No hard liquor in Pennsylvania

In Pennsylvania, the state liquor stores have a monopoly.

Governor Wolf closed them with the restaurants and movie houses at the first moment of the state lockdown.

Their website claims to be open but nobody has modified it in the least to enable it to deal with the surge in demand resulting from Wolf's decision to close all lawful retail outlets in the state.

The Post Gazette says one attempt in a thousand to get through on line actually succeeds.

Websites for commercial or out of state sources will not ship to PA.

Meanwhile, surrounding states, on lockdown or not, still allow liquor sales on the usual terms, with availability not at all compromised.

Governor Wolf got a problem with hard liquor?

People have been complaining to him about this since the beginning.

As of last Friday he was still being a prissy dick about it.

He has no plans to do anything to restore availability in Pennsylvania, and we all know he'd rather take a bullet in the head than relax the state store monopoly.

It's a ludicrous sacred cow for Democrats in this state based on the need for union campaign money, despite being a vote loser.

The people and voters of PA have wanted privatization for decades, and everybody knows it.

And that includes Democratic voters, though the margin is smaller than among Republicans.

But the GOP isn't the only party on which voters get ignored by office holders in favor of donors.

Grocery stores all over the state already sell beer and wine, and beer distributors, the more customary source for both retail and wholesale beer purchases, are all still in operation.

Beer and wine are essential but hard liquor is not?

The Giant Eagle can sell Miller Lite and Barefoot Merlot but not Jim Beam?

Phooey.