In the past few days, we have had an IG replaced, a SECNAV forced to resign, learned that the WH is giving PPE to private businesses to force states to bid against each other, had a rightwing SCOTUS vote against fair elections in Wisconsin, and the Press Secretary, who has never held a press conference, was replaced with a serial liar and fabulist. All of this is during a worsening pandemic and economic crisis.
And I am here to tell you it is going to get worse before it gets better. So get yourself ready, hunker down, keep your head in the game, and any other platitudes you need. Because it is going to get worse. But you need to be ready for it, and ready to fight back, because while you might think we are approaching the absolute bottom, with Republicans it CAN ALWAYS get worse. This November election is the whole ball of wax, so you need to stay healthy, physically and mentally, and be ready for the fight of your lives.
The IHME Epidemiological Model
Dorothy A. Winsor
I just saw on twitter that Trump is apparently aiming to fire 7 IGs, mostly those appointed by Obama. He says he’s nominated 7.
artem1s
Srsly, the next idiot that tells me they didn’t think Trump would be this bad is gonna get an earful. At this point I’m trying to remember way back when every GOPer was all in for W until they weren’t. And then suddenly no one wanted to be seen in public with him. I don’t know what it’s going to take to get to that tipping point with this asshole, but it better come soon. I hope the first pundit who starts making mewling noises about how we all have to get along after we finally get rid of this pestilence, gets tarred feathered.
BR
I think we need to view everything through a political lens of “will it help in November” — some of the inspector general stuff, while very important in normal times, won’t matter at all now. He was always going to fire the IGs, and he will stall any attempt at oversight until after the election. So any attempt at oversight should be aimed to exacting political damage, which isn’t the same as substantive investigation.
Same goes for pretty much everything else — if there’s a way that he can stall or delay or deflect and not take political damage, assume he will and we need to not waste energy on it.
Voter registration drives seem especially important right now, especially in states where people can register online.
BR
@artem1s:
I’m just glad that you’re hearing people say that — I’d like to let people learn and turn on him rather than give them a hard time for being slow to see reality…
Baud
Yep.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.)
Lord, that’s the truth. There is no bottom with these people.
Shit. I never could have guessed we’d reach the point where our president was profiteering from a pandemic, but here we are.
This November is the big one.
dexwood
@Dorothy A. Winsor: If that orange, evil asshole chokes on a cheeseburger, this lifelong, Catholic educated atheist might give a prayer of thanks. Can’t happen soon enough.
Jay Noble
All these firings and yet . . . Dr. Fauci is still there. He’s short, smart and an expert who contradicts Trump all the time. Dr. Fauci has something on Donnie or an incredible off-camera bedside manner that keeps him in Donnie’s good graces. Whatever it is KEEP IT UP, Doc!
West of the Rockies
Things can also get better. Typically, we see ups and downs. There are brilliant people doing good things. I just say this for those who are ready to pitch themselves out of the nearest window in despair.
Baud
@Jay Noble:
He seems to have avoided the dignity wraith.
trollhattan
Whatever it is that Trump wants to loot and hoard, he’ll spend the next several months pillaging to stock his version of the Nazi looted art caves. And have plenty of help.
The BEST CASE I can envision is Trump is out of a job in January and tweeting a thousand times a day to his minions. They will not take being out of the driver’s seat gracefully. Biden at least had a front-row seat to the continual assault on Obama and won’t be surprised.
SiubhanDuinne
Sorry to keep inundating threads with my musical theatre parodies, but if you’re familiar with the “Bell Trio” from H.M.S. Pinafore, you may enjoy my first stab at a verse. More to come if inspiration strikes, but I’m not pushing it.
Gvg
I am actually really worried about the lame duck period between him losing and Biden being inaugerated. I have always worried about that since the moment I realized he was elected, but I wasn’t actually imagining a worldwide pandemic right as it happened and that seriously complicates everything.
he is a crappy bigoted ignorant egotistical credulous fool with no morals, so we do have a problem.
i guess I should figure out how to make full protective gear so my family and I can vote in November. It’s a little more complicated than just broken glass.
Anya
is this confirmed and widely known because this is the first I am hearing about it. And I thought that nothing would shock me about Trump and his criminal administration but I am genuinely shocked by this.
Krope, the Formerly Dope
To be fair, in order to have guessed how bad Trump was going to be, one would need to have guessed things that would’ve seemed fairly implausible 4 years ago.
trollhattan
A good thing happened this afternoon.
Restoring historic flows to the Klamath will be a wonderful thing, so long as ranchers and Republicans continue failing to stop it.
sanjeevs
@Anya: @joshtpm has been tweeting about it. And Gov Pritzker in particular has called it out
NotMax
re: your first paragraph
And those are only the things we know about thus far. Tip of an extremely fetid iceberg, would surmise.
guachi
I’m a First Class Petty Officer in the USN. I belong to a FB group made up of First Class Petty Officers. The response was almost (but not quite) universally negative to Captain Crozier being fired. When the former Acting Sec Nav resigned there were at least a dozen posts, no sympathy for him, and much dancing on his grave.
