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Republicans Sue, Censure Gov. Abbott Over Ongoing Restrictive Executive Orders
Townhall.com ^ | July 11, 2020 | Bethany Blankley

Posted on 07/11/2020 6:47:39 AM PDT by Kaslin

Despite the mainstream media narrative, Texas leads the nation in coronavirus recoveries, and its coronavirus death rate is .01 percent.

Of a population of roughly 29 million people, there have been 2.6 million tests for the coronavirus. Among them, 230,346 positive cases have been reported, or .79 percent of the population. Roughly 8.85 percent of those who have been tested have tested positive for the virus. And only those who are presenting symptoms are tested, so the number is slightly skewed.

There have been an estimated 118,326 recoveries, and 2,918 reported coronavirus-related deaths as of July 9, according to the Texas Department of Health and Human Services coronavirus database.

Former legislators, Republicans and conservatives have filed multiple law suits against Republican Gov. Greg Abbott for multiple actions he’s taken that they argue violate the Texas Constitution, U.S. Constitution and privacy laws. 

With a successful recovery rate and significantly low death rate of one tenth of one percent, critics argue there is no reason for the governor to not reopen the state to get people fully back to work. Instead, the governor just extended his emergency order for another 30 days as of July 10.

All the while, he has said his decisions have been made based on the data and science, and the data supports reopening—not continued closures.

According to the state database, the number of coronavirus-related deaths shows a downward trend—and recoveries far outweigh deaths. Infection rates per county population are minuscule—roughly one percent and less. Death rates are fractions of one percent.

Consider the data reported by the state: in Dallas County, the number of total coronavirus cases is 29,160, since the state and county began tracking the data. Of them, there have been 16,192 recoveries and 426 deaths. As of July 8, there are 11,529 active cases. Of the county’s 2.6 million people, the coronavirus case number/infection rate is 1.1 percent. The death rate is .000037. (Divide 426 by 2.6 million.)

In Harris County, the reported number of total coronavirus cases is 40,012. Of them there have been 12,856 recoveries and 411 deaths. As of July 8, there are 26,048 active cases. Of the county’s 4 million people, the case number/infection rate is 1.0 percent. The death rate is .01 percent. (Again, divide the number of cases and deaths by population.)

In Tarrant County, the reported number of total coronavirus cases is 16,180. Of them, there have been 7,018 recoveries and 254 coronavirus-related deaths. As of July 8, there are 8,319 active cases. Of the county’s 2 million people, the case number/infection rate is .80 percent. The death rate is .01 percent.

In Travis County, the reported number of total coronavirus cases is 13,161. Of them, there have been 9,837 recoveries and 159 coronavirus-related deaths. As of July 8, there are 2,420 active cases. Of the county’s 1.2 million people, the case number/infection rate is 1.0 percent. The death rate is .01 percent.

In Bexar County, the reported number of total coronavirus cases is 16,725. Of them, there have been 6,191 recoveries and 146 coronavirus-related deaths. As of July 8, there are 9,552 active cases. Of the county’s 2 million people, the case number/infection rate is .83 percent. The death rate is .0073 percent.

In El Paso County, the reported number of total coronavirus cases is 8,385. Of them, there have been 5,155 recoveries and 145 coronavirus-related deaths. As of July 8, there are 9,552 active cases. Of the county’s roughly 840,000 people, the case number/infection rate is .99 percent. The death rate is .01 percent.

Thanks to increased federal funding, deployment of the National Guard, and exceptional medical facilities and staff, Texas is now averaging more than 50,000 COVID-19 tests per day. 

With increased testing, increased number of cases is to be expected. However, Texas has the 28th-lowest COVID case rate in the U.S. 

In Texas, the COVID-19 positivity rate has also been flat for 10 days—even over the July 4th holiday weekend.

Of the staffed hospital beds available, 20 percent are open and available specifically for coronavirus patients, and 60.8 percent of Texas’ ventilators are available. 

According to Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) calculations:

- 17 percent of beds and 61 percent of ventilators are available in Dallas County;

- 14 percent of beds and 53 percent of ventilators are available in Harris County;

- 21 percent of beds and 62 percent of ventilators are available in Travis County;

- 14 percent of beds and 52 percent of ventilators are available in Bexar County;

- 17 percent of beds and 61 percent of ventilators are available in Tarrant County.

And these are staffed beds, not licensed beds, meaning there are far more hospital beds available if hospitals were fully staffing their floors. Significant numbers of staff have been let go because of Abbott’s executive shut down orders.

Despite media claims to the contrary, the data indicates that there is no hospital crisis—for coronavirus patients—in Texas. 

