Texas Gov. Greg Abbott bans any COVID-19 vaccine mandates -- including for private employers

[LetMyPeopleVote]

Source: Texas Tribune

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday issued another executive order attempting to crack down on COVID-19 vaccine mandates — this time banning any entity in Texas, including private businesses, from requiring vaccinations from employees or customers.

Abbott also called on the Legislature to pass a law to the same effect.

COVID-19 vaccine requirements by government agencies, cities, counties and school districts were already banned by a previous executive order — which is currently being fought in court by San Antonio Independent School District. The Legislature also already passed into law a ban on so-called vaccine passports — which would allow businesses to require proof of vaccination to receive service. However, Texas had up to this point allowed private businesses to require vaccines of their own employees.

The latest move appears to be partly motivated by President Joe Biden's actions in September that required all employers with more than 100 workers to be vaccinated or test weekly for the virus.

"In yet another instance of federal government overreach, the Biden Administration is now bullying many private entities into imposing COVID-19 vaccine mandates, causing workforce disruptions that threaten Texas's continued recovery from the COVID-19 disaster," Abbott said in his order.

Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2021/10/11/texas-greg-abbott-covid-19-vaccine-mandate/?utm_campaign=trib-social&utm_content=1633993223&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

[ZonkerHarris]

1. So much for small government Republicans. Messing with private businesses now. When will they

come for yours?

[rdking647]

2. i really wish he would just dissappear

im sick and tired of him literally killing people

[SoCalDavidS]

6. More Than 50% Of The TX Voters Are Fine With The Deaths

They're not gonna let any Lib tell them what to do.

[olegramps]

52. The Republicans will stop at nothing to establish a dictatorship with Trump as Fuhrer.

It is just that damnable simple. As the majority remain snugly apathetic the Republicans have been able to enlist millions of misled citizens to help them destroy the Republic with their 24/7 propaganda campaign. These people have been convinced that only they are true Americans and only they can save the nation. It is just a replay of what transpired in Germany and is taking place throughout Europe in several countries. It is just plain demagoguery by Trump and his brain dead followers that creates straw men and vow to come to the rescue of the nation. It is the same story. In order to save the nation they demand increasingly more authoritarian powers to slay the mythical enemy they created and viola you are living in a police state under constant threat of being arrested for some contrived crime for not being patriotic.

Good luck people. It may indeed to late to save the Republic unless by some miracle the people can be awaken in time. I am not very confident that this will happen. The majority have been lulled into state of are complacency in their imagined cocoon of invincibility just as those good German law abiding citizens had believed.

[SoCalDavidS]

3. Yeah, The Pro-Business Party nt

[napi21]

4. Guess they don't care if you get sick! I got my vaccine way back in April and am very happy & proud

to tell every one that I haven't gotten this disgusting virus & don't intend to either.

[SouthernDem4ever]

5. Abbott's head has no marbles left, it's an empty void of lunacy

[rdking647]

7. ive been hesitate to wish he would just drop dead

but no more. he should be arrested for murder and treated as a murderer

[rambler_american]

30. Depraved Heart Murder is a thing. It surely applies to Abbott

"Depraved heart murder is the form of murder that establishes that the wilful doing of a dangerous and reckless act with wanton indifference to the consequences and perils involved, is just as blameworthy, and just as worthy of punishment, when the harmful result ensues, as is the express intent to kill itself. This highly blameworthy state of mind is not one of mere negligence. It is not merely one even of gross criminal negligence. It involves rather the deliberate perpetration of a knowingly dangerous act with reckless and wanton unconcern and indifference as to whether anyone is harmed or not. The common law treats such a state of mind as just as blameworthy, just as anti-social and, therefore, just as truly murderous as the specific intents to kill and to harm."
~ https://www.duhaime.org/Legal-Dictionary/Term/DepravedHeartMurder

[NJCher]

38. yes, some murders

and others are just reducing the size of the republican party.

