Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

“woke” is the new caravan.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

I was promised a recession.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

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

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

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

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

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Reader Interactions

241Comments

  1. 1.

    Raoul

    If Fauci leaves the CDC, we may have to break social distancing to go into the streets to riot. Not really kidding about this. I don’t know what pandemic-safer (or risk mitigated, more likely) ways we can show our serious, regime-shaking rage, but it has to happen.

    Not because Fauci per se is worth dying for, but because this Admin cannot handle the most basic tasks, and getting rid of one of the last functioning adults is just a sign that the Jim Jones suicide pact is getting closer. NO.

  2. 2.

    BR

    It wouldn’t be terrible if he does. There are plenty of medical experts out there, so it’s not like we wouldn’t lack for expertise, and he’s not really being listened to anyway. And polls show he is basically the most trusted person in government right now, so firing Fauci would probably be bad for him politically.

  3. 3.

    Adam L Silverman

    Trump didn’t retweet that. Scavino did. Scavino is the interface between the President and his twitter feed and the alt-right, the white supremacists, GAB, r/TheDonald, the various Chaners, /K/ (which is the QAnon equivalent to 4Chan and the other Chans), and QAnon. Whenever you see something like this retweeted, it is Scavino doing it.

  5. 5.

    Debbie(Aussie)

    Was wondering how much longer Dr Fauci would last. And am curious as to who & how ?

    The world is in real trouble when the so-called leader of that world is a fucking moron ?

    Take care jackals! Wash your hands!

     

    edited for clarity

  7. 7.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    I suspected he was a dead man walking when he confirmed the “Let Corona Wash over America” exchange between himself and Trump to the media

  8. 8.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I suspect Fauci hangs in because he thinks it will get worse without him, and eventually, maybe June, maybe July, trump will fire him and claim Fauci quit. And odds are Susan Collins and Cory Gardner will say they appreciate Dr Fauci’s service and they have full confidence in Dr Birx and Eric trump to take over for him.

  10. 10.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Adam L Silverman: two thoughts: (1) The Cossacks work for the czar.

    (2) Scavino has tweeted for Shitler in the past, and at this point, don’t we have to assume that Shitler agrees with him (since he’s agreed so much in the past)?

    and (3 ha!) I gotta believe, given what we’ve been seeing and hearing, that Shitler has a fucking hard-on for firing Fauci the first chance he gets . I mean, it’s probably as close to cold-blue steel as that fuckwad ever gets.

  11. 11.

    DougJ

    If the official twitter account of the person I worked for said I should be fired, I’d resign by the next morning.  There’s some shit you shouldn’t eat.  Most people are too weak to realize this when it happens to them.  I hope Fauci isn’t.

  12. 12.

    Amir Khalid

    @BR:

    It definitely wouldn’t be great either, if Trump were to sack Dr Fauci out of his usual petulance. There’d be this question about Fauci’s successor in the back of people’s minds: did they get the job because they would be more amenable to Trump’s nonsense? Also, if they decided to retain their integrity, would they get sacked too and how soon?

  14. 14.

    CaseyL

    When faced with a choice between kowtowing to Trump or standing up to him, Birx goes for the kowtow.  She isn’t a career govt health person like Fauci; she is part of Pence’s group, with a bad history of presenting health information with a fundamentalist religious slant.

    As for Fauci – is he civil service?  *Can* the orange blob fire him?

  15. 15.

    Kent

    Fauci doesn’t need the job.  He is what?  77?   He has a monster pension waiting.

    I expect if he were let go then CNN would give him an instant 1-hour show for the duration of this crisis.  Preferably simulcast against Trump’s daily press conferences.  In which he could speak directly to the American People.

    That would fucking make Trump’s head explode.

  16. 16.

    Gin & Tonic

    @DougJ: I don’t think Fauci is weak, and I don’t think he has a weak hand – the dude is 79 years old, so he doesn’t have to work, and if he does walk and want to work, he can have an endowed chair at any medical school in the country without even picking up the phone. So it has to be that he believes he is doing good by being there.

  17. 17.

    Adam L Silverman

    @CaseyL: He’s been at NIH since the late 70s/early 80s and been running things there for decades. He’s an SES3 or SES4 or whatever equivalent NIH uses.

  19. 19.

    satby

    @DougJ: I think Fauci is going to force Twitler to fire him. He’s the only voice of reason during Twitler’s show, and Fauci can do more damage to that shit show by being forced out as opposed to resigning.

  20. 20.

    Jeffro

    Scary Twitter thread up tonight written by a Kim Weeden of Cornell U, showing why re-opening universities this fall is a really bad idea.

    I don’t see why K-12 schools, especially the middle and high schools, wouldn’t have the same kinds of issues.

    School divisions are going to need to think boldly here.  Maybe utilize all of their school buildings so that much smaller classes of elementary-age kids can attend in person (in re-purposed middle and high schools) while their teen brothers/sisters continue to stay home and learn online?  That would continue to slow down the spread and give the K-5 crowd some time with their teachers and friends and actual in-person instruction.  We’ll see…

    As for Fauci, who cares?  He either quits and tells the country the truth, or he half-asses it and stays in, or half-asses it and gets fired.  As with all the other supposed ‘checks’ on trumpov, he’s not a check on trumpov.

    So let’s hear it, Dr. Fauci – go rogue and give an interview just outside the WH gates, explaining what’s really going on and telling red state voters that they’ll be the next kid that president* Stillson holds up as a shield against the gunman, er, ‘Invisible Enemy’.

  27. 27.

    randy khan

    Fauci almost certainly hasn’t quit because he knows that someone like him needs to be in the room, and he’s the most credible possible voice.  He was in leadership at NIH during the early days of AIDS, and he knows how important it is to have someone pushing the Administration to do the right thing.

