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Saturday Night Fights Open Thread: I See Dumb, Easily Manipulated People…

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173Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    If left wing protest involving 10s of people got attention the people going bankrupt bc of COVID right now might have health care

    Yet here we are tweeting about it.

  3. 3.

    Kent

    Why are these people always white?

    I mean whenever you hear about sheer utter breathtaking dumbfuckery, it’s always a group of white people these days.  Whether it is CA or MI or VA or wherever.  Even Florida Man is almost always a white guy.

    Sigh.  It’s just so embarrassing.

  5. 5.

    Elizabelle

    Alex Halpern has good advice in the tweet above:

    Also (he says, guilty of this), let’s stop elevating these people, who number about fifty and get a preposterous amount of attention because of their guns and stupidity, which is exactly what their donors want. This is not a serious movement unless we make it one for them.

    Have to be careful about being a force multiplier in getting their “message” out.

  8. 8.

    Elizabelle

    Eddie Vedder up on the Global Citizen show.  In a trucker hat, playing the organ.  And in really good voice.

    Are you guys watching too?

  9. 9.

    Kent

    About a week after all the spring breakers partied on in FL we started to get reports here and there of spring break college students coming down with Covid-19.

    Then we started to hear about the defiant wing-nut preachers falling ill and dying after defying shelter in place.

    In about a week we will start getting many MORE reports about these morons falling ill and dying.  You know a BUNCH of these morons are infected carriers.  Statistically it is impossible for them not to be.  With Covid-19 orders of magnitude more widespread than it was in early March the stats are not in their favor.

    I expect that will take the wind out of their sails quickly.  Instead of meat packing plants and evangelical churches, the new clusters will be local GOP and MAGA organizations.

  10. 10.

    Mnemosyne

    Fascinating how that map of scheduled protests is only showing blue states and swing states. Where are the protests in South Dakota to call it all fake news? ?

  11. 11.

    Ksmiami

    I mean I see dumb soon to be dead people but that’s just splitting hairs at this point

  12. 12.

    Elizabelle

    @Kent:   White with white and gray roots, apparently.

    They are an embarrassment.  The confederate flag (in Michigan) … just brings it.  I don’t think they had any flying in the Virginia protest in the capitol city of the former Confederacy.

    Not a lot of masks there (save for media) but I really didn’t notice any Confederate flags.  Thank dog.

  13. 13.

    JMG

    The “protests” were the lead item on ABC Nightly News this evening. White people who’re upset are the number one priority for the American news media. It doesn’t matter how many of them there are. They made good pictures and conflict. No way any major media outlet, especially TV, says, “this is a small group of dangerous cranks.” Their owners are the ones profiting from this crap.

  14. 14.

    Aleta

    From Media Matters in February

    (02/29/20)  Jones: “I am very sad about this virus and very sad about the bioweapons and things that are going on, but it is an opportunity for people to take advantage of the products we have”
    …
    Since December, the Infowars store has more than doubled the price of its largest package, “Infowars Life Select: 1 Year.” On December 21, the package was being sold for $1443.50. The price increased to $1,594 by January 23. By January 30, the price had increased to $2,987, and the page was displaying the “EMERGENCY SURVIVAL FOODS: Coronavirus Clearance Sale” video.

  16. 16.

    Elizabelle

    I am adoring seeing all these incredibly smart people of color physicians and executives featured on Global Citizen.

    This is great counter-programming to the dead (literally) ender Covidians.  And their idiot “president”, Trump.

    Lizzo up now.  A spirirtual.  A Change Gonna Come.

  17. 17.

    Haydnseek

    I lived the life three blocks from the sand in Huntington Beach in the mid 70’s while attending college at Long Beach State. In those days Orange county was a hotbed of conservative wingnuttery. It wasn’t as apparent at the beach as it was in the rest of OC, but it was definitely there. A friend of mine got popped for weed with a few friends and the lawyer his dad hired couldn’t stop ranting about that bitch Angela Davis and how fluoridation of the water supply would deliver us into the waiting arms of the Soviet Union. Watched the Watergate hearings on an old black and white TV my roommate scrounged from an alley somewhere. To misquote Charles Dickens those were pretty much the best of times….not because of the events of the day but because we were young, white, and could work a few part time gigs to support our lifestyle. Hmmm…..this seems to have gone a bit off topic, but given the BJ commenting ethos I think we’re all good here.

