Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“woke” is the new caravan.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

I’m sure you banged some questionable people yourself.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

This really is a full service blog.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

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

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

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

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

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

I was promised a recession.

Let’s finish the job.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 Coronavirus / Repub Stupidity Open Thread: Last Night’s Queries on Shooting Up Bleach Are Now Inoperative

Repub Stupidity Open Thread: Last Night’s Queries on Shooting Up Bleach Are Now Inoperative

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The Oval Office Occupant’s meds have been re-adjusted again. Or else his handlers have figured out that he starts sundowning by 5pm, these days.

He was not being sarcastic, last night:

And thanks to the miracle of widely-distributed social media, there is no efficient way to memory-hole it, either. Sorry, Mr. Orwell!

(You’d hope these were all from reporters, dutifully following up, but... )


Trump’s probable ‘medical’ source: Anti-vaxxer quacks on the internet, or their Fox TV promoters…

Another victim falls to the infamous Trump Reverse Midas Touch…

Reader Interactions

217Comments

  1. 1.

    ThresherK

    I can’t believe I have to say this, but please don’t drink bleach. — Joe Biden

    I can’t believe I have to say this… could be the compulsory introduction to any Biden remark about Trump.

  3. 3.

    dmsilev

    I can’t believe I have to say this, but please don’t drink bleach. — Joe Biden

    We’re so so close to the long-awaited Barack+Michelle ‘don’t drink bleach’ PSA.

  4. 4.

    Mnemosyne

    It’s also a QAnon thing — the Daily Beast did a story about it back on January 30th. I’m not surprised that it farted up from the fetid swamp that makes up the interior of Trump’s skull.

    I just got to explain the difference between an antiseptic and a disinfectant to a friend of a friend on Facebook, so that was fun. Short version: disinfectants should only be used on inanimate objects because they’re too dangerous for humans to ingest or use on their skin.

  8. 8.

    bbleh

    I think it’s very unfair that so much attention is being paid to his bleach comments and so little to his comments about light.

    Now, what I’m wondering is, how long a string of Christmas lights would you need to swallow just to make sure that, you, um, always can get hold of one end or the other, just in case, you need to, y’know, tug on it a little bit …?

  10. 10.

    Adam L Silverman

    The Bill being referenced in this video, who is the Undersecretary of Homeland Security for Science and Research, is not a scientist. He’s an intel weenie who specialized in energy security and who is the subject of a whistleblower complaint from when he was at the Department of Energy involving his doing work in Ukraine for a Russian oligarch who is close to Putin. So just to simplify: Bill is not a scientist, is being investigated for doing something shady regarding Ukraine for/with a Russian oligarch close to Putin.

  13. 13.

    beef

    An odd aside: Every life insurance policy I’ve actually looked at pays out in the event of suicide, after the initial contestable period. As far as the life insurance companies are concerned, it’s just another risk covered by the premium.

  14. 14.

    PsiFighter37

    I am listening to the NYT podcast and want to scream. These fuckers treat Trump as a rational person. They all sound like mediocre young white males wearing glasses who cannot buy a clue. Fuck them.

  15. 15.

    dmsilev

    @bbleh: Five seconds of Google search suggests that small and large intestines put together total about twenty five feet. Better go with at least a thirty foot strand, just to be on the safe side.

  16. 16.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @lgerard:

    Rudy Giuliani mocks contact tracing by asking why we don’t also do it for cancer, obesity and heart disease

    Um… because cancer, obesity, and heart disease don’t have contagious causative agents? Just a guess.

    These Trump sycophants keep debasing themselves trying to defend Trump. I knew Giuliani was a corrupt pol, but I have a hard time squaring the guy who led NYC through 9/11 as a science-denying kook. Did he always think contract-tracing was bullshit or is it simply because the science is currently inconvenient for his ideology? I tend to think it’s the latter

  19. 19.

    Calouste

    Apparently, somehow, the shitgibbon and his cultists think sarcasm is appropriate at a press conference about a disease that has killed more than 50,000 Americans so far.

  20. 20.

    Martin

    @bbleh: Just so you know, Christmas lights don’t put out UV. I’d suggest the Phobya UV strip.  12V so you can power it off your pickup truck cigarette lighter, and 5m means you’ll need to solder two of them together so you can really scrub it up and down through there. Remember, the small intestine alone is around 6m long.

  22. 22.

    LeftCoastYankee

    I remember when “Bleach Boys” by Dead Milkmen was a ridiculous parody song.

    “I’m so bored I’m drinking bleach….”

    Maybe Trump is working his way through the album.  “These are a few of my many smells” would be good briefing….

  23. 23.

    Martin

    @beef: Yeah, according to my dad they started paying out for suicide in the 80s or 90s. COLIs pretty much made it untenable to  not cover suicide.

  24. 24.

    cmorenc

    Over on FoxNews website, there is hardly any mention of Trump’s bleach/lysol comment.  , except buried way down on their page, and what reporting there is is focused on demonstrating that the media were deliberately misinterpreting what he said.