    He certainly isn’t in it for the fame or money, as he could have left NIH a long time ago if he wanted more money, and he couldn’t be more well known in his field than he is already.  (In fact, I’d argue that he was the most famous government doctor before COVID-19.)

    And, yeah, Trump firing him would be a huge mistake.  There already have been “where’s Fauci?” questions when he hasn’t been present at briefings, which probably is one reason that Fauci hasn’t felt any compunctions about speaking his mind.

  28. 28.

    Mary G

    @Adam L Silverman: This is Fauci’s mortal sin today:

     

    Dr. Anthony Fauci admitted to CNN Sunday that some lives would have been saved if mitigation efforts to control the coronavirus had been put in place earlier.— Shimon Prokupecz (@ShimonPro) April 12, 2020

    And the punishment will be swift:

    Trump Spends Easter Asking Confidants, ‘What Do You Think of Fauci?’ https://t.co/Fi0GlJHj2G— Noah Shachtman (@NoahShachtman) April 13, 2020

  32. 32.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mary G: I’m aware of the former and tracking the latter. Fauci’s got maybe two weeks left, tops. Depending on how the pushback on “reopening” the US goes.

  34. 34.

    randy khan

    @Jeffro:

    As for Fauci, who cares?  He either quits and tells the country the truth, or he half-asses it and stays in, or half-asses it and gets fired.  As with all the other supposed ‘checks’ on trumpov, he’s not a check on trumpov.

    This is a bad take.  A really bad one.  First, he’s not there to be a “check” on Trump.  He’s there to provide objective expert advice, which he does, sometimes contradicting Trump in the process.  And, although you may not have noticed, one of the reasons that the MAGAts are mad at him is that he has been telling the truth about what the Administration did (or, more accurately, didn’t do).

    Quitting would do no good at all (although, in fairness, it might not hurt, either, since Trump is Trump).  It would be entirely symbolic.  Staying on means he can continue to provide accurate advice and, not incidentally, since he’s the head of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases, help direct the efforts to find treatments and a vaccine for COVID-19, which is pretty important in its own right.

    I won’t criticize him if he quits, as I’d probably have quit weeks ago.  But quitting is not a positive good here.

  35. 35.

    Kent

    @sdhays:@Adam L Silverman: Donny Dump doesn’t have friends. COVID-19 could kill Ivanka and he’d still be worrying about the economy and his reelection.

    Correction.  He only worries about re-election, not the economy at all.

    He would tank the economy in an instant if it were to guarantee re-election.

  36. 36.

    CaseyL

    @Adam L Silverman: Then he’s career civil service.  T* can probably dismiss him from the task force, or whatever group Fauci is working with at the WH, but he can’t fire him.  SFAIK.

  37. 37.

    Cameron

    Washington Times has been pimping the idea that Fauci is working with Bill Gates to create a vaccine they can both cash in on.  Or that’s what I’m getting second-hand from my wingnut friends on FB.  And, despite the fact that he’s been working at NIH since the Reagan years, he’s actually Hillary’s BFF.  So wingnuttia has already written him off as a corrupt Trump-hater, and thus will agree that Trump fires him in the best interest of the country.  Fake expert!

  38. 38.

    Subsole

    So if the FBI ever starts going after white supremacists again, are people like Scavino going to face any consequences?
    I am kind of at the examples-must-be-made stage here.

  39. 39.

    Subsole

    @rikyrah:

    God I wish those folks had listened when we warned them…

    Still, those #s are brutal. And the dying/financial pain hasn’t even hit yet.

    If we can show up this November, we are going to whip the cowboy shit out of him.

  40. 40.

    sdhays

    @Kent: Well, I think he does care about the stock market because it’s something rich people care about and it’s a very simple number that his pitifully small brain can sort of comprehend. But yes, he doesn’t give a shit about the economy.

  41. 41.

    hitchhiker

    The vibe I get from Fauci is that he’s just focused on the virus and trying to do what he’s getting paid for, which is communicating the data and making recommendations based on it. If you’re a public health professional, this moment is what you’ve spent your life training to meet and you’re damn sure not going to walk away from it.

    It seriously bugs me that he uses language like “style” when he talks about trump. He’s got his own style, is not the issue. The issue is that he has the attention span of gnat on meth, and that he lacks empathy or a sense of responsibility.

    BUT, from Fauci’s pov, I guess you deal with the idiot you’re dealt as best you can, mostly by keeping your head down and doing your work. I don’t want him to leave because I don’t want to be stuck with all these evangelicals as the only adults in the room. They sincerely believe trump is God’s way of making the courts save America’s soul. I fear them.

  42. 42.

    Another Scott

    I assume it’s a “deniable” dominance display by Donnie and his henchmen.  Donnie will get asked about it, he’ll get to play wise man, “We’ll see, We’re thinking about it very strongly….”  And then, Fauci will either make his public comments more to Donnie’s liking, or he’ll be warned again.

    Donnie doesn’t like Fauci telling people that the US Government killed people who died because of his incompetence.  But Donnie is too much of a coward to confront Fauci about it directly, so he’ll be a toxic worm and get his minions to snipe and get the press to have Fauci’s being “disloyal” in the news for a cycle or few.  While another 5,000-10,000 Americans die from COVID-19 next week.

    Q – Mr. President, what are the specific plans to increase production and effective distribution of PPE?  Who is in charge of it?  What is their timeline and metrics?

    Q – Mr. President, what are  the specific plans to increase production of infection test kits, effective treatments, vaccines, and antibody tests and analysis facilities?  Who is in charge of it?  What is their timeline and metrics?

    Grrr…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  43. 43.

    Mary G

    @Adam L Silverman: I’ve been wondering about Florida. There has been almost no state action and people are crammed together in unemployment lines, but the COVID19 case numbers seem really low. Are cities and counties enforcing social distancing, etc? I keep thinking I’ll see the numbers spike and ambulances piling up, but they haven’t.

