• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Infrastructure week. at last.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Second rate reporter says what?

Bark louder, little dog.

I was promised a recession.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Happy indictment week to all who celebrate!

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

You cannot shame the shameless.

Republicans in disarray!

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

Mobile Menu

  • Winnable House Races
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • Balloon Juice 2023 Pet Calendar (coming soon)
  • COVID-19 Coronavirus
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • War in Ukraine
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • 2021-22 Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Past Elections / 2020 Elections / COVID-19 & National Security Part VI: America is Not Suffering From a Failure of Intelligence, It is Suffering From a Failure of, and an Absence of, Leadership

COVID-19 & National Security Part VI: America is Not Suffering From a Failure of Intelligence, It is Suffering From a Failure of, and an Absence of, Leadership

by Adam L Silverman|  March 31, 202011:08 pm| 193 Comments

This post is in: 2020 Elections, America, Covid-19 & National Security, COVID-19 Coronavirus, Domestic Politics, Silverman on Security

FacebookTweetEmail

There have now been several pieces written that describe the US’s failing and flailing response to the SARS-CoV2 outbreak and COVID-19 epidemic as a failure of intelligence. The simple reality is that these analyses are wrong. They are not a failure of intelligence. As a former senior advisor to a number of senior leaders, I can honestly say that you can present senior leaders and decision-makers with the timely, accurate information they need to know, but no one can make them think. No one can make them accept it, process it, and act on it accordingly. And I was fortunate in that the senior leaders and decision-makers I served wanted timely, accurate information, were willing to consider it, and used it to inform their decision making. This is unfortunately not the case with the President. And this is clearly not a failure of intelligence, because we have excellent reporting indicating that timely, accurate information about SARS-CoV2 was presented to the President beginning in January 2020.

What we actually have is a failure of leadership. The President’s, the sycophants he’s surrounded himself with, members of the Republican caucuses in the House and the Senate, among Republican governors who are afraid of mean tweets and the President’s base, and among the publishers, editors, and executives at conservative news media outlets – from Fox News to talk radio to conservative digital news. The leak of the letter sent yesterday by  Captain Crozier, the commander of The Theodore Roosevelt to his chain of command is just further evidence of what we’ve been observing since January in regard to the SARS-CoV2 outbreak and since January 2017 with this administration in general. With the exceptions of Director Wray at the FBI and Director Haspel at the CIA, there is not a single cabinet secretary or equivalent senior political appointee in this administration that would have even been nominated for, let alone confirmed to, their positions in any other administration with the possible exceptions of Secretary Chao and Attorney General Barr because of their previous senior cabinet appointee experience in previous administrations. You would not see any of these people in these positions in any other Republican administration. The few actually competent and qualified senior appointees, all of whom were generals (Mattis, Kelly, McMaster) with the exception of DNI Coats, are long gone. And the qualified subordinates they hired are long gone as well. What we’re left with is an incurious president who thinks he knows the price of everything, but really knows the value of nothing, as well as the price of nothing too and a bunch of senior appointees who would either never be considered for political appointments in any other administration or, at best, would be considered for deputy assistant positions at best. They, like their subordinates, have been selected for and/or retained because of professed and displayed loyalty to the President. These subordinates wouldn’t even be considered for the most junior positions in any other administration.

As an example, I honestly cannot think of a single good reason why the Acting Secretary of the Navy needed to do his media appearances today from NY City with the USNS Comfort as the backdrop except that someone explained to him that he was doing them for an audience of one, the President. And that audience wanted to see the USNS Comfort. It is this performative sycophancy that we are seeing revealed each and every day.

The United States is not just suffering through the SARS-CoV2 virus and COVID-19 epidemic. At the national level it is suffering from not just a lack of good leadership, but actual bad, self serving, and ultimately destructive leadership beginning with the President and throughout his administration. We are suffering from it in Senator Majority Leader McConnell and House Minority Leader McCarthy and their caucuses in each chamber of Congress. And we are suffering from it at the state level in a number of states with Republican governors, like FL, AZ, SC, GA, MS, and AL, who have decided that they would rather suck up to the President and demonstrate their fealty to him and his base of supporters rather than even attempt to aspire towards competency.

Open thread!

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « Respite Open Thread: The Goats of the Great Orme
Next Post: Late Night ‘Trump Crime Cartel’ Open Thread: Profiteering on the Pandemic »

Reader Interactions

193Comments

  1. 1.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    March 31, 2020 at 11:16 pm

    MI

    MS? what’s the deal in PA?

    DeSantis seems to be turning trump’s game of hot potato back on him, saying he hasn’t shut things down because trump hasn’t told him to.

    (Media criticism: Brian Williams had been getting pretty Brodery lately, both sides are bickering when we’re facing this crisis! Tonight he’s pushing back on the nonsense about trump having struck a new tone (again) during his mini-rally)

  2. 2.

    The Thin Black Duke

    March 31, 2020 at 11:17 pm

    People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they  watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

  3. 3.

    sanjeevs

    March 31, 2020 at 11:18 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:  I’m sure that’s supposed to be MS

  4. 4.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 31, 2020 at 11:19 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: MS. Thanks, fixed.

    DeSantis wants to be reelected governor in 2022 and then run for president in 2024. That’s what he’s concerned with.

  5. 5.

    Mary G

    March 31, 2020 at 11:19 pm

    Good piece.
    One pedantic thing, I know you hate them, but in this line

    Republican governors, like FL, AZ, SC, GA, MI, and AL,

    maybe change the MI to MS, because I’m pretty sure you’re not referring to the lady who is rude to him, but Tate Potato from Mississippi.

    I have spent the day tweeting about the failures of the administration and assholes who use Instacart (or other delivery services that have gone to no-contact leave it on the porch services) and don’t tip because they don’t have to see the person’s face.

    This article in Forbes yesterday by a reporter who watched millions of American N95 masks be sold overseas to people who can pay immediately was particularly enraging.

    “If you are working with a seller who has masks but you can’t quickly show proof of funds, someone else is going to buy them,” he told me.

    And I watched that happen repeatedly throughout the day. Buyers from state procurement departments and hospital systems expressed desperate need for masks, but the deals bogged down when it came to providing proof that they could commit and follow through. In the meantime, another buyer provided proof of funds and the masks were gone, sometimes within the hour.

  6. 6.

    Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman)

    March 31, 2020 at 11:19 pm

    And we are suffering from it in a number of states with Republican governors, like FL, AZ, SC, GA, MI, and AL, who have decided that they would rather suck up to the President and demonstrate their fealty to him and his base of supporters rather than even attempt to aspire towards competency.

    Shouldn’t that be Mississippi instead of Michigan?

    Never mind.

  7. 7.

    satby

    March 31, 2020 at 11:20 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:  Yeah Adam, not MI. That’s a Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer, who Trump has specifically penalized with capricious and petty actions against her state.

    Edit, also never mind.

  8. 8.

    Mary G

    March 31, 2020 at 11:21 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: ETA: Sorry it looks like I pedant piled on, but there are two torn tendons in my right hand that make me a slow typist.

  9. 9.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 31, 2020 at 11:22 pm

    @Mary G: @Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman): I was not consulted on the state abbreviations and therefore feel no obligation to observe them. I will abbreviate the states the way I want to abbreviate them and none of you can stop me!//

  10. 10.

    The Thin Black Duke

    March 31, 2020 at 11:24 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: See, power does corrupt.

  11. 11.

    Fair Economist

    March 31, 2020 at 11:25 pm

    You are much too forgiving. We are suffering from *evil* leadership. Trump actively suppressed testing, which is the primary cause of the magnitude of the NYC, NOLA, and Detroit outbreak. Now he’s trying to buy ventilators away from them.

  12. 12.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    March 31, 2020 at 11:27 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: in my time we had three or four letter abbreviations and they were clearer and god dammit we liked ’em

    Also, is Devin Nunes TV stuck on the news from two weeks ago or something? he tends to spout this crap after even trump has backed off

    Acyn Torabi @Acyn
    Devin Nunes calls the closure of schools in California “way overkill” shortly before he argues we need to send people back to work within 1-2 weeks while citing optimism over Hydroxychloroquine

    this was tonight, guess which network!

  13. 13.

    Mnemosyne

    March 31, 2020 at 11:27 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    DeSantis wants to be reelected governor in 2022 and then run for president in 2024.

    I don’t see that working out too well for him given how many Floridians will probably die over the next few months due to his neglect, but I’m sure he has a plan to blame it all on the Democrats.

  14. 14.

    Mary G

    March 31, 2020 at 11:29 pm

    Even Matt Gaetz has figured out that the Republican brand is sinking fast and started agitating for Senator Burr to GTFO for his stock dumping, but this guy, no, still clueless:

    Devin Nunes calls the closure of schools in California “way overkill” shortly before he argues we need to send people back to work within 1-2 weeks while citing optimism over Hydroxychloroquine pic.twitter.com/3pBHWdwlK0— Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) April 1, 2020

  15. 15.

