Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

Usually wrong but never in doubt

I’m sure you banged some questionable people yourself.

He really is that stupid.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

I really should read my own blog.

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

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

Consistently wrong since 2002

Peak wingnut was a lie.

“And when the Committee says to “report your income,” that could mean anything!

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

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

A consequence of cucumbers

You are here: Home / Open Threads / A Couple of Happy Hour Thoughts

A Couple of Happy Hour Thoughts

by | 149 Comments

This post is in: 

Graphic courtesy of my daughter (someone sent it to her). By the way, Trump tried to walk back his “let’s inject Lysol” comment, but CNN, at least, wasn’t buying his bullshit. Good for them.

I’m thinking of my paternal grandmother this afternoon. She died over 40 years ago, but once in a while I buy a jar of bread-and-butter pickles, and inevitably I think of her, because the first time I tasted them, they were from her cellar. She was an immigrant who homesteaded 160 acres of North Dakota farmland in the 1920’s, herself. She had six children, three of whom survived, and all of the survivors went to college, because that’s why she came to America – to have a better life for her children, at least the ones who lived.

In other words, she was acquainted with grief, as were her children. Death was not an abstraction for her, and if she were alive today, I doubt that she would fool herself into thinking that somehow she would be above dying of COVID-19 because of her allegiance to a political party (btw, she was a Democrat who kept a picture of FDR on her living room wall).

So, knowing my grandmother and people like her, I wasn’t surprised that my South Dakota hometown locked down over a month ago, no matter what the idiots in state government were doing. The 80+ year olds in town were all raised by women like my grandmother and went through a hell of a lot as children. My dad has a story about his sister, one of the three who died before they grew up. My father-in-law, who lives in the same town, has a story about his brother, and the night he died of some childhood illness. Both my dad and my father-in-law locked down even before the town did. They know death.

Andrew Cuomo, who today mentioned his Italian grandmother, who sounds not so different from mine, knows death. In the comments to my post yesterday about Cuomo, Elizabelle posted this transcript of Cuomo’s response to a fucking stupid question about idiots protesting in Albany:

Speaker 9: (54:37)
I have a couple questions for you and one for Melissa. I don’t know if you can hear, but there are protesters outside right now honking their horns and raising signs. We did speak to a few of them before we came in and these are regular people who are not getting a paycheck. Some of them are not getting their unemployment check, and they’re saying that they don’t have time to wait for all of this testing and they need to get back to work in order to feed their families. Their savings is running out. They don’t have another week. They’re not getting answers. Their point is the cure can’t be worse than the illness itself. What is your response to them?

Andrew Cuomo: (55:19)
The illness is death. What is worse than death?

Speaker 9: (55:23)
What if somebody commit suicide because they can’t pay their bills?

Andrew Cuomo: (55:27)
Yeah, but the illnesses may be my death as opposed to your death. You said they said “the cure is worse than the illness.” The illness is death. How can the cure be worse than the illness if the illness is potential death?

Speaker 9: (55:47)
But what if the economy failing-

Andrew Cuomo: (55:52)
Worse than death?

Speaker 9: (55:53)
… equals death [crosstalk 00:55:54] because of mental illness-

Andrew Cuomo: (55:56)
But it doesn’t. No, it doesn’t.

Speaker 9: (55:56)
… the people stuck at home.

Andrew Cuomo: (55:58)
No, it doesn’t. It doesn’t equal death. Economic hardship. Yes, very bad. Not death. Emotional stress from being locked in a house. Very bad, not death. Domestic violence on the increase. Very bad, not death; and not death of someone else.

The stupidity and flailing of Trump, and the goon squad of Trump-humping governors, shouldn’t keep us from understanding that the vast majority of humanity knows death, and they also know a death-bringer when they see one. Trump and his cohort of idiots bring death. Strip away the noise, and that bare fact remains.

Reader Interactions

149Comments

  1. 1.

    JPL

    The administration is trying to punish CNN by moving the reporter to the back row, but there is some discussion whether or not they can do that.

  3. 3.

    download my app in the app store mistermix

    @JPL:  Thanks, just to be clear, she didn’t make it, just shared it with me.

  5. 5.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    speaking of the protesters, I think this is a good ad from Project Lincoln (the never-trumpers’ PAC, essentially), but then in my bubble “The Apprentice” would’ve run for maybe three years on TBS
    The blonde Karen who was screaming at the bescrubbed counter-protester in Denver (I haven’t seen it confirmed that he’s a nurse) claimed that she had saved lives in the job she wants to get back to, and I’m half-hoping she’s ID’d so we can find out how)

  6. 6.

    Comrade Scrutinizer

    Dammit, I’m really starting to like Andrew Cuomo, and I don’t want to.

  7. 7.

    Mike in NC

    Local news is reporting that Fat Bastard is already planning to honor himself with another 4th of July Parade on the National Mall. Of course he has nothing more important to think about.

  8. 8.

    jc

    Well, gee CNN, if Trump didn’t keep getting away with his bottomless bad faith blathering bullshit, maybe he’d be forced to stop it. Maybe if the press wasn’t so … passive. Something is very broken in our system, more than one thing.

  9. 9.

    A Ghost to Most

    Very nice graphic. My brother-in-law in Waterport, NY has cracked. He contacted me after 13 years of radio silence, since my break with my brother. He says he’s tired of listening to idiot assholes. I said I could help with the idiot part. We’ve been texting/talking almost daily since. It’s a start.

  10. 10.

    Another Scott

    The image might be from here. (Found via TinEye, then searching on the filename.)

    HTH!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  12. 12.

    jl

    Thanks for thoughtful post.

    I think Cuomo has done a good job, but needs a little bit more empathy. Because of horrible no good criminal malfeasance of Trump/GOP gang, many people’s lives will be wrecked, if not by the virus, but by knock on effects of lack of health care for other conditions, or economic ruin.