    Instead, the lead headline “Coronoavirus Confusion” relates to Pennsylvania reducing the announced COV death toll in that state by 200.

  25. 25.

    Mnemosyne

    @beef:

    I think you’re right. There’s usually a time limit — maybe 5 years? — after which the insurance company will pay out for a suicide. It’s mostly there to prevent people from taking out the policy right before they do it (or, if you watch a lot of “Columbo,” right before their estranged son/nephew/cousin murders them and tries to make it look like the life insurance beneficiary did it. Did I mention that we’ve been watching a LOT of “Columbo” episodes in quarantine?)

  27. 27.

    joel hanes

    @bbleh: 

    how long a string of Christmas lights

    If I’m remembering my middle-school biology stuff correctly, I was taught “26 feet” (as if all humans were alike).

    Googling, I get “up to 30 feet”

    So 32 feet in order to have a good grip on either end.

  28. 28.

    dmsilev

    @Calouste: ‘I was being sarcastic’ was excuse number three or four after the earlier ones fell through. He knows at some level that he fucked up badly, that’s why he fled today’s briefing without taking any questions.

  29. 29.

    Geoboy

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): As for Rudy 911 America’s mayor, there was an attempt by a predecessor organization to Al Queda in the early 1990s to take down the World Trade Center towers.  Blew up some support pillars in the underground garage, killed several people, perps got sentenced to life plus 50 in the Colorado Fed Max.  It made New York City officials aware that they needed a central communications post in case something like that should happen again.  So they procured the necessary equipment and got ready to set it up.  Rudy overturned their choice of locations and selected – wait for it – the World Trade Center.  Why?  Because it was close to the mayor’s office, so he could use it as a convenient locatno for porking whatever misguided women would let him have his way with them.  So of course, on 911, it gets put out of commission when the first plane hits.  America’s mayer my ass.

  30. 30.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Calouste:

    Apparently, somehow, the shitgibbon and his cultists think sarcasm is appropriate at a press conference about a disease that has killed more than 50,000 Americans so far.

    I know right? That’s the best they (or at least Trump) could come up with. Sarcasm is not the right time or place for a press conference about a virus killing thousands every day.

    Some try to defend it as being “out of context”, but what possible context would be ok to tell people to inject disinfectants? There isn’t one.

    The local RW radio blowhards are trying so hard to push the “escaped from a Chinese lab” conspiracy theory. I was listening in the car today and the dude was getting super pissy about getting compared to Art Bell’s Coast to Coast AM, saying all the evidence is adding up (cited the State Department saying the Chinese biolabs are “sloppy”, that domestic flights in China stopped, but not flights leaving etc), and that he’ll never forgive China.

    That’s a big yikes from me, dawg

  31. 31.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Jeffro:

    The jokes can’t stay ahead of the absurd reality. I wonder often how The Onion stays in business.

    Actually one difference between  Trump and, say Cheney or McConnell, is that he’s ridiculous and Rs or Fox viewers or whatever group deny it. I keep pointing at it and looking around saying, “See? See?’ But no.

  32. 32.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Martin:

    Yeah, according to my dad they started paying out for suicide in the 80s or 90s. COLIs pretty much made it untenable to  not cover suicide.

    Fun fact, that’s a major plot point in Death of a Salesman. Willy Loman kills himself so his family will get the life insurance money, but they don’t of course. Any retelling set in the modern day wouldn’t work at least because of that detail.

  33. 33.

    Brachiator

    Reporter: Could you clarify your comments on injections of disinfectants?
    Trump: I was asking the question sarcastically to reporters like you just to see what would happen…
    Reporter: But you were asking your medical experts to look into it

    Right wing pundits and helpful conservative talk radio hosts here in Southern California are falling all over themselves to “explain” how Trump deliberately does this to prove that the liberal mainstream media are all dopes.

    But Trump’s base gets it. Even those who are asking if it is really true that they can get cured of the virus by drinking bleach or injecting themselves with disinfectant.

  34. 34.

    Another Scott

    @bbleh: I haven’t been interested enough to track the original thread down, but Donnie (and/or his mininons) may be referring to something like this (fairly) recent paper in Nature/ScientificReports:

    https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-21058-w

    Abstract

    Airborne-mediated microbial diseases such as influenza and tuberculosis represent major public health challenges. A direct approach to prevent airborne transmission is inactivation of airborne pathogens, and the airborne antimicrobial potential of UVC ultraviolet light has long been established; however, its widespread use in public settings is limited because conventional UVC light sources are both carcinogenic and cataractogenic. By contrast, we have previously shown that far-UVC light (207–222 nm) efficiently inactivates bacteria without harm to exposed mammalian skin. This is because, due to its strong absorbance in biological materials, far-UVC light cannot penetrate even the outer (non living) layers of human skin or eye; however, because bacteria and viruses are of micrometer or smaller dimensions, far-UVC can penetrate and inactivate them. We show for the first time that far-UVC efficiently inactivates airborne aerosolized viruses, with a very low dose of 2 mJ/cm2 of 222-nm light inactivating >95% of aerosolized H1N1 influenza virus. Continuous very low dose-rate far-UVC light in indoor public locations is a promising, safe and inexpensive tool to reduce the spread of airborne-mediated microbial diseases.