    Mnemosyne

    March 31, 2020 at 11:29 pm

    I’m waiting for a package from FedEx Ground and they’re late. I know it’s a bunch of non-essential stickers but, damn it, I want them!

    /FirstWorldProblems

  16. 16.

    Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman)

    March 31, 2020 at 11:30 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    OANN or Fox.

    One America News Network is for people who think Fox is too damn liberal.

  17. 17.

    Jay

    March 31, 2020 at 11:32 pm

    Patrick Jones is the first person in federal prison to die from COVID-19. Jones was convicted in 2017 of possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine w/in 1,000 feet of a junior college. For this, he was serving a 27-year sentence. Think about that. https://t.co/cVW6Q91Yq1— Vanita Gupta (@vanitaguptaCR) March 30, 2020

  18. 18.

    Mary G

    March 31, 2020 at 11:34 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Curses, beaten again!

  19. 19.

    Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman)

    March 31, 2020 at 11:34 pm

    @Mnemosyne:

    I ordered a replacement set of blades for my electric shaver from Amazon on the 26th with an estimated delivery date of April 23.

    I was pleasantly surprised when they came today.

  20. 20.

    Another Scott

    March 31, 2020 at 11:36 pm

    Good post. Thanks.

    More evidence that people were sounding the alarm many weeks ago was (repost) this memo from February 3 from the head of the OPM. Naturally, since she knew what she was doing, (Warning – Politico) she abruptly resigned on Tuesday March 17:

    Cabaniss stepped down because of, what two people familiar with the matter said, was poor treatment from the 29-year-old head of the Presidential Personnel Office, John McEntee, and a powerful appointee at OPM, Paul Dans, the new White House liaison and senior adviser to the director of OPM.

    OPM Deputy Director Michael Rigas is now acting director of OPM, according to an OPM spokesperson.

    Cabaniss had been at the agency only since September.

    The departure casts a cloud of uncertainty over the federal workforce as it struggles to decide how to handle the coronavirus outbreak, with growing questions about the Trump administration’s decision to keep most government offices open and how it is handling remote work.

    […]

    Some officials see the hiring of Dans — a lawyer who previously worked in New York and recently started at the agency, according to two people familiar with the matter — as yet another affront. The job of White House liaison generally entails matching qualified people with political vacancies at an agency and moving appointees in and out of positions when needed.

    Dans has “clearly come with some kind of agenda,” said a person familiar with his hiring, who noted Dans doesn’t appear to have much of a background in Title V of the U.S. code, which deals with how the government is organized and how the federal civil service operates. Dans didn’t respond to a request for comment.

    […]

    (Emphasis added.)

    He’s perfect for Donnie!!

    :-/

    More here – https://federalnewsnetwork.com/opm/2020/03/cabaniss-resigns-as-opm-director/

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  21. 21.

    debbie

    March 31, 2020 at 11:36 pm

    It’s time for a bunch of AGs to get together and sue the Trump administration for the way they’re doling out equipment to just the red states.

  22. 22.

    Mnemosyne

    March 31, 2020 at 11:36 pm

    I’m still on the friends list of a wingnut relative in Florida, and it has certainly been interesting to watch it slowly occur to her over the past couple of weeks that her state is in deep shit and there’s no way to blame it on anyone but DeSantis and Trump. She’s watching the freight train barrel towards her and shrieking that the Democrats need to stop fighting the Republicans and DO SOMETHING.

    Have I mentioned that she’s a cop? Yep, shit is about to get real for her as a first responder and there’s nothing she can do to stop it.

  23. 23.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    March 31, 2020 at 11:36 pm

    CNN was saying Trump seemed scared today his campaign rally/ briefing. Wonder what is that is about. Trump only thinks about him self, bad poll numbers? Or someone close to have the Virus?

  24. 24.

    Villago Delenda Est

    March 31, 2020 at 11:38 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Murdoch Slime Network?

  25. 25.

    Ruckus

    March 31, 2020 at 11:39 pm

    @The Thin Black Duke:

    This.

    I know we have to keep repeating this stuff because so many people in the US and the world think that everyone is lying to them because otherwise they’d have to admit they and the people they voted for are absolutely, completely FULL – OF – SHIT.

    This is not incompetence, this is 12 levels of total ignorance beyond incompetence, you can’t even see far enough in the rear view mirror to get to incompetence.

  26. 26.

    Mnemosyne

    March 31, 2020 at 11:39 pm

    @Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman):

    It has a tracking number and a delivery date of today. I just wish they hadn’t led me on to think it would arrive today. ?

    I’m also waiting for some homemade surgical-style masks to arrive from Etsy so I can take my asthmatic lungs out for a stroll without freaking myself out, but those are going to be arriving closer to Friday or Saturday.

  27. 27.

    J R in WV

    March 31, 2020 at 11:40 pm

    Adam, thanks for this post.

    The whole federal government is tied in a ball of sodden string by our current “leader” and so far it looks like he won’t do anything to help the rest of the country deal with this disaster. Hope history will be able to define this as the terrible event it really is, thanks be to Trump.

  28. 28.

    Villago Delenda Est

    March 31, 2020 at 11:40 pm

    @Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman): I think of it as ONAN.

  29. 29.

    stinger

    March 31, 2020 at 11:41 pm

    Another valuable post — thanks, Adam.

  30. 30.

    Fair Economist

    March 31, 2020 at 11:43 pm

    @Mnemosyne: I take it you’ve been able to avoid saying anything? I don’t think I would have been.

  31. 31.

    Calouste

    March 31, 2020 at 11:44 pm

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: There are those Brazilians that were at Mar-a-Corona and shortly afterwards tested positive. And Rand Paul, and someone on Pence’s staff. It’s certainly spreading in his circles. Come to think of it, had he visited Mar-a-Corona recently? Probably too scared.

  32. 32.

    Villago Delenda Est

    March 31, 2020 at 11:44 pm

    @stinger: Let me add my praise of Adam to yours.  The desperation of the vermin of the Village to not point the finger at Donald is palpable.  They’re a sold half of the problem, what with their stenographer attitudes toward this whole thing.

  33. 33.

    Lyrebird

    March 31, 2020 at 11:44 pm

    What we’re left with is an incurious president who thinks he knows the price of everything, but really knows the value of nothing, as well as the price of nothing too…

    Beautifully written.

    May the day come soon when there is less going on that calls for (calls forth?) your denunciation skills.

     

    ETA: I used to have a similar reaction, though I didn’t post anything much about it, when people would talk about the failures of different AI systems used by intelligence contractors before 9/11 when there was a bigger problem that the then-Prez did not read his daily briefings!

  34. 34.

    Mary G

    March 31, 2020 at 11:46 pm

    March came in like a lion, goes out like some apocalyptic dinosaur centaur fire breathing bird monster dragon that terrorizes everything in its path pic.twitter.com/IOS9ZhWNdZ— Jessica Taylor (@JessicaTaylor) April 1, 2020

    From two American deaths on the first of March to more than 3,900 through today, this has been some month.

  35. 35.

    Ksmiami

    March 31, 2020 at 11:47 pm

    Wipe the GOP out. Salt the ground. Ad infinitum

  36. 36.

    Ruckus

    March 31, 2020 at 11:48 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Devin is not real bright. He’s like 20 watt incandescent bulb bright in a house with no power because someone forgot that you have to actually pay the power company, which he also can’t do because he can’t find his check book, the bill or a pen, because it’s too dark and he also can’t figure out how to operate the drapes, although he has spread the towels apart on the bathroom rack hoping for something to happen.

  37. 37.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 31, 2020 at 11:48 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: The lunkhead responsible for this crap!

    Didier Raoult is the primary driver behind claims that #chloroquine + #AZT = #COVID19 treatment.
    And here's why he should be treated w/a very high degree of skepticism. It's long, but if you're still ready to self-med w/chloroq after reading it, I give up.https://t.co/Qhv6Xgo5Ki

    — Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) March 31, 2020

    https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2020/03/29/more-on-cloroquine-azithromycin-and-on-dr-raoult?utm_source=Nature+Briefing&utm_campaign=09c7da52c4-briefing-dy-20200331&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c9dfd39373-09c7da52c4-44431689

    Dr. Didier Raoult of Marseilles and his co-workers have published another preprint on clinical results with the chloroquine/azithromycin combination that their earlier work has made famous. And I still don’t know what to think of it.

    This is going to be a long post on the whole issue, so if you don’t feel like reading the whole thing, here’s the summary: these new results are still not from randomized patients and still do not have any sort of control group for comparison. The sample is larger, but it’s still not possible to judge what’s going on. And on further reading, I have doubts about Dr. Raoult’s general approach to science and doubts about Dr. Raoult himself. Despite this second publication, I am actually less hopeful than I was before. Now the details.

  38. 38.

    Mary G

    March 31, 2020 at 11:48 pm

    @The Thin Black Duke: @Ruckus: I liked the Duke’s comment so much I just nominated it for a rolling tag.

  39. 39.