    So, what else is going on? I called my doctor to ask whether I’m supposed to mix the bleach and sunlight before I inject it, and wouldn’t put up with her Deep State doctoring tyranny. Now some nice men are here and they want me to go with them someplace for 72 hours. I guess the bleach/sunlight injection center. See people? You just have to stand up for your rights.

  13. 13.

    leeleeFL

    My Mom, who would have been 100 y.o. last September 5, would be out in the street banging pots and pans, yelling at idiots who believe in tRump.  She did not suffer fools gladly. Or even politely.  We were in B & N in 2004,  sporting our brand new Kerry/Edwards buttons.   Some Yahoo decided to attack her choice.  When Mom was done, the guy needed orthopedic underwear.  It was delicious.  Even his wife enjoyed it.

    Good times!  Fuck, I miss her.

  14. 14.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Comrade Scrutinizer: legend has it Bobby Kennedy was transformed by his brother’s death and seeing poverty in Appalachia. St Paul on the road to Damascus, John Cole watching Jeb Bush around Terri Schiavo…  I’m not putting on any Cuomo 20?? buttons, but maybe he’s changed.

  16. 16.

    Nicole

    It’s funny you mentioned your grandmother having a picture of FDR in her home, because I commented to my son, while listening to Cuomo’s briefing where he took on that right-wing  journalist, that I understood, for the first time on an emotional level, why there were Americans who had pictures of FDR hung up in their homes.  Just the sense of- there’s a politician who gets it, who knows that we’re going through sucks, and who seems to genuinely understand that we’re going through something terrible, and yet still manages to be encouraging- I get it.  I’m not hanging a photo up, mind you, but I get it.

    (That said- I also had to have a conversation with the 9-year-old about FDR and the Japanese  internment camps, because his school assigned a piece on them last week, and how, even though FDR is usually up in the top 3 of great Presidents, he did some terrible things, too. People are complicated, politicians especially so.)

  17. 17.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @jc:

    Well, gee CNN, if Trump didn’t keep getting away with his bottomless bad faith blathering bullshit, maybe he’d be forced to stop it.

    CNN and the press aren’t letting him get away with anything, Congressional Republicans are.

  19. 19.

    John Revolta

    Trump’s seen death. His brother, who he supposedly loved and looked up to, died when Trump was 35.

    It doesn’t seem to have taught him much, except not to drink. In other words, “How does this affect ME- Donald Trump?”. Same as everything else.

  20. 20.

    Nicole

    @John Revolta: I was going to say that he saw someone self-destruct due to addictive disease, which is a different thing than seeing or experiencing an infectious disease, but then I remembered that McConnell had polio as a child and he still grew up to be a total asshole.

  21. 21.

    CaseyL

    OT, but has anyone heard from TaMara lately?  I don’t think she’s commented or anything for a day or so.

  22. 22.

    cain

    It’s time to wander over to chez tom nichols for the daily tweet briefings. I hope for fun laughs and what not.

    Also, Rick Wilson had a good point about the anti-vaxxers and trumpsters joining up to create a whole new set of cray cray

  25. 25.

    terben

    Bread and butter pickles:

    serving size = 1ounce (28.35g)

    Sugars (per serve) = 7.00g

    Ugh! Just say no!

  27. 27.

    JaneE

    I can think of things I might be willing to die for.  I cannot think of anything I would be willing to kill for.

  29. 29.

    Searcher

    I’d just like to point out that New York’s top-three state-wide elected officials — Democrats, all — are Cuomo, Schumer, and Gillibrand.

    If you’re a progressive, you’re probably not completely (or at all) happy with any of them; Gillibrand, of course, was a Blue Dog in the House, Cuomo had his carefully balanced scheme in Albany for so many years, keeping the state government divided, and Schumer, as you’ll recall, failed to secure the confirmation of Merrick Garland while allowing Gorsuch and Kavanaugh to be confirmed instead.

    But all of them are Democrats and they are all competent.

    This is who Cuomo has always been; there’s a reason he keeps winning primaries and getting elected.  But don’t expect him to stop doing infuriating things either.

    I’m guessing his handling of this is going to be enough for him to get out of his father’s shadow, but please, please don’t anyone start thinking he should run for President, let along him.

  30. 30.

    hueyplong

    @Mike in NC: The 4th of July is what, 10 weeks away?

    If Trump keeps doing daily pressers, I’m not sure he’ll still be president on July 4.  He can’t keep it up, not when you consider this (probably partial) list of absurd things he’s done in the last week to ten days:

    1. threatened to adjourn Congress
    2. sent out “liberate” tweets and flying monkey “protests” against public health protections in blue states during the spiking period of a pandemic
    3. reversed course on “reopenings” within a day or two of one of his more servile governors announcing one
    4. canned a key administration scientist for not backing hydroxychloroquine (days before the FDA warned against its use)
    5. ordered the US Navy to “shoot down” boats/ships of a sovereign nation with which the US is not at war
    6. suggested the internal application of disinfectants to fight “the invisible enemy”
  31. 31.

    Nicole

    @leeleeFL: Oh God, yes, and who was that State Rep- the one who got into a fight in the parking lot with a fellow Rep, a few months ago?  He’s blind, due to a bar fight he got into in his early 30s.  And still an asshole.

  33. 33.

    Elizabelle

    Dunning Kruger whiskey.  That is so perfect.

    I feel more unsettled today than at any time before, because this abuse by Trump, of our vulnerable Americans who need help — not infighting — during a pandemic, and that he just gets up there and lies and endangers the careers of those who would do a better job for us.  It just. never. stops.  And people are dying and some of those who survive will be in poor health for months and years, going forward.

    And it’s so cruel because we cannot act to remove him.  He’s in the one job where he just cannot be removed, and he is viperously unsuited and dangerous in it.

    This should not be allowed to happen now, and it must never, ever happen again.  Trump is leaving us years of work in his malodorous wake.