  45. 45.

    Kent

    @Cameron:Washington Times has been pimping the idea that Fauci is working with Bill Gates to create a vaccine they can both cash in on.  Or that’s what I’m getting second-hand from my wingnut friends on FB.  And, despite the fact that he’s been working at NIH since the Reagan years, he’s actually Hillary’s BFF.  So wingnuttia has already written him off as a corrupt Trump-hater, and thus will agree that Trump fires him in the best interest of the country.  Fake expert!

    Right.  Because Bill Gates is looking for angles in which to make more money?

    Sheesh.   The Gates’ are giving away their money by the tens of billions.  $36 billion according to Wikipedia has gone to the Gates Foundation.

    I’m not any real big Bill Gates fan.  But he is one of the more tolerable and decent of the recent tech bros, especially compared to folks like Larry Ellison and Zukerberg.

  47. 47.

    Adam L Silverman

    @CaseyL: Depends on how he’s classified in the civil service. If NIH personnel, are Title 5, then it will be difficult, but not impossible. If they are Title 10, then it is pretty easy to do.

  48. 48.

    CarolDuhart2

    http://gofundme.com/f/barbara039s-emergency-fund

    Sorry for being OT, but I don’t know what else to do.  It’s a big request, but I want her to be able to stop and stay home. She’s caring for a 2 year old baby and a college student, both grandnephews.

    As for me, I’ve been sheltering in place since March 10th after my doctor’s appointment and when I got his advice on what to do.  Won’t go into a lot of detail, but just say due to age and health, I have a greater risk, and of course, no faith in Trump, far more in DeWine.  Thank God he’s one of the sane Republicans left.Fauci is trying to stay long enough for sane policies to take hold.  But he doesn’t need Trump, which probably is a low grade irritation to him.

  49. 49.

    Kent

    @Mary G:@Adam L Silverman: I’ve been wondering about Florida. There has been almost no state action and people are crammed together in unemployment lines, but the COVID19 case numbers seem really low. Are cities and counties enforcing social distancing, etc? I keep thinking I’ll see the numbers spike and ambulances piling up, but they haven’t.

    What makes you think the Florida numbers are remotely accurate?  For example:

    https://www.tampabay.com/news/health/2020/04/11/florida-vastly-under-reporting-covid-19-testing-backlog/

    Florida vastly under-reporting COVID-19 testing backlog
    Not having the results from the backlog of testing means state officials can’t get a real-time picture of how deeply the disease has penetrated the population and when people might have hope of resuming their lives and getting back to work, an expert warns.

  50. 50.

    hitchhiker

    @Cameron:

    Washington Times has been pimping the idea that Fauci is working with Bill Gates to create a vaccine they can both cash in on

    Because Gates doesn’t have enough money? He’s 65 and his net worth is at least $90 billion. I don’t think he’s looking to cash in.

    ETA I see that Kent at #45 is already there. :)

  51. 51.

    Kent

    @Adam L Silverman:@CaseyL: Depends on how he’s classified in the civil service. If NIH personnel, are Title 5, then it will be difficult, but not impossible. If they are Title 10, then it is pretty easy to do.

    They wouldn’t actually fire him.  Just send him off to do something irrelevant and out of the public eye until he decided that at 79 life is too short for that sort of bullshit.

  52. 52.

    Mary G

    O/T Elections have consequences:

    BREAKING: virginia governor Ralph Northam has signed legislation that repeals Virginia’s voter ID law, makes Election Day a state holiday, and expands access to early voting.— PoliticsVideoChannel (@politvidchannel) April 12, 2020

    Moar in November!

  54. 54.

    Barbara

    @CaseyL: Birx is a career civil servant. She worked with Fauci previously and has a lot of experience in the military. I agree that she seems to have no problem sucking up to Trump, but unlike Redfield, she did not arrive on the scene because of Pence.

  55. 55.

    Another Scott

    @randy khan: For emphasis – https://www.niaid.nih.gov/about/anthony-s-fauci-md-bio

    […]

    In a 2019 analysis of Google Scholar citations, Dr. Fauci ranked as the 41st most highly cited researcher of all time. According to the Web of Science, he ranked 8th out of more than 2.2 million authors in the field of immunology by total citation count between 1980 and January 2019.​

    Dr. Fauci has delivered major lectures all over the world and is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom (the highest honor given to a civilian by the President of the United States), the National Medal of Science, the George M. Kober Medal of the Association of American Physicians, the Mary Woodard Lasker Award for Public Service, the Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research, the Robert Koch Gold Medal, the Prince Mahidol Award, and the Canada Gairdner Global Health Award. He also has received 45 honorary doctoral degrees from universities in the United States and abroad.

    Dr. Fauci is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society, as well as other professional societies including the American College of Physicians, the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the American Association of Immunologists, and the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. He serves on the editorial boards of many scientific journals; as an editor of Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine; and as author, coauthor, or editor of more than 1,300 scientific publications, including several textbooks.

    Fauci doesn’t need Donnie. The USA needs Fauci.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  56. 56.

    SFAW

    Not sure what everyone’s worried about if Dr. Fauci quits or is fired/removed. I mean, Jared has read a book on viruses, he finished it in like an hour — he’s THAT smart — and so he can replace Dr. Fauci and bring peace to the Middle East  coordinate the efficient distribution of PPE where it’s most needed  find a way to declare that COVID-19 is no longer a problem and “re-open the country” completely by April 25th.

  58. 58.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mary G: Almost all of the municipalities got ahead of DeSantis and issued shelter in place, known as safer in place down here, orders. Some counties stupidly kept their beaches open too long. But DeSantis’s statewide order is not as strong as most of the municipal ones. He’s exempted houses of worship from the order as a play to the evangelical part of the base. There is also very little testing going on down here. And DeSantis is being sued by the Miami Herald under the state’s Sunshine Law for information on what is going on in the nursing homes and assisted living facilities. Things here are far, far worse than what the #s are indicating. We’re at least two weeks away from the peak in Florida.