    BR

    March 31, 2020 at 11:48 pm

    Adam, have you gamed this year out?  How might this end?  I understand the epi aspects but not the intersection with the political side, especially given the current media and political environment we’re in.

  40. 40.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 31, 2020 at 11:49 pm

    @Mnemosyne: I’m not sure he can spell plan.

  41. 41.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 31, 2020 at 11:50 pm

    @Jay: Even worse: there was no evidence of the intent to distribute, the woman he was living with agreed to testify to that for a deal. And he was 1,000 feet from the community college because he was in his apartment, which happened to be in a complex that was within 1,000 feet of the community college.

  42. 42.

    CaseyL

    March 31, 2020 at 11:51 pm

    America’s Chernobyl.

    And the MSM is afraid to say so.  Damn them to Hell, too.

    There need to be tribunals for this.  Many, many people – from T* on down – need to lose everything they own and go to prison for a long, long time for this.

  43. 43.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 31, 2020 at 11:51 pm

    @Another Scott: I’ve read it.

  44. 44.

    Feathers

    March 31, 2020 at 11:53 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: On Fox News, fascinating twitter thread about how the channel of evil is financed. Basically, protests have cut off their advertisers. Ad dollars are way, way, down. But it doesn’t matter, because Fox has negotiated a much higher carry fee (what a cable company pays a channel per subscriber) than they really should be getting. Your cable company is paying Murdoch six times what they are paying NBC/Universal for MSNBC. So Fox doesn’t really need the advertisers to stay profitable. I’ve been wondering when Fox was going to start getting kicked off cable channels. This coronanonse should be the start. Anyway, the thread has activism calls. Basically, if you have cable, call and demand that they not carry Fox any more or at least not pay them to try to kill you.

    https://twitter.com/GoAngelo/status/1244819790650322944?s=20

  45. 45.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 31, 2020 at 11:53 pm

    @debbie:

    So someone in the White House is admitting Trump is prioritizing helping states like Florida over others, for electoral calculations. https://t.co/N8XWm7P2ob pic.twitter.com/PnaGbmQNEQ

    — Frederick Deknatel (@freddydeknatel) March 31, 2020

  46. 46.

    Ruckus

    March 31, 2020 at 11:53 pm

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    Possibly that ugly fucking asshole in his mirror is the one with a medical problem?

  47. 47.

    Mnemosyne

    March 31, 2020 at 11:54 pm

    @Fair Economist:

    I really don’t want to get into it. She’s the last remaining Trump supporter I know and I feel like it’s good to have that window. Plus she’s a fairly distant relative who I’ve only met a few times, so I don’t have a huge emotional attachment to the idea of getting her to figure shit out. I would rather watch her flail.

  48. 48.

    smintheus

    March 31, 2020 at 11:54 pm

    The people who claim we had no clear evidence of the danger back in January are simply lying. On Jan. 1, I contemplated the possibility of having to shelter at home to avoid a pandemic of this novel, seemingly untreatable virus (as my wife and I toured Boccaccio’s house in Italy). And I remember again on Jan. 6 and on Jan. 12 that I took steps to avoid Chinese tour groups in Venice and Florence because I was afraid of contracting the contagion from one of them. And on Jan. 13 in two European airports we kept moving to unoccupied gates to avoid potentially being infected, as soon as any travelers showed up near where we were seated. A week later I was pressing for information from our college health service about what precautions were being taken with regard to students and faculty returning to campus from China. These seemed to us to be absolutely basic precautions in the face of the news coming out of China…which I was fully aware of no later than New Years Day.

  49. 49.

    Another Scott

    March 31, 2020 at 11:54 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Thanks, but urgh.

    Twitter is horrible.

    AZT (azidothymidine) =/= Azithromycin

    (sheesh, people)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  50. 50.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 31, 2020 at 11:54 pm

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: He was sweating profusely and his nose was running. I’m guessing he’s been tested again because he doesn’t feel well and is waiting for results.

  51. 51.

    Zelma

    March 31, 2020 at 11:55 pm

    Well, no place will escape this.  Cape May County has 26 COVID-19 cases.  Five days ago there were six. 5 have “recovered” which means our little hospital has 21 patients and, I believe, 12 ventilators.  Although I’ve also heard 16.

    We have had second home owners heading here from New York, North Jersey and Pennsylvania.  The governor has told them not to come.  My local mayor sent out an announcement talking about a $1000 fine.  (I assume that’s a state thing.). You should read the comments on the borough’s Facebook page: entitled whiners all.  I’ve heard that folks are renting cars locally so that the have NJ license plates.  That could be an urban legend but who knows.

    I haven’t seen my son since Christmas.  He was planning to come up for my April birthday.  I guess that’s not going to happen.  It’s kind of scary to be living alone at my age and wondering what I will do if I get sick.

    Our local homeless charity is desperate for donations as is our food bank.  I’d be happy to do something, but I’m not supposed to leave the house!  We are talking about a social calamity in the making.  Many of the kids off shore depend on school breakfasts and lunches.  The schools are trying to to provide food but transportation is always an issue in rural areas (which is what we sort of are except for the obscenely rich shore towns.)

    The virus was always going to come, but our incompetent, evil administration has made it worse than it should be.

  52. 52.

    Mnemosyne

    March 31, 2020 at 11:55 pm

    @Mary G:

    April’s going to be even worse, unfortunately. It’s already baked in.

  53. 53.

    Mary G

    March 31, 2020 at 11:57 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: I am not a masochist, so I didn’t watch it, but apparently “Acting” Secretary Esper had not even read Captain Crozier’s letter before going on TV to talk about it. Am I wrong to assume Capt. Crozier’s career is dead for snitching?

    Am a bit shocked at this interview. Esper hadn’t read the letter he went on the air to talk about. Friends we are not in good hands right now. https://t.co/5Hf5jEXvp0— Simon Rosenberg (@SimonWDC) April 1, 2020

  54. 54.

    Kattails

    March 31, 2020 at 11:57 pm

    @Ruckus: Ignorance begat of hubris and married to venality. Making for a lovely family tree, isn’t it?

  55. 55.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 31, 2020 at 11:58 pm

    @Lyrebird: I spent a lot of time consulting with folks trying to solve the “information” problem regarding violent extremism. I kept explaining to them that we didn’t have an information problem, in fact we had far too much information. What we had was everyone trying to do alchemy with modern technology. That the belief that if we could just bring the right information (base metal) and run it through the right analytical program (the philosopher’s stone) we’d get the right answer (gold). And it just doesn’t work that way.

  56. 56.

    L85NJGT

    March 31, 2020 at 11:58 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Throwing snake oil at the wall. You may as well tout Coca-Cola as a Covid-19 cure all.

  57. 57.

    smintheus

    April 1, 2020 at 12:00 am

    @Zelma: We also have here in PA people coming in from NJ and NY. The infection rates in Monroe County – an easy drive from NYC – are going off the charts. Yesterday I walked past a rural campground near Allentown that had been nearly empty all winter, which was filling up with out of state campers.

  58. 58.

    Mnemosyne

    April 1, 2020 at 12:00 am

    @Zelma:

    Do you know enough people locally to essentially do a phone tree and check up on each other every day?

  59. 59.

    Ruckus

    April 1, 2020 at 12:02 am

    @Feathers:

    I’d bet some of it is that they sold the cable providers that faux news is on every TV so much that they have to pay more. So they do. You know they do research/polling to see what people are watching, as that goes down I’d bet the reimbursements will too. It just has to reach critical and that money will dry up (he says very, very hopefully!)

  60. 60.

    Amir Khalid

    April 1, 2020 at 12:03 am

    i’ve always had the impression that the Trump administration is trying not to steer the car but to steal it — or, failing that, to go on the mother of all joyrides and then crash it.

  61. 61.

    Mnemosyne

    April 1, 2020 at 12:03 am

    @smintheus:

    Your campgrounds are still open? Newsom closed our state campgrounds and the county is using some of them for trailers to house the homeless.

  62. 62.

    smintheus

    April 1, 2020 at 12:04 am

    @Adam L Silverman: Straight up violation of his oath of office.

  63. 63.

    smintheus

    April 1, 2020 at 12:05 am

    @Mnemosyne:  This one is open. I don’t know about any others.

  64. 64.

    Adam L Silverman

    April 1, 2020 at 12:06 am

    @BR: I’ve done some, but there’s a lot of really fluid, really variable stuff. For instance, will Pelosi be able to get an aid package through that bails out the US Postal Service? If not it is projected to have to shut down in July. If that happens, then even states that already have either optional or mandatory vote by mail are going to have serious problems conducting an election come November. Similarly, I don’t expect De Santis in Florida or Abbot in Texas to do anything until they absolutely have no choice and it is far, far too late. And the effects are hard to project out. So basically some combination of these.

    COVID-19 & National Security Part VI: America is Not Suffering From a Failure of Intelligence, It is Suffering From a Failure of, and an Absence of, Leadership

    COVID-19 & National Security Part VI: America is Not Suffering From a Failure of Intelligence, It is Suffering From a Failure of, and an Absence of, Leadership 1 COVID-19 & National Security Part VI: America is Not Suffering From a Failure of Intelligence, It is Suffering From a Failure of, and an Absence of, Leadership 2

  65. 65.