  34. 34.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Tom Nichols @RadioFreeTom · 3m
    Well, that was an interesting strategy: get Trump out of the room as quickly as possible. They seem to be learning.

    Leaving Nanny Silkscarf to try to damage control, sacrificing more of her own credibility with every word, I’ll bet.

    Also, tomorrow’s should be a rager.

  36. 36.

    Gvg

    What gets me about all these fools is it’s been right there in front of their noses all along, but I guess they don’t all think about what they read. When I was young, I read a lot of pioneer fiction, horse stories of the past, cowboy and Indians etc, before I found and loved science fiction best. All through those stories in the background were kids dying, parents dying, small pox and yellow fevers. It usually wasn’t the story, but it was always there.  These people worship the past. How could they miss this?  I don’t understand being anti science at all and progress in avoiding diseases is the biggest reason time travel backwards was an unattractive idea. They romanticize so much of the past, but they are so ignorant of it.

    my father sent me photos from our past family history a few days ago about the great grandmother who died in the 1918 influenza and how grandfather didn’t end up in an orphanage like many because a strict aunt took him and his sister in. Story he linked indicated a lot of kids did end up in orphanages even if one parent survived because the remaining family couldn’t support them. Also the great grandmother who died was forced into a quarantine hospital with others to try to stop the spread, and I guess it worked because her husband and children lived. It was still kind of shocking to read about though.

  37. 37.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    My grandparents had a picture of FDR on the wall of their farmhouse in the thumb of Michigan, right next to the one of Jesus. They knew Roosevelt had saved them during the Depression.

  39. 39.

    JPL

    @Elizabelle: A friend also feels that way, but I think last nights meltdown was a turning point for me.   Even tonight he didn’t take questions and I guess the entire briefing was only twenty minutes.   When stations openly call him a liar, he must understand he’s in trouble.   Biden just needs to let trump implode and he will.

  41. 41.

    trollhattan

    @John Revolta: @Nicole:

    Trump’s early bio is surprisingly scant given how much he loves to talk about himself, of course his “official” bio is what he thinks it is and lacks meaningful details and facts.*

    I figure beyond seeing Fred Jr. dig his own grave through addiction, Donny was eternally uber-jealous that he, Donny, was not the Chosen One (does any narcissist not feel they are getting a raw deal 100% of the time?). Fred Jr. not only got dad’s name, so far as I know he had the keys to the kingdom before leaving the kingdom feet first.

    Of course, Fred Sr. was a real piece of work and I’ll bet mom was, too.

    * Not satisfied making shit up about himself, wife #1 got the same treatment. Olympic skier? Nope. He made it up, or perhaps John Barron did.

  42. 42.

    Mary G

    My governator is brilliant:

    NEW: CA has launched a first-in-the-nation program–
    Restaurants Deliver will allow local restaurants to provide meals for older Californians. 3 meals a day–at no cost.
    This will help provide jobs to local businesses and aid those in need.Learn more:https://t.co/e82f36Abzd.
    — Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) April 24, 2020

  44. 44.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Frankie Taggart @frankietaggart· 5m
    Trump feeling the heat. No Fauci or Birx either.

    I wonder if yesterday finally hit Fauci’s “oh, fuck you” reflex. Not that he’s going to quit and light himself on fire on the Rachel Maddow program tonight, more when Kellyanne called and attempted charm and wheedled about how much they’d like him to be there, he said, “No, I’m busy, and I do not advise you to insist”

    Tom Nichols@RadioFreeTom·3m
    I think he wanted to go in there and fight over being mocked for being an idiot. But someone must’ve gotten to him.

    I am often curious as to what goes on off-camera

  45. 45.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @jl:

    So, what else is going on? I called my doctor to ask whether I’m supposed to mix the bleach and sunlight before I inject it, and wouldn’t put up with her Deep State doctoring tyranny. Now some nice men are here and they want me to go with them someplace for 72 hours. I guess the bleach/sunlight injection center. See people? You just have to stand up for your rights.

    LOL! Thanks for the laugh!

  46. 46.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    A friend just texted me that Trump’s briefing rally was only about 15 minutes and he didn’t take any questions. ? Maybe he’s feeling the heat.

    Over to @ATRupar for the details.

  48. 48.

    Villago Delenda Est

    What is needed is Obama going on You Tube and imploring people not to drink bleach or inject themselves with Lysol.

  49. 49.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    If he’s not doing these marathon briefings, he’ll soon be doing rallies in the states he encouraged to reopen.

    Betty tweeted a comment on a news story that Trump said he’ll speak at West Point, which was news to West Point. They’re calling 1000 cadets back to NY for the occasion.

  51. 51.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @dmsilev:  I think you’re right

    Jonathan Swan @jonathanvswan
    · 10m
    President Trump plans to pare back his coronavirus press conferences, according to four sources familiar with the internal deliberations. As soon as next week, he may stop appearing daily and make shorter appearances when he does, the sources said.

    when it comes to access in trumpland, Maggie Haberman wishes she were Swan. I don’t think he can do it. I’d bet by Thursday at the latest it’s back to a two-hour airing of the grievances

  53. 53.

    marklar

    Dunning Kruger Whiskey, made with 100 methanol*

     

    *it can’t hurt you if you are already blind

  54. 54.

    Baud

    @A Ghost to Most:

    The press is doing it’s job better than it has in decades. For the purposes of the example, I’ll even throw in the NYT.

    No surprise. Trump’s behavior is approaching tan-suit levels.

  55. 55.

    bluehill

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    From Axios

    President Trump plans to pare back his coronavirus press conferences, according to four sources familiar with the internal deliberations. As soon as next week, he may stop appearing daily and make shorter appearances when he does, the sources said.

    https://www.axios.com/trump-daily-coronavirus-briefings-809becf3-9913-4b71-9f92-1930ad1d29b0.html

    I think someone made him understand how these briefings were hurting his reelection chances. Too bad.

  56. 56.