Whatta' guy!

[Baked Potato]

8. No shoes, no shirt, no vaccine.. No service MFer! Nt

[bucolic_frolic]

9. Helps the TX funeral industry - remember GWB's Funeralgate?

[TexasTowelie]

22. I do. I also remember GWB's NursingHomeGate vividly since Bush was trying to push tort reform

and I was the statistician at the Department of Insurance that was reading and processing the claim reports.

[oregonjen]

10. So I can also ignore the no shoes, no shirt, no service rules?

Or is it only banning businesses from having vaccine mandates?

[LetMyPeopleVote]

11. Greg Abbott just claimed he's banning vaccine requirements from "any entity" in Texas.

Link to tweet

[sinkingfeeling]

12. Uh, he has zero power to tell a corporation what to do. He's just a

wannabe dictator.

[Polybius]

45. Here in NYC, you have to show proof of a vaccine to get into restaurants

The right-wing is saying exactly what you said in our case here. So what's the answer? Does the government have the right to mandate that they must show their card, that they must not ask for their card, neither, or both?

[sinkingfeeling]

46. Governments can mandate health and safety rules. They can't prevent a private

business from following their own business decisions involving health and safety.

[justhanginon]

13. A hateful, disgusting excuse for a human being. I better stop there,

with discretion being the better part of valor.

[paleotn]

14. Sorry, Gregg. That's not how this works.

He's smart enough to know that. Political grandstanding instead of doing his fucking job.

[rdking647]

15. the federal government shoudl do the following

1) ban all air travel into and out of texas airport)
2) ban all cruise ships at the port of galveston
3) every sports league should announce that there will be no games played in texas
4) every entertainer should refuse to play in texas

strangle this whole fucking state

[rainin]

16. He knows what he's doing. Any business that has mandates will now be set upon by crazy

lunatics insisting they can't be required to do anything. So, if a corporation mandates the vaccine, it'll be up to front-line employees to enforce it, at their own risk. He's setting up workers for a show down. It's going to get even more ugly out there.

[rdking647]

17. american airlines is based in texas

they should just cancel every flight to and from the state

[TexasTowelie]

24. Same with Southwest Airlines.

Oops, they are cancelling their flights already.

[Lonestarblue]

18. Abbott and his rabid Republican cabal are fine with protecting embryonic cells

because they claim to be pro life. How is it pro life when you issue ridiculous orders that you know will result in thousands of deaths—of living people, not a few cells!

Republicans don’t really care how many people they kill—they just think it will help them get reelected—and innthis wacko state it probably will unless those who are dying are Republican voters. I suspect many are not because it is the poor black and Hispanic folks who are often hit hardest by Covid.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

19. Abbott wants to kill more Texans

[yaesu]

20. its time for all businesses to pull out of that fascist state nt

[mahatmakanejeeves]

26. Exxon Mobil? Who's going to make all those oil-based products?

Also, Houston's being the fourth biggest city in the country* might make this tough.

* I think. I can check.

[TexasTowelie]

39. Don't forget that Dallas, San Antonio, and Austin are now in the top 10 cities in the country.

And for those boycotting Koch paper products, their main competitor Kimberly Clark is located in Irving. People may have to resort to tearing pages out of the catalogue again.

[groundloop]

21. The cruise industry will most certainly ignore him, just like death-sentence DeSantis.

Cruise ships are operating under CDC guidance right now, which means essentially fully vaccinated. They, out of any business, can't afford to have an outbreak now and are being very careful with this.

Not only are they requiring proof of vaccination but also a negative Covid test within two days prior to boarding and masking while indoors. I don't think it's a stretch to say that Galveston desperately wants cruise ships to continue using their port facilities.

[Evolve Dammit]

23. More death, more death, we're #1!!!!!! Jesus H TX, had enough death yet?? It must be a

death wish?? What makes him so attractive to you? Bizarre.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

25. It's like George Wallace standing in the schoolhouse doorway.

Or, to be precise, the doorway that led to the university's registrar's office.