    Barbara

    April 1, 2020 at 12:06 am

    @smintheus: Hasn’t anyone read the Decameron? You don’t escape the plague. You carry it with you.

  66. 66.

    Adam L Silverman

    April 1, 2020 at 12:07 am

    @Feathers:

    https://www.queerty.com/fox-news-purportedly-bracing-legal-bloodbath-peddling-coronavirus-misinformation-20200331

    Fox News purportedly bracing for “legal bloodbath” after peddling coronavirus misinformation

  67. 67.

    Mary G

    April 1, 2020 at 12:08 am

    @Zelma: If you need help, post to Balloon Juice. I fell in the bathroom and had only my tablet that I thought was without email on it and needed paramedics to help me get up. I put a plea for help in a Balloon Juice thread and Betty and John and who knows who else called the Fire Department here on the other side of the country and when the EMTs arrived they asked me to tell my friends I was OK and to stop calling already. Jackals are creative cusses and I’m sure we can find some type of help if you need it.

  68. 68.

    Omnes Omnibus

    April 1, 2020 at 12:08 am

    I have been trying to use this situation to point out the difference between management and leadership – both of which are needed in a situation like this – but I realized that Trump, et al., are so shit at both that it becomes difficult to differentiate.  I really hate these people.

  69. 69.

    BR

    April 1, 2020 at 12:08 am

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Thanks.  Yeah, I guess it’s an impossible question.  Now that our primary is effectively over, and nobody can go out, it feels like we’re powerless to stop whatever more terrible things might happen this year, including regarding the Nov election and I keep hoping there’s some clever plan for what ordinary folks can do to move to a positive outcome in Nov.

  70. 70.

    SFAW

    April 1, 2020 at 12:09 am

    I can honestly say that you can present senior leaders and decision-makers with the timely, accurate information they need to know, but no one can make them think.

    You can lead those whores to info, but you cannot make them think?

  71. 71.

    Mnemosyne

    April 1, 2020 at 12:09 am

    @Barbara:

    I usually reference “The Masque of the Red Death,” but I’m more of an American/British literature person.

  72. 72.

    Adam L Silverman

    April 1, 2020 at 12:10 am

    @smintheus:

    White House economists projected *last September* that a pandemic in the United States could kill 500k and inflict up to $4T in damage to the economy.

    They warned policymakers against conflating those risks with the cost of the common flu. https://t.co/NMprcaufeH

    — Jim Tankersley (@jimtankersley) March 31, 2020

  73. 73.

    Adam L Silverman

    April 1, 2020 at 12:12 am

    @Mary G: Esper is the Senate confirmed Secretary of Defense. He’s not the acting anything.

  74. 74.

    SiubhanDuinne

    April 1, 2020 at 12:13 am

    @Adam L Silverman: Based on the photo I saw of him, Dr. Raoult bears a striking physical resemblance to Dr. Harold Bornstein, the guy who wrote transcribed that weird over-the-top letter about Trump’s health during the 2016 campaign.

  75. 75.

    Adam L Silverman

    April 1, 2020 at 12:14 am

    @Feathers: @Ruckus: Fox is able to get away with this because they threaten to withhold Fox sports broadcasts, which means 1/2 the NFL games and a third to a half of MLB games.

  76. 76.

    Villago Delenda Est

    April 1, 2020 at 12:14 am

    @Omnes Omnibus: Ayup.  They can’t lead, and they can’t manage.  DoD has been waiting for the clowns at HHS to tell them where to send needed medical supplies.  HHS doesn’t have a clue.

  77. 77.

    Mary G

    April 1, 2020 at 12:14 am

    @Adam L Silverman: I guess I thought they were all acting at this point. He’s not acting like a SecDef, though, so I stand by what I said.//

  78. 78.

    Adam L Silverman

    April 1, 2020 at 12:14 am

    @smintheus: No argument from me.

  79. 79.

    Omnes Omnibus

    April 1, 2020 at 12:15 am

    @SFAW: Apologize right now.  Every whore, streetwalker, hooker, trollop, harlot, jade, concubine, and courtesan on earth is better than these fuckers.

  80. 80.

    Ruckus

    April 1, 2020 at 12:15 am

    @Kattails:

    Yep.

    I’ll repeat. Back in the late 70s – 80s I would read dad’s Forbes and WSJ and it was obvious then that trump was a piece of shit and taking after his old man. Towards the end of that it was obvious that he was not learning very well even in the ways of being a shit. Of course that didn’t stop him from being worse than a pile of worthless shit. His dementia and his narcissism hasn’t made the situation better. In all my decades and I have to say that he is by any measure or standard the worst human being and by far the worst president ever. I thought that GWB was going to be named at some point but he’s been saved, trump is the 5 worst presidents, all rolled into one ugly pile of rotting shit.

    I don’t like wishing ill on any one but I hope that the shitgibbon has the virus and it kills him. We’d have to redefine irony if that happens.

  81. 81.

    BR

    April 1, 2020 at 12:15 am

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Oh, are there any good articles on the post office shutdown you mentioned?

  82. 82.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    April 1, 2020 at 12:15 am

    @Ruckus: Most likely, they bundled FNC with the Fox sports channels.

  83. 83.

    Adam L Silverman

    April 1, 2020 at 12:16 am

    @SiubhanDuinne: He is ze Dr. Feelgood of France!

  84. 84.

    Zelma

    April 1, 2020 at 12:16 am

    @Mnemosyne:

    Oh yes.  I’ve got a number of good friends and we contact each other almost every day.  Of course, they are my age or older so I worry about them as well as myself.  And I have a good support system via my church.  But there is something scary about living alone in a time of social distancing.

  85. 85.

    Villago Delenda Est

    April 1, 2020 at 12:16 am

    @Omnes Omnibus: Solvenian Escort.

    Oh, wait…

  86. 86.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    April 1, 2020 at 12:17 am

    @Mnemosyne: It’s not just the state campgrounds, Joshua Tree is closed(not just the campground, the whole park).

  87. 87.

    Draco7

    April 1, 2020 at 12:17 am

    Adam,

    Eric Boehlert over at Press Run has raised what is basically an open-ended question re Trumps’ responses to the pandemic. It’s a “clouds and shadows” sort of approach, but his premise is interesting. The CW on Trump/administration malfeasance is that it is all due to ignorance and incompetence, but he is proposing that getting every response wrong defies the odds. IOW, even monumental incompetence will still get it right occasionally if only by accident – implying that some of these destructive decisions are actually deliberate.

    I find this interesting. I’m not sensing a baseless conspiracy theory here, but there is no defined incentive in the article – only the thought that defying all 450 pages of (prior) CDC guidance is…peculiar. Any thoughts on this?

  88. 88.

    SFAW

    April 1, 2020 at 12:18 am

    @smintheus:

    The people who claim we had no clear evidence of the danger back in January are simply lying.

    And, of course, the RWMF Gish Gallop has them onto “The DEMON-CRAPS caused this by their IMPEACHMENT HOAX which meant no one could do ANYTHING ARGLE-BARGLE!!!”

    I wish some deity would make me God-Emperor, just for one week. The amount of well-directed lightning strikes (or similar) would be something to behold.

    Just one fucking week, that’s all I’d need.

  89. 89.

    joel hanes

    April 1, 2020 at 12:19 am

    Trump never intended to govern.

    He has never attempted to govern in any conventional sense.

    Every situation, every problem is considered in isolation, and only in the light of finding an “angle” : a way, to advantage Trump personally in the short term, or to punish or humiliate one of his perceived enemies.

    The good of the nation has never entered into it, because Trump is incapable of conceiving of anything but advantage to himself as something good.   Instead of appointing strong capable people, giving them assignments, and setting them to work, he deliberately weakens his courtiers, pitting them against each other, often overruling any plan they may have made with a tweet, and soon fires them.

    So, in a very real sense, there is currently no executive branch of the US government at all.    Instead we have a childish, self-absorbed solipsist who spends half his waking hours watching TV, a substantial fraction of his days golfing, and who has made sure that none of the departments of the executive branch can function properly.

  90. 90.

    Adam L Silverman

    April 1, 2020 at 12:19 am

    @BR: Here you go:

    If we lose the US Postal Service then America has literally lost its ability to deliver democracy in November. https://t.co/b9EALL0dL7

    — Ellen Kurz (@EllenKurz) March 31, 2020

    The U.S. Postal Service warns it might have to shutter by June as the $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package provides no funding. This would have cataclysmic effects for our ability to hold elections by mail amid the coronavirus pandemic https://t.co/VuTll17B9T https://t.co/9jHGiSKKtv

    — Stephen Wolf (@PoliticsWolf) March 31, 2020

  91. 91.

