Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

Giving in to doom is how authoritarians win.

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

The press swings at every pitch, we don’t have to.

Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

Trump’s cabinet: like a magic 8 ball that only gives wrong answers.

There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

Republicans got rid of McCarthy. Democrats chose not to save him.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

Let me file that under fuck it.

Petty moves from a petty man.

The arc of the moral universe does not bend itself. it is up to us to bend it.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires Republicans to act in good faith.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

I swear, each month of 2025 will have its own history degree.

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

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Repub Insanity Open Thread: These People Are Monsters

Repub Insanity Open Thread: These People Are Monsters

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Call out the serfs!…

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Reader Interactions

192Comments

  2. 2.

    Nora

    Liberate Michigan from sense and science. Let’s go back to the good old days of the Black Death. /sarcasm.

  3. 3.

    CaseyL

    You know it’s bad when the creator of the Crazification Factor says, “I underestimated just how insane these people are.”

  4. 4.

    8 man shell

    People saying stupid shit on Twitter.

    People reposting people saying stupid shit on Twitter.

    Same shit, different day.

  7. 7.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    DR OZ: “Schools are a very appetizing opportunity. I just saw a nice piece in The Lancet arguing the opening of schools may only cost us 2 to 3%

    They are also idiots who can’t do basic math; that’s 6 to 9 million Americans dying.

  8. 8.

    Chyron HR

    How many of those who urged our govt to help liberate the Iraqis…

    That was the REPUBLICANS, you dumb stunt.

  9. 9.

    Baud

    FWIW, I’m not overly worried about violence before the election.  We need to be prepared for domestic terrorism after we win, however.

  10. 10.

    dmsilev

    Taneytown Police Department

    Please remember to put pants on before leaving the house to check your mailbox. You know who you are. This is your final warning.

    So many questions. The obvious one is does the long arm of the law also extend to pants-optional mopping? We also have to ask whether it is morally correct to snitch on one’s neighbors for engaging in such activities. Are any police officers undergoing PTSD treatment?

  11. 11.

    Elizabelle

    @Baud:   And Liberate the Senate.  And Trump’s tweets could help make that happen.

    Heading out for a walk.  Catch you guys later.

  18. 18.

    Mike in NC

    We ought to be grateful that celebrity quack Dr Oz wasn’t placed in charge of tackling the pandemic from the beginning. “Only 5 million dead! Thank you, Orange God!”

  19. 19.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @germy: Oz can’t apologize for pig ignorant stupid.

    I am not surprised Oz thinks drowning deaths are a big deal, doubtlessly they in his inbreed idiot family from bathing and dental care accidents.

  23. 23.

    Scout211

    Bad day.  My neighbor, who said he didn’t think masks were all that necessary and social distancing was enough, continued to meet with people in his AA program and now is sick.  He’s in his late 70s and has serious heart and lung problems.

    This post just resonated with my current state of shock that so many people are so invested in denial and disregard for facts.

    Sigh.

  26. 26.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Patricia Kayden: That tweet fits my thought what’s really going on is the GOP is losing control of their base and desperately maxing out the stupid to keep the rest of them from thinking.

  29. 29.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @germy: Ah, I stand corrected, there are so many worthless media ghouls these days. I mean seriously WTF does Oz mean “appetizing”; He’s planning to eat the corpses?

  33. 33.

    Lapassionara

    @germy: Seriously? He misspoke? What he did was emulate Dear Leader’s approach to the plague — he said the quiet parts out loud. It works for Trump, but for some reason, others are surprised to discover that being an asshole is not a get out of jail free card for everyone, only for Trump.

    I still don’t understand this, but I am glad that “letting Trump be Trump” has not yet resulted in widespread affection for Trump-like behavior in others.

  35. 35.

    Josie

    @germy:

    Bullshit.  He didn’t misspeak.  He miscalculated how many people are as sociopathic as he is.  The blowback must have surprised him.

  36. 36.

    Jeffro

    They’re all sick and we should keep calling them that.  Donald J(im Jones) trumpov really will happily send them to their deaths just to avoid the accountability and great shame that is at long last coming for him.

  37. 37.

    WaterGirl

    @germy: This is the same “apology” I would get from my cocker spaniel when I would catch her getting into the garbage.

    I’m sorry I am being punished for getting in the garbage.

    Dr. Oz is surely very sorry that he said that out loud, on camera.

  39. 39.

    Jeffro

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: he means the idea of his stock portfolio bouncing back, regardless of the cost, is really arousing to him…tasty…exciting…delicious…

    …(barf)

    But this is how these people think, and it’s how they talk when they’re amongst their own kind.

  40. 40.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    The “LIBERATE” stuff makes no sense outside of a herrenvolk ideology, where a majority of actual citizens is meaningless because only the Volk, represented by its Leader, can offer legitimacy. If you’re not a Real American or their anointed you don’t matter.

    That’s what I have a hard time wrapping my mind around. Who do these fucks think they are?

    It’s like the Bundy Bunch and all of the militia groups descending on Malheur and Harney County. A lot of people in those towns didn’t want them there, but they apparently didn’t care.

  41. 41.

    Uncle Jeffy

    Quick, someone re-run Johnny Carson’s “Karnak the Magnificent “: routine:

    Karnak: “Trump University “

    The Envelope: “Where did Dr. Phil get his degree in Epidemiology?”

  42. 42.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    Reposting from below, because dead thread:

    From the NY Post on March 25th:

    The US was the best-prepared country in the world to respond to a pandemic, a report concluded in 2019, despite complaints from Democrats that President Trump gutted the government agencies that are on the front line of the nation’s coronavirus response.

    The assessment by the Nuclear Threat Initiative and the Johns Hopkins Center for Healthy Security was released last October.

    The Global Health Security Index was compiled with guidance from an international panel of experts from 13 countries and ranked the preparedness of 195 countries following the Ebola outbreak.

    It cautioned that no country is perfectly positioned to handle a pandemic.

    The US ranked high in five of six categories examined, but scored lower on the overall risk of biological threats because of social unrest, terrorism and lack of public confidence in the government.

    Fox News reported on the index late Tuesday.

    Trump was called “racist” after he closed the US border to China in January — weeks after the initial coronavirus outbreak was reported in Wuhan.