  18. 18.

    piratedan

    @Elizabelle:
    it’s a great thought, but we’re not the ones elevating them. It’s news directors and national media who are beholden to certain powers that be that give these asshats a forum. We talk about how does this shit even end up being “newsworthy”? Same for Trumps daily preening-sessions, because some nameless white dude somewhere has stated that this is NEWS

     

    Same reason why the Sunday news shows stopped being watchable, only one POV is ever given credence on those programs, they’re in the club, we’re not in it.

  19. 19.

    lgerard

    I;m sure we will be seeing a lot of these

     

    In Memoriam

                   Joe Sixpack

                  1962-2020

              He Owned the Libs

  22. 22.

    Elizabelle

    @Haydnseek:   Used to grit my teeth when biking past a garage (beachfront home in Seal Beach) with an enormous “Sore Loserman” sign up on its wall inside.

    Maybe it was the home of one of the Brooks Brothers rioters.

  23. 23.

    Poe Larity

    Since I can’t find any online to bring to these events, I’m going to look into locust farming.

    Pointers appreciated.

  25. 25.

    Mnemosyne

    @Kent:

    I saw the protest in Austin. My friend’s younger brother is an ER doctor there, so now I’m a little freaked out for him. Her sister who is a pediatrician in NYC has already gotten Covid-19, but fortunately didn’t need to be admitted to the ICU and is recovering well last I heard.

  26. 26.

    Elizabelle

    Mick Jagger up, strumming his guitar.  You Can’t Alway Get What You Want.

    Great voice.  Better than Paul McCartney’s.

    All four Stones up.  No Darryl.

  27. 27.

    whomever

    @Kent: I’m going to pull the “some of my best friends” line, but it’s true.  I have a good friend who is half black and at some point after some relatively minor thing that I can’t even remember he said “ever feel embarrassed that someone from your race reflects on all of you”?  I’ve told him that if he doesn’t hold Donald Trump against white people, I will NEVER hold ANYONE against blacks (African American or otherwise)

  30. 30.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @lgerard: I’d bet a large number of quatloos we’re going to be seeing those in three weeks.

    from I guess tomorrow’s NYT

    “He watched Fox, and believed it was under control,’’ Kristen told me.

    It is possible, of course, that Joe Joyce did not contract the coronavirus on a trip to Spain, where almost 20,000 have died from complications related to it. Although the combination of being on a cruise ship — a proven petri dish for infections — and visiting a country with a full-blown outbreak is hard to ignore. But there was a way he might have avoided the trip, his daughter speculated. “If Trump had gone on TV with a mask on and said, ‘Hey this is serious,’ I don’t think he would have gone.

  35. 35.

    cain

    I tweeted this earlier, but I believe very strongly that once we are back in charge that we need to address Fox News, OANN and others. They are a national security hazard and I think they’ve been taking advantage of posing as a news channel.

    That needs to end. They describe themselves as infotainment. It’s time to make that a new class of media with federal restrictions. They must remind their viewing public that the content is for entertainment purposes and they are not a news channel.

    Their people should no longer be considered reporters but entertainers. We need the democratic party to start attacking this because it is literally causing people to go crazy from the propaganda. When these channels are encouraging acts of sedition then indeed it is a national security issue.

    Secondly, the DOJ needs to start breaking up media corporations. No more media consolidations across multiple media channels. It must end. These are platforms that I want the Democratic party to start working on.

    I’m going to start having a chat with some of the people in politics that I know and figure out how I can make that happen because it is time to end this madness. There are people who are turning into complete zombies thanks to this and acting irrationally – all so that grifters can get money from them. That’s what really fucking pisses me off.

    This whole thing is theater that depends on the Democrats to act like adults and by doing so they fundraise even more money off of them. It’s the one big scam.

  36. 36.

    Another Scott

    @Baud: Yup.

    Somebody did some extremely basic WHOIS searching and found that the person who set up all the "reopen $STATENAME" protest web sites is in fact one guy in Jacksonville.https://t.co/ZG1to014QI

    So, most of what's going on here is an organized astroturfing campaign.

    — Colin McMillen (@mcmillen) April 18, 2020

    Too many reporters need to stop being credulous chumps and learn how to do their jobs.

    Grrr…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  38. 38.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Mnemosyne:

    Fascinating how that map of scheduled protests is only showing blue states and swing states. Where are the protests in South Dakota to call it all fake news? ?

    Their governor isn’t a government jackboot thug and and understands that freedom is more important than dying from a dangerous virus

  39. 39.

    Suzanne

    @Kent:

    I expect that will take the wind out of their sails quickly.  Instead of meat packing plants and evangelical churches, the new clusters will be local GOP and MAGA organizations.