    Mary G

    April 1, 2020 at 12:20 am

    Turkmenistan, which shares a border with Iran, has banned the use of the word ‘Coronavirus’ and is arresting people who discuss the pandemic in public. Plainclothes police officers are also arresting people who wear face masks in public. https://t.co/cAerhwn7Mi— Yashar Ali ? (@yashar) April 1, 2020

  92. 92.

    Feathers

    April 1, 2020 at 12:20 am

    @Ruckus: Read the thread. It goes into detail. They get the money by being hardball negotiators and riling up their viewers saying that the evil libruls at their cable company are trying to take their Fox away.

    Basically, when you pay your cable bill, you are putting $2 a month into Rupert Murdoch’s pocket. MSNBC gets $ 0.33, CNN about 80 cents. This means Fox can have zero advertisers, but still be profitable. At this point, if you still have cable, you are supporting Fox. If that pisses you off, let your cable provider know you are willing to quit.

  93. 93.

    Zelma

    April 1, 2020 at 12:21 am

    @Mnemosyne:

    As a former Pennsylvanian myself who thought that Governor Wolf was doing a surprisingly good job considering the Paleolithic Republicans in the legislature, I”ve been kind of disappointed in his response to the virus.  He has done the shut down county by county which doesn’t make much sense.

    The campgrounds around here (and there are dozens) usually open April 1.  They’ve been closed.

  94. 94.

    SFAW

    April 1, 2020 at 12:21 am

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Yeah, I know, and thought about including that in my oh-so-witty aphorism. But thanks for making it clear.

  95. 95.

    Adam L Silverman

    April 1, 2020 at 12:22 am

    @Draco7: I have no doubt that some are deliberate. We have ample evidence in the reporting that that is the case.

  96. 96.

    Adam L Silverman

    April 1, 2020 at 12:23 am

    @joel hanes: He intended to rule.

    I will not be ruled.

  97. 97.

    Adam L Silverman

    April 1, 2020 at 12:23 am

    @Mary G: That’ll teach the virus!

  98. 98.

    Zelma

    April 1, 2020 at 12:24 am

    @Mary G:

    Great story.  I don’t know what I would do without Balloon Juice.  I don’t post much but you guys are my people.

  99. 99.

    SFAW

    April 1, 2020 at 12:24 am

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Fearless/clueless prediction: no Rethug will support helping the USPS, because voting-by-mail will/might help Demon-craps.

    “Nice little postal service you got there, be a shame if anything happened to it.”

  100. 100.

    smintheus

    April 1, 2020 at 12:25 am

    @Adam L Silverman:  Some commenter over at LGM was assuring me a week or two ago that any and all such lawsuits would be tossed out because Fox is allowed to lie. I rather doubt that, but in any case the public shaming may destroy Fox finally.

  101. 101.

    joel hanes

    April 1, 2020 at 12:25 am

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    the vermin of the Village

    From what I’ve read, Alcindor and Acosta have been attempting actual journalism.

  102. 102.

    Ruckus

    April 1, 2020 at 12:25 am

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Isn’t NFL and MLB off the air now? And for the foreseeable future? That’s going to screw them right into the ground. And as I don’t watch faux, or either of those sports I forgot/didn’t know/didn’t care about their part in this. But I’ve known, through my job in pro sports and the VA, some NFL players and I could care less if it went away completely. The NFL destroys lives, is the simplest way I can say it. Two of the ex players I know are, to be specific, fucked up. Massively, and at early ages. They make me look like the poster boy for perfect health. And I’m not. Epilepsy, several joint replacements, which will have to be done a couple more times, and several other major ailments.

  103. 103.

    danielx

    April 1, 2020 at 12:26 am

    This is from a nurse at a hospital about four miles down the highway from my home. It’s all one note, but block quoting is splitting it into sections for reasons I am at a loss to explain.

    This is fucking central Indiana; I don’t like to think about what it’s like in NYC and other places where (so far) it’s hitting harder.

    More updated truth from the front line:

    Marion County ( which is where I work) has more than half of the entire states death toll. We now have refrigerated trailers parked in back of the hospital because the morgues are full and people are dying at rapid rate. Our numbers of positive patients and death are projected to more than double by this Friday.

    Where I work, we have only 1 unit left to care for ‘regular’ sick people. (It’s an almost 350 bed hospital). We opened a 3rd ICU yesterday. We have bought and borrowed almost twice the numbers of vents that we normally have. We are expected to need double that by Friday. We don’t have them. No one has them. We have been told at this point, we have to think of ourselves first or there will be no one left to care for these patients. We are losing nurses and other healthcare workers left and right. Not every patient who crashes will be coded…yes that’s what I said. We are expected to see the peak and main surge of the virus by end of next week. The Indiana State Department of Health is calling on ANYONE who has ever had a nursing degree or medical degree…ever. If it’s expired, they will re-instate you and teach you the basics. We are asking people to practice like we’ve never practiced before. We are being pushed so far past our limits that we are burned out and exhausted in so many different forms…and the worse HAS NOT HIT YET!!

    We are literally throwing our hands up at this point and praying for the best. If patients are sick enough to be admitted and we can admit them before symptoms are ‘too’ severe, we are seeing some recovery. When patients digress to a PCU or ICU level of care…very few are recovering.

    If anyone has the hopes of bans or quarantine being lifted soon…forget about it. We haven’t seen the worse yet. Please…for the love of God, help us by STAYING HOME AND AWAY FROM PEOPLE! Re-think what your essential travel is and please give us a chance to survive…and to be able to be the nurses we are and save the lives of others.

  104. 104.

    cain

    April 1, 2020 at 12:26 am

    @Mnemosyne:

    I’m still on the friends list of a wingnut relative in Florida, and it has certainly been interesting to watch it slowly occur to her over the past couple of weeks that her state is in deep shit and there’s no way to blame it on anyone but DeSantis and Trump. She’s watching the freight train barrel towards her and shrieking that the Democrats need to stop fighting the Republicans and DO SOMETHING.

    Why is it always Democrats? She needs to go and tell her people to do something. The problem is that she knows that they have all drank the kool-aid and she’ll only be labeled as a turncoat.

    But yeah, shit’s about to get real, and there is no Democratic person they can blame this on. It’s on them.

  105. 105.

    Kattails

    April 1, 2020 at 12:26 am

    @Zelma: Cape May county is way down there, and pretty isolated,  although I haven’t been down there in ages.  I lived on Long Beach Island for a couple of years, and then went to school in Pomona. Very familiar with the environment– the Pine Barrens and barrier islands.  Also the entitled summer people. They’ve ruined LBI, tore down all the cute summer cottages and built monstrosities right to the edges of the tiny properties. Fucking up the water table too, drawing too much from the aquifers with the recharge zone on the other side of the state getting paved over.

    But we’re dealing with the same thing up here, (NH), the summer lakeside homes are getting opened up way earlier and my midwife friend is dealing with an influx of pregnant women coming up to use the local facilities. And bringing all their baggage. Best of luck–do keep up with the newest protocols as they come out.  It looks like face masks might be more helpful than originally stated. Also the soap thing, it breaks up the fragile fat membrane around the virus. Is there anyone you can keep in touch with who would check on you if you get sick or don’t call in for a day?

  106. 106.

    joel hanes

    April 1, 2020 at 12:27 am

    @CaseyL:

    America’s Chernobyl

    Worse.

  107. 107.

    Adam L Silverman

    April 1, 2020 at 12:27 am

    Grifters gonna grift!

    CORRECTION:

    MyPillow will be producing cotton face masks, not N95 masks.

    — Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) March 30, 2020

  108. 108.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    April 1, 2020 at 12:27 am

    @Ruckus: The Spanish Flu did kill Trump’s grandfather in 1918.

  109. 109.

    cain

    April 1, 2020 at 12:27 am

    @Calouste:

    I prefer “Corona-a-largo”

  110. 110.

    Omnes Omnibus

    April 1, 2020 at 12:29 am

    @Adam L Silverman: Ruling also requires a skill set that he doesn’t have.  It turns out that being a third rate outer borough property scammer* has few skills that are transferable to any other job.

    *Not that he was good at that either.

  111. 111.

    Adam L Silverman

    April 1, 2020 at 12:29 am

    @SFAW: Part of the problem is the legislation the GOP majority jammed through the 2006 lame duck session after they lost their majority, but before the next Congress and its Democratic majority in the House that requires the US Postal Service to fully fund, in advance, their total pension obligations for the next 70 years or so.

  112. 112.

    smike

    April 1, 2020 at 12:30 am

    @joel hanes: Very well put.

  113. 113.

    Mnemosyne

    April 1, 2020 at 12:30 am

    @Draco7:

    We already knew that Trump’s plan was to destroy everything that Obama built. They may not be able to stop that process now even if they wanted to. Too many of the processes were interrelated. Plus old habits are hard to break.

  114. 114.

    Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman)

    April 1, 2020 at 12:30 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    With Sling, that’s exactly what they did.

    Last year Sling & Fox were in a contract dispute and after the dust settled, prices went up by $5/month and Sling added Fox News to the lineup.

    Before that, Sling was mercifully FNC-free.

