Remember the Boston Tea Party? Well, I give you...

[Brad Johnson]

... the Austin Beer Party.

https://www.foxnews.com/food-drink/texas-protestors-dump-beer-keg-street-bar

After Hizzoner the Gov closed bars by EO, the Texas Bar Owners' Association is fighting back. Their patrons are also wading into the fray.

The EO shut down "bars" on a 2-hour notice and gave them no option for alternate revenues like out-the-door sales and such. By TABC (Texas Alc & Bev Comm) code, a "bar" is some place that gets 51% or greater of it's revenues from drink sales so a lot of places calling themselves sports lounges, pubs, etc. all fall under that designation. The (quite valid) argument is that closing down a business simply because of an arbitrary number on a spreadsheet firmly oversteps the Governor's authority. The TBOA's contention, and one with some pretty significant legal teeth, is that for the order to be legally enforceable it must be all or none... i.e. the order must apply to all establishments that sell alcohol, not just those with a particular percent of their sales from it. Drink sales are the single most profitable portion of restaurant revenue behind tea and soft drinks. Another shutdown in that respect would having the Texas hospitality industry seriously pissed (Correction, they're already seriously pissed. This would jump straight to YGBFKM! pissed.). Given their social and political influence, they aren't a group to be trifled with.

Our state rep is calling for an emergency session to deal with shutdown issues, the issue above being one among many.

Brad

[MechAg94]

The shutdown of bars seemed pretty stupid to me.  Honestly, the shutdown of any businesses seem stupid to me.  If grocery stores and stuff like that remain open, what sense does it make to start selectively shutting down other businesses.  Gov Abbott is certainly not looking good in this.  Unfortunately we already had the primary.

[Perd Hapley]

The shutdown of bars seemed pretty stupid to me.  Honestly, the shutdown of any businesses seem stupid to me.  If grocery stores and stuff like that remain open, what sense does it make to start selectively shutting down other businesses.  Gov Abbott is certainly not looking good in this.  Unfortunately we already had the primary.

The idea is that people have to have a source for food, but no one has to go to a bar, or a church, etc. There's a logic to it, but people end up congregating at whatever "essential" places are open. Hence, long lines at the grocery store. Also, at the hardware store, because you can't close those, either. Then you have all these people sitting at home, and they decide to paint, or remodel...

[MechAg94]

The idea is that people have to have a source for food, but no one has to go to a bar, or a church, etc. There's a logic to it, but people end up congregating at whatever "essential" places are open. Hence, long lines at the grocery store. Also, at the hardware store, because you can't close those, either. Then you have all these people sitting at home, and they decide to paint, or remodel...

You can call it logic, but it isn't very good logic.  If people can go to the grocery store without getting sick, they can go other places.  If they want to recommend or even mandate precautions, just do that for everyone across the board.

[Perd Hapley]

You can call it logic, but it isn't very good logic.  If people can go to the grocery store without getting sick, they can go other places. If they want to recommend or even mandate precautions, just do that for everyone across the board.

That's not the logic I suggested, and I don't think that's the logic anyone's used for judging "essential" or "non-essential" businesses.

The point isn't that disease only spreads in certain places. The point is to limit the places we go, so there are fewer places you might catch, or spread, the disease. If we had the infrastructure to deliver all the food, medicine, and other necessities to everyone's homes, they'd just force all the stores to close their doors to walk-in traffic, and just make us stay at home, and wait for the delivery guy to drop things off outside the door. Instead, they have to just allow us to go buy our ground chuck and batteries and furnace filters and socks, etc. But since you can, theoretically, survive a few weeks a few months until there's a vaccine without the gym, or the bar, or the church, they figure they can just close those for a while.

I agree we closed too many things, for too long. Personally, I've been going into work (and church) this whole time (albeit, only every other day), and I've been going to just about every place that's still open, FWIW.