    Dr. Anthony Fauci, an infectious disease expert on the White House coronavirus task force, credited that action with curbing the spread of the virus in the US.

    Others criticized the Trump administration for cutting funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, leaving the country vulnerable to a pandemic like coronavirus.

    Trump proposed a cut, but Congress rejected it and increased its budget to $7.7 billion from $7.2 billion in 2019.

    “The CDC’s response has been excellent, as it has been in the past,” John Auerbach, president of the nonpartisan Trust for America’s Health, which works with government in its response to crises, told Fox News.

    He added that the ranks of top scientists at the CDC have remained stable over the past three years.

    The article is of course trying to lower expectations: “Nobody could have predicted and we did the best we could. Oh well!”

    And I found this article from last year interviewing Auerbach and he seems to sing a different tune:

    Years of budget cuts to public health led to the elimination of more than 55,000 positions within local health departments from 2008 through 2017, according to a report released Wednesday.
    The Trust for America’s Health estimates public health efforts are about $4.5 billion underfunded. That’s led state and local health departments woefully unprepared to address public health emergencies such as infectious disease outbreaks, extreme weather events, and the opioid crisis.
    “One could argue that there has always been underfunding but it is more meaningful at a period of time when cuts haven’t been restored and risks have increased,” said John Auerbach, president and CEO of Trust for America’s Health.
    […]

    In 2012, President Barack Obama signed a bill that cut the fund by more than $6 billion over nine years to pay for cuts to Medicare physician payments. A year later, the fund lost $450 million to set up the federal health insurance marketplace.

    The massive tax cut passed in 2017 cut another $750 million from the fund to cover the costs of the Children’s Health Insurance Program, while the budget bill passed in 2018 cut $1.35 billion from the PPHF over 10 years.

    “(The fund) has been used to backfill cuts in well-established programs or it’s been decreased to fund other kinds of activities,” Auerbach said. “An important way of improving the financial status of the public health system would be to restore the fund to its original allocation ($15 billion over 10 years) and not have it redirected to other sources.”

    Auerbach wished public health efforts could receive more established funding to handle emerging threats without having to wait for Congress to approve resources. For example, experts had to request emergency funding to address the Ebola outbreak in 2014, the Zika virus in 2016, and more recently, the opioid epidemic.

    “That kind of funding impedes the ability of public health to actually prevent risk or to respond in a timely manner,” Auerbach said. “If the funding comes in the midst of an emergency you’re quickly doing catch-up.”

    Somebody’s lying here.

  43. 43.

    germy

    A staffer for New Mexico governor condemns the "death cult" that is not accepting the dangers of COVID-19.

    The NM GOP condemns the staffer, demands an apology.

    Spokesman for the governor notes, "Umm..the tweet says nothing about the GOP. You see yourselves as a death cult?"

    — Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) April 17, 2020

  44. 44.

    Brent

    Not to defend Oz,  whom I find incredibly loathesome,  but he actually did misspeak.  The study he was talking about referring to is actually talking about a 2-3% increase in the overall number of deaths. Not, as it sounded like he was saying,  an an additional 2-3% of the entire population.

    Again, it was still a pretty awful sentiment which makes sense because he is an awful human being but not quite the genocidal lunatic his statement appears to present.

  45. 45.

    August West

    Trump should be tested for rabies because he’s acting like a rabid dog.  It’s also time for him to be fitted for a straitjacket.

  46. 46.

    Capri

    The thing is, the virus doesn’t care about posturing.

    If somebody in the protester group is shedding the virus – then other folks will catch it. And they’ll get sick, or people they get close to will get sick.  These people have this reverse Tinkerbell mentality that seems to be if you don’t “believe” in the virus it can’t touch you.

    Dudes, the virus doesn’t care.

  47. 47.

    Jeffro

    Btw glad to see some progressives like Josh Marshall and Adam Parkomenko starting to beat the drum for trumpov to resign.  He won’t, but it needs to be a constant refrain from now through November.

  51. 51.

    Achrachno

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: Yeah, what’s a Holocaust or two among friends?

     

    These people are straight-up criminal sociopaths, and we need to figure out some way to get this under control before they start killing people more widely.  How can a democratic society cope with this sort of thing?  Especially when they are numerous and our political system is deeply flawed with grossly undemocratic features that magnify their power beyond their numbers.

  52. 52.

    Michael

    @germy: He said there are 350,000 swimming pool deaths. There are 3,500. His degree was not in medicine, and not in math either. Or critical thinking apparently.

  53. 53.

    Josie

    @Brent:

    I disagree.  I understood exactly what the 2-3% was, and I also understood how he feels about the children, teachers, and support staff when he used the words “appetizing opportunity.”

  54. 54.

    different-church-lady

    When all this is said and done, we’re going to have to revise our estimates for the percentage of sociopaths in the population way, way up.

    Oh heck, I did that way back in November 2016.

  55. 55.

    Ksmiami

    @Capri: Same with their attitudes toward Global warming… The earth and the sun and the natural processes guided within really don’t care about your religion or politics- they’ll kill you either way so best to use our intelligence to make life livable

  58. 58.

    danielx

    @Lapassionara:

    Stocks, hell – after seeing that picture of the guy with the swastika banner with ‘Trump’ and ‘Pence’ emblazoned on it, I’m thinking bring back the guillotine.

  63. 63.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    I may be nothing but a dumb lawyer, but something appears awry with Liddle Marco’s math:

    FACTS ignored by those claiming #PPP a “troubled” program only helping big companies via big banks

    -14 years’ worth of loans in 12 days to 1.6 million #SmallBusiness

    -74% of loans under $150k

    -Of 5000 lenders,none loaned more than 5% of total $ -60% lenders under $10B in assets

    Now, I was fiddling around.

    74% of the total number of borrowers cited is 1,184,000

    Assuming that each PPP loan in that lowest tranche was $150,000 (which it wasn’t – some an order of magnitude less), you only burn 177B.

    So where’s the fucking money gone?

  65. 65.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    3% of 330 million is 9,900,000 dead, the equivalent of 16,500 Vietnam Wars.

  67. 67.