    Elizabelle

    I transcribed the last minute of the Anderson Cooper CNN clip mistermix linked to.  This after they discussed earlier how Dr. Birx and others are in fear of losing their jobs if they contradict Trump, etc.

    Anderson Cooper:

    The President of the United States, any President of the United States, but that the President of the United States …  live on television …  at a signing just blatantly making up something — I think on the fly, because earlier the White House said nothing about it being a sarcastic comment to reporters, so they hadn’t lined up their lies.  They came up with a different lie.  But this lie — the president — to watch him in real time just lie like a five year old child who’s been caught doing something and just makes up, when cornered, a ridiculous lie that everybody knows is just a lie.  I mean, it’s just sad.

    They needed to be doing this months ago.  While impeachment could still remove him.

    But I welcome how burned Trump is going to feel when he watches this, and he will.  Watching media reports on himself and generating new ways to be on TV:  it’s 95% of what he does all day.

    The FTF NY Times made that more than clear in last night’s reporting.  Its headline:

    Analysis:  Alone at the White House, a Sour President Stays Glued to the TV

    Trump is not just sour.  He is rancid.

  57. 57.

    hueyplong

    @schrodingers_cat:   Knew I was leaving something out.

    That’s a lot of cray cray for one week.

    But I see today he appeared only for a few minutes, and they’re talking about scaling back his appearances in the future.  Pretty sure I’m not the only one who sees the current tactics as unsustainable.

    At some point he’s going to be out of the public eye altogether, for periods of time that seem odd to a country that has been under a regimen of All Trump All The Time.

  58. 58.

    dmsilev

    @bluehill: From the linked story,

    These conversations were underway before Trump suggested that researchers investigate whether doctors could cure coronavirus by injecting people with disinfectant. But a source said it finally seems to have dawned on Trump, after this incident, that these briefings aren’t helping him. The CDC and other public health officials responded obliquely to the comment by telling people not to drink bleach.

    There’s not really much one can add to that paragraph. It really sums up the times we live in.

  59. 59.

    Nicole

    @trollhattan:

    Of course, Fred Sr. was a real piece of work and I’ll bet mom was, too.

    He certainly was. Woody Guthrie even wrote a song about him:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Man_Trump

    I can’t begin to fathom the sheer amount of generational damage the Trumps foist on each other.  I’d like to be sympathetic to the trauma, but they transfer it on to so many innocent people that I just can’t.

  63. 63.

    bemused

    Seth Abramson wrote 10 major media investigation reports of Covid 19 outbreak in US as a bribery scandal, trump ignored intel about virus in November in order to placate Chinese lenders and get political dirt on Biden. Anyone have more information?

  64. 64.

    debbie

    @JPL:

    Biden just needs to let trump implode and he will.

    I don’t know if I agree. Biden doesn’t need to attack Trump, but he ought to point out what the federal government should and can do, and not just about COVID-19. People seem to have forgotten.

  65. 65.

    L85NJGT

    Don’t be the asshole who passes it on to kill forty staff and residents at an assisted care facility.

  66. 66.

    cain

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Why are they are doing that? They need to rely on a formal request through proper channels not what they watch on TV. It is just ridiculous – and now they are going to recall all these cadets and have them possibly be exposed?

  67. 67.

    Elizabelle

    I hope this is going to take down every Republican Senator out there who is remotely vulnerable.  Because they could have done their jobs, and at least allowed impeachment witnesses, and they did not — to save their own careers — and now Americans are dying by the tens of thousands because the madman ended up in charge during a pandemic, and the Republicans already took all the brakes off the car.

    And he is actively sabotaging the pandemic response.  The idea that governors and states have to secure their own PPE — deal with the suppliers and  pirates themselves, and bid against each other? No.  That is an essential federal role, which Trump and McConnell, etc. will not allow.

    Other Republican elected officials, too, but the Senators deserve especial annihilation and excoriation.*

    They made sure that we had THIS in charge.  They knew he was not fit for office.  They let it slide and our luck ran out.

    (*Senator Romney not included, and every day makes him look better and better, poison that he is to the base of his party.)

  68. 68.

    Achrachno

    @JPL:  The networks need to give equal time to Biden to discuss the crisis and what we need to do now. I think the contrast will be conspicuous even to the inattentive. Fair’s fair — they can’t continue giving all this free time to Trump. Even if it is hurting him somewhat.

  69. 69.

    Mary G

    I’ll believe this when I see it:

    President Trump plans to pare back his coronavirus press conferences, according to four sources familiar with the internal deliberations. As soon as next week, he may stop appearing daily and make shorter appearances when he does, the sources said. https://t.co/Gul0K04dU8— Jonathan Swan (@jonathanvswan) April 24, 2020

    They’ll have to pry the microphone out of his cold, dead hands.

  71. 71.

    Mnemosyne

    @Comrade Scrutinizer:

    FWIW, great wartime leaders and great peacetime leaders are rarely the same people. It seems pretty obvious that Cuomo is great in a dire crisis even if he’s not so great with day-to-day stuff. We shouldn’t confuse the two types.

  72. 72.

    Mandalay

    So after yesterday’s train wreck, a lapdog at Breitbart did a FACT CHECK article on Trump’s comments, taking them very seriously, and confirming that the media were wildly overreacting at Trump’s constructive proposals:

    CLAIM: President Donald Trump suggested injecting people with disinfectant to cure coronavirus.

    VERDICT: False.

    But then today Trump blew all that out of the water by insisting that he was being sarcastic all along, so Breitbart were forced to make a bizarre rewrite to their article:

    Note From Senior Management: This piece was erroneously framed by our author as a “fact check,” when, instead, it was and should have been framed as an opinion piece … The piece has been re-framed as it should have been originally (as opinion), and further updated to reflect President Trump’s statement this morning that he was being sarcastic. We apologize for the error, and you are welcome for all the opportunities to dunk on us on Twitter.