But there appears to be a healthcare crisis for non-coronavirus patients. More than 500 doctors sent a letter to President Donald Trump arguing that the state shutdowns are creating a “mass casualty event.” Their cry has apparently fallen on deaf ears at the national and state level.

Texas’ .01 percent death rate is the lowest COVID-19 fatality rate out of the most affected states, and it is tied for the 14th-lowest COVID-19 fatality rate in the U.S., the TPPF notes.

“While many seem to suggest that Texas is in bad shape, they aren’t telling the whole story,” David Balat, director of the Right on Healthcare initiative at the TPPF, told me. “The fact is Texas is one of the safest places to be during the pandemic. We should all be cautious, but we are not in the desperate crisis and overburdening hospital beds like many in the media and officials claim.”

Of the state’s most populated counties, the case number/infection rate is one percent or less. Of Texas’ lesser-populated counties, the case number/infection rate is far less than one percent, which is the norm across the country, according to research conducted by the Heritage Foundation. 

More than half of all U.S. counties report zero COVID-19 deaths. 

States and counties that fail to reopen could cause economic output to fall by $2 trillion, the Heritage Foundation projects.

Consider these statistics: 

* 99.0 percent of Travis County residents don’t have the coronavirus;

* 99.2 percent of Harris County residents don’t have the virus;

* 99.1 percent of Bexar County residents don’t have the virus;

* 98.9 percent of Dallas County residents don’t have the virus; 

* 99.2 percent of Tarrant County residents don’t have the virus.

Based on this data, Texas residents are asking why the governor hasn’t reopened the state. Gov. Abbott has said the roughly 3 million jobs lost were directly related to businesses shut down as a result of his executive orders, but many of those businesses aren’t reopening and people won’t have jobs to go back to. 

JoAnn Fleming, founder of Grassroots America We The People, in a recent email to activists said, “Under the cover of unconstitutional ‘Emergency Powers’ laws on the books, COVID-19 has been used to silence the voice of The People, expand government authority, commit taxpayers to untold debt, destroy businesses/jobs, empower socialist redistribution of wealth, put a government boot on churches, ration health care for non-COVID patients, and torch civil liberties.”

The Texas House Freedom Caucus released a letter it sent to Abbott, arguing its case for the need for a special legislative session.

“This is not hard or difficult to understand,” Fleming said. “Gov. Abbott should immediately call a special session of the legislature to allow for public hearings and debate about the appropriate, constitutional response to COVID-19.”

"Forget calling the Governor’s Office,” she adds. “He did not heed the thousands of calls during the 2019 legislative session, nor those in support of our unity project – The Lone Star Agenda, nor calls about the shutdown, [or] contact tracing contract. He and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick have ignored the last several Texas Conservative Grassroots Coalition letters as we attempted to lodge our grievances."

More than 1,800 Texans have now sued Gov. Abbott over the state's contact tracing program, which they argue violates constitutional rights and privacy laws. Roughly 400 others have also sued Abbott for issuing what they argue are unconstitutional executive orders.

Jared Woodfill, the attorney who has filed lawsuits on behalf of the plaintiffs and is a former Harris County Republican chairman, told me in an email, "Governor Abbott continues to act like a king, refusing to convene the Legislature to address his unconstitutional orders. Abbott is unilaterally destroying our economy and trampling on our constitutional rights. Why won’t he convene the Legislature and allow our elected representatives to express their constituents' voice?” 

“He seems to forget we live in a Republic, not a monarchy,” Woodfill adds. “It is time to unmask his unconstitutional orders! It is time for freedom and liberty to be restored in Texas.” 

Woodfill’s firm has filed suit at the Texas Supreme Court, the District Courts of Travis and Harris Counties, with the City of Galveston, and another is expected to be filed in federal court soon. 

Within days of the latest executive order Abbott issued requiring face covering statewide, several county Republican parties passed censure resolutions against Abbott: Ector County, Harrison County, Montgomery and Llano County, citing abuses of executive authority, among other violations. 

The censures will be considered, and possibly sustained, by the delegates of the 2020 Republican Party State Convention. Several other counties are expected to pass similar resolutions, according to the Texas Scorecard.

The question Texans keep asking is why won’t Abbott fully reopen a state whose own data reports a .01 percent death rate and 1 percent case/infection rate or less? 



TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: covid19; gregabbott; panic; panicporn; panicpornstars; texas
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To: Kaslin

A Texan who was in on a Zoom meeting with me yesterday said that many Texans are up in arms over the lockdowns and mandatory mask orders.


21 posted on 07/11/2020 7:17:47 AM PDT by Fiji Hill
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To: MuttTheHoople

And some counties may not even have a hospital with ICU beds.