    Geoboy

    @germy:

    I’ve realized my comments on risks around opening schools have confused and upset people, which was never my intention. I misspoke. pic.twitter.com/Kq1utwiCjR

    — Dr. Mehmet Oz (@DrOz) April 16, 2020

    We’re not confused at all, asswipe.  Upset? Yes.  Thinking that if you really do have a license to practice medicine it should be taken away like yesterday?  Yes.  Trying our hardest not to wish coronavirus on you but struggling with it?  Absolutely.

  69. 69.

    J R in WV

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    Assuming that each PPP loan in that lowest tranche was $150,000 (which it wasn’t – some an order of magnitude less), you only burn 177B.

    So where’s the fucking money gone?

    Same place all that extra Inauguration money went — Trump’s hip pocket, or overseas bank account, or somewhere like that.

    Didn’t Ivanka give one of her besties $50 million for “organizing”?? Some amount of that magnitude, anyhoo.

  70. 70.

    kindness

    @danielx: My Dad and my uncle fought in WWII.  They were Republicans but there is no way in hell they would stand for these miserable shits running around with swasticas after what they went through.  I have a hard time with that stuff.

  71. 71.

    hueyplong

    Following up on an earlier comment, the modifier “appetizing” did not fall out of the air and hit Oz in the head.  What non-ghoul uses the word “appetizing” in the context of talking about a mortality bump arising from opening up schools?

    And that tweet doesn’t even rise to the level of non-apology apology.  He can fuck right off.

  72. 72.

    John Revolta

    WTF? I knew these people were grifters but I didn’t think they were straight-up evil sociopaths.

    What’s their angle here? Are they hoping to milk the traumas and guilt of a bunch of little kids who killed their grandparents?

  74. 74.

    mrmoshpotato

    @germy: Hahahahahahaha, shitpile political party says what?

    GOP: What?  How dare you call us a shitpile political party!  We demand an apology!

  75. 75.

    J R in WV

    @kindness:

    My uncle came home from North Africa and the Med with jaundice and a Croix de Guerre from the Free French army.

    He was a pacifist before and after the war, but I’m sure he would be totally offended by current people acting out like Nazis. I know I am.

  76. 76.

    Brent

    @Josie: Fair enough.  Like I said,  I have no love for Oz myself.

    My point,  and it’s been confirmed by the interpretation of a few people in this thread (and many more on twitter),  is that his phrasing made it seem like he was downplaying millions of additional deaths when he wasn’t really.  In context, he was actually downplaying a few hundred more deaths.

    Still pretty terrible, I don’t disagree.

  77. 77.

    Mandalay

    @Josie:

    Bullshit.  He didn’t misspeak.  He miscalculated how many people are as sociopathic as he is.

    Exactly right that he didn’t misspeak, but I think it was just a trial balloon to see what kind of sicko arguments you can get away with in the get-America-back-to-work movement.

  78. 78.

    joel hanes

    @germy:

    Oprah should have taken that shotgun to anti-vax eedjit Jenny McCarthy, to whom Oprah gave national exposure,  long ago.

  79. 79.

    MattF

    @John Revolta: They’re demonstrating their fealty to Trump. Since Trump is a psychopath, they’re following suit by being just like him. Same thing happened in Nazi Germany— the most ‘successful’ Nazis were the ones who saw themselves as little Hitlers.

  80. 80.

    Cacti

    Dr. Oz is a snake oil selling charlatan whose specialty is cardiovascular surgery.

    Dr. Phil isn’t even a physician, or a licensed clinical psychologist.

    Oprah has major blind spot for medical phonies.

  81. 81.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch:

    3% is even larger that the US Civil War deaths which were at 2.5% of the population.  Though I gather outside the frapping fantasies of Hard Right Ghoul, the pandemic would die when 70% of the population is infected so the number is more like “only” 0.7% of the population dead or 2.3 million. Oh that would be in like three months, 2.3 million people would just drop dead.

    Question – the real reason for the lack of hand lotion is because the 27% GOP hard core base been masturbating nonstop for the last month over the thought of mass death in population? It would be irresponsible not to ask.

  82. 82.

    Kent

    Wow….along the lines that a stopped clock is correct once a decade, Roger Cohen actually writes a good column.  No shits left to give?

    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/17/opinion/trump-coronavirus.html

    an excerpt

    When the Pearl Harbor Commission on this American catastrophe convenes, even Trump the perennial escape artist will not be able to slither from history’s judgment.
    There’s nobody left in the presidential entourage who can question his folly. The toadying of Vice President Mike Pence captures the terror that reigns in Trump’s off-with-his-head court.

  83. 83.

    Mandalay

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    So where’s the fucking money gone?

    Well you’re not going to like the answer, so brace yourself, but there was a loophole in the small print the size of Montana:

    The so-called PPP loans were aimed at helping companies with up to 500 employees cover payroll and overhead costs. But lawmakers expanded eligibility for restaurants so that companies could apply as long as they had no more than 500 workers at any single location.

    Since few, if any, restaurant companies have more than 500 workers at any single location, that effectively meant than almost any restaurant chain was eligible to apply. And they did…

    Florida-based steakhouse operator Ruth’s Hospitality Group inked deals April 7 for $20 million in loans administered by the US Small Business Administration under the $2.2 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill passed last month…

    Yes, that would be the parent company for Ruth’s Chris Steak house, with 5,740 employees and $468 million in revenue last year. They fucking qualified for PPP as a “small business”.

    The whole thing was a legalized scam to enrich the rich. And that’s where a good chunk of the fucking money has gone.

  84. 84.

    Martin

    So, I want to temper these criticisms somewhat. I’m not defending the statements, but there’s two potential paths here:

    1. Massive testing, contact tracing, and hard quarantines such that containment becomes a viable strategy. Understand this will also involve a lot of civil rights intrusion – immunity cards, pervasive surveillance and tracking, exposure of medical information to the 16 year old with the thermometer determining if you can enter the grocery store or not.
    2. Mitigation, allowing the virus to burn through the population just slow enough to keep hospitals hopping but not overwhelmed, and eventually popping out with either herd immunity or a vaccine.

    We of course desire for 1, but the feds have no plans in place for 1. Some states are exploring it, but I don’t know they’ll be able to succeed with no restriction of movement from states that aren’t doing it.

