I hope this is a spoof?…
Someone doing a spoof of protesters would say the same thing, I can't tell the difference anymore https://t.co/5GS3viTlyP
— Justin Fenton (@justin_fenton) April 20, 2020
Except Ms. Allison seems to be a mainstream reporter:
Much smaller crowd at the Tennessee Capitol today for the reopen rally, but @RepMartinDaniel is in attendance. He’s one of at least 2 other legislators who have sent letters to @GovBillLee asking him to lift restrictions. (Lee has set May 1 as tentative start date for that) pic.twitter.com/rxRGrIC1x6
— Natalie Allison (@natalie_allison) April 20, 2020
This lady is yelling toward the Tennessee Capitol at @GovBillLee, trying to compare the coronavirus shutdown to the Holocaust.
“80 years ago Jews didn’t have a chance. We f—ing do,” she shouts. pic.twitter.com/VEHoukbKyJ
— Natalie Allison (@natalie_allison) April 20, 2020
Not just the Volunteer (to Die for Free Refills) State…
A lot of the “liberate” footage is meant to make these events look big.
Here’s what the protest in Ohio today really looks like.
— Joshua Potash (@JoshuaPotash) April 20, 2020
While it is easy to just shake your head at people whose own ignorance did them in, that ignorance has been nurtured and fed by Trump, Fox News and conservative media.
— The Hoarse Whisperer (@HoarseWisperer) April 20, 2020
"Look, we conservatives are idiots, whatcha gonna do?" https://t.co/NhZjEMEJxy
— dn (@dnnation) April 18, 2020
punditry voice: an underrated factor in the "open america" protests is that if we acquiesce to their demands, a large number of people will get sick and die. It will be a tough lift to make that broadly popular despite swiftly strong elite messaging
— krapp's last take (????) (@mmcgrath42) April 20, 2020
all you need to know about why the mainstream media is going out of business is that the straight-to-DVD sequel to the tea party is the dumbest shit ever and they're still impressed by it
— local jack please ban the nazis person (@pleizar) April 20, 2020
— KD (@Fly_Sistah) April 20, 2020
MisterForkbeard
I’m actually with Iglesias on this one. Trump has shown that with consistent propaganda 45% of the country will believe that the most ludicrous and stupid used car salesman of a president is a moral man who carefully considers all options and is the only man you’d want during a crisis.
They can certainly turn convince those same people to put themselves and other at huge risk and kill a bunch of folks if they can convince their voters that liberals want them to stay home and stay safe.
Elizabelle
RE the Covid denier: John McDaniel’s family had a lot of time to write up a very personable obit for him. He loved hanging out at Georgian Bay in Ontario; also red wine and THE Ohio State University. They do add this to the end of the rather lengthy obit:
They’re doing a livestream funeral and a drivethrough visitation in a country club parking lot.
Experience is a cruel teacher. Learn up, Ohioans.
Six feet apart (minimum) or six feet under.
rikyrah
Ed Marshall
If 45% of them actually want to all run out there and do that…well.
That is one way to get to herd immunity! God Speed Pioneers!
I wish I believed they actually would rather than making a bunch of noise and saying they *would do it any second now if the gubmint wasn’t holding me back!
Calouste
I disagree with the last but one tweet. It’s not that the media are impressed by it, they just see easy copy. And it sold well last time, so why not try again? They’re not as much dumb as lazy. Although of course it can be hard to distinguish between intellectually lazy and dumb.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@MisterForkbeard:
Yglesias is full of shit. You can’t spin bodies piling up, sorry. Especially not when those people dying are some of your friends and family, not (relatively) small numbers of troops dying in a far off foreign war. This is going to be personal for a lot of people, sadly
Also, didn’t mean to come across so harsh. It’s not directed at you! : )
different-church-lady
“Give me freedom AND give me death!”
Villago Delenda Est
My poor head. My poor desk.
MisterForkbeard
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): All good. But I really do think Trump voters are in a closed system and even bodies can be spun as Democrat’s fault. We’ll see, I suppose.
Elizabelle
@Calouste: Yep. The FTF NY Times went for it hook, line and sinker. Jeremy Peters reporting.