    I guess I’ll give them credit for owning up, but this was their lead story yesterday, and they have completely rewritten it today following Trump’s “sarcasm” comments.

  73. 73.

    Patricia Kayden

    Top Navy leaders have recommended that Captain Crozier be reinstated as Captain of the USS Teddy Rosevelt. He should also get an apology from trump which will never happen, and one from the Sec of the Navy as well.— katherine ✌?❤️?????? (@katherineOma) April 24, 2020

  74. 74.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    stuart stevens @stuartpstevens · 2h
    Trump is putting West Point grads at risk for a campaign commercial. That pretty much sums up the deep disrespect he has for the service he dodged.

  75. 75.

    Elizabelle

    @Another Scott:   I know. Meanwhile, the WaPost puts up opinion pieces by its resident conservatard columnists with headlines that yet again the Steele Dossier is proven false.

    It is amazing to me how much of it is true, or at minimum, pointing in the right direction.

    I never cared anything about the hookers story.  But the financial self-dealing and entanglements and that Trump is beholden to foreign influence.

    I am genuinely surprised the tax returns and Deutsche Bank have not come out by now.

  76. 76.

    Miss Bianca

    @Villago Delenda Est: Am I a bad person for wanting this to happen SO DESPERATELY?

    Yes, yes I am. Like Huck Finn, I am committed to going to Hell. But not for nearly as noble a reason as his.

  77. 77.

    cain

    @Mary G:

    It won’t happen. It’s the one thing he loves. He wants to attack reporters. He might relent for a a couple of weeks.. but he’ll be back and it will be a shit show again.

    Nobody can control this man.

  81. 81.

    Mandalay

    @Mary G:

    President Trump plans to pare back his coronavirus press conferences, according to four sources familiar with the internal deliberations.

    I think that should read “…according to four sources familiar with their private polling numbers. “

  84. 84.

    bluehill

    @dmsilev: Yeah, I’ve had my fill of interesting times. People tend to forget history, but unfortunately (perhaps fortunately in some ways) this is going to leave a mental scar for some time.

  87. 87.

    Another Scott

    BlueVirginia.US – Gov. Northam (MD) blueprint for “plans for reopening” the state:

    […]

    “We will move forward, but in a way that prioritizes public health and builds public confidence,” said Governor Northam. “Businesses know that customers will return only when they feel that it is safe to do so. Our blueprint for the path forward is data-driven and provides clear guidance, so Virginians will know what to expect and understand how we will decide to when to lift certain public health restrictions.”

    Virginia is looking at a wide range of public health data. The Governor emphasized that key indicators will include a 14-day downward trend in confirmed cases as a percentage of overall tests and in reduced COVID-19 hospitalizations. While hospitalization rates have largely stabilized in the Commonwealth, confirmed cases continue to rise.

    The Forward Virginia blueprint includes the following priorities:

    TESTING AND TRACING

    To ensure the continued safety of Virginians, the Commonwealth aims to test at least 10,000 individuals per day. Karen Remley, former Commissioner of Health and current co-chair of Virginia’s Testing Work Group, outlined a four stage approach to meet this goal prior to safe reopening. The expanded testing plan includes hiring contact tracers, who will support local health departments in identifying individuals who may be exposed to COVID-19 and helping them self-isolate.

    PERSONAL PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT

    Personal protective equipment (PPE) is critical to ramping up testing, ensuring the safety of healthcare staff, and expanding the medical workforce. Virginia’s PPE pipeline is improving, and hospitals are successfully managing their supplies. The Governor cautioned that safely easing restrictions will require an ongoing stable PPE supply chain across all sectors of healthcare, and ensuring that the supply is regularly replenished.

    Virginia has ordered 17.4 million N95 masks, 8.3 million surgical masks, 17.1 million gloves, 1.7 million gowns, and 1 million face shields. This includes a contract signed jointly with Maryland and the District of Columbia for 5 million N95 masks.

    Governor Northam announced that a second shipment from Northfield Medical Manufacturing is scheduled to arrive today and will be promptly distributed. The latest shipment includes 3 million nitrile exam gloves, 100,000 N95 masks, 500,000 3-ply procedure masks, and 40,000 isolation gowns.

    HOSPITAL CAPACITY AND STAFF

    Hospitalizations and ICU admissions are largely stable across Virginia, even as case counts continue to rise. To ensure continued capacity as Virginia move towards “Phase One” of easing restrictions, Governor Northam yesterday extended the ban on elective surgeries through May 1 and expanded the ability of physicians’ assistants and nurse practitioners with two or more years of clinical experience to practice without a collaborative agreement.

    The Virginia Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) continues to recruit and deploy medical and non-medical volunteers to bolster the work of local health departments, hospitals, and healthcare providers. The MRC currently has over 16,500 trained volunteers, more than halfway to Virginia’s goal of 30,000.

    PHASE ONE OF EASING RESTRICTIONS

    Governor Northam outlined key benchmarks Virginians can expect in the first phase, which will begin no sooner than two weeks from now to allow for a 14-day downward trend in confirmed COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.

    Phase one includes continued social distancing, teleworking, limits on travel and public gatherings, and recommended use of face coverings. Any easing of restrictions will be informed by public health experts, members of the Governor’s COVID-19 Business Task Force, state and local officials, and other stakeholders.

    The Commonwealth is developing two sets of guidance: one with broad based recommendations for all businesses, and another with industry specific recommendations for public-facing businesses like restaurants and non-essential retail. The guidance will be provided to businesses in early May.

    […]

    Seems sensible. It’s important to let the numbers guide the easing, and to have the metrics spelled-out in advance.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  88. 88.

    Gravenstone

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: 

    The blonde Karen who was screaming at the bescrubbed counter-protester in Denver (I haven’t seen it confirmed that he’s a nurse) claimed that she had saved lives in the job she wants to get back to,

    I’m sorry, but if she’s saved lives as part of her job, that job is quite likely considered “essential” and her ignorant ass would actually still be doing it. Lying fucking pieces of shit.