  59. 59.

    Mary G

    A poll from Quinnipiac this week showed Dr. Anthony Fauci has an approval rating of 78%. Among GOP, it's 77%. Among independents, it's 79%.If Trump wants to fire Dr. Fauci, I welcome it. Biden will get 400 electoral votes, take the Senate, and walk away with the House.Please.— Charlotte Clymer ?️‍? (@cmclymer) April 13, 2020

  60. 60.

    Cleardale

    @Kent: Yes they would, because trump is incapable of being subtle. See Crozier, Vindman, Vindman’s twin, countless other examples.

  61. 61.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mary G: The good news, provided we still have a US Postal Service, is that the states that are likely crucial to winning the Electoral College all already have vote by mail for anyone who wants it written into their state law. All people have to do is request the mail in ballots by the deadline to request them and submit their completed ballots by the deadline for doing so.

  63. 63.

    cokane

    @DougJ: yes but i think all this calculus is different mid pandemic. i can easily put myself in Fauci’s shoes, and suffer this bullshit if i think i’m doing important work.

    That is to say, I don’t judge him if he stays on.

  66. 66.

    CaseyL

    @Barbara: Thank you for that; I had the wrong information.  That doesn’t explain why she sucks up, unless she figures that’s the only way to ensure *she* isn’t the one T* is asking his cronies and minions about.

  67. 67.

    Duane

    Trumpov spent Easter Sunday watching morning talk shows and tweeting. After all that time telling us how special Easter is you think he’d have something better to do.

  68. 68.

    mvr

    @satby: Fauci can do more damage to that shit show by being forced out as opposed to resigning.

    Seems like the right take on this to me. As much as I wish we had sane minds in charge we don’t. So given that Fauci is not in charge so much as advising someone in charge  who needs him for PR cover, I’m not sure that this works out badly for the world. Trump didn’t shut anything down. Trump cannot “open” anything back up without the cooperation of other folks. He needs credibility for that. He has none of his own.  He fires Fauci and then what?

  70. 70.

    lgerard

    Washington Times has been pimping the idea that Fauci is working with Bill Gates to create a vaccine they can both cash in on.

    Don’t they have to figure out how to make it cause autism as well before they make it available?

  71. 71.

    cain

    @Kent:

    Everything about that state when it comes to data is off – voting being number one. So of course when it comes to this they are going to under-report. But people are going to know because the hospitals will be jam packed. They will do the testing there.

    On the other hand, I guess Florida is going to be the experiment of what happens if you just let it ride on through right? :(

  72. 72.

    joel hanes

    @Cameron:

    I wish the Biden campaign would offer Fauci a job as its public health adviser.

    I wish the Biden campaign would offer that job to Rear Admiral R. Timothy Ziemer, the former Senior Director for Global Health Security and Biothreats, National Security Council, one of the positions abolished by Bolton (Trump) when the pandemic response team was dismantled.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2018/05/10/top-white-house-official-in-charge-of-pandemic-response-exits-abruptly/

    https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2018/05/white-house-loses-global-health-security-lead-as-a-new-ebola-outbreak-hits/560195/

  74. 74.

    Kent

    @Cleardale:@Kent: Yes they would, because trump is incapable of being subtle. See Crozier, Vindman, Vindman’s twin, countless other examples.

    As far as I know, none of them were fired. They were just reassigned out of the NSC and back to the Army.

  75. 75.

    FlyingToaster

    @Jeffro:

    I don’t see why K-12 schools, especially the middle and high schools, wouldn’t have the same kinds of issues.

    This is going to be a state-by-state problem.

    Massachusetts is going all-out on testing, contact tracing, and trying to find a fast serological test.  Despite the fact that the Feds keep stealing our supplies, we’ve successfully flattened the curve and will not exceed our hospital beds/acute care facilities, let alone ICUs.  The way it looks right now, we moved our curve peak out at least another week, we have gone from doubling our cases (also woefully undercounted) every 2.5 days to every 5.  We already have drive-through testing for medical workers and first responders; tomorrow, grocery store workers are added to the list.

    Once we can start successfully identifying infection clusters, we can find asymptomatic carriers and then go back and test those who probably had it during shutdown.  People can start working again, if they’re either immune or haven’t been exposed.

    It’s likely to start small, after Memorial Day, with various small shops (barbers, hairdressers, craft stores, florists, rec pot shops), and work to getting all of them tested.

    Our biggest problem is that we’re used to coming and going from the rest of the US, and unless you’re coming from one of the states with strict stay-at-home rules, we may have to start quarantining incomers at the NY state line and the airports.

  76. 76.

    joel hanes

    @Mary G:

    Florida … COVID19 case numbers seem really low.

    DeSantis is deliberately suppressing data-gathering and reporting to keep them that way.   He’s twisting arms, cooking the books.

    Like Trump, he’s approaching a pandemic as a public relations problem.   Infection has come to The Villages, and that strategy will fail, just as it has failed for Trump.

  77. 77.

    Cheryl Rofer

    I haven’t read this entire thread, so someone may have mentioned it, but Joe Biden has a very good op-ed in the New York Times telling Trump how to open the country safely.

    Of course, that means that Trump will do the opposite.

    Headed to bed now, jackals. Good night.

  78. 78.

    Cleardale

    @Kent: True but that is because they are military and couldn’t actually be fired, Fauci doesn’t have the same protections. They were all publicly and loudly removed from their positions when they easily could have been isolated and left to sit a month or two able to do nothing and then moved quietly. trump doesn’t work that way.

  79. 79.