How Abortion, Guns and Church Closings Made Coronavirus a Culture War
Flattening the curve is now one of the most contentious issues in politics.
Multiple quotes from Republicans bloviating, trying to make this seem more widespread than it is. The NY Times, giving them a megaphone. As usual.
Earlier, we had one man’s view — an elite, let’s be honest:
Peters drags Ralph Reed out. (When’s the last time you heard from him?)
We see a photo of white people protesting. One woman is carrying a sign with a red line over a mask (it looks a little like a bra, but it’s a surgical mask) and the words: My Body My Choice. So much for grasping the basic problem with infectious diseases.
Peters will never tell you these protests are astroturfed, although the NYTimes makes some progress as there are multiple euphemisms for Trump lying, and he labels a few Trump statements as “falsehoods.” You can say that in the FTF NY Times, but you can never simply state “the president lied.”
And there is a clue, many paragraphs down. Peters never develops this.
lollipopguild
@different-church-lady: “Give me freedom and a jelly donut, and free refills!”
piratedan
@Elizabelle: well, for one (and every damn thing else) it’s Jeremy Damn Peters…
We need to start keeping a list of these fucking journos that have their heads professionally placed up their asses, so we can readily discount what they write. I’d be happy to wager that there are at least 5 to 6 completely infuriatingly corrupt spin-meisters working there and we completely allow them to grab us by the short hairs and throw an endless series of spanners into our spokes. We need to pay attention to who is writing this trash because essentially we would save ourselves a lot of fucking grief just acknowledging that certain members of the press are no fucking better than the series of asshats who write op-ed pieces for the Grey Lady herself. They continue to trade on her reputation while their collective thumbs are still on the scales…
fuck them.
mrmoshpotato
@Elizabelle: Why is the “How” unnecessarily in that headline?
Here’s a better one: A Bunch of Whiny Bitchwaffles Used Abortions, Guns and Church Closings To Be Fucking Idiots Who Might Die Now.
Accompanying article doesn’t exist because everything needed is in the headline.
ETA – Alternately: Libs Owned, Trump Trash Fighting For Their Lives
Kent
Bush was toast when 1800 mostly poor black people died in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
And Trump is going to ride to re-election the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans from every corner of the country?
Because a few hundred racist gun nuts take to the streets?
Yeah. I don’t think so either. The November election is going to be the worst fucking shit-hurricane in the history of politics. And nothing Dems should be taking for granted on any level. But I don’t see how the worst economy in 100 years and hundreds of thousands of deaths is a positive for Trump.
Villago Delenda Est
@Elizabelle: Peters is one of the most worthless “journalists” working for the Vichy Times. No doubt he’s a Baquet favorite.
Wipe them out. All of them.
West of the Rockies
A lot of these pinhead rallies feature 6 or 50 people. They are small, tiny even, compared to the big majority that accept the science. I wish the media would address this.
Kent
Off topic, but CNN is currently reporting breaking news on the North Korea situation. That Kim Jong Un is in critical condition after surgery.
Kent
If 50 lefties were protesting Trump it would not even make the local news anywhere.
Elizabelle
The WaPost is so much more honest. Karen Tumulty is channeling her inner Jen Rubin (the good Jen Rubin):
The tea party is back — and endangering lives
Complete article about what nihilists — her word — and poseurs (my word) — these fools are.
mrmoshpotato
@West of the Rockies: I wish I could ride a Brachiosaurus. Oh the adventures we’d have. :)
Amir Khalid
@Kent:
Check the previous post and thread.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Example “Why didn’t that filthy Democrat SOB Governor stop my late brother and his friends from doing those Anti-Quarantine group huddles? White lives matter too!”
Mai naem mobile
All I can say is that the Phoenix anti lockdown protests only had a couple of hundred people show up. That’s including some pro lockdown/pro adequate PPE people who showed up. That’s in a city of over 5M in a county which barely voted for the Orange Douchebag. If you can’t even get 500 people to show at the AZ Capitol, which would not be that hard to do a social distance protest at, you’re losing.
I am actually waiting for COVID19 deniers like Holocaust deniers. People actually saying all those people didn’t die. Those gurneys transporting bodies are all fake. It’s all a Democrat/Chinese/Mexican/Deep State conspiracy…etc.