  89. 89.

    cain

    @Elizabelle:

    There is no such thing as “conservative” having a conservative on staff is like having a demon cult follower on staff so we can get the Devil’s take on whatever is happening.

  91. 91.

    debbie

    I wish I’d been listening more closely, but NPR reported this afternoon that some official had received hundreds of calls from people wondering if what the president had said about injecting disinfectant would be effective.

  92. 92.

    Elizabelle

    @JPL:   I think Crozier might be reinstated.  His firing did not go over well at all, even though the service veterans here pointed out that leaders are expected to fall on their swords, from time to time.

    The Navy families and spouses are way more supportive of Crozier and what he did to try to protect their sailors.

    Will be interesting to see, especially since Naval Operations gives Trump cover for a redo.

    Everything can end up blamed on Modly (who?? who??)

  93. 93.

    Fair Economist

    @Mnemosyne:

    FWIW, great wartime leaders and great peacetime leaders are rarely the same people. It seems pretty obvious that Cuomo is great in a dire crisis even if he’s not so great with day-to-day stuff. We shouldn’t confuse the two types.

    So true. Churchill was a monster with bad judgement. But his bullheadness and patriotic jingoism was perfect for WWII.

  94. 94.

    cain

    @Annie:

    I know, right? The more he does the harder it is to defend him by his cronies. Plus with everybody staying at home, more people are paying attention because literally this whole thing is dependent on the federal response and if the man is crazy that’s going to make it very hard to gas light later.

  96. 96.

    Elizabelle

    And we can’t even be out in the streets protesting this actual idiocy, and demanding a better response to the pandemic, because social distancing and respect for protecting others’ health.

    Unlike the Astroturf Reopen creeps.

  97. 97.

    Patricia Kayden

    Its a damn shame we gotta tie up critical infrastructure with PSAs against the idea of drinking bleach but that email server was just too important to elect a president who had a lick of sense.— Ragnarok Lobster (@eclecticbrotha) April 24, 2020

  98. 98.

    frosty

    @debbie: Maryland Emergency Management Agency received over 100 calls and put out a statement about not drinking bleach. Maybe that was it?

  99. 99.

    Elizabelle

    @Gvg:   Great comment.

    It’s like they watched the film — a la Ronald Reagan — but ignored the actual record.  They’d rather believe in exceptionalism and individualism and people (men!) in charge of their fate.

    Uh, no.

  102. 102.

    Sab

    @Elizabelle: My RWNJ brother in Ca told me ( I kid you not) that Anthony Fauci developed the corona virus in China with the help of the Chinese because our govt regulations wouldn’t let Fauci do it in the good ole USA. My RWNJ brother actually believes this. Every time I talk to him I realize why I don’t do it more often. Just because he is rich doesn’t mean he is in anyway sensible.

  105. 105.

    debbie

    @frosty:

    Could be.

    Take a look at this letter. I think I’ll be crying for a while.

    I received this letter from a farmer in northeast Kansas. His wife is ill and he is aging.

    He sent me 1 of 5 N95 masks he has from farming to pass on to a doctor or nurse in New York.

    This is humanity at its best. I share his letter as inspiration. pic.twitter.com/Fa4h5LH9rL
    — Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) April 24, 2020

  107. 107.

    Patricia Kayden

    @bemused:

     
    Just seeing that now.

    ATTENTION: A picture is emerging—across 10 major-media investigative reports—of the COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S. as a bribery scandal in which Trump looked the other way on intel about the virus in November in order to placate Chinese lenders and get political dirt on Joe Biden.— Seth Abramson (@?) (@SethAbramson) April 24, 2020

  109. 109.

    ThresherK

    The NFL Draft is on our ABC affiliate in place of Jeopardy! and Spousal Ms ThresherK and I haz a sad.

    ESPN is covering the draft at the same time.

  110. 110.

    Brachiator

    @JPL:

    The administration is trying to punish CNN by moving the reporter to the back row, but there is some discussion whether or not they can do that.

    I’m surprised that Trump has not simply made it solely a selection of right wing media, and a side chair for the most useful NY Times reporter.

  114. 114.

    Ksmiami

    @debbie: no he needs a full throated attack on the GOP as fundamentally opposed to the good governance required of our nation. The party is morally reprehensible- a gang of racists, thieves and hypocrites enriching themselves at the failure of our nation. No quarter, no mercy.

  115. 115.

    Brachiator

    @Patricia Kayden:

    ATTENTION: A picture is emerging—across 10 major-media investigative reports—of the COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S. as a bribery scandal in which Trump looked the other way on intel about the virus in November in order to placate Chinese lenders and get political dirt on Joe Biden

    Who was supposed to be providing this political dirt?

    This seems a little odd.  On the other hand, Trump is a one-trick pony.

  116. 116.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Brachiator: I assume he was hoping that Chinese officials would find dirt on Biden.  I’m hoping that the House will hold hearings on this to figure things out.

  118. 118.

    Brachiator

    @Sab:

    My RWNJ brother in Ca told me ( I kid you not) that Anthony Fauci developed the corona virus in China with the help of the Chinese because our govt regulations wouldn’t let Fauci do it in the good ole USA.

    We will see more of this. Trump supporters are eager to embrace increasingly more ridiculous conspiracy theories in order to justify their support of Trump. It’s almost an equal and opposite reaction to Trump looking bad by his own incompetence, statements and actions.

    Trump lovers will accept and perpetuate any notion, no matter how incomprehensible to counter the simply reality that Trump is demonstrating that he is incapable of performing his duties as president.

    Also, I am a bit curious. Why would Fauci want to develop the virus. And knowing this, why would Trump keep him as an advisor?

  119. 119.

    HumboldtBlue

    I’ve mentioned this before, my paternal grandmother lost a husband and two children to disease before remarrying and having two more kids, my uncle and dad.