    Thoughts and prayers.

  40. 40.

    Elizabelle

    Laura Bush and Michelle Obama.

    I sure hope Hillary Clinton and Bill are up later.  That’s the president 3 million plus more Americans voted for.

  41. 41.

    schrodingers_cat

    BTW what do you say to people, oh it is just politics, ignore it, about what’s going on in India. It doesn’t affect you anyway and there is nothing you can do about it.

  42. 42.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Kent:

    Why are these people always white?

    Because only white people are in a position to be pissed that they’re ceasing to be the center of the world.  Reality keeps telling them that they’re not special anymore, so they’ve been rejecting reality increasingly emphatically for fifty years.  It really took off when a black man became president and was good at it.  They had to tell facts and intelligence and reason and science and the concept of the common good themselves to fuck off.

  43. 43.

    Elizabelle

    @cain:   Agree.  They’re dangerous.  Joseph Goebbels would love to see how hamstrung we are dealing with them.

  44. 44.

    Mnemosyne

    I checked Facebook and the current rule ght-wing meme is that there’s no pandemic and it’s all a giant conspiracy. I’m sure it will all flip back to being China’s fault as soon as these people start getting sick.

  45. 45.

    randy khan

    It does seem like it would be great if news reports on this called them as “small groups” or “people who don’t care if other people die” or maybe even “small groups who don’t care if other people die.”

  46. 46.

    AWOL

    Mister Jimmy was Jimmy Miller, Judith Miller’s half-brother. He OD’d in Boston, in the gutter. Forgotten. He was God. Produced much of the Mick Taylor era, their best. Played the drum solo on “You Can’t . . . ,” not Charlie. Really, a forgotten giant.

  47. 47.

    Mnemosyne

    In happier news, I discovered yesterday that my favorite cupcake place will deliver via Postmates for a minimum $25 purchase, so that was nice. There didn’t seem to be a spot on the order form where I could tip the driver, so I gave him $5 in cash.

  49. 49.

    Elizabelle

    Nichole Kidman makes a late cameo in Keith Urban’s spot.  And that was very well staged, with the triple screen.

  50. 50.

    Another Scott

    @JMG: J and I went to the Supreme Court once on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, maybe 25 years ago.  There were a handful of TV reporters, maybe a dozen of us Roe supporters, maybe half a dozen anti-choice protestors.  Everything was very calm and peaceful with the standard marching and chanting, until one of the anti-choice people got belligerent and in someone’s face and started yelling and then OH BOY were the TV cameras practically trampling people to get to the ACTION!!

    Two hours or so of protesting reduced to 5 seconds of yelling for TV.

    It’s nothing new, and the monsters know what the TV reporters want to see…

    Grrr…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  51. 51.

    Haydnseek

    @Elizabelle:   I loved the drive up PCH in the total morning darkness to get to that damned eight a.m. three hour psych lab class.  Sometimes I risked death on the road simply because I was so hypnotized by the full moon over the Pacific.

  52. 52.

    lgerard

    Then there is this

    As President Donald Trump uses the bully pulpit to press state and local governments to ease their virus-related lockdowns, conservative activists and religious leaders are urging his administration to go further by unleashing a wave of lawsuits arguing that the measures are intruding on Americans’ legally protected rights to worship, protest and buy guns.

    In a letter sent to Attorney General Bill Barr on Friday, the Conservative Action Project, a group of conservative leaders including Matt Schlapp of the American Conservative Union, Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch and Jenny Beth Martin of Tea Party Patriots, called governors and local leaders “petty, would-be dictators” who had committed “rampant abuses of constitutional rights and civil liberties” as part of their response to the coronavirus.

    (Politico)

    So delegate all responsibility to the Governors, then harass them with petty lawsuits on behalf of religious nuts. That’s leadership!

    Jenny Beth Martin is one of my favorite wingnuts…an absolute stone cold grifter

  54. 54.

    Elizabelle

    @Jackie:   I’m loving it.  We have not seen anyone with a dildo on top of the refrigerator.

    Loved the young guy who was playing a keyboard and singing in front of an unmade bed in his parents’ home.

  55. 55.

    Elizabelle

    Thank dog Oprah is quoting Nelson Mandela and not Dr. Oz or Dr. Phil.

    You’ve got some answering for to do, Ms. Oprah.

    ETA:  Oprah has the most expansive and elegant digs so far.  Except the Stones, of course.

  56. 56.

