Mad masklessness: HEB fails (as do Albertson's, Tom Thumb), Kroger passes, as do some others

Update: HEB caved later on Friday, even if its press release was a bit confusing and self-undermining by using the word "expect" after the first "require" — the "expect" being the word I saw first, as HEB's Thursday afternoon PR remained defiant.

First, let me state that within the cult of Texas exceptionalism, there are three sub-cults in the business world, guaranteed. (There were four, but Jethro Jerry Jones' Dallas Cowboys have semi-sucked for so long that Stephen A. Smith's parody of "How 'bout them Cowboys" may be more of a cult in Texas than the real thing.

One? Whataburger. Just watch Twitter light up any time In-n-Out gets mentioned, as I've blogged.

The second? H-E-B, which I've miniblogged in Roundups about the neoliberal "national" magazine of Texas exceptionalism, Texas Monthly.

The third? Bucee's, of course.

Last August, Dan Solomon, who apparently has never met a puff piece he didn't like, did exactly that with HEB. Other stores, like Kroger, also gave employee pay bumps, cut store hours for restocking time, etc. I think Wally was the first on the reduced hours. (Second, Kroger is the only unionized grocery chain in Texas. That's another reason to shop there first.)

Also, in January, Mimi Swartz jumped on the fellation bandwagon, this for Charles Butt himself. (Related? Whether Kroger, HEB, or Wally, I hate any store that calls its employees "partners," unless, at a minimum, they have stock options, or at a maximum, like Winco, they have a direct piece of pie — if it's direct there.)

Now, to HEB's anti-public health stance on masks.

HEB's decision to almost IMMEDIATELY jump on Gov. Abbott's cancelling the state mask mandate smacks to me of maybe expecting this move to happen and definitely wanting it to happen. As of the time of this post, HEB was radio-silent on social media.

Since I live on the north exurban area of the Metroplex, I can't really boycott HEB. But? I can, and will, boycott Central Market. And HEB already knows that.

This San Antonio Current piece, which I saw as the No. 1 Facebook post when searching for HEB's Facebook handle to make sure I tagged it when Kroger announced it would continue requiring masks. The person who posted it was butthurt that the header had the word "bullshit" and also claimed that it was opinion.

Boo-hoo on the first count. Wrong on the second.

As I commented, there was a link in the first paragraph to a previous Current story about HEB employees complaining that the company was telling them to not enforce mask mandates. Facts on the ground, not opinion.

As far as the "bullshit"? It is. It's kabuki theater, as any non-cultist can tell.

HEB didn't respond as to whether it would hire security or how, if anything beyond new signs saying "masks are not required but  ureged" it actually would "urge" anything.

Now, Kroger's statement may in part be kabuki theater PR, seeing HEB get its ass kicked on social media.  After all, it did so itself with "Kroger Andy," as I also blogged last year. 

So? The enemy of my enemy is my friend, first. Second, Kroger waited a full day after the Texas and Mississippi orders to make a statement. Contrast that to HEB.

Besides, Kroger kicked ass on HEB in another way. Its announcement included saying that employees would get a $100 bonus to get vaccinated. Haven't heard that from HEB.

As for the HEB cultists and claiming HEB was so pioneering? More Kabuki theater. The Interwebz says it started requiring masks July 1. BUT that was only AFTER Strangeabbott pulled the teeth from his ordinance, but Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff then found the "loophole," per this story. And, per this story, it only acted when 85 percent of its stores were under municipal or county mask mandates after other local leaders followed Judge Wolff.

And? Kroger was only three weeks behind with its NATIONWIDE mask mandate.

That didn't stop HEB from, as part of a "stronger" plea to please wear masks, from engaging in this BS:

H-E-B was an early adopter of mask use before any mandates and orders had been passed.

I told HEB on Twitter that, per the above info, it wasn't even a half-truth; it was a 15 percent truth.

(Said "stronger plea" also appears to put the kibosh on a Thursday rumor that HEB would backtrack.)

Speaking of kabuki theater, Strangeabbott's original order became kabuki theater the moment he refused to prosecute anybody (aka Shelley Luther) and refused to let local governments do so.

What this is really all about, beyond Abbott the legalistic hairsplitter arising again with his no-masks order details, to riff on Chris Hooks, is Abbott being afraid of Christofascist Tim Dunn rounding up somebody to primary him. (No, it won't be Danny "Duty to Die" Goeb. Dan Patrick likes the freedom to snipe away from his Lite Guv spot.)