    Note that it’s a very small wavelength range (only 15 nm wide). (In general, broad-band UVC is bad (as the abstract says).)

    If one goes through the numbers, it looks like (as with reports going back to 2008 and earlier) that light is good for killing bacteria and viruses, but one would need a lot of light and scaling it up from a 2.5″ deep test chamber to a real room with real people and making it guaranteed 99+% effective might be tricky. And narrow band filters in general aren’t cheap. And UV-compatible optical materials in general aren’t cheap. Etc., etc.

    Of course, this light working in a test chamber says nothing about how it would behave inside a body. Where it would be stupid for all kinds of reasons…

    (sigh)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  35. 35.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Brachiator:

    Right wing pundits and helpful conservative talk radio hosts here in Southern California are falling all over themselves to “explain” how Trump deliberately does this to prove that the liberal mainstream media are all dopes.

    Do you think so of them know better or have they gotten high on their own supply and become cult members?

    This is super scary. Even if Trump loses in November, this isn’t going away anytime soon

  36. 36.

    Chacal Charles Calthrop

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): You have a hard time identifying Giuliani as a kook?  The same guy who has always maintained racial profiling is a great idea and who installed his anti-terrorism office in the actual building originally targeted for terrorist strikes well after terrorists tried to blow it up in 1993?

    Oh I see Geoboy got there ahead of me!  TFSM for the edit function.

    Giuliani was always a kook.  He’s a die-hard Republican, m’kay?

  37. 37.

    Jay

    @bbleh:

    6 to 9 metres dependant on height and body type for adults.

    so 19.68 feet to 29.5 feet.

    you will want to use LED’s, not incandesants and need to allow a for a swallowing regimen of 16 to 28 hours to allow for proper spacing through out the gastrointestinal tract.

  39. 39.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Geoboy:

    Oh yeah, I’ve heard about that. Like I said, I knew he was a typical corrupt pol, but not “epidemiology is communism” type crackpot

  40. 40.

    LeftCoastYankee

    I think the idea that if we don’t have a national government, we don’t really have a nation, is starting to sink in for a wider group of people.

    I’d give about even odds that at this point if Canada invaded Michigan, Trump would do nothing and blame Governor Whitmore.

  43. 43.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Another Scott: If you think the President or any of the sycophants he’s surrounded himself with actually read that, I have a bridge to sell you on some beachfront property.

    Also, it has now been reported what happened. The DHS science and research directorate’s results regarding UV light, sunlight, and disinfectants killing SARS-CoV2 on hard surfaces was briefly presented to him prior to going into yesterday’s press conference. Then the guy who runs that section, who, as I explained in comment #10, is not a scientist, briefed that at the press conference. Then the President just got up and went stream of consciousness because he heard what he wanted to hear: that they have scientific proof that UV light, sunlight, and disinfectants can kill SARS-CoV2. And he just ran with that.

  44. 44.

    Brachiator

    @Mnemosyne:

    I just got to explain the difference between an antiseptic and a disinfectant to a friend of a friend on Facebook, so that was fun. Short version: disinfectants should only be used on inanimate objects because they’re too dangerous for humans to ingest or use on their skin.

    I confess that I had not really thought about the difference because I don’t have to. But I expect a president to be more precise. He should know how to digest expert advice when giving a briefing on a public health matter.

    Interesting that this comes up neatly on a Google search.

    While both disinfectants and antiseptics perform the same purpose of killing bacteria upon contact. The difference, however, is that disinfectants kill bacteria on non-living surfaces such as ceramic, wood, stone, or metal, while antiseptics are designed for use on skin and wounds, i.e. living tissue.

    So, a special note for right wingers trying desperately to spin excuses for Trump. The Corona Virus is not a bacteria, so no matter how you slice it, Trump’s remarks were dangerous and ignorant.

  46. 46.

    Baud

    @WaterGirl:

    : I could do a fuck you, everybody post soon to help balance that out

    No worries.  I’m sure Cole will post something soon enough.

  47. 47.

    Jay

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    Tutti Fruitty Rudy Deludy as “America’s Mayor” was a MSM made up sop post 9/11 to try to turn the villians of the piece into “role models for the War of Terror”.

    Rudy killed first responders, firemen, police, people who pitched in, everyday heros, and then shit on their after care, their pensions, their insurance and their graves.

    He killed more New Yorkers during and after 9/11 than al Quida.

    But “America” needed a “plucky myth”, rather than hard facts and realities so the MSM obliged by fluffing Rudy.