  115. 115.

    Adam L Silverman

    April 1, 2020 at 12:31 am

    @smintheus: It will be a heavy lift because of the 1st Amendment. But even skeptics like Ken White, aka PopeHat, think that if things go really badly regarding the effects of the virus, then it is more likely that a suit might be able to squeak through.

  116. 116.

    SFAW

    April 1, 2020 at 12:32 am

    @cain:

    Why is it always Democrats?

    Murc’s Law. It’s as real as Cleek’s Law.

    But yeah, shit’s about to get real, and there is no Democratic person they can blame this on. It’s on them.

    If you truly believe that, then you haven’t been paying attention for the last NN years. Now, if you included some modifier, such as “they can honestly blame this on,” that would be different.

  117. 117.

    smintheus

    April 1, 2020 at 12:33 am

    @Draco7:  I think he fails to take account of how much damage stupid, ignorant, and privileged people can do in the course of a given day.

  118. 118.

    smintheus

    April 1, 2020 at 12:35 am

    @SFAW:  Republicans could have voted to convict Trump for his plain corruption, thus solving the lack of adequate leadership.

  119. 119.

    Ruckus

    April 1, 2020 at 12:36 am

    @joel hanes:

    So you are saying that he has earned his salary from vlad.

    BTW not disagreeing with you in the least.

  120. 120.

    SFAW

    April 1, 2020 at 12:36 am

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Yeah, I remember that abomination. It moved the USPS from the “might succeed” column to the “majorly fucked” column.

  121. 121.

    Shalimar

    April 1, 2020 at 12:36 am

    @Adam L Silverman: DeSantis thinks he can be president?  Seriously?  Has no one told him his charisma is Pawlentyesque?

  122. 122.

    Brachiator

    April 1, 2020 at 12:37 am

    When I worked for a certain great metropolitan newspaper in Southern California, I once noticed that even though there were people who played political games, indulged in back stabbing and other petty bullshit, they were careful to draw a very specific line. They never did anything that directly led to a production delay or that interfered with the basic task of producing the paper and getting it delivered.

    The few people who I saw didn’t understand this did not last long. I saw a senior executive make a serious blunder and brag about it in front of key management. He thought he had immunity, but he was actually gone by lunch time.

    I have never seen Trump rise to the occasion. He not only has failed the country in his mishandling of the pandemic, he plows ahead full speed with his third rate grift and his mismanagement of his executive office responsibilities.

    And just as bad, the GOP leadership continues with their harmful political games, and Fox News and their right wing buddies keep pushing out political propaganda. It’s as though they don’t know how to stop their machinations, no matter what crises the nation faces. Nor do they seem to even care about their own lives, or the lives of their families. They are in it to win it, even if it kills them. Problem is, they are willing to drag the country down with them.

  123. 123.

    Adam L Silverman

    April 1, 2020 at 12:39 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: That’s the Ft. Riley Flu. And given his grandfather was a deserter from Germany and we were fighting the Germans, the Ft. Riley Flu effectively targeted at least one enemy combatant.

  124. 124.

    Mary G

    April 1, 2020 at 12:39 am

    @Adam L Silverman: Laura Ingraham and Devin Nunes are still singing the same old tune today. I think a charge of depraved indifference could at the least cost them a fuckton of lawyers’ fees to fight.

  125. 125.

    Adam L Silverman

    April 1, 2020 at 12:39 am

    @Omnes Omnibus: Yep.

  126. 126.

    Ruckus

    April 1, 2020 at 12:40 am

    @Feathers:

    No cable, only internet. I’m not paying for commercials to watch TV. TV was bad enough when cable didn’t have them but now……

    If I want to see regular TV I have straight line to Mt Wilson, the LA area TV transmission location. That costs only my sanity.

    So, little loss.

  127. 127.

    Adam L Silverman

    April 1, 2020 at 12:41 am

    @Shalimar: Hence his hugging of the President.

  128. 128.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    April 1, 2020 at 12:42 am

    @Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman): I know, I have Sling.

  129. 129.

    Villago Delenda Est

    April 1, 2020 at 12:42 am

    @joel hanes: Two stars in a constellation of fools.  Odin help them, they’re up against decades of Village tradition.

  130. 130.

    SFAW

    April 1, 2020 at 12:44 am

    @smintheus:

    Republicans could have voted to convict Trump for his plain corruption, thus solving the lack of adequate leadership.

    Yeah, and Emmylou Harris could have asked me to be her boy-toy, back when I was younger. Which is more likely, I wonder

    ETA: To be clear, she could still ask me, but now I’d be her “fat-old-bald-guy-toy.”

  131. 131.

    joel hanes

    April 1, 2020 at 12:44 am

    @Adam L Silverman:

    He intended to rule.

    At best in the Caligula or Richard II sense.

    A functioning king vests fiefs, builds alliances and defenses, supports the rule of law,  judges wisely, empowers able deputies, looks to the future of the realm.

    Trump does the opposite of most of those.   He intended to control, literally in a mob-boss sense, by a mob-boss’s lawless tactics — no thought for the citizens, concerned only that his personal enemies get whacked and that he gets a slice of any action.

  132. 132.

    Adam L Silverman

    April 1, 2020 at 12:44 am

    Yay!

    2020 HURRICANE SEASON: The report forecasts 14 to 18 tropical storms, of which seven to nine become hurricanes. Two to four could strengthen into major hurricanes. https://t.co/DF53JZxidh

    — FOX 35 Orlando (@fox35orlando) March 25, 2020

  133. 133.

    Villago Delenda Est

    April 1, 2020 at 12:44 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Too little, too late.  Fred had already been spawned.

  134. 134.

    Ruckus

    April 1, 2020 at 12:45 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    It was too late though

    Damn beaten by a minute

  135. 135.

    SFAW

    April 1, 2020 at 12:48 am

    @Villago Delenda Est: @Ruckus:

    Is it the Klingons who wipe out the family for two generations in each direction? I can never remember.

  136. 136.

    Mnemosyne

    April 1, 2020 at 12:49 am

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    He always had Daddy to bail him out when he fucked up. I can completely believe that he would end up in hock to Putin because he would be in desperate need of a new Daddy to bail him out of his bad decisions.

  137. 137.

    Villago Delenda Est

    April 1, 2020 at 12:49 am

    @Adam L Silverman: Tucker Carlson internet news strikes again!

  138. 138.

    Adam L Silverman

    April 1, 2020 at 12:51 am

    @Villago Delenda Est: Stopped clock…

  139. 139.

    Ruckus

    April 1, 2020 at 12:51 am

    @SFAW:

    I have far better things than that to forget remember.

  140. 140.

    Mary G

    April 1, 2020 at 12:52 am

    I kind of hope that this is fake:

    Friends – this is worth reading – as many of you know, my comp is making parts for ventilators and PPE. We now have 57K face shields sitting on our docks and just received notice that we cannot supply them directly to hospitals – they MUST go thru FEMA after a "negotiation …— Lance ?? Stay Home. Save Lives. ?? (@LanceHoward70) March 31, 2020

    … period." WTF? That would mean late April or early May? PROUD OF US – our CEO literally said, "F that, donate them to whatever hospitals can use them and donate them TODAY. No cost to whoever needs them." But the gov was willing to let them just sit there? WTF? This is nuts.— Lance ?? Stay Home. Save Lives. ?? (@LanceHoward70) March 31, 2020

  141. 141.

    Mnemosyne

    April 1, 2020 at 12:56 am

    @Brachiator:

    They’re one-trick ponies. Their one trick brought them pretty far, but it can’t get them out of a jam that’s beyond their control. Someone here said once that a narcissist’s trick is to cause a problem that they then “solve” by not doing whatever asshole thing it was that they did to cause the problem, and then they expect praise for it.

    Same process here. In 30 years, there hasn’t been a problem that the Republicans couldn’t “fix” because they had caused it themselves. Now they’re faced with a problem that’s outside of any human’s control and they don’t know what the fuck to do because all of their usual tricks aren’t working. You can’t threaten or coerce or blackmail a virus, so they’re stumped.

  142. 142.

    Cleardale

    April 1, 2020 at 12:57 am

    @joel hanes: A tenet of good leadership is, “You can delegate authority, but not responsibility.” trump does the opposite, the people around him have no actual authority to accomplish anything, yet take all the blame.

    Deep down trump knows he’s an incompetant failure, his actions show this. He’s trying to grab as much as he can, before it all falls apart. To him it’s a given that it will all fall apart, he knows he can’t actually maintain or build anything.

  143. 143.

    mrmoshpotato

    April 1, 2020 at 12:57 am

    @Adam L Silverman: Woo hoo!  Fucking hell! Ahhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!! (Guess which one is sarcastic.)

  144. 144.

    mrmoshpotato

    April 1, 2020 at 12:59 am

    @SFAW: Ask Pepperidge Farm.

  145. 145.

    Mnemosyne

    April 1, 2020 at 1:01 am

    @Adam L Silverman:

    I can think of at least a dozen fashion companies that are already doing the same, but I guess they don’t get the big splashy platform to announce it because they’re, like, gay and/or minorities and shit. ?