    It’s not unreasonable for people to speculate how 2 might work, because I think that’s what we’re stuck with. If we accept that we’re going to kill off x% of the population in order to avoid killing off 5x% of the population, then at some point you need to do the math on how to maximize the benefits under the x% approach. We can and should be mad at decisions made to put us on plan 2: mitigation, but we shouldn’t be too upset with folks that are saying ‘assuming plan 2: mitigation, this would be the best approach’.

    I will never defend Drs Oz and Phil but Gavin and Cuomo may have to start making decisions along those lines, because I cannot see a path to 1, given Trump.

  85. 85.

    Kent

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: 3% is the exact percentage of the world’s civilian and military population that died of all war-related causes during WW2 including the Holocaust, famines in Ukraine and China, and all the combat deaths on every theater of war.

  89. 89.

    TriassicSands

    As I said in a comment last night we need new words for Trump and Republicans. The English language is simply no longer adequate to describe the utter depravity and worthlessness of those people. I suggested upgrading and updating “clusterf*ck” to “clustertrump” for things that are unimaginably bad, way worse than mere “clusterf*cks,” like pretty much everything Trump does. After telling states to call their own shots concerning reopening, to then tweet calling on people to “free” states with Democratic governors should be met with removal from office. Another new word we need is for the kind of “treason” Trump commits regularly. His actions don’t fit the constitutional definition of treason but they are betraying the country and the people just as surely as aiding the enemy in wartime does.

    Truthfully, the ideal tool would be the 25th Amendment, but it wasn’t designed for a president who is unfit and unqualified for office and surrounded by a VP and cabinet members who are no better. It’s a shame this isn’t a virus that targets stupid people and monsters. The GOP would disappear. Trump would be an ugly smear on the floor. So to speak.

  90. 90.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Martin: I will never defend Drs Oz and Phil but Gavin and Cuomo may have to start making decisions along those lines, because I cannot see a path to 1, given Trump.

    Yes, this what we are left with, because of that useless horses ass Trump, the best possible case is 2.3 million dying over the next year so lest we can burry the bodies in an organized manner. Jesus fucking Christ.

  91. 91.

    Lapassionara

    @Martin: so what you are saying is that I should just accept that I am going to die soon, since I have a compromised immune system.

  93. 93.

    trollhattan

    This is what a full-service city government looks like in action. Okay, maybe less action than usual on the day.

    April 20, also known as “4/20,” is a day celebrated by cannabis enthusiasts across the U.S., including here in Sacramento.

    However, this year’s 4/20 arrives as the County of Sacramento’s “stay-at-home order” — to prevent the spread of COVID-19 — remains in effect.

    While the County’s public-health order does not prohibit dispensaries, delivery services and other cannabis businesses from operating, it does prohibit the gatherings of groups and other activities traditional to the celebration.

    “If you’re planning to celebrate 4/20 this Monday, please remember to do it responsibly and in accordance with the State and County public health orders,” said Davina Smith, head of the City’s Office of Cannabis Management. “Many businesses offer home delivery or curbside pick-up. And if you are required to wait in line, remember to practice social distancing by standing at least six feet apart.”

    For more information about what is and isn’t allowed under the State and County public-health orders, please see this FAQ. For more information about local laws and regulations regarding cannabis, visit the City’s cannabis webpage.

  94. 94.

    Kent

    @Martin: I understand the point you are making.  But logically, schools don’t really add much to national productivity in the short term anyway.  Teachers are all employed and doing distance learning.  Kids are doing some rudimentary school work for the most part.  Re-opening schools isn’t really going to do all that much to put America back to work except for maybe folks like the bus drivers who are currently furloughed.

    If you want to start opening the country back up, things like construction and manufacturing would do a lot more to bring people back to work and generate economic activity than schools.

    It was just an utterly dumbass comment all around.  You get GREATLY increased transmission with not a lot of increase in economic activity.

  95. 95.

    Martin

    @Lapassionara: No. I mean, even under 2 we need to protect people that are highly likely to die from this, and the states can do that kind of effort. But yeah, it’s not pleasant. It basically means to quarantine you for an extended period, and then build services around that reality.

  96. 96.

    Martin

    @Kent: No, I agree 100% there, which is why I’m not willing to defend any of these specific statements.

    What’s more, keeping kids home presents some real opportunities to move education out of the 19th century bunker that it insists on staying in.

    I’ll add, the US is VERY service oriented. And we’re discovering just what it means to have ⅓ of our economy to be service based at a time when social contact is verboten. The service economy can adapt, somewhat, but they need to be much more aggressive in doing so.

  97. 97.

    trollhattan

    @MoCA Ace:

    “Let’s say 2, 3% of schools had a mass shooting. I think we could all agree that’s decent price to pay for keeping our holy Second Amendment.”

    “I would think 2, 3% of 737 Max flights crashing would be an acceptable outcome for getting airlines and Boeing back on their feet.”

    “We can all agree that 2, 3% of Republican congressional heads atop pikes would be applauded by most.”

    Which of these is acceptable?

  99. 99.

    Lapassionara

    @Martin: I prefer to do everything possible to convince my government to follow the experts advice and ramp up testing and contact tracing. If I have to stay home in any event, I’m focusing my energy on the elections.

    party of life, hah!

  100. 100.

    Martin

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: That’s very much a different problem. That we view education as child care as its primary function says a lot about how fucked up education has gotten.

    Put another way, if you have a massive service economy largely out of work, and a child care problem, you potentially have a problem that solves itself, albeit not inexpensively.

  101. 101.

    Chyron HR

    Do the people running the GOP really think that 350 million brave American patriots would lay down their lives for the DJIA if only those liberals weren’t stopping them?

  102. 102.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Michael: My guess is that some serious ca$h changed hands to get him an “advance review copy” of the Elementary Statistics final back in the days when Dr Phool was just plain psych-student Phool.

  104. 104.

    debbie

    These MAGAts are too dumb to see that their heroes Ingrahm, Limbaugh, Beck, et al. are playing them for suckers. They’re all safely away in their socially distanced studios. The MAGAts should demand they leave their havens and stand at the front of the pickets lines in solidarity! Bastards.

    In sad news, I found out one of my work teammates (there are six of us) died yesterday. She was tested for COVID the day before she died, but she had other health issues. She had worked there for 38 years (her only job) and was less than a year from retirement and had busted her ass to make it there. So much for goals.

    Management kindly let us know via an email blast. I’d thought I was beyond being shocked. Au contraire.