Worse news yet! Strangeabbott said he was originally planning to lift the mandate last month, before the #AbbottBlackout intervened!

(Tom Thumb and parent Albertson's are both going the HEB route, albeit with less public kabuki theater and without being a Texas cult. Wonder how the Texas exceptionalists would play this if it were the other around.) Fortunately, Sprouts and Aldi, along with Target and Costco, have joined Kroger. 

Sadly, D Mag, at that link immediately above, was a sucker for HEB PR, not noting that "expect" is not the same as "require."

Coronavirus week 43: Double-masking, latest on variant strains (and wear a mask on the bus)

• First, Pfizer says that the British and South African variants have only small effects on its vaccine. Note that this study it cites doesn't include the Brazilian variant. Also, "small sample size" and other issues apply to the study.

• More here on all the variants in the U.S. Pfizer and Moderna both say in that story that they're planning booster vaccines.

• Will an annual vaccination be needed? And, how much will it need to be tweaked, assuming I'm right that a universal vaccine against all coronaviruses just isn't feasible, at least not anywhere in the near future? Answers on that are here, and seem to be "probably" for the first and "moderately" for the second. That said, per the likes of Skeptical Raptor, mRNA vaccines are fairly easy to tweak. On the other hand, they remain two dose vaccines. And, on the third hand, I wonder if he's not tilting fairly hard to the optimistic side of the equation.

• On the third, fourth, and further hands? Moderna's booster won't be ready until the coming winter. I assume the same is true for Pfizer. Moderna also said its vaccine is moderately less effective against the South African strain; per the first link, despite spin from it, Pfizer's vaccine appears to have a few more problems with it than with the UK variant.

• Dr. Scott Gottlieb, an increasingly trustable voice, says the South African variant also appears to challenge prior immunity more. That, then, ties back to the third paragraph about annual vaccination. NPR confirms the level of worry.

• The Washington Post also weighs in, and says the UK variant, though it may not challenge the existing vaccines the way the South African variant does and the Brazilian variant likely does, may be up to 30 percent more lethal than the original strain.

That same story also notes an interesting and concerning issue — the low rate of first responders to get vaccinated.

• Wired, in a long read, says that blown pandemic responses have given the virus working space, and working time, for its evolution. It also notes that the Brazilian variant has at least one of the more worrisome evolutions that the South African strain does. It also notes that delayed vaccination speed could give the new strains the same working space, which leads to ...

• Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel, in fact, says that COVID-19 could become endemic. And, perhaps just enough for continuing low-grade disruptions of Western economies, above all the consumer-centric US one. Update: Nature magazine, in a survey of those who should know, had 90 percent of scientists agreeing it will go endemic. Much less certain is the long-term virulence.

 

• One thing you can do to help yourself is, per the New York Times, be like me and double-mask!!! I took an airplane vacation over the holidays. Double-masked in airport terminals and on planes. I double mask if I'm going to take more than 3 minutes grocery shopping. More on double-masking here.

• Let's say its annual death toll drops by 2/3. Assuming we hit 540K by the end of February, and assuming that we missed some numbers a full year ago, we're still talking 180K a year, three times the deaths of a bad-case flu year. Oops.

• The part of the header in parentheses? The Biden Administration is requiring that.

• That said, how, and how well, will Biden's order be enforced? In Michigan, local cops are abetting scofflaw restaurants on defying Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's orders.

 

• Steven Brandenburg, the Wisconsin pharmacist who destroyed vaccine last year? Also a flat-earther. And a microchipper believer. And a prepper. Probably a 5G guy, too.

==

Dos Centavos tells us about his successful Harris County vax portal registration.

Winco is now on my boycott list. 

Winco now on my coronavirus boycott list

Winco, at least its Denton store, which nearly got boycotted by me last summer, now is officially on boycott, at least for now. Saturday, a multigenerational party of masklessness came in the store no more than a minute before me. (They appeared to be grandparents, their adult daughter and her daughter.) I went to customer service and told them. Their PA announcement about "please wear a mask" was at no more volume than conversational level. I am pretty sure my semi-shout at them from the other end of the same aisle as them, even through a double mask, was more likely heard by them. Surely they saw me staring at them. They did nothing. So, I contacted the clerk who manages the self-checkout line. She basically gave a nudge of "didn't you hear the PA?" Nobody went after this party. So I left. Winco has been tagged and messaged on Twitter, and posted and messaged on Facebook.)

I may be accused of stereotyping, even as the White population of Denton trends moderately more Democratic, but they looked likely to be Trump Train riders.