  146. 146.

    Adam L Silverman

    April 1, 2020 at 1:03 am

    @mrmoshpotato: Nothing quite like a Category 5 Coronaviruscaine!

  147. 147.

    mrmoshpotato

    April 1, 2020 at 1:07 am

    @joel hanes: It’s a bust out.  Not surprising since Dump is a Soviet shitpile mobster conman.

  148. 148.

    Mnemosyne

    April 1, 2020 at 1:07 am

    @Adam L Silverman:

    This is why I bought a “flameless cooker” and a bunch of freeze-dried meals when this whole thing began. It will be just our luck that we’ll get hit with an earthquake in the middle of all of this shit.

  149. 149.

    Mnemosyne

    April 1, 2020 at 1:08 am

    @mrmoshpotato:

    See Anne Laurie’s new thread above for the ugly details of the ongoing bust-out.

  150. 150.

    mrmoshpotato

    April 1, 2020 at 1:10 am

    @Adam L Silverman: This one goes to 11, but doesn’t break the harmonica store.

  151. 151.

    Draco7

    April 1, 2020 at 1:12 am

    @Adam L Silverman:  I should have been more explicit about the central thesis. It is that these screw ups are in service to something more than an electoral advantage or profit opportunity for Trump, and that’s what I find intriguing. The obviously deliberate actions are interpreted primarily as political moves, which of course they are. The question lies with the intended outcome. If it’s not actually to get a leg up on Biden, then there are some other possibilities. What can pushing the nation into a disaster accomplish? An emergency declaration has certainly changed Orbán’s position, and he’s not the only example of a politician leveraging the pandemic.

    I’m not looking under the bed for monsters, but we have been habituated to consider “the law” as a given, and I have lost that habit. I expect your position to be that the armed forces will step in if necessary in the case of election negation (for example), and you may be aware of things that I am not privy to, but I can’t believe that any planning wouldn’t take that into account as well. Maybe a completely amoral person would be content with just throwing the nation into chaos – per instructions.

    I don’t want to cause any anxiety, just want to stay flexible in my thinking as I follow events. I think the Constitution will stand as written – even the well regulated militia next door agrees with me on that.

  152. 152.

    mrmoshpotato

    April 1, 2020 at 1:12 am

    @Mnemosyne: Oh huzzah!  (At least it has a construction equipment ad, hooray bulldozers!)

  153. 153.

    Adam L Silverman

    April 1, 2020 at 1:14 am

    @Draco7:

    I expect your position to be that the armed forces will step in if necessary in the case of election negation (for example)

    I have no expectation of that at all.

  154. 154.

    mrmoshpotato

    April 1, 2020 at 1:15 am

    @Mnemosyne:

    It will be just our luck that we’ll get hit with an earthquake in the middle of all of this shit. 

    You’re in California, right?

  155. 155.

    mrmoshpotato

    April 1, 2020 at 1:17 am

    @Adam L Silverman: Some people around here seem to think “Woo!  Military coup and everything returns to normal!  Yay!”

  156. 156.

    divF

    April 1, 2020 at 1:21 am

    @Omnes Omnibus: You missed light-of-love and meretrix.

  157. 157.

    Kattails

    April 1, 2020 at 1:24 am

    @Mnemosyne: A screenshot of Adam’s I printed and kept, dated October 31, 2017: “…the GOP caucuses couldn’t fix a sandwich. Too many factions within each chamber’s caucuses. Too many of them in the House elected since 2010 (75%), which means they have absolutely no experience with, and therefore no ability to, actually do anything under regular order. …They know how to create crises by sabotaging the institution, then freaking out because of the crises they’ve created, then get mad when their leadership has to turn to either Pelosi or Schumer to deliver the votes to bail them out of the crises they just caused.”

    What’s gotten worse is that Trump doesn’t even see or care about the crises burning the place down around him, and it seems they’ve just followed him into mental/psychological oblivion.

  158. 158.

    Adam L Silverman

    April 1, 2020 at 1:29 am

    @mrmoshpotato: 1) Not going to happen. 2) If it did, it wouldn’t lead to a return to normalcy.

  159. 159.

    Adam L Silverman

    April 1, 2020 at 1:30 am

    @Kattails: That Adam guy is making me look bad!

  160. 160.

    mrmoshpotato

    April 1, 2020 at 1:33 am

    @Adam L Silverman:

    1. I know.
    2. Yup.  Not how coups work.
  161. 161.

    Draco7

    April 1, 2020 at 1:44 am

    @Adam L Silverman: Okey dokey – I thought I saw that expectation in something you wrote maybe 2-3 weeks ago. Nevermind – my memory isn’t as good as it used to be, and it never has been.

  162. 162.

    cain

    April 1, 2020 at 1:46 am

    @Mary G:

    If he fucks this up, the Navy will be dead to him. The enlisted men will definitely not be looking at this administration in a good way.

    I hope there will be no casualties in this. These men should be at the peak of health for their age. (well except for the oldies)

  163. 163.

    cain

    April 1, 2020 at 1:49 am

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Won’t gig economies like Amazon and others want to USPS around?

    Secondly, what about all those people stuck in rural areas that won’t be able to get mail, medication and all that other bits? I think this will be a huge problem.

  164. 164.

    mrmoshpotato

    April 1, 2020 at 1:52 am

    @cain:

    Secondly, what about all those people stuck in rural areas that won’t be able to get mail, medication and all that other bits? I think this will be a huge problem. 

    Well, seeing as how they’re all about killing their own base…

  165. 165.

    Mary G

    April 1, 2020 at 1:55 am

    Biden’s new ad: healthcare workers and first responders are our soldiers in the war we’re fighting right now and they need the proper equipment to do their jobs. Very calm, resolved, strong, and not-senile:

    this new @JoeBiden ad is what a president is supposed to sound like. pic.twitter.com/YhUxlpQQZg— Florida Chris (@chrislongview) March 31, 2020

    Devastating to Twitler without mentioning or showing him once.

  166. 166.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    April 1, 2020 at 1:57 am

    @SFAW: If you truly believe that, then you haven’t been paying attention for the last NN years. Now, if you included some modifier, such as “they can honestly blame this on,” that would be different.

    I’ve noticed the latest from the Conservatives is “I am disgusted with how the both the Republicans and Democrats are handling the virus”  Considering the amount of outright suicidal stuff coming from the Right on this virus this could be a watershed moment.

  167. 167.

    cain

    April 1, 2020 at 2:02 am

    @joel hanes:

    Benghazi or is it Hillary’s 30k emails? Both seem like catastrophic events at the time they happened.

  168. 168.

    joel hanes

    April 1, 2020 at 2:03 am

    @SFAW:

    The IRS does almost all its business by USPS.

    Social Security and other disbursements still go out at least partially via USPS.

    Other functions of government are dependent on it.

    In many rural areas, it cannot really be replaced by UPS or FedEX.

    I’m pretty confident that, once the Senate comes back, the post office will get rescued somehow.

  169. 169.

    Fair Economist

    April 1, 2020 at 2:07 am

    @cain:

    I hope there will be no casualties in this. These men should be at the peak of health for their age. (well except for the oldies)

    Me too, but it looks grim. Guam has a population of only 160,000, and it’s not wealthy. There’s going to be hundreds of ill sailors, and Guam’s own epidemic is firing up. I doubt the naval hospital is set up for lots of respiratory care and I don’t think the local hospital facilities will be adequate.

  170. 170.

    cain

    April 1, 2020 at 2:07 am

    @Mnemosyne:

    He always had Daddy to bail him out when he fucked up. I can completely believe that he would end up in hock to Putin because he would be in desperate need of a new Daddy to bail him out of his bad decisions.

    Daddy cool? ( I heard that song after a long while, and boy that song is not creepy at all.. shudder)+

  171. 171.

    mrmoshpotato

    April 1, 2020 at 2:08 am

    @cain: Let’s not forget Hillary being “overprepared.”

    Oh Chuck Todd, hope you never get sliced open by an unprepared surgeon.

  172. 172.

    cain

    April 1, 2020 at 2:13 am

    @Fair Economist:

    Me too, but it looks grim. Guam has a population of only 160,000, and it’s not wealthy. There’s going to be hundreds of ill sailors, and Guam’s own epidemic is firing up. I doubt the naval hospital is set up for lots of respiratory care and I don’t think the local hospital facilities will be adequate.

    Get the air force get a couple of large planes and get them out of there.

    Oh wait! Maybet that new space force will help! /snark

  173. 173.

    cain

    April 1, 2020 at 2:14 am

    @mrmoshpotato:

    Well, I guess that means that we can start moving the senate away from Republicans. They’ll finally kill all the conservatives that don’t realize they use govt services all the time.

  174. 174.