  48. 48.

    bbleh

    @Martin: That’s great!  And it looks much smoother than Christmas lights — y’know, those little guys are kinda pointy.

  49. 49.

    Martin

    @Brachiator: Look, formaldehyde and methanol are excellent disinfectants and we inject both into bodies all the time – in large quantities.

  50. 50.

    Brachiator

    @Mnemosyne:

    Did I mention that we’ve been watching a LOT of “Columbo” episodes in quarantine?)

    I’ve been watching some YouTube clips about Columbo. Where are complete episodes available?

  52. 52.

    Martin

    @bbleh: Yeah, though the LED packaging is surprisingly sharp, so find a good edible lube and, well, you’re gonna need a lot of it.

  53. 53.

    danielx

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    Even if Trump loses in November, this isn’t going away anytime soon

    Of course not. You don’t expect Alex Jones, to name just one, to give up his rice bowl, do you? Owning the libs in a pretty decent paying gig if you have a strong stomach and no conscience.

  58. 58.

    Jay

    BREAKING: We have determined the real identity of "Elbrus", a high-ranking FSB officer who was tied to the downing of MH17 and planning the extraterritorial assassination of Russia's enemies abroad. His name: Colonel Igor Anatolyevich Egorov.https://t.co/XAR3CHBWoT— Bellingcat (@bellingcat) April 24, 2020

  60. 60.

    bbleh

    @Martin: Or maybe a coating? At $1/M for large orders, I’m seein’ GOLD in them thar deep-red districts, knowimsayin’?

    “Some discomfort may occur.  Fasting for 24 hours prior to use is strongly recommended. Do not allow power source to enter body. Ensure that bathroom access is possible while connected.”

    “Ask Your Doctor About Viro-Lite!  The Drug-Free Alternative!”

  61. 61.

    Kent

    @Martin:@bbleh: Just so you know, Christmas lights don’t put out UV. I’d suggest the Phobya UV strip.  12V so you can power it off your pickup truck cigarette lighter, and 5m means you’ll need to solder two of them together so you can really scrub it up and down through there. Remember, the small intestine alone is around 6m long.

    Coronavirus inhabits your respiratory system not your digestive system.  So swallowing lights isn’t going to work.  You’d need to find an inhalable light source that you can get into your lungs.  Maybe snort powdered sodium nitrate or barium chloride (fireworks chemicals) up your nose followed by a long flexible match.  That should do the trick!   Coronavirus all gone…BOOM!

  63. 63.

    bbleh

    @Kent: Hmm, how about a high-powered UV laser that I can shoot down my throat?  Trying to stay chemical-free here, you see.

  65. 65.

    Mnemosyne

    @Brachiator:

    That’s the whole appeal of Trump: he makes stupid people feel smart because they think they’re in on the con.

    But as I keep saying, the easiest people to con are the ones who think they’re in on it. They never are, but a good con man makes them think they are.

  66. 66.

    Kent

    @bbleh:@Kent: Hmm, how about a high-powered UV laser that I can shoot down my throat?  Trying to stay chemical-free here, you see.

    Light rays don’t bend.  So you’d have to inhale some sort of reflective material first, maybe coat your lungs with mercury, in order to get the laser to bounce its way all the way down to your alveoli.  And you’d have to shoot it down your larynx not your throat.

  67. 67.

    Jay

    @Cleardale:

    I assumed they would do it the “easy way” not the hard way. I did not account for the RWNJ’s fondness for inserting things in their asses.

  68. 68.

    trollhattan

    @Chris T.:

    Cervical cancer, but there’s a vaccine now.

    Rudy probably thinks bowling is contagious, so whatever comes out of his yap is considered a lie unless proven otherwise.

  71. 71.

    Mandalay

    @Brachiator:

    Right wing pundits and helpful conservative talk radio hosts here in Southern California are falling all over themselves to “explain” how Trump deliberately does this to prove that the liberal mainstream media are all dopes.

    For that argument to have any credibility we need evidence of those pundits and hosts pointing out that Trump was using sarcasm yesterday. And AFAIK nobody – absolutely nobody – suggested that Trump was being sarcastic until Trump himself made the claim.

  72. 72.

    Jay

    @Kent:

    but if you have sufficient lumens, it will penatrate through to the lungs, but you will also have a healthy glow.

    You will have to either shelter in place, ( or as far as an extension cord reaches), or haul around a portable generator, which should help with social distancing.

  74. 74.

    Brachiator

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    RE: Right wing pundits and helpful conservative talk radio hosts here in Southern California are falling all over themselves to “explain” how Trump deliberately does this to prove that the liberal mainstream media are all dopes.

    Do you think so of them know better or have they gotten high on their own supply and become cult members?

    Most know better. One of the sad realities of the idea of talking points is that leaders of various factions get together to decide on how to defend political leaders and pass out this information to friendly media people. Most are happy to go along. They see it as part of their job.