  105. 105.

    Martin

    @Lapassionara: Yeah, 1) is by far the better option.

    I’m also worried about the longer term. Everyone is assuming some future date with vaccine and herd immunity.

    Can anyone show me a coronavirus that has a vaccine? There are 4 common coronaviruses that routinely sweep through the population and confer virtually no immunity. MERS and SARS do, at least for a while, but that’s only been used to achieve containment. There is no reliance on herd immunity to address those outbreaks. I fear 2 may just dig our hole deeper.

  106. 106.

    JPL

    Retail is open in TX for pickup only.  Isn’t that what is happening now?   Truthfully I can order from Kohl’s and if the store near me has it in stock, I can do curbside pickup.

  108. 108.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Josie: Perhaps as “appetizing” an “opportunity” as his ethnic forefathers saw in moving the Armenians out of eastern Anatolia in 1915. But, as a former German Chancellor famously remarked, who remembers them?

  109. 109.

    debbie

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    I see Reason is defending Oz, but I won’t link. They basically say he meant thousands, but not millions. What I want to know is why they aren’t objecting to the use of the word “appetizing”? It’s totally inappropriate.

  112. 112.

    Nora Lenderbee

    @Brent: The problem is the language he used. You downplay a few hundred deaths by calling it “better than the alternative” or “manageable” or “could be worse.” You don’t describe it as delicious and tempting.

  115. 115.

    Baud

    @germy:

    Spokesman for the governor notes, “Umm..the tweet says nothing about the GOP. You see yourselves as a death cult?”

    Reminds me of when Gabbard thought Hillary was talking about her when mentioning a candidate who was a Russian asset.

  117. 117.

    Ruckus

    @Ksmiami:

    they’ll kill you either way so best to use our intelligence to make life livable

    I think I see your problem. The people you are talking about have a rather small amount or control of their intelligence, which is what caused them to be republicans in the first place.

  118. 118.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Martin:

    BTW Where do your models predict we are on the curve? And how do you feel about a place like Ohio slowly opening up beginning on May 1st?

    I know that the University of Washington model’s optimistic predictions rests on the assumption that that strong social distancing will continue until at least late May. How do you think states opening up beginning May 1st will affect that?

  119. 119.

    Lapassionara

    @Martin: What bothers me is the basic premise that we will accept a certain number of deaths so businesses can make money again. If we did what the European countries did, and essentially guaranteed a percentage of everyone’s salary, which we could afford, and if we had a functioning federal response (I know, big if), we could manage this.

    Just FYI, in my neighborhood construction is still going on, so they must be essential. The pain is being felt by restaurants, theaters, shopping centers, etc. and lifting a stay home order without testing, etc, does nothing to bring those types of businesses back, as people will still be reluctant to go out, not to mention not having the money to do so in the present circumstances.

  120. 120.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @TriassicSands: …the ideal tool would be the 25th Amendment

    For the GODDAMNED MOTHERFUCKING ‘LEBENTY-SEVENTH TIME –

    THE 25TH AMENDMENT ONLY WORKS (AND IS ONLY INTENDED TO WORK) IF THE SITTING PRESIDENT AGREES HE IS/WILL BE UNABLE TO PERFORM THE DUTIES OF THE OFFICE!

    (e.g., during general anesthesia for surgery)

    Otherwise you might as well impeach & remove the bastard – it requires fewer votes (simple majority in the House instead of 2/3).

  121. 121.

    JPL

    So nice to see CNN not cover his bullshit and I wish MSNBC would follow.    Local NBC isn’t covering him though..

  122. 122.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Brent:

     

    In context, he was actually downplaying a few hundred more deaths.

    Even if he meant 2-3% of the projections from the WH, that’s still over 7,000 people.

    Of course, it wouldn’t really be “just” 2-3% of the projection…

  124. 124.

    Van Buren

    Are there any protests or calls for liberation in states run by Republicans? Just curious.

  126. 126.

    chopper

    i agree, this is a very delectable opportunity. we should reopen schools, deliciously, so that every morsel of children can go back and wait, what was i talking about?

  127. 127.

    Delk

    Synonyms for appetizing
    Synonyms
    ambrosial, dainty, delectable, delicious, delish, flavorful, flavorsome, luscious, lush, mouthwatering, palatable, savory (also savoury), scrumptious, succulent, tasteful, tasty, toothsome, toothy, yummy

  128. 128.

    Gozer

    “Appetizing”?

    Unless he’s a cannibal or a pedophile I can’t see any reason why he’d use this wording. And he’s definitely smart enough to be able to use his vocabulary strategically.

  131. 131.

    Peale

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: once they found out that black people are disproportionately affected, of course they are demanding we spread covid as widely as possible  reopen immediately. Seriously. Why do you think the Proud Boys were involved in the protests?

  133. 133.

    Bruuuuce

    Variables don’t.

    Constants aren’t.

    Neither are “acceptable” losses.

    May they all catch the virus. Twice, if they get past it the first time.

  134. 134.

    Elie

    It seems sometimes that we have been possessed by a plague of demons.  Its hard to imagine the evil that we see happening — and the number of people who have suffered and lost their lives — and those who will in the future — because of this creature and his supporters.  My heart would be breaking but I need to keep it together for the fight/s ahead….

  135. 135.

    Wanderer

    Mr. Os whatever type of advanced degree and licensing you have contact your university and review board and turn them both in now.

  136. 136.

    Jess

    I think too many people read “A modest proposal” in high school and didn’t realize it was satire…

  140. 140.

    Achrachno

    @Ksmiami: trials. — OK. What are going to charge them with?

    hangings — I’m not sure we can currently charge many of them with capital crimes.  We need to think about convictions we can actually get.  Better to get lots of 5 & 10 year sentences than create a couple of RW martyrs.

    and Re-education camps. — OK, as long as we’re careful.  That sort of thing can go totalitarian pretty easily.  Again, what do we charge them with?

    Charges of intimidation, threatening, illegal display of firearms and the like is probably where we should be going.  Well, along with the usual rape, robbery, assault and battery, blocking traffic, etc.

    also tax the living shit out of religious organizations– We’ll need to tailor that a bit to be sure we don’t hit the “normal”churches.  Pull tax-exempt status for those run as scams, that violate various social distancing rules (public nuisance, or whatever), or that are political organizations.