The responses were brutal for the past week plus and many posters clearly had the attitude of IDGAF.
Amir Khalid
@Gvg:
If Biden wins in November, his incoming administration is for damn sure not going to get a proper, professional handover from Trump’s fucked-up crew. What I do expect is a great many acts, large and small, of petulant sabotage. I hope Biden is taking that into account.
NotMax
@Jay Noble
He possesses that all important central casting ‘kindly yet stern fatherly country doctor’ look.
//
Miss Bianca
@guachi: Wait, did I miss something? Did Modly resign? Or are we talking about some *former* former acting NAVSEC?
ETA: And can you tell us more about the chatter from the Navy? My dad was Navy and all this shit is making me miss him and wonder what he would be saying about it all.
Baud
@Miss Bianca: He resigned.
Chetan Murthy
@Anya: Yes: check out https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/what-power-does-the-federal-government-really-have-to-seize-medical-supplies
they’ve had a bunch of other articles about individual incidents, naming companies and states that have been thus robbed. All in front of the paywall, so no subscription required.
Patricia Kayden
NotMax
@Baud
The cheap shot heard ’round the world.
;)
Chetan Murthy
@Krope, the Formerly Dope: Nope. He was known to be a gangster who ran his businesses into the ground. All of this was known. What it required, was simply having a memory — his bankruptcies from the 90s were legendary.
WaterGirl
@Miss Bianca: Modly resigned.
Miss Bianca
@Baud: @WaterGirl: Holy shit, that was fast. The blowback must have been overwhelming.
That’s one moderately good sign, I guess. These days I grasp at – not even straws – more like toothpicks – to see positivity *somewhere* in this social and political shitpile timeline we’re living in.
Baud
@Chetan Murthy:
His behavior during the campaign too.
dmsilev
@Patricia Kayden: Look, compared to (for instance) Avogadro’s Number, 400,000 is indeed “close to zero”. It’s all a matter of perspective.
Baud
A Ghost to Most
Could I have Bleu cheese with that platitude salad?
Sorry, just got off a heated text with BIL, who apparently has been enlisted as liaison to me.
A sample:
guachi
@Miss Bianca: First post on my FB First Class feed about this is a meme “When the entire enlisted Navy cyberbullies you out of a Job” using a picture of actor Bradley Whitford from a role in Billy Madison (because Modly kinda looks like him).
First two posts I saw on it, minutes after his resignation was made public, each had identical responses from two different Sailors, a simple “lol”.
Genine Tyson
I’ve said many times: there is no bottom. Though, I have to admit to some surprise at the outright piracy. I knew he and his ilk didn’t care, would make things worse, and try to profit off the misery in some way. That’s pretty much on brand. But playing Blackbeard raised my eyebrows.
I guess the impeachment and getting away with an undeniable crime with no repercussions encouraged him a bit more.
trollhattan
@Baud:
Holy crap, Onion Joe got a time machine!
TS (the original)
@Baud:
Biden needs to come up with much more than this. He should be calling out trump and the GOP all day every day.
“We will rise again” is doubtful while trump is making sure lots of folks get buried.
Baud
@trollhattan:
Maybe he borrowed Obama’s?
How does that happen? Is Biden in Europe?
Baud
@TS (the original):
It’s a single fucking tweet.
Bex
@Anya: This is why Trump has been making nasty comments about Gov. Pritzker during the five o’clock follies.
zhena gogolia
@West of the Rockies:
Thank you!
PsiFighter37
@Baud: It’s getting to the point where this bullshit about America’s best days being ahead of it really just doesn’t ring true anymore.
The FTNYT also has an article that makes a good point, which is when everyone says that this election is the ‘big one’ – no, it was the 2016 election. That’s when things basically fell apart. I am under no illusions that Biden is going to be able to fix everything that Trump and his cabal of far-right extremists of every stripe have broken. But I hope that the first step – which is setting up a prosecutorial commission that indicts everyone from Trump on down, where applicable – even to the minor ones, like Ben Carson spending 30 large on a dining set – get aired out. The criminality and corruption of this administration needs to be aired 24/7.
Of course, if we lose in 2020, we’re fucked, and it may well be the actual time to start thinking about leaving this country and moving to Canada, as opposed to joking about it (which was the case after 2004).
japa21
@TS (the original): He has been, every day.
Baud
@PsiFighter37:
No one gets anywhere by pitching pessimism.
Anya
@sanjeevs:
@Chetan Murthy: thanks for the info and the link. I’ve seen Josh Marshall’s tweets and I have bookmarked the articles to read. I know they were apprehending PPE shipments but I thought they were stealing them because the federal government’s stockpiles ran out. This is just so much worse.
Ohio Mom
The dismantling of the federal government, which appears to have moved into high gear, scares me way more than the virus.
Medical scientists around the world are working overtime on wrestling CV-19 to the ground (and no, I am not counting hydroxychloroquine among the potentially promising efforts).
Maybe there will not be one big success but there will certainly be many different, small but important improvements in treatment methods, and eventually, probably a vaccine.