    Mnemosyne

    @Elizabelle:

    To be fair, a big part of the cleaner air is that we’ve had several rainstorms lately, so that’s helped even more than not having a lot of cars on the road.

  59. 59.

    Mnemosyne

    @Elizabelle:

    Did you see the Disney Family Sing-Along the other night? That was fun as well. You could tell which musicians had professional home studios and which ones didn’t.

  60. 60.

    Elizabelle

    @Baud:   You’re on my team.  I have been scanning the backgrounds, eagerly.

    ETA:  Had great hopes for the kid with the unmade bed.

  61. 61.

    frosty

    @Haydnseek: In ‘75 and ‘76 I lived a block and a half from the beach on 9th St. There’s nothing left from when I lived there except the liquor store where I cashed checks. The house (garage) I lived in was a teardown.
    I hate to see these idiots on the street in HB. Of all the places I lived in SoCal it was my favorite. I hope they learn a lesson about viruses.

  65. 65.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    are there multiple streams? MSNBC has Jennifer Lopez and CBS has Elton John

  67. 67.

    Kent

    @Mnemosyne:In happier news, I discovered yesterday that my favorite cupcake place will deliver via Postmates for a minimum $25 purchase, so that was nice. There didn’t seem to be a spot on the order form where I could tip the driver, so I gave him $5 in cash.

    So…..how many cupcakes does $25 plus a $5 tip get you?

  69. 69.

    Elizabelle

    The Italians are toasting with champagne flutes on poles.  Across balconies.

    Meanwhile we have …. Branch Covidians.

  70. 70.

    hueyplong

    I don’t follow the reasoning behind the “protests.”  Is there actually a belief that they’re not going to get sick?  Is there some acceptable casualty rate among their own?

    Does no one on the Trumpist side think there will be a May 15?  Or a June 1?

  71. 71.

    Elizabelle

    John Legend reminding us he is an EGOT.

    I like they’re doing standards.  Maybe expecting an older audience than earlier show.

  74. 74.

    mad citizen

    Stones were solid enough.  McCartney’s voice unfortunately has been weakening a lot these last years

    Eddie Vedder killed it, the best of the night for me and I’m not even a PJ fan.  Gaga was fun.

    Nice to hear from 2 first ladies who speak (American) english.

  75. 75.

    raven

    @frosty: We moved to Whittier in 1958 and Huntington Beach State Park was our beach. We’d drag big burlap bags up and down the beach and collect pop bottles for the deposit. People would bring parachutes and the wind would drag hordes up and down the sand! A couple of years back we went to the pier and I did some bodysurfing. I went to one of the shops on and talked to the old guy. I said I came here as kid and he said, “everything off the beach was butterbeans back then”!

     

    Then there was “the Greeter ” in Laguna Beach

     

    Eiler Larsen was a free spirit, born in Denmark, who arrived in Laguna Beach in the 1930s and liked the place so much that he settled down. He had a colorful past, he said, which included stays in New York City and Washington, DC, where he would stand outside and spontaneously wave and greet people. In New York, said Larsen, he had been known as “The Flower of Wall Street.” In Washington, President Hoover had once waved back at him from his limousine.

    The Greeter, as he came to be known, would stand out by the Coast Highway year-round and greet visitors to Laguna Beach with a booming “Helloo-oo, delighted to see you!”

  76. 76.

    Mary G

    @Elizabelle: I’m enjoying this a lot. Particularly the Stones, who are my favorite band of all time at the moment. But some of these people aren’t singing live (looking at you, J Lo), and there are some additional tracks in some songs. Keith Urban was very impressive, though.

    It’s irritating how much propaganda is being thrown in with corporations getting credit for contributions. It’s advertising, not generosity.

    @Haydnseek: You brought back a lot of memories with the Bircher obsession with the Commies poisoning us with fluoride in the water! There are still rabid wingers in the OC, but we’re getting better.

  77. 77.

    Elizabelle

    Billie Joe Armstrong with a punkfro.

    “Wake Me Up When September Ends.”

    That’s an inspired choice.

  78. 78.

    Haydnseek

    @frosty: I lived on Orange Ave.  I don’t remember the other street on the corner.  We were about a quarter-mile from the pier on the south side.  Easy walk to the little liquor store/market from our pad.

  81. 81.

    Elizabelle

    @Mary G:   Yeah, foo on the advertising for the primetime show.  The earlier one seemed to mostly promote NGOs and philanthropists, with some corporations.

    The Stones surpassed my expectations.  Especially Mick.

  83. 83.