    Kent

    @Jeffro:I don’t see why K-12 schools, especially the middle and high schools, wouldn’t have the same kinds of issues.

    You would run most elementary schools as little isolation cells with no contact between classes.  Just have kiddos report directly to their classroom every morning and stay there essentially locked in all day with staggered recesses and boxed lunches delivered instead of communal cafeteria so that each class of 25 kids doesn’t mix with any other kids or adults all day.

    Add in all kinds of new hygene measures like hand washing stations and monitors in the bathrooms, that sort of thing.  That way if you do get another outbreak, you only have a class of 25 kids and the teacher to track and isolate, not 500 kids in an entire school.

    That sort of thing would be much more difficult at the HS level.  Especially because so many schools are overcrowded.  You could maybe do some sort of hybrid schools like they have in Europe where the kids stay in one place and the teachers rotate.  Stuff like that.  It would require being really creative.  And again, keep the kids from mingling in common areas.  Deliver lunches to the classrooms.  That sort of thing.  Staggered starts and dismissals.

  80. 80.

    lgerard

    I’m wondering what is happening over at the Census these days.  It was always going to be a disaster with Wilbur “just resting” Ross in charge, but I have heard next to nothing about it for some time other then a small spate of commercials.

    You would think trump could drop a few exhortations to people to go online and fill out the form during his interminable daily infomercials.  But then, they evidently don’t care about that responsibility either.

  81. 81.

    Caphilldcne

    @CaseyL: WTF are you talking about? Birx is a researcher who has significant Army experience and worked with Fauci on trying to find an HIV vaccine. She was appointed to be the director of the Office of Global AIDS Coordinator (essentially the US ambassador on HIV) by Obama. This is just a completely f’ed up thing to say about Birx.

  82. 82.

    Kent

    @lgerard:

    I’m wondering what is happening over at the Census these days.  It was always going to be a disaster with Wilbur “just resting” Ross in charge, but I have heard next to nothing about it for some time other then a small spate of commercials.

    You would think trump could drop a few exhortations to people to go online and fill out the form during his interminable daily infomercials.  But then, they evidently don’t care about that responsibility either.

    It is going forward in a totally half-assed fashion.   We got our form in the mail and logged into the web site to fill out out for our family.

    If they fuck it up too badly the next president may have to do it over again in 2021 if that is even possible.  Or else statistically adjust the numbers which would cause total melt-down in the GOP.  I’m not sure if there is anything we can really do except keep track.

  83. 83.

    Jay

    Gotta admit, I really thought if there was one thing America could nail without complaining, it was sitting on the couch for a few weeks.— Susan J. Demas ? (@sjdemas) April 13, 2020

  84. 84.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    I haven’t read this entire thread, so someone may have mentioned it, but Joe Biden has a very good op-ed in the New York Times telling Trump how to open the country safely.

    1. Resign.

    2. Pence resign.

    3. DO WHATEVER THE FUCK PRESIDENT PELOSI SAYS!

    ETA – wanna argue?  We will slap you so hard with a fish drunk on Corona beer that you will now be a fish drunk on Corona beer!

  86. 86.

    SFAW

    @joel hanes:

    DeSantis is deliberately suppressing data-gathering and reporting to keep them that way.   He’s twisting arms, cooking the books.

    I think I read somewhere that he’s trying to get COVID-19-related snowbird death figures assigned to their home states. I have no idea if that’s true, or just speculation/snark.

    ETA: And, as if by magic, Sister Golden Bear tells me where/how. Thanks!

  87. 87.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @Adam L Silverman: Josh Marshall at TPM noticed that Florida was splitting numbers by state vs. non-state residents — something that’s not been done by all the other state data he’s looked at.

    You’ll be utterly unshocked that only the state residents were part of the official counts — i.e. all the snowbirds who are still legal residents of other states were being excluded.

  89. 89.

    Jinchi

    @Jeffro: As for Fauci, who cares? He either quits and tells the country the truth, or he half-asses it and stays in, or half-asses it and gets fired.

    Well, I care. I don’t think Fauci sees his main job as PR point man for the administration. He’s trying to plan a response to an pandemic and he’s apparently one of the few people left who’ll give Trump honest advice with some success. He’s given honest responses in every interview I’ve seen, even when Trump is standing directly behind him and Fauci is completely contradicting whatever nonsense Trump just spouted. But he’s there to do a public service, not make a grand stand against Trump. We need a few honest civil servants left if we’re going to survive the next few months.

  90. 90.

    mrmoshpotato

    @SFAW:

    I think I read somewhere that he’s trying to get COVID-19-related snowbird death figures assigned to their home states. I have no idea if that’s true, or just speculationsnark. 

    Seriously?

  91. 91.

    Adam L Silverman

    @SFAW: Florida is separating resident and non-resident deaths. They are listing the snowbirds, even if they own their winter residences down here, as non-residents based on the fact that they’re seasonal.

  92. 92.

    Jay

    THEY DID IT!!! Today, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam signed into law one of the most meaningful and comprehensive gun safety packages in our country's history: five new gun safety bills, including background checks on all gun sales and an extreme risk protection order law. #VAleg pic.twitter.com/ha6InqPSLZ— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) April 10, 2020

  94. 94.

    Mary G

    @Adam L Silverman: I have too, but not necessarily because I knew what was coming. I had Rituxan IVs on Feb. 20 and March 5 to kill off some of my immune system, so I always isolate around those, and then I just kept going.

  95. 95.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Sister Golden Bear: I’m aware. My next door neighbor is a Yooper MAGA enthusiast in his 80s who just happens to be named Don and wanders around the neighborhood telling everyone how happy he is that the President is the president because now everyone respects the name Don and Donald. He once wouldn’t leave me alone and followed me all around my front yard to try to explain to me that the reason Detroit has issues is because Africans enslaved themselves in the 16th century. When he got here last November for his winter overing, he showed up later than usual, because he’d had a very severe case of viral pneumonia. He seems to be ignoring the shelter in place order. And frankly, when he goes because he’s a stupid racist, I honestly don’t care whether we list him as a resident or non-resident of Florida.