No one except the Democrats in the House are in a position to do anything about the ransacking of the federal government, and the best they can do is slow things around the edges.
And I am not sure this is registering outside of blogtopia. In my everyday phone, text, email and zoom conversations, it’s all about comparing methods of avoiding getting sick.
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
Sigh. Her e-mails redux.
artem1s
@BR: the only problem is these are the same people who tell me they did all the research on Killary and Biden will be a disaster. But they had no idea Trump would be this bad. They aren’t learning, they are deflecting blame by claiming ignorance.
NotMax
Someone somewhere by now must have grabbed the bullsh*t by the horns and put out a revamped version of the Spike Jones classic, altering it to Der Donald’s Face.
PsiFighter37
@Ohio Mom: The dismantling has been going on the entire time. Bannon’s whole thing was the deconstruction of the bureaucracy and administration that keeps this country going. That is almost certainly something that Stephen Miller and any of those other fuckers who were there from the start are about. It’s frankly what Putin likely cares the most about – he knows it is a devastating, permanent weakening of America, and makes it more likely to devolve into a rump state in the longer run and put it down on Russia’s level.
Baud
@artem1s:
Best response is simply to say that Trump couldn’t be this bad on his own, but he’s getting support from Republican politicians.
People like that are frustrating, but it’s a opportunity to push the envelope.
And get them to commit to voting.
BR
@PsiFighter37:
I’ve been thinking about this, and have somewhat concluded that the best strategy is some combination of what Biden, Warren, and Sanders have been proposing. Biden wants to get things back to the way they were — not broken. Warren has plans for big structural change. Sanders wants to throw everything out and start over.
Given the damage to institutions that has happened so far, you can’t get things back to working without almost throwing everything out and starting over because it’s hard to know where to start (Sanders’s approach), and cutting the stupid and unfair stuff out as you rebuild, replacing it with detailed structural checks and balances (Warren’s approach), with the goal of producing a stable and functioning government like we had 4 years ago (Biden’s approach).
Brachiator
@Jay Noble:
Fauci lost the battle to keep Trump from peddling snake oil miracle pills.
Useless sleazeball flunky Young Jared gleefully delivered the knock-out punch.
There is a chance that Trump will hard press the experts to open things up again too soon. And Trump will openly say, “if a few more people die, well, that’s life. They had my magic pills.”
oatler.
@trollhattan: I dunno. I lived in OR the last decade and these water-use feuds never end, especially as drought increases.
Chyron HR
@Krope, the Formerly Dope:
Who could have known that Trump wasn’t actually to the left of Hillary? He didn’t even have any speech transcripts!
schrodingers_cat
Welcome to my world. I saw this on that fateful November night in 2016. Nothing that the Orange Tyrant has tried to do or had done has surprised me. The Muslim ban days after he took office was a harbinger of things to come.
BTW many immigrant doctors at the forefront of this fight are in danger of losing their status and getting deported.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@zhena gogolia:
I think I would file those comments under “I need to be inspired…”
PsiFighter37
@BR: I’m happy to take any of Warren’s and Biden’s ideas. None of Wilmer’s plans have any actual meat on the bones beyond slogans and pointy fingers / shouty voice, so forget that.
If Democrats manage to regain the trifecta, someone needs to have in place every single last thing we need to pass in the 2 years before voters get amnesia and hand back Congress to the GOP. Additionally, there needs to be a blueprint for a corruption commission that indicts every single last person that needs to be held accountable, from Jan. 20, 2021. I hope that someone is far-thinking enough about this, but it’s gotta be done quick. Clinton and Obama both only had 2 years to do anything worth their while. Biden is going to have to make every second count.
Amir Khalid
@oatler.:
As I understand, people in America have been fighting over access to water for, like, over two centuries.
kindness
Amen!
I love it when John preaches.
BR
@PsiFighter37:
The point about Sanders is less about substance and more about philosophy. He wants to throw everything out and start over, more or less, if he could have his way. There’s a lot of resistance to that among less radical Dems, but there may be a need for some of it in this moment when government has been so badly damaged that it’ll be hard to get rid of all the crazy stuff without shuttering whole sections of the administration and re-hiring and re-building them under new structures and names. Remember how Bush’s people “burrowed” from political appointments into civilian positions? There’s a risk of that now but not just of people, but also practices and policies that will be hard to sift through since all the evidence will have been shredded.
Duane
@Miss Bianca: The best thing that happened in the Trumpov administration today was the Navy Secretary resigning after showing his ass to the whole world. When you don’t expect too much you won’t be disappointed.
schrodingers_cat
When do the results come in?
oatler.
@Amir Khalid: Have to admit you’re right.
NotMax
@Brachiator
Flash from the past.
frosty
@SiubhanDuinne: I don’t know the song so I can’t verify that it scans but knowing you I’m sure it does. Some great rhymes! No mo’ and Cuomo. ?