    Renie

    @Another Scott:

    I looked thru that reddit post and seems all these domains were gotten by one company in Florida.  They seem to have bought up all ‘reopen[state name].com’ for all states.  Many are speculating Pascale is behind a lot of this bullshit.   Agree reporters need to be doing this type of research.

  85. 85.

    Elizabelle

    @raven:   Lead singer/guitarist of Green Day.  You have definitely heard some of their songs if you have a (working!) radio in your car.

    I guess he was too nice to do “American Idiot.”

  86. 86.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Kent: And notice that the police don’t bother White rightwing protesters like they do vis-a-vis Black Live Matters or other Black protesters.  The contrast couldn’t be clearer.

  88. 88.

    Mary G

    @Elizabelle: His voice is still remarkable. No wonder they were still touring. The little corner of Charlie’s house with the impeccably neat bookshelves and hundreds of vinyl albums behind him looked just like I would have imagined if I had ever thought about it. Keef was spacy af, which is appropriate.

  91. 91.

    Elizabelle

    @Mary G:   Yeah, it really is.  Sir Mick is in way better voice that Sir Paul or Sir Elton.  Glad to see them all out, though.

  93. 93.

    Achrachno

    @Mary G: “There are still rabid wingers in the OC, but we’re getting better.”

    Everybody has some, but you folks have done pretty darned good I’d say. We’ve pretty well cleaned them out of Riv. Co. too, though a particularly corrupt and dreadful one is shared between us.

  98. 98.

    middlelee

    Wouldn’t it be great if Alex Jones came down with COVID?  I have no fucks left to give, no more nice old lady.  I want to read in two weeks that people who participated in all those protests got sick with the virus.  They don’t need to die but permanent organ damage is okay by me.

    And they can learn to bleach their own hair and paint their own fingernails and toenails.  It ain’t rocket science you fucking entitled assholes.

  99. 99.

    dmsilev

    I went grocery shopping today (had to: was out of cheese and yesterday was forced to tap the Strategic Chocolate Reserve). Most things are in stock. Meat was sporadic two week ago, but in good shape today (both at Trader Joe’s and the local supermarket). Pasta and rice and flour are still vanishingly rare though. Sadly couldn’t find good-quality dark chocolate chips for snacking , so had to settle for milk chocolate. I’ll order a couple of bags of the good stuff from King Arthur; it’ll take the better part of a week to get here, but I will somehow manage.

    And getting to the farmers market at 8 didn’t spare me from the ~2 block long line to get in.

  104. 104.

    FelonyGovt

    @schrodingers_cat:  Same thing I tell people about why I’m so devastated by what’s happening in New York. I’m from there, I still have family and friends there, part of my heart will still be there.

  105. 105.

    mad citizen

    @Elizabelle: It just sounded depressing to me, like so much of her stuff.  I like her personally but she has no volume at all with her singing voice.

  106. 106.

    raven

    I think it’s great that all these companies are sponsoring this WHO gig. You know that’s pissing fuck face off.

  107. 107.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I’d bet The Beast follows Rucker, and it never occurred to him or Whatsername to bestir herself, but they’ll be pissed when they see this

    Philip Rucker @PhilipRucker  44m
    And two former first ladies (though not the current one) just appeared — Laura Bush and Michelle Obama speaking about the importance selflessness and communities coming together. #GlobalCitizen

    (fAnd now I have heard Bilie Eilish sing and a Taylor Swift song)

  108. 108.

    Patricia Kayden

    NEW: Charlie Kirk called on Students for Trump members to launch a “peaceful rebellion against governors” and join protests in states like MI, WI over stay at home orders on a virtual convention FriTonight, he was on Trump camp’s digital event @ABC Newshttps://t.co/31j3yAX0zr— Will Steakin (@wsteaks) April 19, 2020

  109. 109.

    Elizabelle

    @mad citizen:   I’ve just been amazed by how many people apparently have organs in their homes.  The difference between us and stars, I guess.

  110. 110.

    Another Scott

    @middlelee: There’s a house a few blocks down that has an InfoWars sticker on their trash can, and a sticker with some sort of rant against Fluoride on their car…  :-/

    Jones has an awful lot to answer for.  As does too many of his fellow travelers.

    Grr…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  111. 111.

    cain

    @Elizabelle:

    A lot of this comes from the fact that all this propaganda is literally splitting up families usually around generational lines. Once you wean yourself away from this constant diet  – the original person asserts themselves.