  96. 96.

    SFAW

    @Adam L Silverman:

    DeSantis will probably try to claim that all them New Yorkers contracted COVID-19 during their dead-of-winter visits to NYC, and so therefore it’s a New York problem.

  100. 100.

    Caphilldcne

    @CaseyL: @CaseyL: it’s because she thinks she can help steer him. She doesn’t need to be doing this but she’s trying to respond to a new epidemic. Fauci, Birx and evening Redfield are all very early HIV first responders and are trying to respond to this new epidemic under the circumstances of having a completely out of control boss. BTW Redfield is also not a Pence creature – he was an army researcher who frankly had some really bad hot takes early in the epidemic. He was on the President’s Advisory Council on HIV/AIDs under George W Bush and ran the University of Marylans’s HIV clinic at their Med school for many years. He’s conservative but predates Pence. Jerome Adams, the Surgeon General and Seema Verma the CMS director both have ties to Pence as governor.

  101. 101.

    Adam L Silverman

    @SFAW: He already has. The reality is that it got here from other places, was worsened by asymptotic asymptomatic spring breakers, and then exported to other states by spring breakers who picked it up here and then took it back home with them.

  102. 102.

    SFAW

    @Adam L Silverman:

    asymptotic

    Pedant alert! 
    “Asymptomatic.” “Asymptotic” is a math/graphing term.

    Be that as it may: it seems pretty unlikely that the snowbirds brought it with them — don’t they tend to arrive in the November/December time period?

  107. 107.

    SFAW

    @mrmoshpotato:

    Ummmm…..he’s seen a map of Michigan’s cities, right?

    I have this nagging feeling that he’s thinking about something other than geography. Not sure I can put my finger on it. Probably not even three-fifths of a finger.

  110. 110.

    Mary G

    @Adam L Silverman: I’m a bit of a homebody loner, so not that much has changed for me, but I can’t leave the house, which makes me want to. Luckily I haven’t suffered any consequences from not being able to fill my hydroxychloroquine prescription. So far.

  112. 112.

    Jinchi

    @Sebastian: They’ve been wanting to fire Fauci since they originally order him to go through Pence before speaking publicly, before most of us knew his name. They knew it would look bad, even then. It’d be much worse now. He’s the only one with any credibility. I’m sure they planned to axe him at the first opportunity, and I’m sure he knew it. Unlike most, he didn’t start sucking up to Trump to save his job.

  116. 116.

    Mandalay

    I’m not sure why Fauci gets hero status from some folks. Presumably because he doesn’t suck up to Trump, yet he was pretty full of shit himself back in January and February. This is from an article dated February 17:

    Fauci says skip the masks unless you are contagious, don’t worry about catching anything from Chinese products and certainly don’t avoid Chinese people or restaurants.

    Fauci recalled how a nurse who was infected with Ebola took a flight to Ohio because she was asymptomatic and not at risk of infecting anyone. People everywhere suddenly thought all planes were unsafe.
    “I was getting calls from people in Sacramento saying, ‘Can I get on an airplane to go to Seattle?'” Fauci said. “Like, what? What does that got to do with anything?”

    “If you look at the masks that you buy in a drug store, the leakage around that doesn’t really do much to protect you,” he said. “People start saying, ‘Should I start wearing a mask?’ Now, in the United States, there is absolutely no reason whatsoever to wear a mask.”

    Fauci doesn’t want people to worry about coronavirus, the danger of which is “just minuscule.” But he does want them to take precautions against the “influenza outbreak, which is having its second wave.”

    It’s obvious that in mid-February Fauci was completely clueless about the disaster that was coming our way. Well so was I, but I don’t have his job.

    I can see Trump firing Fauci, and using dumb quotes like these from Fauci (and there are plenty more) to inoculate himself: “The man I needed to rely on most let me down completely. Sad!“.

    Everything Trump touches dies, and Fauci won’t be an exception.

  117. 117.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Jay: Subsequent reporting from western publication correspondents in Moscow indicate that while things are bad, the line of ambulances was because of a dispatching error.

  118. 118.

    Adam L Silverman

    @lgerard: Chinese nationals crossing back over into the PRC through the border crossing in a small town on the Chinese-Russian border.

  120. 120.

    Kent

    @Adam L Silverman:@Jay: Subsequent reporting from western publication correspondents in Moscow indicate that while things are bad, the line of ambulances was because of a dispatching error.

    That was the mother of all “dispatching errors”  Good lord.  I’ve never heard of such a thing.  Here’s more:  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8211727/Dozens-ambulances-filled-suspected-coronavirus-patients-wait-hours-outside-Moscow-hospitals.htm

     

    And from the Guardian:  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/12/moscow-hospitals-see-huge-influx-of-patients-as-covid-19-spreads-in-russia

  121. 121.

    Jay

    Short thread,

    As a #Canadian doctor working in #NYC during #COVIDー19 , many friends ask me if I’d rather be north of the border. I have to say—there’s nowhere I’d rather be than in NYC right now. I’ve been astonished at how New Yorkers & Americans have come together to help each other 1/3— Dr. Chethan Sathya MD (@drchethansathya) April 10, 2020

  124. 124.

    Jinchi

    @Mandalay:  yet he was pretty full of shit himself back in January and February.

    There’s a difference between being wrong, and being full of shit. The early arguments against widespread use of masks was based on the fact that viruses are small enough to get through most masks, and the typical civilian doesn’t wear them in a way that they are completely sealed.  Research published later suggested that the widespread use of masks in Asia helped control the spread. Fauci changed his advice when he saw evidence to support it. That’s how ethical scientists work.