  121. 121.

    geg6

    @Another Scott:

    This is pretty much the same plan as my governor’s.  Let the science and the numbers decide.  Take it slow and be ready to ramp back up at the slightest increase in numbers.  It’s good to be in a state with a Dem in charge.

  122. 122.

    SW

    How many times has Trump gone bankrupt?

    Isn’t the great capitalists stories always about some dude that lost everything and then came back and made a fortune?

    Sure it is mostly bullshit, but these guys are the bullshitters!  They invented the story.  Are you telling me they don’t believe it?  Gasp!

    This is supposed to be the land of opportunity.  Bootstraps and all that bootshit.

    Economic ruin is not death.

    death is death

    Right now, it is government’s job to make sure that poverty doesn’t equal death.

    That everyone eats.

    That everyone has shelter.

  124. 124.

    Sab

    @Brachiator: One of my other siblings, who is sensible and works with medical researchers, thinks there is a tiny kernal of truth there. The CDC, as part of its pandemic response, worked with the Chinese in studying emerging viruses. They didn’t develop them, but they do study them as they emerge. We don’t eat pangolins in Georgia, so we study them in China

    Wuhan has a research lab that studies such things.

  125. 125.

    Mandalay

    Perhaps the most egregious example yet of Marco Rubio’s PPP “loans” going to the completely undeserving:

    The homeowners’ association for Fisher Island, an exclusive enclave near Miami that recently bought enough COVID-19 antibody tests for all of its residents and workers, has been approved for a $2 million loan through a federal program intended to help small businesses survive the COVID-19 pandemic…

    …Average annual income among the island’s residents was $2.5 million in 2015 — the highest of any ZIP code in America…

    They homeowners’ association is now saying that they won’t accept the money (because everybody knows?). Well fine, but:

    • Why did they apply for the money in the first place?
    • Who the fuck approved them as being needy and deserving?

    Marco Rubio spent a couple of weeks attacking Democrats for delays in dishing out the PPP billions because they wanted scrutiny and sunlight on the process. The vile little fucker can go choke on his words now.

  126. 126.

    Poe Larity

    Washington Post says Trump is clearly suffering from a hydrochloroquine overdose. So all the meanies should be more compassionate.

  127. 127.

    Brachiator

    @Patricia Kayden:

    I assume he was hoping that Chinese officials would find dirt on Biden. I’m hoping that the House will hold hearings on this to figure things out.

    Sigh. So Trump learned nothing from his earlier attempts to do this. He keeps reaching into the same bag of tricks, hoping that he will get lucky this time.

  128. 128.

    Cleardale

    @Elizabelle: These are the same people who get offended and huffy when you point out their brave heroes John Wayne never served and Ronnie Reagan didn’t deploy overseas. They’ve always believed the fiction over the true history.

  130. 130.

    Brachiator

    @Mandalay:

    Who the fuck approved them as being needy and deserving?

    This one is easy.  There has been reporting on this, but it kinda gets lost in the larger pandemic coverage.

    This loan program is a bonanza for banks. Huge.

    The law was written in a loose way so that many large businesses and odd organizations will qualify as a “small business.”

    The banks then did not wait for people to apply for loans. They called their biggest and best customers and set them up for loans. And some best customers applied and got in the front of the line.

    The banks make huge profits on fees. The larger the loan, the greater the fees.

    And because these loans are backed by the federal government and can even be forgiven, the banks cannot lose.

  131. 131.

    Elizabelle

    @Cleardale:   Did you ever see “The Homesman?”  That was one sobering movie.  Tommy Lee Jones directed and starred, Hillary Swank; Meryl Streep in a small role.

    The good old days.  I would make it required viewing for wingnuts.

    From a novel by Glendon Swarthout.  Who wrote the novel adapted into “The Shootist” — John Wayne’s last movie, and an excellent one.

  132. 132.

    Brachiator

    @Sab:

    One of my other siblings, who is sensible and works with medical researchers, thinks there is a tiny kernal of truth there. The CDC, as part of its pandemic response, worked with the Chinese in studying emerging viruses. They didn’t develop them, but they do study them as they emerge.

    Interesting.  Even here, you have to take a wild ride into crazy town to make up the dots to connect in order to turn this into any kind of “theory.”

    But yeah, I can see viral research being turned into the deliberate creation of a virus.

  133. 133.

    jc

    @A Ghost to Most: Eric Boehlert, in “PressRun,” observes that “the political press remains committed to its longtime ‘Dems In Disarray‘ narrative” … “the campaign coverage for November seems oddly focused on the supposed woes hounding Democratic nominee, Joe Biden.” Biden leads in most polls, but somehow the press concludes that Biden is the one facing steep hurdles. “It’s Both Sides journalism on steroids.”

  134. 134.

    Brachiator

    @Mnemosyne:

    I have a vague memory of having heard this before, but if you were not already convinced that Dolly Parton is the fount of all good things in America, she was a silent executive producer of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”

    This is up there with Lucille Ball backing the production of “Star Trek” by Desilu Productions.

  135. 135.

    Steeplejack

    @Brachiator:

    Thanks for this. I was going nuts trying to figure out not only why and how all these bogus entities got the PPP money but how they got it so quickly. Everything I was seeing from actual small businesses was that they couldn’t even get their e-mails or phone calls answered.

    It’s like there was a TSA Pre✔ for looters.

  136. 136.

    Brachiator

    @Mnemosyne:

    FWIW, great wartime leaders and great peacetime leaders are rarely the same people. It seems pretty obvious that Cuomo is great in a dire crisis even if he’s not so great with day-to-day stuff. We shouldn’t confuse the two types.

    George Washington, “First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen,” in Henry Lee’s eulogy.

    There is a long list of leaders who were men and women of all season’s . Churchill’s notable failures before and after WW2 has caused people to cherry pick examples.

    Herbert Hoover might be another example, looking at his entire career.