    Fox News and OANN are dangerous sites and they must be attacked and dismantled with solid regulations. We cannot win otherwise without this part. Because it will begin the cycle anew. We need to break the cycle.

  112. 112.

    Elizabelle

    54 countries on the African continent.  There’s a project for tomorrow.  Take a piece of paper, and how many can we identify?

  113. 113.

    Elizabelle

    @cain:   Yes.  No one is writing articles like “I lost my grandfather to CBS.”

    This is only an hour?

  114. 114.

    patrick II

    JLo can sing. Not for the first time I have been surprised by a singer performing a song with an actual melody.

  116. 116.

    Kent

    @Another Scott:

    @middlelee: There’s a house a few blocks down that has an InfoWars sticker on their trash can, and a sticker with some sort of rant against Fluoride on their car…  :-/

    Jones has an awful lot to answer for.  As does too many of his fellow travelers.

    Grr…

    I say that about every evangelical church that has my MAGA relatives enthralled, sending them money, and voting for the anti-Christ.

  118. 118.

    Mary G

    @dmsilev: Guittard are my favorite dark chocolate chips! When I splurge, I order them from Amazon, even though I paid less than the current price. Was kinda shocked at King Arthur’s price! I look for flour there every couple days and it’s always “temporarily unavailable.”

  120. 120.

    FelonyGovt

    @raven: I live not far from Dockweiler Beach. There are a row of RV’s parked there now that they’re using for COVID-19 patients.

  122. 122.

    cain

    @Elizabelle:

    I think I’m going to talk to my local reps and talk about the idea. It’s not quite ready for prime time because I know a lot of folks would be uncomfortable with something like this including folks from our side because it smacks of trying to consolidate our influence. But this is exactly what Republicans are doing, blatantly ..

    So turn around is fair play. We aren’t killing free speech, but we are going to put an end to the bullshit that this is news, it’s entertainment – by their own admission and we’re going to regulate it.

  123. 123.

    raven

    @FelonyGovt: El Segundo? My sis lives up the street in Hawthorne. In my drinking days when I’d fly in her hubby and I would go to the El Tarasco and get blind.

  126. 126.

    cain

    @middlelee:

    Did you see his ex-wife’s twitter? The fucker has been going around with no protection around rallies – he has visitation rights so of course her kids are in danger of being exposed.

    When someone told her to talk to a lawyer, she told them that she’s been nearly killed on the financials because Alex has been doing repeated lawsuits against her.

    ETA – My sincere wish is that he gets kidnapped by someone who is all hopped up on the propaganda and conspiracy and is tortured like a story out of a Stephen King book.

  128. 128.

    dopey-o

    Hearing reports from the ground that the Assembly of God’s Convoy of Hope in Springfield MO has resulted in 65 infections and 12 hospitalization for CoVid-19. No press reports yet. I will link once sources respond.

    Assembly of God is a politically-connected fundamentalist Xtian organization based in Springfield MO. One of their most prominent members is former Attorney General John Ashcroft. Ashcroft was focused on purging porn from the internet in the weeks and months before Sept 11 2001.

  130. 130.

    mad citizen

    @Elizabelle: You made me recall the organ store in my mall when I was a kid, late 60s/early 70s.  As a big Neil Young fan, I’d like to think Vedder got into the organ because of Neil.  I’m pretty musically illiterate,  but it seems like an easy way to play a solo song.

  133. 133.

    mad citizen

    @Another Scott: You should strike up a conversation with them about if we’re better off without so many chemtrails since there are less jets in the sky.

  139. 139.

    Another Scott

    I was just looking over the worldometer.info numbers.

    Spain is over 441 deaths/million now, and still climbing.

    The US broke through 118 deaths/million today, and it’s still climbing. Spain’s ratio would give us over 150,000 dead.

    It’s going to continue to get worse. :-(

    Wash your hands!!

    Grrr…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  141. 141.

    Another Scott

    @mad citizen: They had a big great dane at their front window for ages, but I haven’t seen him recently.  :-(

    “Hey, how ya doing?  (cough cough)  It’s a good thing the chem trails are gone, isn’t it (Cough Cough)?  Been to the dentist recently (COUGH COUGH)??!”

    ;-)

    (sigh)

    Cheer,
    Scott.

  143. 143.

    mad citizen

    @Elizabelle: Neil has a great large old pump organ he often brings on tour, esp. acoustic shows. Common songs performed on it are Mother Earth, After the gold rush, like a hurricane, long may you run.  Check em out on you tube.