Citizen Alan
@PsiFighter37: I was going to move to Canada in 2004 which was when I basically lost all hope for America. My mother guilt tripped me out of it. Now, at 50 with various health issues, that’s a pipe dream and I am profoundly bitter about it. In my darkest moments, I have actually had the thought “I wish my parents had been abusive so that I wouldn’t have felt bad about walking away.”
Geez, I need to go take a Klonopin, don’t I.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
If you’re in Iowa, encourage him. If you know people in Iowa, encourage them to encourage him.
Ohio Mom
PsiFighter: Yes, taking down the administrative state has been in the works from the start but it seems to be to be accelerating — look at all those IGs axed at once.
By the way, how’s your baby doing? Is the bedtime routine settling down any?
TS (the original)
@Baud:
And it’s Biden – all the way.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@oatler.: The dams aren’t really used to divert water for irrigation, but for electricity generation.
Omnes Omnibus
@schrodingers_cat: If you are asking when the results of the WI primary will come out, they will start tabulating them after 4:00 pn CDT on April 13.
TS (the original)
@japa21:
Then maybe I see the wrong thing – but I don’t see him as front page news every day. This campaign has changed and every democrat has to find alternative ways to campaign.
opiejeanne
I feel like they are trying to kill off a significant portion of us, and the reported percentages of deaths by ethnicity are alarming. POC are dying horribly out of proportion with their numbers among the population. The obviousness of Republicans’ focus was apparent in the number of polling places available by city when compared to populations of each and how many polling places they usually have.
Today we went out to pick up some seed potatoes at a permanent produce market, open along two sides, wearing masks, and my reaction to being out in public was a visceral one, revulsion, almost like being sick. It surprised me but I have been wondering if that would happen when it’s finally safe to come out.
PsiFighter37
@Ohio Mom: Sleeps through the night, which is great. However, getting her to sleep is a pain in the ass – always cries after bathtime is over, always cries when her pajamas go on, and with sharp nails, has decided to constantly try to scratch her thighs. It’s ridiculous. I wish she was old enough to be spoken to and to understand what my wife and I are saying.
But she’s darn cute when she’s in a good mood, and that makes up for it…mostly. Raising a kid is fucking difficult in regular times; raising them under shelter in place and having the same fucking routine day in and day out? Sigh…
Cheryl Rofer
New Mexico has an absentee ballot law that allows anyone to request an absentee ballot, no reason need be given. I went online today and requested one for our June primary. Easy peasy.
rikyrah
@Anya:
Why either/or
I think it’s both/and
Lapassionara
@Miss Bianca: I find it interesting that Modly had to resign because he said out loud to a group of sailors what Trump would have said if he had been standing there. What I want to know is how does Trump remain bulletproof for the terrible hurtful statements he makes, but when others say the same kind of things, the blowback is swift? Is a puzzlement.
joel hanes
@TS (the original):
still a man sees what he wants to see and disregards the rest
NotMax
@frosty
Props to Señor Rainbow’s latest, wherein he reveals he’s now become a “Cuomosexual.”
Randy ❤ Andy.
rikyrah
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Sending the applications is a good thing.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Damn. Damn, damn, damn and damn.
I was hoping for a miracle.
Omnes Omnibus
@TS (the original): If Biden is on the front page everyday, there well be a point where he stutters and a whole flurry of dipshits will scream that he is mentally incompetent. Right now, he is sounding and looking presidential, and his ads are brutal. He is doing fine. He needs to peak in November.
PsiFighter37
@Lapassionara: Because the bar has been set so fucking low for Trump that at this point, as long as he doesn’t say the n-word out loud on live TV, he gets a pass.
It’s funny how I’ve always though mediocre white people got a pass for stuff, but rich white people who inherited their wealth who are fucking stupid and defective to their core, like Trump, get even more of a pass.
Omnes Omnibus
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Aw shit.
Sebastian
You fools. Power only understands power.
Miss Bianca
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: : (
I was hoping against hope. Or maybe I was hoping against reason.
leeleeFL
@dexwood: I told my Daughter today that her agnostic Mother could be persuaded to abandon her doubts if tRump was to get a shuffle on notice from above.
raven
John Prine died.
CarolPW
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Fuck! FUCK FUCK!!
ETA: God damned mother fucking son of a bitch!!
NotMax
@SiubhanDuinne
Heh. Now almost want to carve out time to work on a Fauci-centric “I Am the Very Model of an Epidemiologist.”
Miss Bianca
@Lapassionara: I wish I had some clever thing to say about why this is so, but I don’t. The ancient concept of the whipping boy comes to mind, but I can’t make my mind bend to shaping the analogy.
Lapassionara
@raven: oh, fffff.
raven
@raven:
Martin
@Cheryl Rofer: CA is sorta similar. It’s not fully implemented in state, but some counties are doing it.
Here every voter is mailed a ballot. You can mail it in, drop it off, or go in and use the machine. No need to tell them ahead of time which you are going to do. Needs to be postmarked election day, not received by that day.