    Simply from the way some news items are delivered and covered, I will bet good money that some conservative station owners and news directors instruct on air radio and tv personalities about what angle they should use when talking about Trump.

    And again, some of these on air personalities are happy to go along. Even when a talk show host is relatively honest, he or she is often paired with a co-host or occasional commenter who will try to inject the agreed upon talking points.

    During the Bush administration I once heard Michael Medved talking about how delighted he was to have been invited to some discussion group with conservative media personalities put together by Bush or Cheney’s people. And he kept emphasizing how the discussion was “off the record.”

    I wondered how even the most devoted right wing listener to Medved’s show would think it a good thing that Medved was bragging about how he knew something that his listeners didn’t know and he was happy to keep secrets. But the logical question would be, how could anyone see Medved as being honest about any of his opinions?

  75. 75.

    Cleardale

    @Jay: So hard to tell…they have a lot of practice sticking both their heads and their thumbs up their asses, yet they are also used to being shoveled loads of shit to swallow.

  76. 76.

    bbleh

    @Kent: Light rays don’t bend.  So you’d have to inhale some sort of reflective material first, maybe coat your lungs with mercury, in order to get the laser to bounce its way all the way down to your alveoli.

    Mercury!  That explains the new emissions rule!  Cure the virus and stimulate the economy!

    Boy, Trump is just amazing, isn’t he?  Always thinking several steps ahead.

  77. 77.

    germy

    I, at elevated risk for dying from covid, am now locked into a house with a covid+ patient because his nursing home discharged him without retesting. If you are among those who keep saying the risk of covid is low, I invite you to come over. We need help moving some furniture.— Megan McArdle (@asymmetricinfo) April 24, 2020

    It turns out that when you drown the government in the bathtub, it is not there when you need it. McArdle worked her entire career to bring us to this happy state of minimum government, lax or no regulation, and not enough healthcare. But she never thought it could kill *her.* https://t.co/NTD6i7Xrx3— Susan of Texas (@SusanofTexas) April 24, 2020

  78. 78.

    Mnemosyne

    @Brachiator:

    I think there are some on Netflix and/or Hulu, but my husband is such a giant TV nerd that we have them on DVD.

    Or, if you have MeTV or a similar nostalgia channel on your cable lineup, I think they show them regularly.

    The ones from the 1970s are generally the best, and the ones from the 1990s are generally the weakest (though there are a few good ones). They were all made to fit into a movie-sized TV slot, so they’re usually 90 or 120 minutes with commercials. 

  79. 79.

    NotMax

    cold meds containing ephedrine

    I wish. The ones kept behind the counter contain pseudoephedrine, which doesn’t clear up sinus symptoms anywhere near as effectively as the real stuff did back when it was included in pills for sale on the regular shelves.

  81. 81.

    Jay

    @Cleardale:

    still remember the homophobic  GOP Fundi RWNJ “preacher” who’s “partner”  anonamously called it in and when the EMT’s arrived,……

    it was an erotic auto asphyxiation gone wrong,

    in a wet suit,

    wearing a gimp mask,

    with two dildo’s inserted.

  82. 82.

    Brachiator

    @Mandalay:

    RE: Right wing pundits and helpful conservative talk radio hosts here in Southern California are falling all over themselves to “explain” how Trump deliberately does this to prove that the liberal mainstream media are all dopes.

    For that argument to have any credibility we need evidence of those pundits and hosts pointing out that Trump was using sarcasm yesterday. And AFAIK nobody – absolutely nobody – suggested that Trump was being sarcastic until Trump himself made the claim.

    I have not yet heard it about this most recent claim. However, I regularly hear on air personalities on Los Angeles talk radio stations claim that Trump deliberately makes “outrageous” statements to goad and bait the liberal media, and that they should just ignore him. The implication is that Trump’s base is in on the joke and knows when he is kidding.

    On the news commentary segment on KFI talk radio this morning, a second banana announcer had not yet got the word about sarcasm, but did say “Well you know, Trump was right when he said that disinfectant would kill the virus.” In this way, the guy avoided the issue of whether Trump had advocated any use of disinfectant as medical treatment.

  85. 85.

    Mike in NC

    We’ve long seen proof that Trump doesn’t have one molecule of wit in his lizard brain.

  86. 86.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @schrodingers_cat: Oh fuck off.  Does that make you feel better?  Because, seriously, your whining about the lack fighting, etc., is getting tiresome.  The world is going up in flames and people generally have better things to do than fight over which person that they agree with on 85-90% of things is better.

  87. 87.

    Jay

    @germy:

    it’s nice that kharma has decided with some people to really shorten the waiting list,

     

    now if she could only get around to the past due accounts like Kissinger,

  88. 88.

    NotMax

    The bleach’s miraculous powers manifest more vigorously if it’s swallowed along with an entire packet of Pop Rocks.