  144. 144.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @cain: “I tweeted this earlier, but I believe very strongly that once we are back in charge that we need to address Fox News, OANN and others. They are a national security hazard and I think they’ve been taking advantage of posing as a news channel.”

    I wholeheartedly agree with you. Fox and the others have been yelling “FIRE!” in a crowded theater and the First Amendment doesn’t protect that. They purposefully destabilize our nation to benefit their owners, wealthy benefactors and their bought and paid for political party, the Republicans.

  145. 145.

    dmsilev

    @Mary G: The milk chocolate chips I bought were Guittard, but sadly the only darks were store-brand and Toll House. If I’m going to be trapped inside for the next month, I insist on _some_ minimum level of creature comforts, and good chocolate is essential.

  149. 149.

    Formerly disgruntled in Oregon

    @Elizabelle: That one was great. Really enjoyed “African Giant” by Burna Boy. He has an awesome voice that I had not heard before.

  151. 151.

    Fair Economist

    @cain: Fox News has had its advertising crippled by boycott. Unfortunately it still makes a mint from provider fees. However, this provides us a good way to stop them: require cable companies to provide all channels a la carte. Makes sense from a pure antitrust point of view, never mind the ethics.

  153. 153.

    cain

    @Fair Economist:

    Indeed.. there are definitely things we need to do to make Fox News (and CNN/MSNBC) lives harder. I’m really done with all these 24 hour news station. They don’t inform they are all infotainment as far as I am concerned – and I want to see the FCC shake things up. We will need to get the assholes out of there to make this happen.

  155. 155.

    Jinchi

    @Kent: In about a week we will start getting many MORE reports about these morons falling ill and dying.

    Next week, we’ll unfortunately also see evidence if Wisconsin voters took ill. It seemed like the ones who were forced to wait hours in the rain during a pandemic were trying hard to keep a safe distance from one another. FIngers crossed that it worked.

  156. 156.

    joel hanes

    @hueyplong:

    Is there actually a belief that they’re not going to get sick?

    Yes.

    Oh, they sorta know that they might get the flu, or something, but they don’t believe it, not emotionally; nor do they believe that they or anyone they love will die from this.   They’re willing for other people to die, and they (subconsciously, I think, because I want to be generous) believe that those who die must have done something to deserve it.   That’s a nearly-universal human pattern of rationalization.

    I think few of them have yet realized that COVID-19 can damage the lungs, kidneys, heart, and liver of those who get it but do not die, and cause neurological damage.

  157. 157.

    joel hanes

    @cain:

    The first amendment makes government action against Fox and Sinclair problematic.

    One of the things we could press the government to do is to regulate the cable companies to mandate disaggregation of channel packages.   Fox’s advertising revenues have been shit for a couple years.   They’re only profitable because:

    –  they demand a premium rate from the cable companies for their content.

    – the cable companies bundle Fox into every bundle

    – so every cable subscriber pays Fox a premium rate, whether they watch it or not.

    Those who don’t subscribe to a cable service help kill Fox, but we can really hurt them if we can change cable so that only the people who want to watch Fox pay for it.

  158. 158.

    SFAW

    @Jinchi:

    touted by President Trump as potentially “the biggest game changers in the history of medicine”

    Somewhere, Alexander Fleming, Jonas Salk, and Banting & Best are saying “What a fucking moron.”

    ETA: Not to mention the scientists who first extracted quinine.

  159. 159.

    Another Scott

    @Jinchi: “No, I did not say hydroxychloroquine.  That’s fake news, you looosers.  I said hydroxychloroquinone!!  Rudy and Dr. Oz and Rev. Bakker says it’s the real deal!!11  The CDC is giving a $800M no-bid contract for one of Javanka’s friends to ramp up production…”

    :-/

    Grr…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  160. 160.

    Another Scott

    @joel hanes: +1

    Voting with our pocketbooks, and preventing companies from grabbing monopoly rents via things like these “bundles”, is one of the important ways to get our democracy back.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  161. 161.

    Mnemosyne

    @Kent:

    6 cupcakes plus 2 cookies to get the order just past $25. But you may not know that I am reputed to be someone who would punch a baby in the face for a cupcake, so it was worth the extra cost.

  162. 162.

    artem1s

    @joel hanes: 

    @hueyplong:

    Is there actually a belief that they’re not going to get sick?

