
Other businesses that have opened are closing again.
And many who can’t open wonder how long they will survive.
The federal government is taking very little action as new guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which are still under review by the White House, remain unpublished.
A literally divided city: In Bristol, the Virginia-Tennessee border runs through the middle of State Street, always divided into two.
But now the division is much more significant. The Republican Governor of Tennessee lifted many restrictions. The Democratic governor of Virginia has not.
Then CNN’s Natasha Chen found Delta Blues BBQ open for dinner in Tennessee. Across the street, the Burger Bar can only pick up or drop off on the sidewalk.
They call for a regional approach: And even as Virginia moves toward lessening restrictions, Chen notes that the more populous local governments in northern Virginia have asked him to do so at the regional level.
Bristol could be ready. Arlington and Alexandria and Fairfax County, urban areas, still. That pattern is repeated across the United States.
Working together in the west: California Governor Gavin Newsom announced Monday that the five western compact states – California, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon and Washington – are asking the federal government for $ 1 billion in aid to avoid drastic budget cuts.
Asterisk in Florida: Republican Governor Ron DeSantis has drawn a lot of attention to reopening his state, and the low numbers there are encouraging, even when analyzed (Florida does not include probable cases of coronavirus in their death toll like many other states do).
Large counties are still closed: Representing nearly a third of the state’s population, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and Broward have not followed suit and will remain relatively closed until at least May 15.
Who Is Ron DeSantis? There is a very good profile of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in the newspaper The Washington Post. It includes some great comparisons of DeSantis with Trump and also some of his personal affectations, which include twisting his hair.
Frustration in Georgia: There is clear frustration between the mayor of Atlanta, who supports continued social distancing measures, and the state’s Republican governor, who opened the state.
To complicate all of this, even after opening, we won’t know for several weeks if it leads to new or increased outbreaks. That information should start coming out of Georgia, where some restaurants started opening on April 27. Many restaurants have remained closed.
Open and close: a Massachusetts ice cream parlor that opened and then closed after customers failed to follow social distance guidelines.
“One of my best workers quit yesterday at the end of his shift. She put up with him during his shift, ”owner Mark Lawrence told CNN affiliate WFXT. “But the words they said to him and the language they used, you wouldn’t even say in the men’s locker room. And to tell a 17-year-old girl, they should be ashamed of themselves. “
Demands are starting to build up: in Maine, in Pennsylvania, in Florida, in Nevada.
Tesla has sued Alameda County in California for the closure of its Fremont factory.
Elon Musk has become a leading critic of the shutdown and a driver of discredited claims about the coronavirus on his Twitter account. He also promised to make fans that never appeared.
No one knows how he got to the White House
This is a real example of why contact tracing can be so difficult.
The White House still doesn’t know how Vice President Mike Pence’s press secretary Katie Miller caught covid-19. They also don’t know how the president’s valet caught it.
There is no clear plan to deal with that: Check out this from CNN’s Kaitlin Collins and Kevin Liptak: An official said he wasn’t sure which colleagues would be staying at home. Some officials who had had contact with Miller announced that they would be quarantined, while others who had similar contact with her did not.
LOOK: Why wasn’t Mike Pence quarantined?
Trip canceled: Pence, for example, is not in quarantine. A weekend trip to Camp David was scrapped in part due to concerns about the coronavirus. Pence and Trump were there last weekend. And also Miller.
Trump is frustrated: In conversations this weekend, Trump has expressed concern that advisers contracting the coronavirus weaken his message that the outbreak is on the decline and that states should start reopening, according to a person who spoke to him.
Why reopening won’t fix everything
Andrew Yang, the former Democratic presidential hopeful and promoter of a universal basic income, was interviewed by Joe Biden in a campaign podcast published on Monday and shared his concern that the economy will not recover in part because companies will not hire again. your employees fast enough.
Actually, they are not that interested in hiring workers, argued Yang, who is also a CNN commentator. This is an interesting point:
“Investors are not investing in job growth, they are investing in companies’ profitability, and the harsh reality is that many of these companies can operate more efficiently and profitably with fewer people.”
“I am aware of what many of the top CEOs of companies think and they are confidentially telling people that they are not going to hire many whom they fired or let go.”
“This economy is not going to go back to the way it was before as an elastic band, in part because that relationship you describe, that if companies work well, workers will benefit, that negotiation has broken down and now it hardly exists.”
– .