    //

  89. 89.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    The world is going up in flames

    Indeed. On this very blog, earlier today, somebody suggested that a “vodka martini” could be acceptable. Our very civilization is on the brink.

  90. 90.

    Mnemosyne

    @CliosFanBoy:

    That’s a really fun one. Since they’re cozy mysteries, it’s pretty common for the same guest stars to show up in multiple movies as different characters. We just saw one with Martin Landau playing identical twins, which gave him many opportunities for entertaining scenery-chewing.

  92. 92.

    Brachiator

    @Mnemosyne:

    But as I keep saying, the easiest people to con are the ones who think they’re in on it. They never are, but a good con man makes them think they are.

    I may have mentioned that friends and clients have asked my advice on investment schemes. I suggested to a married couple that one investment opportunity (you got paid for bringing new people in) sounded bogus. They decided that they would stay in long enough to get a little profit and got stung.

    So one of my rules about con games is that only two people know when a con is going to end. The cops, just before they go in to arrest somebody. And the con man, when he (or she) has decided to roll up the game and move on. Everybody else is just a sucker.

    Also, some of the best people to con seem to be doctors and airline pilots. They are arrogant enough to think that they can outwit the con man. And they tend to keep quiet longer when they discover that they have been fleeced. Ego gets them coming and going.

  93. 93.

    Martin

    @Kent: Light rays do bend. Just stand next to a very dense gravitational body. I suggest spinning at a relatively high rate of speed normal to the gravitational field to make sure you get in all the nooks and crannies.

  95. 95.

    Martin

    @Jay: Oh, that’s true. Skin in partially transparent. A high enough light source should work. Cheryl has specific expertise in designing one.

  96. 96.

    Jay

    @Martin:

    so, ingest a black hole first, then the lights,

    so RWNJ’s have an advantage to begin with because they replaced their hearts (metaphorically) with black holes a long time ago,……

  97. 97.

    Redshift

    The daily covid email update from my county government led off today with a “don’t drink or inject bleach” section. Sigh.

  98. 98.

    Adam L Silverman

    Fox News Viewers.

  103. 103.

    leeleeFL

    @lgerard: Rudy watched Dr. Phil but missed the retraction thingy, obvee.

    I really am amazed at the fact that ANYONE, EVEN FOX is still giving that malign asshole airtime!  he was dispatched with great panache by the next President when Joe said “..a noun, a verb and 9/11.

    You”re welcome!

  104. 104.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Adam L Silverman:

    ave McKinney @davemckinney· 2h
    Retweeting for emphasis: TWO PEOPLE called Illinois’ poison hotline after hazardous exposure to household chemicals they tried after saying they heard President Trump’s advocacy of the disinfectants as a possible COVID-19 treatment. Neither died.

  107. 107.

    Jay

    BTW, with the current price of oil and the value of oil futures,

    Exxon is probably going to have to lay off some Politicians and Climate Deniers.

  109. 109.

    Brachiator

    @Mnemosyne:

    Since they’re cozy mysteries, it’s pretty common for the same guest stars to show up in multiple movies as different characters.

    Let’s see. Jack Cassidy, Patrick McGoohan, George Hamilton, Robert Culp come to mind as playing charming but arrogant villains, often multiple times.

    I did see one complete episode on YouTube with Falk’s friend John Cassavetes as a murdering concert pianist.

    Fun show.

  111. 111.

    leeleeFL

    @germy: So, what you’re saying is the Tiger is presently eating her face?

    Too bad, so sad, Byebye, now, Ms. Megan!

  112. 112.

    Felanius Kootea

    I can’t wait for November to get here and for this idiot to be voted out.  For the first time, I felt sorry for Dr. Birx.  There was an expression on her face when he made the comments about light and disinfectant, one that told me she was questioning all the life choices she made to get to this place and time with this moron as the leader of the country.  My fantasy is that one day, she finally snaps, jumps up and grabs the microphone while yelling “that is the stupidest goddamn thing I’ve ever heard in my life and you need to be locked away in a padded cell for every American’s safety.”  It’ll never happen but a girl can dream.

  114. 114.

    catclub

    The problem is that Trump thinks he is winning with all this because the ratings are high and people are talking about him, and not something useful.

  115. 115.

    lgerard

    Drinking bleach may sound bad, but have you tried the Cherry Blast flavor?

    Cool Ranch Clorox

    MMMMMM

  116. 116.

    danielx

    @Jay:

    it was an erotic auto asphyxiation gone wrong,

    in a wet suit,

    wearing a gimp mask,

    with two dildo’s inserted.

    That reads like something out of a Ken Bruen book.

  118. 118.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @danielx: FWIW it was two wet suits.  That was the thing that drew most people’s attention.  Why would you need two?

  120. 120.

    geg6

    @Adam L Silverman:

    He’s also been getting letters from a Florida Man who is big in Trumper and anti-vax circles who peddles am autism and C19 cure that consists of drinking or getting an enema of water with bleach in it.  It is said he’s been reading the letters.