    Draco7

    April 1, 2020 at 2:15 am

    @mrmoshpotato: Am I “some people”? Some people say I am, but they’re wrong. What I do consider is that the stakes are very high for Trump/Repubs – not only being called to account, but being called to court. “Looking forward, not back” is not going to fly very well, but dealing with the sheer scope of the “looking back” process is going to be challenging for the nation – and that’s an understatement. I don’t think anybody here believes that there is any law the current crop of creeps (some Americans are still alliterate) couldn’t ignore. Money and power appear to be addicting – unfortunately I’ll never know, but there’s no 12 step program for the rich. DJT has already made clear that he’s not going quietly. If these considerations make for conspiracy mongering, so be it. I’m not convinced of anything – I’m just looking at potential outcomes. I hate being totally surprised.

  175. 175.

    NotMax

    April 1, 2020 at 2:16 am

    @Fair Economist

    15 ICU beds on Guam, 6 more at the naval hospital.

    “Navy men are accustomed to close quarters, so three in a bed should be pose no problem for them.”

    //

  176. 176.

    eddie blake

    April 1, 2020 at 2:40 am

    @Fair Economist:

    IIRC, 4,000 sailors and marines on the teddy roosevelt.

    it’s EXPLODING throughout the ship.

  177. 177.

    eddie blake

    April 1, 2020 at 2:47 am

    @Adam L Silverman:

    do we know if the silent service brass sent the SSBNs or the SSNs deep before the virus raged on the surface?

    without the reagan or the roosevelt and their battle groups, do we HAVE an active naval deterrent in the pacific?

  178. 178.

    mrmoshpotato

    April 1, 2020 at 2:53 am

    @Draco7: Combing more closely through your and Adam’s back and forth, I apologize.  I misinterpreted what you said about the military stepping in in a case of election negation.

    I don’t see this happening either.

    Sorry for misunderstanding.

     

    ETA – regarding not looking back, I hope that doesn’t happen.  Otherwise, why can’t I rob a bank?  I mean, I won’t take ALL their money, so it’s cool, right?

  179. 179.

    Ruckus

    April 1, 2020 at 3:33 am

    @Mary G:

    That is one of the best political ads I’ve ever seen or heard.

    He shouldn’t have had to make it but he does. And he did.

    Damn. DAMN

     

    I’ve got Phil Collins on doing Take Me Home, live.

  180. 180.

    Ruckus

    April 1, 2020 at 3:35 am

    @joel hanes:

    The IRS does it all by USPS. They don’t call, they write.

  181. 181.

    Ruckus

    April 1, 2020 at 3:45 am

    @eddie blake:

    We have a number of carriers 10 or 11 I think.

    But some are probably in for overhaul, service, dry dock.

    And crews are always tight these days, 10 carriers is 40,000-50,000 sailors. And that doesn’t account for all the other ships and port personnel. I’d bet this is an issue. Every square inch of those ships is contaminated and if those guys are showing signs, most everyone else is exposed, there’s just no way around that. I said the other day that any ship that’s exposed is going to have major problems, no navy ship has the space of a cruse ship, and how well have those done? It’s assholes and elbows every where.

  182. 182.

    lumpkin

    April 1, 2020 at 4:01 am

    The title on the linked article doesn’t match the content. The article quite clearly points the finger of blame right squarely at the president. Maybe the title actually refers to a lack of intelligence in the person occupying the white house.

  183. 183.

    Dan B

    April 1, 2020 at 4:10 am

    @Draco7:  You postulate that a crisis may be in the works and the addition of the fact that an increasing number of people would be in serious legal jeopardy if the GOP lost the White House and the Senate, courts might slow things down but nit much, is an interesting consideration.  Just how deep is the desire to remove liberals and liberal ideas from America?

  184. 184.

    Dan B

    April 1, 2020 at 4:25 am

    @Dan B: To be clear I’m saying that a lot of people in the White House and the GOP would be in serious legal trouble if the DEMS win the White House and Senate.  So if they have gamed out that this pandemic could cause them to lose power would they conclude it would be better to burn it all down and let the virus spread.  Are they to that level of depravity?  Is it Jim Jones or Branch Davidian level?  I don’t understand how a cult works or if this crowd is heading in that direction.

  185. 185.

    a thousand flouncing lurkers was fidelio

    April 1, 2020 at 4:32 am

    @danielx:  According to the State of Indiana’s webpage, Marion County now has over 960 diagnosed cases of COVID-19: https://coronavirus.in.gov/2393.htm

    I don’t know how regularly they update, but that gives some notion of the problem. For comparison, here in Tennessee, Nashville/Davidson County was reporting 391 cases and Memphis/Shelby County was reporting 428. Shelby County & Marion County are similar in population; Davidson County has about two-thirds the population. Both states are being run by Republicans for Republicans, which I am sure will have no effect on outcome at all. /sarcasm

  186. 186.

    Sloane Ranger

    April 1, 2020 at 4:52 am

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: During the briefing he referred to a friend “big, strong guy. A little older, bit heavier. Went to the hospital with minor symptoms, now in a coma.”

    Either he has such an acquaintance and now realizes that even people like him can get the serious version of the disease or this individual is a figment of his imagination created to explain why he changed his mind about how this was really the flu and didn’t end the lockdown.

  187. 187.

    HeartlandLiberal

    April 1, 2020 at 7:39 am

    Posted the entire post by Adam Silverman to both Indiana Senators Todd Young and Mike Braun, and House IN-09 Rep. Trey Hollingsworth, with this preface in my own words:

    The following reflects my thoughts on the complete failure of the President and members of the GOP in this time of national emergency. Please do not reply with a note on how Trump is taking action to fight this pandemic. Lying is a sin, as I am sure your mother taught you. This is all on Trump and GOP administrations total failure to address reality of this pandemic. And American citizens are dying, perhaps in hundreds of thousands, maybe in millions before this is over.

  188. 188.

    SFAW

    April 1, 2020 at 8:06 am

    @joel hanes: 

    I’m pretty confident that, once the Senate comes back, the post office will get rescued somehow.

    Your key assumption(s) appear(s) to be that you’re confident a Republican Senate will act in a rational manner, and that Rethugs would not “blow shit up, just because they can,” and that they they will look farther ahead than the end of their noses. I am not quite as confident.

  189. 189.

    SFAW

    April 1, 2020 at 8:07 am

    @Dan B:

    Just how deep is the desire to remove liberals and liberal ideas from America?

    In the Party of Traitors, bone-deep.

  190. 190.

    Another Scott

    April 1, 2020 at 8:40 am

    @Adam L Silverman: 

    https://www.govexec.com/pay-benefits/2020/02/house-votes-end-controversial-usps-payments-future-retirees-health-care/162912/

    tl;dr – The House passes a bill in February to fix some of the USPS issues. It’s probably on Moscow Mitch’s desk.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  191. 191.

    SFAW

    April 1, 2020 at 9:09 am

    @Another Scott: 
    Thanks. Glad to see Speaker Pelosi’s guidance, as always. In a rational world, it would overcome Traitor Turtle’s treason.
    [NB: Yes, I realize his actions/inaction in this regard, and in general, might not technically qualify as “treason.” Still … ]

  192. 192.

    ljdramone

    April 1, 2020 at 4:45 pm

    @Barbara:  I’m reading the Decameron now (the 1930 Richard Aldington translation, with rather lurid illustrations by Jean de Boschere). The ten aristocrats who flee Florence to a luxurious villa in the Tuscan countryside successfully escape the plague and, after telling each other ten stories over each of ten days, return home.

    It’s not really a cautionary tale, everything turns out OK in the end.

  193. 193.

    Warren Lorente

    April 2, 2020 at 4:40 am

    Contra Adam, this was a failure of intelligence, but of the kind measured by the Stanford-Binet.

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

Fundraising 2023-24

Wis*Dems Supreme Court + SD-8

Recent Comments

  • Baud on Thank the Trickster God It’s Friday Open Thread: Waiting for the Big Reveal (Mar 24, 2023 @ 12:51pm)
  • Omnes Omnibus on WSJ Begs House Goobers to Stop Taking the Bait (Open Thread) (Mar 24, 2023 @ 12:51pm)
  • OzarkHillbilly on WSJ Begs House Goobers to Stop Taking the Bait (Open Thread) (Mar 24, 2023 @ 12:51pm)
  • Jess on B-J After Dark Open Thread: FaFo in Utah (Mar 24, 2023 @ 12:48pm)
  • Geminid on Thank the Trickster God It’s Friday Open Thread: Waiting for the Big Reveal (Mar 24, 2023 @ 12:48pm)

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
We All Need A Little Kindness
Classified Documents: A Primer
State & Local Elections Discussion

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Mailing List Signup
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)

Twitter / Spoutible

Balloon Juice (Spoutible)
WaterGirl (Spoutible)
TaMara (Spoutible)
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
TaMara
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
ActualCitizensUnited

Join the Fight!

Join the Fight Signup Form
All Join the Fight Posts

Balloon Juice Events

5/14  The Apocalypse
5/20  Home Away from Home
5/29  We’re Back, Baby
7/21  Merging!

Balloon Juice for Ukraine

Donate

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2023 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!