It’s a really nice setup. Pretty close to no-fault.
raven
He was in heaven before he died.
danielx
@Duane:
I’m surprised he wasn’t promoted, that was jackassery worthy of Tangerine Torquemada himself.
leeleeFL
@Krope, the Formerly Dope: If my Daddy had raised you, you would have known, trust me.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Ohio Mom
PsiFighter: I always feel sorry for babies. From their perspective, half the time the giants are doing wonderful and fun things, they come on demand and fix all sorts of problems and provide deep comfort.
Then the other half of the time, the giants are torturing them by doing absolutely evil things like pulling shirts over their heads.
NotMax
@Martin
Right up until bags of ballots are found secreted in a disturbed postal worker’s garage.
debbie
This is the saddest news in days.
raven
And the sky is black and still now
On the hill where the angels sing
Ain’t it funny how an old broken bottle
Looks just like a diamond ring
SiubhanDuinne
Goddammit. John Prine didn’t make it. Fuck. RIP. DAMN.
The Dangerman
I wonder how much of that sweet, sweet money is going into the pocket of Trump and his buddies now that he fired the watchdog
ETA: Ah, hell, John Prine. Burn one (CANDLE) if ya got one.
Omnes Omnibus
@Cheryl Rofer: FWIW Wisconsin has a similar law. The issue here isn’t whether people could request and receive absentee ballots; they could. It was that Covid-19 made getting an absentee ballot a great idea too close to the election for the normal rules to work. Then the Republicans in the legislature and both the supreme courts decided that they not only had no interest in solving the problem (and there were a shitload of easy fixes), they would rather make things worse by introducing chaos into the problem at the last minute.
Jinchi
I can’t believe that was 12 years ago.
raven
The Prine Shrine.
raven
So some good news. A kitty went way up a tree and got stuck and this happened
FREE – Georgia Cat in Tree Rescue
Kelly
When I get to Heaven: John Prine
And then I’m gonna get a cocktail
Vodka and Ginger Ale
Yeah, I’m gonna smoke a cigarette
That’s nine miles long
I’m gonna kiss that pretty girl
On the Tilt a Whirl
‘Cause this old man is going to town
Aleta
@Ohio Mom: That’s funny. And putting that useless sock back on, And again. And again.
Martin
@NotMax: There’s a reason it takes a month to certify our elections – they validate before it’s certified
I should add, there’s a website where voters can track their ballot and whether it was counted or not, and why not. So if a postal worker did wander off with a bunch of them, it’d get caught as soon as anyone tracked their ballot.
Aleta
@Kelly: please no
CarolPW
Ray Benson (Asleep at the Wheel) has the virus too, and he is not a spring chicken. I worry a lot about James McMurtry, Steve Earle and Ray Wilie Hubbard and a bunch of others. What is hitting them is the downside of a gig (literally) economy because if these guys were not touring they were not paying rent, buying health insurance or eating.
Jinchi
@Omnes Omnibus: SIL headed out late to try to cast a ballot in Milwaukee. She never requested an absentee ballot because, with the entire state on lockdown, it was obvious that they would have to delay the election.
SFAW
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Along with the oft-quoted (by me, that is) “Give me a good reason why I should vote for Hillary, but without mentioning Trump or the Supreme Court.”
No One of Consequence
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
CotDAMNIT!
Thank you for telling me. Hadn’t heard that.
Damn.
This fucking timeline blows goats.
Peace,
– NOoC
Kelly
Delete 111 please
p.a.
Nurse placement agency offering $10k/week to go to NYC & work w covid19 ICU patients. Believe guaranteeing min 3 weeks. I have no info on room, board, quality of PPE provided etc. GF’s coworker going tomorrow, and if her psych hosp employer says no, she’s quitting. According to GF she has limited ICU experience, they still want her.
ETA: Prine- damn. Thought things were looking better for him a few days ago.
Ruckus
@Krope, the Formerly Dope:
Actually no you wouldn’t have. This shitbag has always been this bad, he just did not have the power to make it bad for everyone. He’s never hired anyone decent. Ever. He’s never done anything positive. Someone like GWB was horrible but he was horrible because he’s standard republican. trump is standard narcissistic asshole, everything he does is wrong, always will be wrong and every decision he makes will be the wrong one because when he finds out the results of any decision and has to try and correct it, he will fuck that up as well. And he’s been that way his entire shitty life.
trump is the warning to every human that has ever asked “What could possibly go wrong?” Because he never ever asks that question of himself. He still thinks that he can do no wrong, as he is doing his worst and proving that he can only do wrong.
Miss Bianca
So, jackaltariat, off the top of my mind Tuesday evening as I prepare to write an article…
my day in shelter-in-place…
…is including reading up on the differences between “isolation” (separating sick persons from well ones) and “quarantine” (separating well persons who have been exposed to sick persons to see if they become sick). Among other things related to public health orders, from the “authority fact sheet” that our Public Health Director sent to our Board of County Commissioners. And why do I suddenly need to bone up on the appropriate statutes governing public health agency authority in times of health emergencies?