The Dallas Snooze said last week in an above-the-fold P1 headline that we're likely to have 90,000 more people die in the next month. Per Fauci, that's our 9/11 a day for another full month.

And, since Winco is employee-owned, and likes to brag out it, especially if other people join me in boycotting, they're cutting their own throat by being lackadaisical.

Winco has responded via Twitter messenger. Dialogue is:

Winco:

Good afternoon, Thank you for reaching out and bringing this to our attention! Is there any chance you recall the approximate time you were in yesterday? We can follow up with local management to ensure the policy is being monitored and to check if the individual(s) stated a medical exemption, where allowed by applicable mandates. Thank you!

Me:

Approximately 2 pm Saturday. Given that it was FIVE PEOPLE I highly doubt that there was a medical exemption cited for all five. And, to be REALLY HONEST, I doubt anybody was asked for anything in the first place. You need to fix this.

Winco:

Thank you so much! We will get this over to local management to be reviewed right away. Please do not hesitate to alert a member of management if you notice something like this on a future visit. This will allow for them to approach the individuals to remind them of the policy and to check if a medical exemption has been stated. Wearing a protective face covering is one of the tools to combat the spread and we still highly encourage each person to individually do their part by maintaining distance as well. Have a great rest of your weekend!

My follow-up:

This is largely corporate PR bullshit. Kroger did it last summer over #KrogerAndy, but, it wasn’t a local Kroger. I think, over other reasons, I boycotted Kroger for a visit or two, but that was it.

This? 

C’mon.

Per my first response? The only medical condition “infecting” the whole family was the psychological one that could be called “terminal arrogance,” or per social media, “privilege.” They appeared to be grandparents, their adult daughter and her daughter. I may be accused of stereotyping, even as the White population of Denton trends moderately more Democratic, but they looked likely to be Trump Train riders.

Their second response basically ignored other aspects of my first response. Employee attitude in general seemed semi-lackadaisical. I went to customer service and told them. Their PA announcement about "please wear a mask" was at no more volume than conversational level. I am pretty sure my semi-shout at them from the other end of the same aisle as them, even through a double mask, was more likely heard by them. Surely they saw me staring at them. They did nothing. So, I contacted the clerk who manages the self-checkout line. She basically gave a nudge of "didn't you hear the PA?" Nobody went after this party. So I left.

And there you are.

Ironically, I had upped my shopping at Winco while in the short-term boycott of Kroger, as I noted, in also talking about more local boycotts of Walmart (still on after six months) and Tom Thumb (ended last time after three-plus months but will start again if it gets slipshod again).

Top blogging for October

My top 10 blog posts for October contained a mix of old and new, and were fairly heavy on coronavirus news.

But, No. 1 was a "takedown" obituary. I noted that I'll miss James Randi somewhat, but that the only thing "amazing" about him in the last 10-15 years was founders' syndrome, and related issues, while noting the fanbois were glossing over many problematic issues from even before then.

No. 2? This was essentially my 2018 election post-mortem, talking about roseys vs sunflowers, and DSA Dems vs. Greens, on Twitter. Kind of ironic since I decided not to vote this year.

No. 3? An update from a previous post, noting that LeBron is (arguably) No. 1 with Michael Jordan playing 1A, after his first Lakers title, and a title with a third different team.

No. 4? My combo of COVID and politics, spoofing Trump with new lyrics for Blue Öyster Cult's "Don't Fear the Reaper," now known as "Don't Fear the Virus."

No. 5? A roundup of coronavirus-related store boycotts and semi-boycotts.

No. 6? One of my top 10 all time, "Who is Actual Flatticus/Allan Smithee/Chris Chopin," is trending again. He'd mock Biden more than me, were he alive, while heaping scorn on Greens, but for sneering reasons, not principled politics, unlike mine.

No. 7? It was fun as hell to mock Glenn Greenwald after he took his butthurt ass away from The Intercept, and to mock Matt Taibbi and Max Blumenthal as part of the process. I guess other people feel the same.

No. 8? Based on personal experience, confirmed indirectly by the Cooke County Judge and county emergency manager (though a good elected Republican won't blame Gov. Strangeabbott), the "safety protocols" for events in the new normal? Kabuki theater.

No. 9? One specific boycott, at least of the local store — Tom Thumb.

No. 10 is a First Amendment issue. I content that Dallas' city-owned WRR is acting unconstitutionally in broadcasting religious services on Sundays.