  137. 137.

    Brachiator

    @Steeplejack:

    One NBC News story.

    While the government has not yet identified the entities that received the funding under the program, an in-depth analysis of almost 200 recipients by NBC News raises questions about some of them.
    The analysis shows three companies with ties to the Trump administration received a total of $18.3 million under the program.
    Another recipient received a loan from a bank that previously employed its board’s chairwoman. Four companies received more than the $10 million maximum by applying for multiple loans through subsidiaries. Four other companies receiving more than $20 million in aggregate have wealthy investor board members in common.

    It’s not genius, but a lot of people in the tax and accounting industry saw this coming, precisely because Treasury, McConnell and his GOP Senate crew kept insisting that “we need to do something fast.”

    This often really means “we got a lot of stuff in here for our special friends.”

    You can google search “how big business got small business loans” and pull up a good list of stories.

    Another quick hit result.

    A bombshell investigation published by the Associated Press on Tuesday found that at least 75 publicly traded companies, some with market values well above $100 million, received low-interest federal loans through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), created to help small businesses with fewer than 500 employees get through the COVID-19 crisis.

    Those large companies collectively claimed $300 million of forgivable loans through PPP, AP found. Eight of them, including Shake Shack, received the maximum $10 million allowed under the program. Pressured by public outcry over the weekend, Shake Shack said on Monday that it would return the loan to the government. None of the other beneficiaries have announced similar moves yet.

    That these loans are forgivable makes them too good an opportunity for greedy companies to pass up.

    Meanwhile, the right wing prefers to pontificate about lazy workers being asked to be laid off so that they can get extra unemployment benefits for four months.

  139. 139.

    Sab

    I remember evesdropping at my bank a year ago when one bank officer was explaining to another that they do not lend to single moms ever. Would boycot this bank, but they are the only ones that hire POC.

  141. 141.

    Steeplejack

    @Brachiator:

    I had read a lot about which (undeserving) companies got the money. I just hadn’t seen anything about the mechanisms by which they were able to so quickly navigate the (new) system and make the big scores.

  142. 142.

    Mohagan

    @Mnemosyne: I was originally shocked to learn the English people threw Churchhill out of office in the first election after the end of WWII. But now I understand. The war was done, time to move on, with a peacetime leader.

  143. 143.

    sgrAstar

    @Elizabelle:  agree, Elizabelle! We are a very proud Navy family with one of our youth currently serving. Crozier represents a modern, ethical Navy where sailors are demonstrably valued and respected. If Esper fires Crozier over the recommendation of the aSecNav and CNO Gilday, I really think it will be tremendously damaging to the Navy as an institution.

  144. 144.

    Ruckus

    @bluehill:

    His breathing is hurting his reelection chances.

    Because as long as he keeps breathing, he keeps making things worse. It’s his only talent, making things worse. And he’s at his best at making things worse whenever he gets in over his head. He has no idea what to do to make any situation better so he does the first thing that comes to mind, and that always makes things worse. Up until the last 3 yrs he could always find a way to buy his way out when the shit built up too high. That ship sailed in Nov of 2016.

  145. 145.

    J R in WV

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    My grandparents had a picture of FDR on the wall of their farmhouse in the thumb of Michigan, right next to the one of Jesus. They knew Roosevelt had saved them during the Depression.

    When I visited people in my neighborhood as a child in the ’60s, there were usually three pictures on their living room wall, Jesus (of course), FDR, and JFK. Many of those houses only had two rooms for a little old lady.

  147. 147.

    Ella in New Mexico

    @download my app in the app store mistermix:

    Late to the Happy Hour, I know. Been on the Facebook battle ground all day with what appears to be a fuck-ton of Trump supporters who are friends with friends of mine in healthcare who dared mock Donald the Great’s Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day.

    From your first sentences, this post of yours today grabbed my heart and did not let it go until the last word. It’s one of your best.

    My Grandma didn’t live in North Dakota, she lived in rural upstate New York. Born in 1900, her life encompassed WWI, the Great Depression, WWII and everything after. Like your Grandmother, she was strong, tough and smart. She survived the loss of two late-term babies from what we now cure easily with a shot of Rhogam.

    My father was a month premature and her miracle child, born 13 years after her first. Grandma was a dressmaker by trade, but she becaame a home economics teacher, getting her degree along with my grandfather by participating an a special program to train teachers that required 3 years of living 200+miles away from her barely adult 18 year-old daughter and her little brother, who she looked after like a mother.

    My grandma made bread and butter pickles, kept in small crocks in a cool room off her kitchen, along with saurkraut and other fermented vegetables. It was the 1960’s and early 70’s I that I spent most weekends with her in her home. I remember how she still made all the same foods she’d learned to make during WWII when all the folks at home had were the leftovers from what we sent the soldiers, things like “sweet breads” nasty liver and onions and “Utica Greens”, stuff no one really eats anymore cuz it’s considered trash.

    She taught me to sew, knit and crochet–or at least tried because I never really got the hang of them. She sat and listened to me sing songs, read to her, watched me play like what I was doing was SO special. She allowed me to explore the somewhat dangerous area behind her house, with a creek of 5 food deep water and steep banks down and back up to her yard. I was allowed to climb every tree I could manage to get into, no matter how high. She let me be who I was, encouraged my independence, my curiosity and uniqueness during a time my own mother was very, very mentally ill and was doing the opposite, because she valued life, and just like your Grandma, having known grief and loss, wanted to perpetuate all it’s preciousness.

    So, kudos to you, Mistermix. You made me cry today. You made me remember the woman who made me the person I am. You made a difference.

  149. 149.

    grandmaBear

    My mother was born in 1918. Before she was a year old her mother and two of her four siblings died of the flu, within a span of a few weeks. She was given to a maiden aunt to raise, but her father demanded her back later when he remarried (to a horrible religious fundamentalist who made life miserable for her). Still bitterness all around decades later.

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