AM Quickie

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TODAY'S HEADLINES:

The Biden Administration announced that there will be enough available coronavirus vaccine for every adult in the country by May, though it will take a bit longer than that to actually get every shot in someone’s arm.

Meanwhile, Texas governor Greg Abbot declares a full re-opening of his state and a repeal of the universal mask mandate, basically ensuring that health officials worst nightmares come true for the next few months.

And lastly, a lawyer who partly inspired California’s extremely worker-hostile Proposition 22 finds a new job: in the Biden Administration as a senior advisor on labor issues. Great!

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

The vaccine tidal wave is here. Thanks to the quick approval of the one-shot Johnson and Johnson vaccine and increased supply of the already-approved Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, President Biden announced on Tuesday that the country was on track to have enough vaccine for every adult American by the end of May. That doesn’t mean we’ll all have our shots by then, of course, but it means that distribution will be the only problem to solve, not supply.

The Administration claims that it helped create the new rush of doses by brokering a partnership between Johnson and Johnson and fellow big pharma giant Merck, which failed to develop a vaccine of its own but still has the capabilities to manufacture millions of doses.

The prior target for this step was the end of July, so it’s clear that the administration feels pretty confident in moving up its timetable.

The numbers so far aren’t overwhelming, but they’re definitely something: so far, about 51.7 million people had received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, and 26.1 million are fully inoculated.

The best case scenario is that the U.S. ends up with a massive surplus of vaccines this summer, and can start donating them to other countries in need. But on the other hand, we may need more for booster shots if virus resistant variants of the disease continue to circulate. Either way, the supply looks like it’s coming in.

Abbott Reopens Texas to Death

But as the country takes some steps forward on a national level, the GOP establishment in Texas is determined to take as many massive steps backward as possible.

On Tuesday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced a quote “full reopening” of the state and a full lifting of the statewide mask mandate, effective March 10. That means every business will be allowed to reopen at full capacity and no one will be required to wear masks.

Here’s his tweet, quote:

I just announced Texas is OPEN 100%. EVERYTHING.

Endquote.

That’s everything in all caps, just in case it wasn’t Texas enough for you.

Abbot’s plan is exactly what the experts we mentioned in yesterday’s quickie were afraid of.

In a follow-up tweet, Abbot cited the state’s increasing vaccination rates and low positivity and hospitalization rates as justification for the move. The irony of course is that his decision will almost certainly send those rates skyrocketing again, but he’s clearly betting that the political goodwill he’ll get from the state’s conservative establishment will make it all worth it.

Gilberto Hinojosa, the state’s Democratic party chairman, summed it up bluntly, saying quote:

“What Abbott is doing is extraordinarily dangerous. This will kill Texans. Our country’s infectious disease specialists have warned that we should not put our guard down, even as we make progress towards vaccinations. Abbott doesn’t care.”

Endquote.

He’s right. Abbott is wrong. And once again, it’s the people of Texas who will suffer.

Biden Hires Labor Lackey

And finally, one more story of a bad Biden administration hiring. It’s been a few days since we had one of those! Here we go.

On Tuesday, Bloomberg reported that Biden had hired Former Obama Labor Department official Seth Harris top adviser on labor issues. For people not tracking the minutiae of every hiring and firing in Washington, this news might not mean that much. But Harris is a name every person concerned with the future of workers’ rights in this country should know.

That’s because after working in the Department of Labor under Obama, he departed for the far more lucrative private sector, landing at the law firm Dentons, which counts on its list of clients little mom and pop companies like, say, Walmart.

Bloomberg’s report cited top labor leaders like AFL-CIO president Richard Trumpka saying positive things about Harris, but the disappointing bits of his record are still pretty hard to swallow.

For instance: Harris’s best-known act in the past few years is a 2015 paper he wrote for the Hamilton Project on quote “modernizing labor laws for twenty-first century work” by creating a new class of workers that weren’t employees or independent contractors, but something in between.

That paper went on to be positively cited by ridesharing giants Uber and Lyft in their celebration of the passage of Proposition 22, the California law that made it so gig workers in the state would receive a pittance of benefits, just enough that they wouldn’t be entitled to the full protections of an actual employee.

Let’s hope that his advice to the most pro-labor president of our lifetimes is a little better than that last idea!

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

An internal Justice Department document obtained by the Intercept reveals that Donald Trump referred a whopping 334 internal leaks to the FBI for prosecution, far more than any other president. Looks like old Donny didn’t mind the Deep State when he was trying to get it to do his dirty work.

Neera Tanden’s fraught nomination to lead the Office of Management and Budget is done, after she withdrew her candidacy on Tuesday night. We wish her well in whatever other Administration job she’s quietly shuffled into!

The Washington Post reports that the conservative-majority supreme court may be bending towards the worst possible outcome in the voting rights case we mentioned yesterday, indicating that they may support making it more difficult to challenge the glut of Republican voting laws aimed at suppressing votes across the country.

And finally, despite the mounting calls for New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to resign, the Post reports that the State’s top party leadership isn’t joining in yet, instead siding with calls for an independent investigation before we know Cuomo’s fate. Playing it safe, in other words, in case Cuomo somehow wriggles out of this one.

MAR 3, 2021 - AM QUICKIE

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Jack Crosbie

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn