Why they call it "the stupid party"

Florida bill would ban plastic straw bans until 2024

It should surprise no one that the author of the bill is a Republican.

It astonishes me that this Guardian story tells us who the author is and quotes his idiocy appropriately, but never mentions he is a Republican.

In the growing war against the environmental impact of plastic, Florida seems to be taking a giant step backwards by pushing legislation that would stop local authorities from banning plastic straws, a move that has, not surprisingly, angered many environmentalists.

The bill, under consideration by lawmakers, would place a five-year suspension on municipalities’ banning of plastic straws, pending a study from the Florida department of environmental protection.

Calling the banning of plastic straws “government overreach”, the Florida state senator Travis Hutson also amended the bill to create a $25,000 fine for local governments that regulate the material and another ban on municipal regulation of sunscreens that harm coral reefs, the Miami Herald reported.

Does he own a plastic straw and sunscreen factory?

This is inexplicably stupid.

And there's this.

There's A State Of Emergency In Washington Thanks To Anti-Vax Parents

A growing measles outbreak in Washington state led the governor to declare a state of emergency on Friday. 

Now, 35 cases have been confirmed in Clark County, a southwestern county that includes Vancouver, and 11 potential cases are awaiting confirmation. 

There has also been one confirmed case in King County, which includes Seattle.

So why the emergency declaration? Because measles is a highly contagious disease. 

The virus can live for up to two hours wherever an infected person has coughed or sneezed. 

According to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 90 percent of non-vaccinated individuals exposed to someone with the disease will also become infected.

Once upon a time, the United States had eliminated the measles, but outbreaks have increased as the anti-vaccine movement takes hold — and 18 states now allow for non-medical “philosophical” vaccination exemptions.

. . . .

“If your kids are immunized, you should feel really comfortable in the face of an outbreak,” Swanson said. 

Two doses of the measles vaccine are about 97 percent effective at preventing the disease, the CDC says, but even just one dose (which is what most kids under age 4 have) is 93 percent effective.

Swanson worries that sometimes the media coverage about measles outbreaks makes it seem there is a nationwide crisis over vaccination, but that’s not true. 

More than 90 percent of kids in this country are vaccinated, according to public health recommendations.

“The media tends to distort this,” she said. 

“But an outbreak like this shows why this issue can get distorted. Because the panic and frustration parents can feel is if their children are in a more vulnerable position because of decisions made by other people.”

GOP Arizona Lawmaker Claims Vaccinations Are ‘Communist’

As cases of measles continue to rise across the United States, public health advocates have cast a critical eye on state policies that make it easy for parents to avoid vaccinating their children. 

The Food and Drug Administration has even warned that it may try to act if the virus continues to spread. 

Facing that possibility, Arizona state Rep. Kelly Townsend (R) took to Facebook on Thursday bemoaning not the transmission of a wholly preventable illness but communism, for some reason.

“Dearest friends and people of Arizona, it seems we are prepared to give up our liberty, the very sovereignty of our body, because of measles,” wrote the five-term lawmaker. 

“I read yesterday that the idea is being floated that if not enough people get vaccinated, then we are going to force them to,” she continued. 

“The idea that we force someone to give up their liberty for the sake of the collective is not based on American values but rather, Communist.”

Not many people think parents should be allowed to deny their kids proper medical treatment for religious or philosophical (?) reasons.

Why is this supposed to be different?

And anyway that is not her real problem.

Townsend’s belief that vaccines cause harm — a claim researchers have repeatedly debunked — stems from her 22-year-old daughter’s unspecified health problems, according to The Washington Post. 

The lawmaker blames vaccines she gave her daughter at 10 months.

. . . .

Townsend’s home state scrapped a vaccine education program for parents late last year after protests from those who don’t vaccinate.

But this week, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) threatened to veto legislation currently under consideration in the state that would create a religious exemption from required vaccines.

“I’m anti-measles,” Ducey said.