  121. 121.

    Anotherlurker

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): giuliani was always an egotistical asshole. His decisions to over ride the advice of security experts and locate NYC’s Emergency Response Command Center in the fucking World Trade Center.  Ground Fucking Zero. He knew better than everybody.

    His image as the hands on, get dirty father figure is due to his uncanny knowledge of how to work the media.  He and his gang were wandering aimlessly around ground zero with no place to co-ordinate the response.  He had good P.R. people who could make a silk purse out of tragic sow’s ear.  America’s Mayor, my ass.

    He was, is and always will be a blowhard, a con man.

  124. 124.

    NotMax

    @Omnes Omnibus

    Not at all. The dash of bitters in an old school Gibson suffuse well with the neutrality of vodka, whereas it can clash with the botanicals of some gins (those other than the Dutch genevers), and the hint of briny tang imparted by the cocktail onions isn’t subsumed when vodka is employed the way it can be with gin.

    YMMV.

  126. 126.

    Redshift

    @Omnes Omnibus: One of my favorite Maddow bits was back when she would occasionally demonstrate how to make a cocktail at the end of the show. One time she was demonstrating how to make a martini. She talked about gin, and then said, “some people say you can make a martini with vodka. I’m sure they are perfectly fine people…”, then stopped, and said, “No. They are wrong, and they are bad people.”

  127. 127.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Adam L Silverman: I think it was Maryland health authorities had to put out a statement in response to inquiries, but I saw that on twitter a few hours ago and I can’t remember in whose feed

  129. 129.

    Mingobat (f/k/a Karen in GA)

    @Geoboy: Yep.  Rudy seemed like a stern but loving daddy on TV, shouting “put your mask on!” in the street near the collapsed towers, but the only reason he was outside with everyone else was because the city’s command center was destroyed.  He was an idiot.

    Then he wanted to put off the mayoral election that fall because he was going to be term-limited out of the job.  New York got over him pretty quickly after that.

  131. 131.

    A Ghost to Most

    @Kent:

    You’d need to find an inhalable light source that you can get into your lungs

    You could coat some nice nugs with radium powder, and burn that shit down. Your lungs would glow then.

  132. 132.

    leeleeFL

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):  Kindly remember that the reason the Firefighters were unable to hear the warnings about the Towers falling was the failure of the walkie-talkies to work INSIDE.  Rudy bought those…and put the command center INSIDE the WTC…because he couldn’t find diamonds in a bucket of shit.

    My Brother is a firefighter who helped cover the City Houses so the Guys that survived could attend all the Funerals

    Edited to note I was beaten to the Punch!

  134. 134.

    Poe Larity

    Red Eye to ATL is strangely expenisive. Maybe I’m not the only one looking for a haircut.

  135. 135.

    Anotherlurker

    @catclub: Read “The Grand Illusion : The Truth About Rudy Giuliani and 911”. by Wayne Barrett and Dan Collins.  They were 2 investigative reporters for Rolling Stone and they dug deep into the why’s and how’s of this most horrible day in NYC’s history.

    Read up on the mess of radio interoperability among NYP, NYFD and the other Emergency services.

  141. 141.

    Kent

    @Jay:but if you have sufficient lumens, it will penatrate through to the lungs, but you will also have a healthy glow.

    You will have to either shelter in place, ( or as far as an extension cord reaches), or haul around a portable generator, which should help with social distancing.

    Well, if you are going to use enough lumens to penetrate your chest cavity, then no reason to even swallow it.  Just line up the most powerful UV light source you can find, strap on some welding goggles, strip naked, and stand in front.  Maybe some of those spotlights that shine into the sky that car dealerships use. But they would have to be tuned to the UV spectrum not visible light.

    Of course that much UV light is going to fry your skin to a crisp and give you melanoma.  But hey…we don’t worry about side effects apparently, when a Trump cure is involved!

  143. 143.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Omnes Omnibus:”Three measures of Gordon’s, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it’s ice-cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon peel. Got it?”

  144. 144.

    Anotherlurker

    @Kent: I purchased a Steampunk style Plague Doctor’s mask.

    When worn with a XXXl hoodie,  it really helps with social distancing.

  145. 145.

    Comrade Scrutinizer

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Trump isn’t the disease, he’s a symptom.  The disease is the .1%, like the Mercers and the Kochs, who’ve managed to buy the GOP.  Until we deal with that, this doesn’t end.  What I find scary is the idea of an intelligent Trump. The only thing standing in the way of that so far is that the deplorables who are the base are hostile to intelligence.

  150. 150.

    Kent

    @Comrade Scrutinizer:@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Trump isn’t the disease, he’s a symptom.  The disease is the .1%, like the Mercers and the Kochs, who’ve managed to buy the GOP.  Until we deal with that, this doesn’t end.  What I find scary is the idea of an intelligent Trump. The only thing standing in the way of that so far is that the deplorables who are the base are hostile to intelligence.