  142. 142.

    Leto

    Sweden Grapples with High Death Toll Rate After Controversially Refusing to Lock Down

    Sweden’s controversial decision to refuse coronavirus lockdown measures is taking its toll — with the number of deaths up to 17 times higher than its Nordic neighbors, according to reports.

    Fatalities in the Scandinavian nation topped 1,300 on Thursday — far worse than Denmark, Norway and Finland, which all implemented containment measures, according to the latest figures from Johns Hopkins University.

    By comparison, Denmark has reported 321 COVID-19 deaths, Norway has reported 150 deaths and Finland has reported just 75, the data shows.

    As the pathogen spread, Denmark and Norway reacted quickly to close borders and shut schools, while Finland closed most schools and contained its main urban region.

    Sweden, on the other hand, called for citizens to hold themselves accountable for social distancing instead of ordering lockdowns, Agence Frances-Press reported.

    “The authorities and the government stupidly did not believe that the epidemic would reach Sweden at all,” Bo Lundback, professor of epidemiology at the University of Gothenburg, told the outlet.

    Here’s your “Doctor” Oz/Phil case study. But we’re blazing our own trail of stupid on this.

  143. 143.

    germy

    @Parfigliano:  Yes, that’s their business model.  And they’ve got all sorts of delaying tactics to avoid paying.  But “this is unconstitutional!” is a new one to me.

  144. 144.

    Jeffro

    @germy: I have a feeling that “New York Times Pitchbot” would phrase it as “Dr. Phil not provided enough time, thesaurus, to clarify his insights”

    (izzat about right, DougJ? ;)

  146. 146.

    Dan B

    @Delk: I like “flavo(u)rsome”, and “yummy”.  They insert so picturesquely into Oz’s statement.

    “Flavorsome opportunity” suggests a delicious first course – appetizer.

    And “Yummy opportunity” feels ripe for a Randy Rainbow parody!

  147. 147.

    Ksmiami

    @Achrachno: Trials of GOP: crimes against humanity, depraved indifference, profiteering, fomenting violence, RICO etc.

    Hangings- kill or imprison the worst. Seize assets, outlaw the GOP as a criminal terrorist organization.

    Re-education camps – not camps per se but reintroduce truth and civics into schools- private schools get fined if they promote BS.

    Finally- there is no reason Churches should be exempted from taxation- this is partially why the Evangelicals and Catholic Churches have been allowed to get away with so much. If you are on American soil, you pay taxes and you obey the laws

     

    @Achrachno:

  148. 148.

    JMG

    My two brothers are classic throwback country club Republicans (a common species in our home state of Delaware). Oh, they loved Mitt Romney. Neither voted for Trump and took pains to tell me, but I’m pretty sure they didn’t vote for Hillary. I will be interested to see what they do this November.

  150. 150.

    Ohio Mom

    Van Buren @124: Ohio has a Republican Governor, DeWine, and I believe we were the first to have a “Free our State” protest (you might have seen the photo of the zombie-like protesters screaming into the windows of our state capitol building’s locked doors).

    Up until yesterday, DeWine was being very cautious, for example, closing the state down mid-March, insisting that he would follow the science, and so forth.

    But now he is all about, “We’re opening the state up on May 1st.” It’s a big change in approach and I don’t know what to make of it.

    I haven’t seen any numbers that would indicate we are past the worst, and I hate to think the protesters are going to take this as a direct result of their little rally.

    i wish Kay would pop in, she generally has the skinny on Ohio politics.

  151. 151.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @JMG: I know six people who are Republicans, two of them describe Trump as a “twat” and the other two are conspiracy huffers, the thirds says they trust doctors before politicians on this.

  153. 153.

    Brent

    @Chief Oshkosh: Sure.  Really what he said was based upon the Lancet study,  which I don’t think (I don’t really remember) uses a specific number.  It was more just an extrapolation based upon the UK as an example.

    But of course, that’s right.  Based upon how you model the projected death count, 2-3 percent would equal multiple thousand.   Even the most optimistic models for the US will probably put that 2-3% near a couple thousand on the low end.

    The funny thing is that my number one reason for disliking Dr Oz is that typically he is shamelessly alarmist.  But here he is trying to downplay an outcome which is genuinely alarming.  Indeed, as others have pointed out,  he is actually expressing enthusiasm for that outcome. What a freak.

  154. 154.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Martin:

    Can anyone show me a coronavirus that has a vaccine? There are 4 common coronaviruses that routinely sweep through the population and confer virtually no immunity.

    Where do you get the ‘virtually no immunity’ part?  I can’t find it, but most references are swamped with 19.  From what I’m seeing there are no vaccines because A)  The 4 that are common are considered too weak to bother vaccinating, B)  MERS has an incredibly low infection rate, even though it’s very deadly.  That really slows down developing a vaccine, so they’re only getting vaccines now, and C)  SARS was gone in a year, rendering the question moot.  There’s no reason to think coronaviruses can’t be vaccinated, and MERS and SARS gave us the background knowledge needed to get started on 19.

  155. 155.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Skippy-san (whoever the fuck he is) sounds like just another Dunning-Kruger “progressive”** – convinced he understands everything when he doesn’t understand a fucking thing. He couldn’t carry John Scalzi’s pencil case.

    ** Yeah, we have ’em – a lot fewer than the knuckledragging mouthbreathers on the other side of the aisle, but even so…

  156. 156.

    Mandalay

    @Martin:

    Not sure how a govt loan enriches anyone.

    When the “loan” isn’t really a loan at all, because it will be  completely forgiven under conditions that many small businesses (and even large business like Ruth’s Chris) will be happy to comply with …

    the idea is that these PPP loans are loans in name only; once a borrower receives the funds, the amount spent over the next 8 weeks on payroll, mortgage interest, rent and utilities is eligible to be completely forgiven. Even better, while a cancellation of a borrower’s debt typically creates taxable income under Section 61(a)(11) of the Internal Revenue Code, the CARES Act provides that forgiveness of a PPP loan is completely tax free.

  157. 157.

    J R in WV

    @Martin:

    Not sure how a govt loan enriches anyone.

    I think all the the Small Business loans are automatically “forgiven” — in other words, a gift. I could be wrong, happens all the time. But I do read a lot, and I don’t fabricate thoughts….