Why, because one of the BOCC suddenly began “raising concerns” about Public Health’s authority to impose pandemic orders. Not because he’s been getting phone calls from irate constituents (*cough* local business owners *cough*), dear me, no, not because of that, although he acknowledges that these phone calls have caused him to “question the process” by which it was determined that Public Health has the authority to enforce public health orders from the state.
long story short: Did I mention that all of the BOCC are Republicans of some stripe or other? This particular one being a “business of America is business, by God” type and thus very keen to get back to business as usual as soon as possible, so he wants to “have a discussion” about whether or not the BOCC actually was supposed to give that authority to Public Health, and he’s been talking to a consultant that advocates a trail of resolutions.
The other two commissioners and the county attorney, as well as the Public Health Director, have been pushing back on this nonsense. But now I have to read up on the appropriate statutes as I write my article on the meeting, and now once again I feel the creamy and delicious chill that comes from living in a red county in a blue state.
I foresee the backlash against our Democratic governor and state legislature potentially growing, fueled by red “get back to normal, damn it!” counties, of which we have plenty – all the usual “2nd Amendment sanctuary community” suspects, chafing because they are LOSING MONEY, damn it.
I wonder if this ends up being another ill consequence to Democratic leaders and legislators in the absence of meaningful federal response and guidelines. That Donald Trump and the GOP can start pushing the “it’s not our fault you’re bankrupt and eating dirt, it’s those mean Demonrat governors’ fault!”
Anyway, just some dark musings as I procrastinate.
raven
@CarolPW: Ray is my doppelgänger. I met him when I was in a full body cast after breaking my back and he was shocked. . .he thought I was him!
“AUSTIN, Texas – Asleep at the Wheel’s Ray Benson posted a video on Twitter with the good news to fans that he’s recovered after testing positive for COVID-19.
In the video, Benson says that he’s been dealing with the coronavirus for around three weeks and that he’s been basically bedridden for two of them.”
Omnes Omnibus
@Jinchi: And that there is the problem. Any decent person knew that they would have to do something to fix it. And yet the WI GOP did not. Evers did everything within his power and more to do the right thing. What we need to do is vote every fucking one of them out in November, here in WI and everywhere.
I also think that they played their hand too early and too forcefully. With not excuse absentees available, every Democrat in the state should be ready for November.
leeleeFL
@Citizen Alan: Hey, my Dad had the chance in the Fifties to move the whole Clan to Montreal so he could teach Engineering at McGill. He needed to borrow 800 dollars to maintain dual citizenship for me and my siblings. Pride prevented that. I have often wanted to dig up his urn and piss on his ashes….and I loved him.
SFAW
@SiubhanDuinne:
Shit. I was singing “Grandpa was a Carpenter” earlier today — not out loud, of course — and “Please Don’t Bury Me.” I probably should have taken that as an omen, because I didn’t know he had died until reading this a few minutes ago.
“Sweet Revenge” is still one of my favorite albums, and a number of the lyrics often pop into my head.
Dammit.
A Ghost to Most
RIP John Prine.
Fuck.
Aleta
John Prine – I Just Want to Dance with You
Elizabelle
Sad about John Prine. Not unexpected, though.
The wrong 73-year old died. D. Fucking Trump is four months older than Prine was (June 14 and October 10, 1946, respectively).
And immeasurably worthless.
Ohio Mom
Kelly@111: I always liked the first line of that song, when Prine thanks god for all his blessings of his life.
There’s a commentary in Jewish tradition that warns in the afterlife, we will be called to account for all the pleasures of earthly life that we refused to partake of.
God wouldn’t have provided them if he didn’t want us to enjoy them, we all know it’s bad manners to be churlish about a gift.
SiubhanDuinne
@SFAW: Yeah, I saw it on FB and (as always) came right over here.
Hadn’t expected to be this gutted by the news.
CliosFanBoy
@A Ghost to Most: Good for you!!!!
Mary G
We will have to fight tooth and nail until November, but there are a few victories achieved over the last couple of years I’m taking to heart, namely:
Republicans can be beat. Let’s crush them.
Mary G
@SiubhanDuinne: For this alone Twitler will burn in hell.
sdhays
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Wait, WTF is Iowa doing holding a PRIMARY??
ETA: I realize it must not be for the Presidential race, but the point stands – they subject us to their stupid caucus for the thing that the rest of the country cares about, but they conduct a primary for their own shit.
Ruckus
@Lapassionara:
Because the people that get fired made trump look bad. And trump will always find someone else to blame for everything that goes wrong. Ergo trump gets to fire or demand a resignation from anyone he wants. Also how do you fire the president? Impeachment is the only way and that failed because of moscow mitch. The reason that trumps popularity hasn’t dropped farther is that he’s the republican that they have been looking for since ronnie. They believe that the government is the impediment to everything, so get rid of the government and glory days will return, even though they never existed.
sdhays
@Mary G: That warms my heart. I wonder if they own their building or have a lease.
CarolPW
@raven: Good news, thank you! One fewer to worry about. I particularly loved the songs about Central Valley California, and what a voice!
trollhattan
So this happened.
J R in WV
Well, it is getting serious now — John Prine has died at 73 years old.