  125. 125.

    Jay

    POWERFUL: Hand in hand, couple Eddie + Blanche Johnson shared a final embrace, as their battle w/ COVID-19 neared its end.They passed away earlier this week, 3 days apart.The Johnsons were residents at Arbor Terrace at Cascade, where nearly 80% of residents tested positive. pic.twitter.com/GNwlB9bPhs— Emilie Ikeda (@EmilieIkedaFOX5) April 11, 2020

  130. 130.

    lgerard

    @Adam L Silverman:

     

    i thought there was a flight of businessmen returning from Russia as well, but my memory is vague as I read the article hours ago and that information has been displaced by other events

  131. 131.

    CarolDuhart2

    @Duane:  He doesn’t go to church, and even if he did, he’s not going to some megachurch to sit in the herd anyway.  He’s just sucking up to the evangelicals.

    Thanks to all of the donors so far.  I will start Cash-Apping her money in a couple of days or so she can get some groceries.  I’ve already given her info on the foodbanks, but what she really needs is more help than I can give at the moment.

  132. 132.

    Mandalay

    @Mary G:

    I’ve been wondering about Florida … the COVID19 case numbers seem really low.

    They certainly do seem very, very low. Here for comparison purposes are cases / deaths for Florida, Louisiana and Illinois:

    Florida: 19,895 / 461

    Louisiana: 20,595 / 840

    Illinois: 20,852 / 720

    Those numbers for Florida are so good that they are implausible, especially since we are the third most populous state, we are stuffed full of old people, and DeSantis was strongly opposed to any statewide measures until very recently.

    But I suspect DeSantis is going to become a victim of his own “success”, because the media are going to be digging up all the ways he has been fiddling the books to make himself look good.

  134. 134.

    NotMax

    Grrr. Neighbors on one side having some kind of large outdoor party with lots of little kids running around. Possible it’s just extended family (long ago lost count of how many people live on the property – minimum 6 to 8 cars parked there at any given time) but there sure as heck ain’t no distancing going on.

  137. 137.

    NotMax

    @mrmoshpotato

    Coming up on 7:30 p.m. They’ve been going at it since early afternoon, including playing saccharine kids Easter songs at too loud a volume while I was out back carpentering.

  138. 138.

    lgerard

    @CarolDuhart2:

    He doesn’t go to church, and even if he did, he’s not going to some megachurch to sit in the herd anyway.

    I’m sure they have private boxes for truly blessed

  139. 139.

    mrmoshpotato

    @NotMax: Not 8:30?  I thought you were 2 hours behind the left coast.

    ETA – no DST I see.  Spend all that daylight!

  143. 143.

    Joey Maloney

    @Caphilldcne:

    Fauci, Birx and evening Redfield are all very early HIV first responders and are trying to respond to this new epidemic under the circumstances of having a completely out of control boss.

    Poor Fauci. This must be deja-vu all over again for him.

  147. 147.

    Jay

    In a sane world, the government would deliver a small ? to every person in America. Each month: face masks, gloves, a pre-paid debit card, testing kits, information about how to vote by mail. All delivered by USPS.— Stephanie Kelton (@StephanieKelton) April 12, 2020

  149. 149.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    The problem with the Wingnut plan of Fire Fauci is the US Federal Government has no Virus counter measures, it’s all done at the state level.  This all goes back to people don’t want to die and will keep up the social distancing until it’s safe again.

  150. 150.

    NotMax

    Maui police now setting up roadblocks to check on non-essential travel. Reports of what traffic there was backed up for an hour at them, officers going from car to car, handling each driver’s documents without taking precautions in between. Counter productive in extremis.

    7 tickets issued. 6 for expired license, registration or insurance, a whopping one for an unspecified violation of non-essential.

  157. 157.

    Ryan

    The only way to get fired in a humiliating way is to become a lapdog and for that not to matter.  Recall Sessions, or even Mulvaney.  No one would say Vindman got removed from the NSC in a humiliating manner, and I suspect the same would be said about Fauci.

  159. 159.

    CarolDuhart2

    @Adam L Silverman:  Try again.  I kept the update window open too long.

    If I had my way, she would have people running all her errands now.  Both her kids are still young enough to be in the workplace, so they aren’t always available, and they both work essential jobs as well (:

    Nervous as fuck-the mental games are a problem.  Yes, I’ve kept strict distancing-the last time I was really out in the general public was 3/14 at 6am for a UDF run for some food.  Just one other customer in the store :).  And I’m going through my run for seasonal asthma at the same time, which is worse.

  160. 160.

    Mandalay

    @Jinchi:

    Fauci changed his advice when he saw evidence to support it.

    But there was no evidence to support Fauci’s original advice that “in the United States, there is absolutely no reason whatsoever to wear a mask“.

    I’m not dumping on Fauci for being wrong; I’m dumping on him for being so dogmatic about mimimizing and downplaying the risks of coronavirus when he didn’t have the evidence to support his assertive positions.

    Here’s more twaddle from Fauci on January 21:

    Asked whether the U.S. might contemplate city-wide shutdowns like those China was enacting at the time, Fauci replied, “There’s no chance in the world that we could do that to Chicago or to New York or to San Francisco, but they’re doing it.  So, let’s see what happens.”

    Most importantly, he added that it was still quite possible the Chinese could get control of the outbreak and prevent it from becoming a global issue, and that even if there were more cases in the U.S., “the CDC, as usual, is on top of things.” https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/04/03/virus_experts_early_statements_belie_prescient_portrayal_142845.html

  161. 161.

    West of the Rockies

    @mrmoshpotato:

    Never heard of that movie–it looks like a fun afternoon matinee at home with root beer floats and pretzels.  Oh, and Jr. Mints.

  164. 164.