  158. 158.

    Martin

    @debbie: I’m not sure we could get to 1 if we wait until then. I’m not sure we can get to 1 now. At some point it’s sufficiently widespread that you just can’t get it back to 0 without shutting down even critical businesses.

  161. 161.

    Fair Economist

    @Martin: South Korea, Iceland, Taiwan, and Hong Kong all show it’s possible to contain this virus without draconian surveillance.

    No human coronavirus has justified a vaccine, but their is one for bovine coronavirus, so you can be pretty confident it can be done in people.

  162. 162.

    Achrachno

    @Ksmiami:

    Trials of GOP: crimes against humanity, — Is that on the books here, or do we need to drag them to The Hague?  I’d be OK with that if we can do it.  Can we get a bulk deal by including W, Cheney, and that bunch?

    depraved indifference — might be tricky, because too squishy.  Probably need concrete examples to get convictions.

    profiteering — is that even a crime here?  More of a  virtue locally I’d  have thought.

    fomenting violence, –absolutely

    RICO — yes, please

    Hangings- kill or imprison the worst.  — OK, but we need to do this legally with specific charges and fair trials.  Not that they believe in fair trials.

    Seize assets, — OK, and raise taxes to flatten the wealth disparities

    outlaw the GOP as a criminal terrorist organization. — OK, but we’ll need the RICO investigations and convictions first

    Re-education camps – not camps per se but reintroduce truth and civics into schools— absolutely!

    private schools get fined if they promote BS.  — Might be tricky.  Free speech and all that.  We could just have tight standards for recognizing their degrees.  Make sure graduates of East Jesus H.S. can’t get into any decent college without remedial work.  And that Liberty U. grads can’t get work anywhere because of their trash degrees.

    Finally- there is no reason Churches should be exempted from taxation- this is partially why the Evangelicals and Catholic Churches have been allowed to get away with so much. If you are on American soil, you pay taxes and you obey the laws

    — I agree, but we’re not to a point where we can win that taxation fight, IMO.  Let’s work first on the worst ones, those that nobody likes.  After the country has secularized more we can fight those bigger battles.

  163. 163.

    J R in WV

    @Skippy-san:

    Scalzi’s tweet is beyond fucked up. It proves he is a sociopath.

    God I hate these people with the heat of a super nova

    Here is what Scalzi said:

    I have to admit that the number of people openly and publicly disappointed that there have not been more dead because of this virus has been educational in itself.

    Skippi-san can not read for meaning, is the take away here. Nothing more, nothing less. He can’t understand the meaning of the “have not been” and has reveald himself to be a total ass.

    Welcome to the Pie Safe, Skippi-ass !!

  164. 164.

    debbie

    @Martin:

    I’m convinced states trying to open will be shut back down. I just don’t see any way of getting around Trump

    ETA: At least until he sees his supporters are dying too.

  165. 165.

    PersistentIllusion

    @J R in WV: My father came home from WWII with a taste for gin and tonics.  He told his teetotaling grandmother (who raised him) it was medicine to treat his malaria.

  166. 166.

    Fair Economist

    Unfortunately, new high in US deaths today, according to Worldometer. 2,516 and their day is not quite done. Nobody’s going to be “opening up” May 1st, that’s for sure.

  167. 167.

    chopper

    @Frankensteinbeck: 

    sars didn’t “disappear” enough to make it moot. they were working on a vaccine for over 10 years. cause sars doesn’t only infect humans, and anything with an animal reservoir can come back at any time. they just didn’t have luck getting a vaccine to take.

  168. 168.

    PersistentIllusion

    @Uncle Cosmo: Agreed, major Scalzi fan here.  Halfway through his new book.  Mentioned I liked it on Twitter and he responded to me.  swoon  Sorry Kristy.

  169. 169.

    Kent

    @Mandalay:When the “loan” isn’t really a loan at all, because it will be  completely forgiven under conditions that many small businesses (and even large business like Ruth’s Chris) will be happy to comply with

    And what do you wanna bet the enforcement and auditing by the IRS of the full employment mandate for loan forgiveness will be zip to nothing.   Companies like Ruth’s Chris probably already take that for granted.  They can pocket their $20 million, do whatever the fuck they want, and the IRS will NEVER come to check.

  171. 171.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Achrachno:

     Make sure graduates of East Jesus H.S. can’t get into any decent college without remedial work.

    I don’t think Slab City*(featured in a recent OTR) has a high school.

    *East Jesus is in Slab City.

  175. 175.

    J R in WV

    @PersistentIllusion:

    My father came home from WWII with a taste for gin and tonics.

    My uncle, whom I really liked, handsome, strong, capable, self-medicated with bourbon. Woke up screaming at 2 or 3 am, taken to the ER where they could help calm him down.

    He used to always tell a racist joke when we went to their home, to “get” my more liberal folks. But I totally forgave him when my other cousin came to visit with her partner, a beautiful black choir singer. The end of peculiar jokes, because he loved his only niece. Enough said.

    From reading about the bomber fleet in the Pacific, I’m sure he saw his crew mates shot to rags by Zeros or AA flak from surface ships as they made their final runs over Imperial Japan; repeatedly. He was a belly turret gunner. Perhaps the most dangerous task on a heavy bomber, hanging off the belly of that giant warplane.

    After my mom died, followed by my dad 7 years later, we went through Mom’s things. There we found my uncle’s silver wings, which he gave to his little sister after he got back from that war. I immediately gave them to my cousin, his son, who came along 20 years later on.

    I suspect Uncle couldn’t stand to see them again. War is Hell. And we are in it right now.

    None of my uncles talked about the war much. My dad volunteered, but at the induction center the doctors decided he had a heart murmur, which made him 4F. May have saved his life, and mine.

    I’m sure many families had all the male members volunteer. This is hard to think about, to type. War is Hell and we are in it….

    My cousin, his only child, and I are really close now, and I totally hate the social distance we are religiously following. He’s about 11 years younger than I, but we have a lot in common, including John  Prine, RIP.

  176. 176.

    RSA

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    They are also idiots who can’t do basic math; that’s 6 to 9 million Americans dying.