    It reminds me of the smokers who were in denial about their own risks. A lot of it was fueled by misinformation from Big Tobacco. But it was also caused by the slow acting nature of the addiction. You could go decades without dying from a heart attack or lung cancer. Just like alcohol, the thing that finally killed you wasn’t actually the act of lighting one up. The accumulated effects weren’t apparent so it was easy to think, “hey, I’ll dodge the bullet”. And then there were the glibertarian idiots who claimed that it was their god given right to kill themselves if they wanted. It took the second hand smoke legislation to finally hammer the last nail in that coffin. For a decade or more it looked like Big Tobacco was always going to win the fight. But then suddenly it was over for that death machine and the NRA immediately picked up their messaging almost verbatim.

  163. 163.

    a thousand flouncing lurkers was fidelio

    @schrodingers_cat:  “It doesn’t affect you anyway” is manifestly untrue if it affects people you care about. It’s also untrue if you’re left heartsick about the damage you see being done.

    I don’t know what to say in response to people who’d tell you that, or what to do about. It might not affect you as much as it affects those suffering directly from these policies and actions, but if it distresses you as much as it does, it affects you.

  164. 164.

    Soprano2

    @dopey-o: Hadn’t heard that yet, but it wouldn’t surprise me.  Last I heard was 90 positive in Greene County, which seems low to me. Things did shut down here on March 18th, well ahead of our stupid governor’s tepid order. Lucky for us in Springfield the stupid Trump-loving majority don’t actually run things.

  165. 165.

    a thousand flouncing lurkers was fidelio

    @Elizabelle: I worked with Bobby Hebb’s sister for several years. They were all very musical. “Sunny” was written as a tribute to their brother, she always insisted.

  166. 166.

    burnspbesq

    @cain:

    i’m looking forward to hearing you explain why the First Amendment doesn’t make what you’re proposing impossible.

  167. 167.

    Rugosa

    I posted this on Roy Edroso’s but I think it’s relevant here:

    The worst thing about American conservative ideology is the myth of the rugged individual. 50 years of conservative propaganda screaming “Socialism! Communism!” at every attempt to improve the lives of average people have left us with an America unwilling to take collective action. A large hunk of our population (43%?) is probably not even able to think in terms of the general welfare anymore.

    Goldwater championed individual freedoms over civil rights; during the Reagan era, greed was proclaimed good. Today, Fox News and right-wing Internet sites keep up the cries of “Socialism! Communism!” and have added “They’re coming for your guns!!!” to the mix.

    Is it any wonder we’re in a mess now that collective action is the first line of defense against a pandemic?

  168. 168.

    AnotherBruce

    Fucking goddammit, Seattle held a soccer match and 33,000 attended. Thanks assholes, I guess we have to start all over again in Washington. Can the governor get involved with this? Fuck Fuck. We are fucked! Throw who ever is involved with this in jail.

  169. 169.

    StringOnAStick

    How about requiring FOX and OAN to run station ID statements every 15 minutes?  Something like “all programs are for entertainment only, this is not a news channel” . Radio has to do the time-required “this is K whatever”, so not too different.

    I will admit that the station I D  breaks no matter what drives me nuts, including talking loudly over our governor during his Covid press conference s when he’s saying something important.

  170. 170.

    CindyH

    @AnotherBruce: are you sure you didn’t see a replay of an earlier match?  there’s a ton of replays right now.  I couldn’t find this when looking – Seattle Sounders?

  171. 171.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Elizabelle: …and not Dr. Ozhole or Dr. Phool.

    FTFY. hon.

    (BTW & FWIW, I happen to agree with many if not most of the opinions you’ve been posting the last few days. Be of stout heart, there’s at least 2 of us here!)

  172. 172.

    Matt

    In their hearts, conservatives turning out for these protests know the present clusterfuck is all their fault.

    And yet they NEED the government to fail at this, because if it doesn’t everything they’ve fought for for years is bullshit.

    They NEED people to be forced to choose between their money and their health to “reopen” things, because otherwise all the people they’ve forced to suffer in the name of “the economy” were suffering for nothing.

    They NEED the economy to be destroyed, because if we can safely pause the machine that crushes people into capital we could decide to shut it off.

  173. 173.

    LongHairedWeirdo

    I couldn’t resist sharing this thought, given the title of the post.

    Anyone else think Trump is listening to Putin’s advice right now? And how, if so, he, and the Republican Party are literally hoist by their own petard?

    Interesting historical note: a “petard” was an explosive device, and the odds that it might go off prematurely were fairly good (or bad, depending on whether you were being attacked with one, or the attacker armed with one) – so you can see the humor in seeing an attacker hoist by his own weapon. The actual literal translation, however, is “fart” – which is so amazingly appropriately for this particular situation.

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