He's getting his followers all worked up, but in the end, it will be for nothing.

{edited} Grandstanding. That's the word I was looking for.

Hat tip, https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142811628#post14

[Captain Zero]

50. Won't this just end up in a court? He will lose?

But in the meantime it creates chaos and uncertainty, anger, and sets citizens against each other.

Is it the Constitution that says something about providing for domestic tranquility?

[mahatmakanejeeves]

51. It's a Constitutional issue, but not that part. The part that counts is ........

the Commerce clause.

The Commerce clause allowed for the Administrative Procedure Act, and that's why there's an OSHA.

[nattyice]

27. Would this apply to say, Lockheed Martin, a contractor that has to abide by the Executive Order?

There are a lot of people employed by them in Fort Worth.

[Cozmo]

28. Secede already!

[hadEnuf]

29. People should get out of Texas while they can.

And any of these other states run by these psychotic Republican governors.

[rockfordfile]

31. He has no true power to do that. Companies support the mandate

[orangecrush]

32. This man is incapable of shame

And should be brought up on criminal charges.

[Turbineguy]

33. Republicans can help

Their Governor by getting sick and dying in droves.

[tclambert]

34. Why doesn't he just go around smearing the virus in people's faces?

It might save him some time.

[PSPS]

35. Sorry, you can't ban private employers from having a mandate. This is just for MAGA cred in '24.

He and DeSantis are trying to out-MAGA each other to get that all-important MAGA vote in '24.

[LudwigPastorius]

36. The party of Small Government and Personal Freedom, ladies and gentlemen...

telling business owners what they can and can't do!


Go fuck yourself, Abbott, you cowardly scumbag.

[DBoon]

37. If your company wants you to relocated to Texas ...

... and you have a choice of jobs, just say "no".

No job is worth catching Covid.

Not that Elon Musk cares.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

40. I miss the days when the Republicans hated big government

Link to tweet

[Jon King]

41. Meaningless because Texas is an at will work state.

Employers can fire an employee for any reason or no reason. These anti-vaxxers would be known in the work place, they are loud. So an employer can simply fire them and not even mention why.

[Kablooie]

42. Exactly the opposite of Los Angeles.

On Nov 1 LA will require many businesses to check vaccination proof and only allow customers that have been vaccinated to enter.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

43. The litigation on this executive order will be fun to watch

Link to tweet

[Hekate]

44. Oh deary deary me. What I wish for that man would get me a DU time-out. nt

[turbinetree]

47. SO Abbott did you get a fucking shot of the vaccine....did you make that fucking individualist

choice......and did your minions make that choice or did you order them....

Maybe American Airlines should move the headquarters out of the state and put it back in Pittsburg, since they bought the airline through the mergers USAir, America West , and just for fun maybe the defense department should move the F-35 production lines out of your fucked up state, and just for added fun maybe the army and the airforce, navy should move the bases....I would gladly pay for the move, since I am a taxpayer basically subsidizing your state to give the same locals money to survive just a thought, since you don't have any clue what national defense workers mean and what that entails .....

[The Wizard]

48. Maybe, with some luck,

his encounter with Richard Widmark is nigh.

[Hotler]

49. Wasn't it the repugs that came up with ....

No shirt, no shoes , no service just because of the dirty stinking hippies?

[Texin]

53. How can Abbott legally do that to a PRIVATE employer? How is it enforceable?

[jmowreader]

54. What will be fun...

…is when one of Texas’ large employers…oh, let’s say Memorial Hermann hospital group, one of the two airlines or a defense contractor…says “fuck this guy, we’re doing it anyway.” They can afford better lawyers than he is.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

55. Dallas Regional Chamber issues statement on Texas Gov. Abbott's mandate banning vaccine requirement

Link to tweet