    JPL

    What a stormy night.   Tornado Warnings are popping up all over central and northwest GA.   So far I’ve only had thunderstorms and heavy, heavy rain.   I’m hoping it stays that way, but I do have flashlight and comforters ready in case Finch and I have to retreat to the closet.

  165. 165.

    JPL

    @raven: The last time it rained this hard was when we had floods but that rain lasted all night and part of the next day.   Dog is right next to me.

  169. 169.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Mandalay:

    But there was no evidence to support Fauci’s original advice that “in the United States, there is absolutely no reason whatsoever to wear a mask“.

    Being that healthcare workers were already having to reuse masks at the time, he was probably right to not make comments that would have increased demand for masks.

  175. 175.

    mrmoshpotato

    @NotMax: The Sun has done an amazing job and is getting recognized more and more.

    ETA – Four guys from Poolliver even wrote a song about when the Sun comes here.

  176. 176.

    raven

    @Jackie: It was so weird when we went to bed at 10. It was pretty chilly in the house and when I took Lil Bit out it was way warm and muggy.

  178. 178.

    eclare

    @raven: No tornados in Memphis, but the thunder was so loud several times early this morning that my house shook.  Scary.  Stay safe.

  181. 181.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @mrmoshpotato: How about “co conspirator”? Mostly likely the two of them bonded while raping 14 year old models. So it’s what ever Trump thinks is friendship in his twisted world.

    Remember Trump was babbling on about “this next week is going to be really tough for America” and the reporters were saying what Trump really means was one of his close friends was seriously ill with the virus?

  184. 184.

    JPL

    @raven:   It’s definitely not good to have the tornado on the ground near the airport.   There really is a large homeless population in that area.

  185. 185.

    NotMax

    Phew. Able to stand and move now without doing so in slow motion accompanied by mucho grimacing.

    A few hours ago would have welcomed a full body soak in a vat of Absorbine Jr.

    @raven – @JPL

    Safety wishes. And (because why not) dance.

  189. 189.

    Jackie

    @raven: I was flying through the 2011 tornadoes in TN, KS, MI, and never want to do that   again! Prior to flying out of Knoxville, we had normal weather, then the winds picked up. Then we saw the black clouds heading directly our way and quickly gathered up the outside yard stuff. Then the power shut off… meanwhile I’m packing to fly back to Washington. The entire flight was never allowed to unbuckle seatbelt. Turbulent from Knoxville to Denver.

  206. 206.

    NotMax

    @mrmoshpotato

    Flew out of Dyce airport at Aberdeen on a day when winds were averaging 100 mph. Quickest time from full stop to liftoff have ever experienced.

  210. 210.

    Jackie

    @raven: no. That was the super tornadoes of 2011. I’m currently hanging out at home – Kennewick WA. Only dealing with typical allergy inducing windstorms ?

  214. 214.

    Jackie

    @mrmoshpotato: Yikes! I’m sure I experienced similar. We actually flew out of Knoxville 15 min early. Everyone was onboard and the goal was to stay ahead of the tornadoes.

  229. 229.

    Patricia Kayden

    Dr. Fauci can still speak out even if Trump fires  him.  In fact, he’ll probably be freer to push back against Trump’s lies.  Fauci being removed was always in the cards since Trump can’t abide the truth.

  231. 231.

    SFAW

    @Patricia Kayden:

    Dr. Fauci can still speak out even if Trump fires  him.  In fact, he’ll probably be freer to push back against Trump’s lies.

    At which point, the Murderer-in-Chief (or his moron minions) will say “Dr. Fauci no longer has access to the information WE have, so he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.” Of course, at that point, only about 25 percent will believe that bullshit.

    [NB: I don’t expect the Murderer-in-Chief to be able to construct a sentence that “complex.”]

  232. 232.

    Enough

    I’m waiting for one these federal officials to refuse to step down, file a lawsuit, and go right back to work.

  234. 234.

    Matt McIrvin

    @FlyingToaster:

    Massachusetts is going all-out on testing, contact tracing, and trying to find a fast serological test.  Despite the fact that the Feds keep stealing our supplies, we’ve successfully flattened the curve

    The Mass. new case numbers for the past few days sure don’t look good. Chelsea is a catastrophe. I’m sure the aggressive testing is making us look worse relative to most of the country, but the curve doesn’t look as flattened as it should be to me.

  236. 236.

    BobS

    @Adam L Silverman: Not that you asked for my advice, but Florida does have stand-your-ground laws, and this is a potentially deadly disease, and you are a white guy, and Michigan is a swing-state…

  238. 238.

    chopper

     

    @Jinchi:

    you don’t understand; fauci was wrong about something! all you people who hold him up as some sort of ‘expert’ are just sheep. now, let me spend 2 hours explaining why your favorite band sucks…

  239. 239.

    BobS

    @Mandalay: Fauci was/is correct. The purpose of a surgical mask isn’t to protect the person wearing it, it’s to protect other people, which is why operating room staff (and other health care workers performing sterile procedures) wear them.

    Properly fitted N-95 masks protect the wearer.

  240. 240.

    SFAW

    @chopper:

    now, let me spend 2 hours explaining why your favorite band sucks…

    Careful what you say about Nickelback!

    ETA: And shouldn’t it be “sheeple,” not “sheep”?

  241. 241.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @lgerard: Washington Times has been pimping the idea that Fauci is working with Bill Gates to create a vaccine they can both cash in on.

    What I read is that Gates is spending major moolah to Manhattan-Project COVID vaccines, setting up & jumpstarting a separate production facility for each of 7 candidate vaccines, with the intention of going into large-scale production ASAP once one (or more of them) has been demonstrated safe & effective. Even the cretins at the fucking Moonie Times ought to recognize that’s not how you maximize your profits from human misery. If they were honest. Which of course they are not.

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