West of the Rockies
@mrmoshpotato:
Yeah, my wish that corporate media would proceed responsibly is pretty unlikely to come true.
Elizabelle
Catherine Rampell in the WaPost:
Trump has almost nothing to lose. That’s why he wants to reopen the economy.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Trump isn’t a politician, he is a media personality. He’s worried about keeping is his audience share. At the very lest he can blackmail Republicans with this rabid, suicidal fan base. Noticed Trump was feuding with the Republican governors today?
Elizabelle
@Mai naem mobile: I am impressed with Joshua Potash’s social distancing in the tweet above. As in, behind glass and several floors up from the nihilist protesters, making it clear they’re a small group.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Elizabelle: Similar note the host of Good Morning Britain supposed to be hard right and there is a rant of him going off on Trump about how Virus was Trump’s golden ticket to re-election by claiming to be a crises leader and then Trump blew it by being a twat. I am more than little convinced the House Dems did the Virus relief bill knowing perfectly well Trump would treat is as a personal slush fund because it would piss off his voters when they didn’t get their share of the relief and their business is destroyed.
Looking at it that way, you could see this Forced Reopen attempt from Trump as like some collage kid whose parents sent him the rent and then he blew on hookers and blow and is now screaming at his roommate it’s all his fault the rent is short.
Elizabelle
The NY Times political writers suck. Just suck. And that’s not an accident. That’s Dean Baquet and the Sulzbergers.
The Times redeem themselves with their op eds, about 90% of the time. I hope this is a free click for you, because it’s coronavirus-related.
Point of article: buy a [fingertip] pulse oximeter. They’re inexpensive (less than $20, I think), if not hoarded, they’re easily available at drugstores and through Amazon.
This physician is worried about silent hypoxia. A person with covid-caused pneumonia will naturally breathe more deeply and faster, possibly without a lot of pain, not realizing how the virus is invading both lungs until too late. Monitor your blood oxygen levels. Get help before the disease progresses too dangerously.
The Infection That’s Silently Killing Coronavirus Patients
This is what I learned during 10 days of treating Covid pneumonia at Bellevue Hospital.
Author: Dr. Richard Levitan, an Emergency physician.
lgerard
@Mai naem mobile:
They are called 5G truthers
check out this guy
https://twitter.com/alberttrigg
prostratedragon
Our cup overfloweth (from Bloomberg):
Good thing the federation in question is Canada.
Elizabelle
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Yup.
Elizabelle
WaPost again. Dana Millbank.
The problem isn’t a lack of information. It’s Trump.
RE Trump scapegoating the WHO.
He’s actually guilty of what he’s trying to project onto them. We knew that. But I am liking the WaPost’s headlines and NFLTG attitude these days.
Whereas the FTF NY Times does not want to do anything to make Ivanka cry, or have a bad day. Access.
Elizabelle
One of the WaPost reader commenters is calling Trump “the Manchurian Cantaloupe.” That’s pretty good.
rikyrah
rikyrah
@rikyrah:
This is because of Maddow, who has been on this story.
leeleeFL
@Villago Delenda Est: I totally feel you!
Bruuuuce
@Elizabelle:
Author David Gerrold was using that at least a couple of years ago on Le Livre des Visages. I think he coined it, though it’s possible he picked it up elsewhere.
leeleeFL
@Elizabelle: hence my new subscription to the WaPo
Aussie Sheila
@Villago Delenda Est: Amen
Lacuna Synechdoche
Crooks and Liars via Anne Laurie @ Top:
Amazing, the things Conservatives will sacrifice to own the libs.
prostratedragon
@Elizabelle:
Pulse oximeter bonus: by monitoring a couple of times in the last year when I didn’t feel right, I picked up highly irregular pulse that turned out to be atrial fibrillation, a condition the docs long suspected I had, but were never able to capture on ekg.
blacque_jacques
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: That’s Piers “Moron” Morgan for you, a known bellend.
It’s pretty rich when conservative pundits temper their opinions with bits of sane (and obvious) advice for the GOP that no sane observer expects them to take. Repeatedly. That’s either wishful thinking or bad faith.
Amir Khalid
Neuester Bericht: Wegen des Koronavirus wird Oktoberfest 2020 abgesagt!