So sad, so many people loved him and his music. So many singers sang his songs, some good, others like me, just out of love for the music.
I knew it would eventually hit me like this. You never know when a slowly unwinding catastrophe will come home to see you, personally, but now I’m in it hard.
RIP, John Prine, we love you and yours. Now I’ll read the rest of this thread.
Poe Larity
Hospitals Furloughing Staff, Altering Physician Pay Due to COVID-19
No time like now to furlough hospital staff:
sdhays
@Ruckus: Impeachment didn’t fail because of Moscow Mitch. His support was helpful, but impeachment failed because the Republican Party faithful can’t be convinced to turn on Dump, no matter what he does.
Mitch is happy about that, but if Dump’s approval numbers had tanked and the polls started showing a significant number of Republicans deciding that Dump should be impeached, MM wouldn’t have been able to control his caucus.
Which is just say: the entire Republican Party is responsible for the failure of to remove this malignant tumor from the White House when they had the chance.
Omnes Omnibus
Are you talking about WI today? Because Wisconsin’s elections are conducted by municipalities. The availability of polling places in Milwaukee was not due to Republicans not making resources available. It was, I suspect due to a combination of a lack of available poll workers and a sense that consolidating things would be somehow safer. I’ll note that Waukesha also consolidated polling places for this primary.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@trollhattan: Apple will be making Medical Face Shields.
trollhattan
John Prine. I have no words. He, however, had the words. A little piece of me has died.
Roger Ebert with an accidental first music review in 1970. Read, smile, weep.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Poe Larity: The kid’s hospital asked their OR staff for volunteers to furlough a third of their hours, the kid volunteered so she’s make a 1/3 less*. There’s not many elective surgeries happening.
*She doesn’t have a family to support and many of her colleagues do.
Aleta
Sturgill Simpson and John Prine “Paradise” (Mr. Peabody’s Coal Train)
chopper
it’s gonna get worse until the day trump is carried out of the WH, however that happens. and after that point it’s not gonna get better immediately, it’ll just stop getting worse. we got at least a year and a half before things start to get better.
Oklahomo
@artem1s: My favorite is the “I guess I was wrong about there being no difference between Hillary and Trump” confession.
Jackie
Kent
It’s the like the coronavirus curves. We will reach peak Trump horror in November 2020 and there will have to be a long glide path off that peak because there is so much to repair. God forbid he somehow wins, this country will be beyond redemption.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
looks like Uncle Joe was on CNN tonight
Redshift
@artem1s:
That would be Tom Friedman, who has already called for a “government of national unity.” He’s more than earned the punishment.
Riodawg
@Cheryl Rofer: So happy to live here. Our governor has been doing a pretty great job.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@chopper:
At which point the voters will decide to bring the Republicans back because the Democrats haven’t fixed everything.
Riodawg
@Aleta: Makes me tear up everytime I hear whatever iteration.
chris
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Aw, shit.
Amir Khalid
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
My guess is that Trump will do none of these things, precisely because it was Biden who said he should do them. Or at least, Trump will refuse to do them until events force his hand or he sees some kind of grifting opportunity.
Jackie
@NotMax: That’s exactly why I drop mine into the nearest auditors box. I live in WA state Red county and I’m not trusting the postal worker to deliver!
Misterpuff
@Redshift: The GOP broke the Presidency, they own it. Therefore, Tom suck on this. The Republicans do not get rewarded for fucking up.
I know we will avoid Tribunals but please, giving some supposed GOP moderates and even Never Trumpers a bone for “Comity” CAN NOT happen.
They can redeem themselves after disgrace by helping Democrats fix shit in a subordinate position, not as power-wielders.
Kent
There is no singular “voters” that makes decisions. Anymore then there is a singular “market” that goes up and down for “reasons”
It will be more like the Republicans get all riled up due to made-up media driven slights and invented scandals. The “teabagger” wave in 2010 showed them how to do that. While centrist independent types and fickle Dems don’t bother to vote in large enough numbers to keep their more vulnerable representatives and Senators in place. All while Sandernistas fuckheads are flinging turds at all the Dems who are actually trying hard to get shit done against all the institutional barriers to change in this country.
Rinse and repeat.
Raoul
@trollhattan: I wouldn’t trust a g-d damned thing Jack Dorsey says. Yes, I use twitter. He’s still a shitlord.
Mary G
Amy Klobuchar and her husband gave an interview to NBC about his COVID19:
He wants to donate plasma, but still has pneumonia, so has to wait for that to clear up. He does get to do the family grocery shopping now. It struck me how long this stuff lasts. Feels like forever since John Prine got sick.
Ruckus
@sdhays:
The entire republican party is responsible for trump. Yes.
The impeachment process? The entire party? It’s only republicans in the senate that are responsible for that and moscow mitch is the leader and did everything he could to screw with the process. It wouldn’t have taken much to make it happen and mitch did everything to stop it. Republicans were what convinced nixon to resign because they told him the votes were there to convict. So no, while the republican party is responsible for electing tump, mitch is responsible for keeping him. And for a lot of the rest of their crap.