And that rarely gets mentioned, either.


22 posted on 07/11/2020 7:18:35 AM PDT by mewzilla (Break out the mustard seeds.)
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To: Kaslin

Later.


23 posted on 07/11/2020 7:31:25 AM PDT by wjcsux (Inside every DemocRAT politician is a fascist dictator screaming to be let loose.)
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To: Kaslin

They should add Mitt to the list. No Republican should be censored more than that weasel.


24 posted on 07/11/2020 7:39:37 AM PDT by JudyinCanada
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To: MuttTheHoople

Spot on about that carpetbagging trash from Kennebunkport. Watch for George P. to try and slither into the Governors mansion soon.


25 posted on 07/11/2020 7:44:09 AM PDT by SanchoP (We're passed the biological softening up and beginning the open warfare strategy. WAKE UP!!)
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To: JudyinCanada

Saw this on a site researching his background FWIW

“Wallace Calvin Abbott, who founded Abbott Pharmaceuticals. Do you want to guess what Gov. Greg Abbott’s father’s name is? Calvin Abbott.”


26 posted on 07/11/2020 7:44:39 AM PDT by proust (Justice delayed is injustice.)
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To: MuttTheHoople

‘(again, I love typing those three words).’

okay; virtue noted...


27 posted on 07/11/2020 7:51:42 AM PDT by IrishBrigade
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To: MuttTheHoople
Interesting post.

Here in New Hampshire we have an equally-lukewarm RINO Governor. He announced beforehand that he wouldn’t be attending PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP’s rally tonight in Portsmouth. The rally was postponed due to weather, but God flushed out another confounding Governor.

28 posted on 07/11/2020 7:57:22 AM PDT by Laslo Fripp (The Sybil of Free Republic)
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To: Kaslin

Make sure the numbers are correct and not 50-75% inflated


29 posted on 07/11/2020 8:07:24 AM PDT by butlerweave
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To: Kaslin

No governor should have this kind of power for more than a few days. Where are the legislatures? When you allow governors to have this kind of power then you no longer have a representative government. You now have dictatorships.


30 posted on 07/11/2020 8:19:56 AM PDT by Revel
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To: Fiji Hill

“many Texans are up in arms”

No they aren’t. “Up in arms” is what Antifa does. Texans aren’t doing s*** and I’m amazed.


31 posted on 07/11/2020 8:40:42 AM PDT by SaxxonWoods (Prediction: G. Maxwell will surprise everyone by not dying anytime soon.)
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To: Kaslin

Abbott’s political career is finished! He needs to be impeached.


32 posted on 07/11/2020 8:41:54 AM PDT by fortheDeclaration
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To: Walrus

There is widespread resistance to these orders. That is why he is threatening another lock down. In my County, the police have said they will not enforce the mask mandate.


33 posted on 07/11/2020 8:46:59 AM PDT by fortheDeclaration
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To: TheZMan

I know of 2 tests conducted on asymptomatic people as a cautionary, contact-related measure.


34 posted on 07/11/2020 8:47:36 AM PDT by Churchjack
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To: Moonmad27

What do you think this is a church setting? He is a public official abusing his powers and needs to be rebuked in public.


35 posted on 07/11/2020 8:48:17 AM PDT by fortheDeclaration
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To: Richard Kimball

Completely agree, I hate the guy now, he is nothing but a petty tyrant allowing medical quacks to run the State.


36 posted on 07/11/2020 8:49:24 AM PDT by fortheDeclaration
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To: Revel

Completely agree. And you note he is now hiding from the public! The man is evil and the legislative is being ignored. This is no different then King Charles 1. Gov. Abbott needs to be impeached for his unconstitutional acts


37 posted on 07/11/2020 8:52:44 AM PDT by fortheDeclaration
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To: SaxxonWoods

We have had protests and I am sure we going to have more. And, as you can see, Abbott is being sued by many people. The pressure is going to force him to convene a special legislature or his political career is finished.


38 posted on 07/11/2020 8:54:35 AM PDT by fortheDeclaration
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To: albie

Yep. I loved him before this, now...psssh. I would vote for him as a block but support—no way, not at all.


39 posted on 07/11/2020 9:09:41 AM PDT by Irenic (The pencil sharpener and Elmer's glue is put away-- we've lost the red wheelbarrow)
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To: fortheDeclaration

I grew up in Texas, still own the old family ranch there, and I pray you are right.


40 posted on 07/11/2020 9:18:33 AM PDT by SaxxonWoods (Prediction: G. Maxwell will surprise everyone by not dying anytime soon.)
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