(English subtitle:
Latest Report: Because of the coronavirus, Oktoberfest 2020 is cancelled!)
Baud
Because there are no other news channels on the TV that these people can watch.
Tony Jay
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Piers Morgan’s shtick is to figure out which ‘side’ is going to ‘win’ an argument and turn himself into its most obnoxious mouthpiece. That’s why he’s been on a racist, sexist, anti-PC bender for years – he saw the way the British zeitgeist was leaning and ran with the pack, frex, dumping his Remainer stance and jumping on the Brexiteer bandwagon.
Him blasting the Tories and their transatlantic crush so vehemently on this issue means he’s done the (pretty easy) math and reckons the majority are going to be out for pro-pandemic blood soon enough.
Plus, it insulates him against valid criticism the next time he spews some corrosive far-right bullshit all over Twitter. As in, “You liked Piers when he was attacking poor old Bozo and The Blob Father, didn’t you? Lefty hypocrite?”
tldr: Piers Morgan is an ambulance chasing prick.
James E Powell
@Baud:
That would require radical changes in identity, worldview, relationships with FOX-ified family members and social circles. So much easier to endure the collateral damage from comforting delusions.
Brachiator
This will be an interesting experiment, especially since many of these businesses seem exactly the type that should remain closed. I am not sure how these places can actually maintain social distance, even if required.
And fitness centers? I recall reading news stories about a cluster of virus cases at gyms in Japan. Bodies in close proximity, staff moving around customers, making it easy for the virus to infect people.
The governor says they will be on the alert for hotspots. They may be overestimating their ability to contain a significant outbreak.
It will also be interesting to see how many people roll the dice and put their lives at risk.
Should we have mandatory testing for Georgia residents who travel to other states?
Amir Khalid
@Tony Jay:
I figured that out when I saw him at SuBo’s BGT audition.
SFAW
I imagine it’s been floated somewhere among the InfoWars/QAnon psychos, but I’m half-expecting an “Obama’s minions created and released COVID-19 in order to get people to want ObamaCare” meme to get mainstreamed by Fox and the Murderer-in-Chief.
Brachiator
@Tony Jay:
Yep. I never really paid much attention to him before, but this really nails my suspicions about him.
I would read summaries of his comments bashing Meghan Markle and wonder why he was so hot to jump on the racist bandwagon. There is something extra obnoxious about people who choose to be hateful because they think it sells well.
Tony Jay
@Amir Khalid:
Oh God, yes!
“Eeeeuuugghhh! This hefty woman is unattractive and will never appeal to the audience. I must sneer at her and win their favour.”
SuBo knocks it out of the park and becomes an immediate star.
“Your success completes me and all those who laughed at you are my mortal enemies!”
Craven, shit-flinging maggot with the soul of an acidic vapour.
Tony Jay
@Brachiator:
Which in turn says a lot about the outlets doing the selling.
satby
@James E Powell: this. Expecting them to just change the channel is like expecting them to give up their social circle, maybe their church, etc. It took (now 50) years of a carefully constructed alternate infrastructure of conservative churches, think tanks, media purchases and politicians to get us to this point.
SFAW
@Brachiator:
Somewhere in Hell, George Corley Wallace is either smiling, or saying “Hold mah beer!”
Uncle Cosmo
Sitting down?
Checked in with a college buddy who lives in Queens yesterday, just to make sure he’s OK.
He babbled something at me about how corpses are being trucked from one hospital to another & photographed to create the illusion that many more people are dying from the virus than they are.
This is a retired CUNY prof with no need to “reopen the state,” a stock-market-Republican who’s never been all that political, & he’s spewing this shit. I told him he was right on the edge of conspiracy theory. Unfortunately I didn’t ask him where he got this crap from. Probably the only newspaper he reads – the Wall Street Urinal.
SFAW
@Uncle Cosmo:
Elitist libtard! Can you PROVE he’s worng? Q, E, and D!
Gotta say, I never saw the WSJ referred to in that way before. Now if only we could go piss on Rupert Murdoch’s grave.
JDM
@Calouste:
Yeah, it’s harder to both sides an issue when some 80% or more are on one side. But our media is up to the task, having sharpened their skills on the gun control issue for years.