    I don’t know what Dr. Oz had in mind, but here’s the Lancet article he was probably thinking of:

    188 countries have implemented country-wide school closures, but a modelling study by Ferguson and colleagues concluded that in the UK, school closures alone will reduce COVID-19 deaths by only 2–4%.

    That is, Ferguson et al. were talking about percentages of the death toll rather than percentages of the total population.  Not that this makes a difference to Trump and his supporters, of course; I think they’d find millions of deaths acceptable if it saved the economy.

  178. 178.

    Elie

     

    And please do not forget the number of people who are NOT getting health care right now — not sick enough to service in an already jammed system.  Wonder what their excess mortality will be?

    My sister was fortunate enough to have her emergency treated in a large medical center in Chicago.  She was lucky.  Not sure she would have been in a rural or underserved area…

    She is lucky, but has been in surgical ICU and I have been unable to see or touch her in person. I am very very sad about that, but I have to weigh the whole situation.

    What a time this is.

  179. 179.

    rikyrah

    Maddow reporting now that the cluster in South Dakota – that meat packing plant is now up to 777. They haven’t even tested everyone.

     

    Total number of hospital beds in South Dakota.

    2300

     

    2300????

     

    But still, no stay at home order from their idiot Governor.

  180. 180.

    rikyrah

    Grand Rapids, Nebraska has an COVID-19 per capita infection rate on par with Louisiana…

    only has 1 hospital…

     

    and the Governor still won’t do a stay at home order

     

    And……

    is going to open up a muthaphuckin’ MALL next week.

  181. 181.

    sdhays

    @rikyrah: Rural medicine has never been very good, and we have been gutting it now for decades. It is not up to handling anything like what’s coming.

  184. 184.

    Bill Arnold

    DR OZ: “Schools are a very appetizing opportunity. I just saw a nice piece in The Lancet arguing the opening of schools may only cost us 2 to 3%,

    Curious. Dr Oz mentions this short Lancet (Child and Adolescent Health) article:
    Pandemic school closures: risks and opportunities (April 08, 20200, no author listed)
    Which in turn says “a modelling study by Ferguson and colleagues concluded that in the UK, school closures alone will reduce COVID-19 deaths by only 2–4%.”
    And if one looks at the Ferguson article, it has long tables for various R0 values and “on triggers” comparing various combinations of measures. The only 2-4% I see is comparing doing nothing at all with closing schools. In combination with other measures, the reduction in death rate is an order of magnitude higher. (Perhaps I’m misreading the tables.)
    So Dr Oz was lazy and gullible, suckered by a misleading Lancet piece. IMO.
    Report 9: Impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) to reduce COVID-19 mortality and healthcare demand (pdf, 16 March 2020, Neil M Ferguson et al)

  185. 185.

    MoCA Ace

    @Chyron HR:

    Do the people running the GOP really think that 350 million brave American patriots would lay down their lives for the DJIA if only those liberals weren’t stopping them?

    Willingly, no.  But that’s not the calculation they are doing is it?

  186. 186.

    LongHairedWeirdo

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    To be excruciatingly fair, he seems to be saying “if we were going to lose 100,000 people, without sending kids to school, sending the kids to school might result in an additional 2-3,000 deaths.”  That is, he seems to be saying we’ll add 2-3% to the total number of deaths – not that we’d lose 2-3% of the populace.

    Please note: I AM NOT DEFENDING HIM! I’m clarifying the numbers about which I believe he was speaking. He’s still being a stupid, heartless, Oz-hole, just, you know, not a Trump.

  187. 187.

    laura

    @germy: don’t make me remind you of son of dr. Phil’s sad mansion of doom (or so one could opine) currently for sale in the 90210 which he described as: The whole place, the idea is kind of Tim Burton threw up on a canvas and it turned into a house. The guy that raised that entitled vapid coaster could surely be the guy that casually dismissed the lives of others as an acceptable sacrifice to the market for the benefit of their better – the money and power people.

  188. 188.

    ziggy

    This thread is probably old and crusty, but has anyone seen the studies on seroconversion/Covid-19 antibody prevalence? One from Santa Clara County in CA that indicates a past infection rate 80 times higher than reported! Or the one from Chelsea, MA with 30% of those tested showing antibodies! Combine that with the results from the Teddy Roosevelt showing 60% of those with on board with Covid are asymptomatic. Then on top of that, more evidence emerging that some of those previously testing negative are becoming positive again.

    https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/17/health/santa-clara-coronavirus-infections-study/index.html

    https://www.navytimes.com/news/coronavirus/2020/04/16/secdef-majority-of-roosevelt-sailors-with-covid-19-are-asymptomatic-flattop-still-wartime-ready/

    https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/04/17/business/nearly-third-200-blood-samples-taken-chelsea-show-exposure-coronavirus/

    If these levels of prevalence and asymptomatic presentation hold out, this is really mind-blowing stuff! I can’t imagine how something like this could be contained. We truly would have to come up with a completely different management theory and procedures to implement that.

  189. 189.

    Raoul

    The other day on the twittbox, an exasperated person asked on a thread where I thanked Gov. Walz “why does he get to decide to not let doctors see elective patients?” To which I said, well he won an election. But I hadn’t really thought about the herrenvolk aspect.
    Never mind that Walz is a military veteran and was for a long time a small town teacher and football coach. He’s a Democrat, so his herren don’t volk (to just make up some late evening nonsense).

  190. 190.

    patrick II

    @Kent:

    I am not sure you are counting the babysitting for parents when they go back to work in your analysis of school productivity.

  191. 191.

    TriassicSands

    @Uncle Cosmo:

    i wrote a much longer response to your overwrought comment but somehow it got eaten. The shorter answer is you are wrong. Read Section 4.

    The reason I think it would be the best way to remove Trump is precisely because it requires so many votes, including Republicans, that it would carry weight that impeachment wouldn’t have. I don’t believe for a second that a thoroughly corrupt GOP and a cabinet filled with corrupt bootlicking toadies would ever get it done. And the SCOTUS could nullify it. But the power and message would be overwhelming.

    So, stop shouting and read Section 4.

  192. 192.

    yellowdog

    @Skippy-san: What is fucked up about Scalzi’s tweet? Why do you hate him? He’s  a very progressive person and a very good science fiction writer. I follow him on Twitter and I’ve never read anything questionable from him.

Comments are closed.