Mary G
@Kent: I have blocked hundreds of them, so I haven’t seen it, but the Bernie Bros are supposedly going after John Lewis for endorsing Biden today.
Mai naem mobile
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I honestly think that’s a mistake on Biden’s part because Orange Douchebag will either not do it out of spite or do the opposite because it was Biden’s suggestion. This shit is all on the Republicans – all of it – primarily the Senate GOP and the whole cabinet. I hate these people. I don’t use the word hate lightly but I just hate these people. I am just not sure if they’re acting the way they are because the election is in the bag for them through illegal means or because they figure they’re going to lose and they’re going to stuff in as many RWNJ judges as they can and hand over an economic disaster to a Dem president and do their regular crap and turn the blame onto a new Dem president. Also leaving an economic calamity means you can’t pay as much attention to going after the crooks who’ve caused so many deaths and robbed the US government.
Omnes Omnibus
@Misterpuff: John Profumo volunteered for a charity for the rest of his life after resigning in disgrace. But that was in another country….
O. Felix Culpa
Shit just got realer: a friend’s 19-year-old daughter diagnosed with COVID-19. I watched that child grow up to a beautiful, talented young lady. Hoping for the best, but damn.
CarolPW
@Omnes Omnibus: and besides the wench is dead.
Ruckus
@Jackie:
The CA DMV is shut down and I’m due for renewal and my first senior DL. In CA every one has to take the written and driving test for their first renewal 70 or older. Right now they, as far as I know haven’t extended expiring DLs. There is no legal relief in CA but the DMV is asking law enforcement to be respectful of the situation. Not sure how that will actually work……
Juice Box
Gavin Newsom has announced that California is buying 200M masks for itself and to distribute to other states. Additionally, CA is sending its excess ventilators (the current projection has California’s peak vent load at well below its maximum capacity) to NY. We finally got a “president” and a “federal” government that can respond to the crisis. Newsom called CA a “nation-state”.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Mai naem mobile: trump doesn’t remember talking to Biden. Biden was talking to non-trump America
terry chay
@Jay Noble: They did try to sideline Dr. Fauci for a little bit. But he’s so popular he just did interviews on the channels and even Facebook IIRC, so they brought him back. He’s still sidelined on the Trump/Pence Hour which nobody is watching anymore.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Juice Box: do the states in the new federation of Untrumpia have to be contiguous? I don’t want to move
jonas
@artem1s: Oh, yeah. As I commented in an earlier thread, this is going to be *the narrative* of the soi-disant MSM commentariat going forward: Trump blew everything up. It’s up to a grown-up Democrat to bring the nation together, but only by extending an olive branch to the GOP and trying to forge a “unity government” or something going forward. Fuck that with a big, rusty rake.
Jackie
@Ruckus: I’m only concerned about the liquor stores understanding my ID really isn’t expired and refusing to sell me a jug of wine???
James E Powell
@Ruckus:
And the NYT. And CNN. And Comey. He should be reminded this is on him.
Ruckus
@Jackie:
LOL
I haven’t had a ticket in 31 yrs, or even been stopped. But that is exactly a reason to stop me the day after it actually expires, and something I’d expect to happen. Also I don’t get carded, my white beard and bald head sort of indicate that I’m old enough to buy liquor, and the fact that I stopped drinking 17 yrs ago means there is no reason to card me.
Another Scott
@terry chay: The BBC TV seems to be broadcasting it live every day.
It’s infuriating.
Grr…
Cheers,
Scott.
Ruckus
@James E Powell:
Agreed.
Jackie
@Ruckus: Me neither. But our stores require to see our ID when purchasing alcohol – gray hair doesn’t exclude anyone. I had my ? on today. Requested my ID, but didn’t require me to remove ? to verify it was me on the photo??♀️??♀️
dogwood
@Lapassionara: I’m not that puzzled by it. There are a lot of idiots who sign up for pretend jobs in Trumpworld. They’re convinced if they kiss his ass and flatter him they’ll be rewarded. He did Trump’s bidding like a good little lackey and fired Crozier. And when there was flack over it, he flew half way around the world and gave a MAGA speech hoping to impress his boss. I’m sure Trump loved his speech, but it caused more uproar, so he was cut loose. He’ll be replaced by another moron who thinks it will be different for him.
NotMax
@Ruckus
One the extremely unlikely and rare occasions when am asked for ID when purchasing spiritous fluids, standard response is:
“If was under 21 and looked like this I’d not only need to drink, you’d willingly sell it to me wholesale.”
Followed by a wide grin.
dww44
@artem1s: Well your first target ought to be one Tom Friedman who wants a Biden Administration peopled with good conservatives, or something.
Jackie
@NotMax: My response – if the cashier is young – while fishing for my ID is: “I’m NOT 21.” ?
RoughAcres/RL McKee
@Anya: Yes. It’s confirmed.
Anya
@Juice Box: I wouldn’t mind it if New York joined the United State of California.
ETA — I was not convinced Gavin Newsom would make a good governor. I thought he was a bit of a light way but he has proven himself and more.