    They would have zero success were it not for the apparent majority of white people in this country who are captive of their toxic stew of racism, white supremacy, and evangelical Christianity.

    The country was like that long before the Kochs and Mercers were even born.

  153. 153.

    Mnemosyne

    @Anotherlurker:

    I saw someone on Facebook who bought a mask with adorable little cartoon peni$es on it. If anyone says, “Hey, wait, you have peni$es on your mask!” her reply is, “Yeah, that’s so I can tell who’s standing too close to me! Back up!” ?

  161. 161.

    Mnemosyne

    If it’s cocktail hour, I bought a bottle of super-fancy Empress 1908 gin after a coworker of mine gave me her recipe for a cocktail made with it. I’m no connoisseur, but it seems to be pretty darn tasty to my uneducated palate, and it’s a beautiful indigo blue, to boot:

    https://www.empressgin.com/

  162. 162.

    Mnemosyne

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    If they can see a rated R movie by themselves, then they can hear about ? s.

    ETA: Besides, Pen & Key just announced the birth of his first child, so I think he’s figured things out.

  163. 163.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Gin & Tonic: I always thought a gin-and-vodka martini was a silver bullet, but the internet tells me what Bond ordered was called a vesper. A silver bullet is gin and licorice liqueur which…. /shudder/

  164. 164.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Mandalay: Anyway, the idea that Trump was sarcastically baiting the media in the middle of his coronavirus briefing isn’t a defense either, because that would be a terrible thing to do. What kind of poisoned mind is it that thinks shit-flinging to own the libs in an event intended to inform the public about a killer pandemic is something to be proud of?

  165. 165.

    Emma from FL

    @Gin & Tonic: Yes, but Lillet doesn’t make Kina any more and Lillet Blanc doesn’t quite fit the bill. You need to find a chinchona bark liqueur.

  169. 169.

    Jeffro

    I’m curious…how is that investigation into the Bidens and Ukraine going, hmm?

    I thought it was the CRIME OF THE CENTURY! – no?

    It’s almost like, “eh, I tried to frame ’em, I got busted, the prosecutors didn’t wanna do nothing about it, next topic”

    Am I right?

    See also: Clinton Foundation, Uranium One, CARAVANS!!1!, ‘deep state’ shenanigans, etc etc.

    C’mon, national snooze media: throw trumpov a ringer at the next substitute hate rally and ask him about his dedication to rooting out corruption in the Ukraine.

    LOLOL

  171. 171.

    Another Scott

    @Kent:

    Light rays don’t bend.

    Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity, and Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon album cover, beg to differ.

    So, you have to either approach a super-massive celestial object, or fill your lungs in a higher refractive index material (maybe like sulfur in a methylene iodide solution)…

    HTH!!!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  172. 172.

    Punchy

    If bleach has chlorine, and swimming pools use chlorine, wont drinking pool water keep me safe?  Isnt this how science work?

  177. 177.

    Emma from FL

    @Omnes Omnibus: I read Casino Royale at an impressionable age and have disliked Bond ever since. Never saw a movie — or saw only bits and pieces as my dad liked them when they showed up on tv. It wasn’t until Craig… is the eyes, I think. Blue that can go from total opacity to insanely reflective. Just as I pictured the charming psychopath.

  179. 179.

    patrick II

    The three most Common Conservative excuses:

    1. I was being sarcastic.

    2. It was a metaphor.

    3. It was a joke.

    “Alternative Facts” is no longer operative.

  182. 182.

    NotMax

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Occasionally mix up a homemade drink with no name consisting of vodka and the merest whisper of dry vermouth poured into a glass which already has ice cubes, a splash of sambuca (licorice liqueur) and two (never one, never three) black peppercorns (variation – also one drop of Angostura bitters), all at the last stirred well in the glass with a swizzle stick.

    For those who (a) do drink and (b) don’t care for gin or for vodka, there’s always the Moitié-moitié (Half and Half): equal parts sweet and dry vermouth poured over ice cubes in an old fashioned glass, garnished with a twist of either lemon or orange peel.

  183. 183.

    danielx

    @Felanius Kootea:

    I’m surprised he hasn’t already, what with all the innuendos about videos of him which involve pee in one way or another.

    Hmmm. Maybe comments like that are why no stimulus check has arrived. Does that speculation make me paranoid?

  184. 184.

    Kent

    @Mike J: Hey Yutsy (or other WA folks), it looks like a lot of LDs are running low on delegates to the state and national convention. Deadline is tonight.    If you want to jump in, hit the web site before 11:59. https://wademscaucus2020.azurewebsites.net/

    Thanks for the heads up.  I went and looked and there seem to be plenty of candidates for my LD #18 (suburban Clark County).

  185. 185.

    jonas

    @Martin: Yeah, but remember, coronavirus affects the lungs, so you’d have to like find a way to like grind up and inhale the string of lights or something…

  186. 186.

    danielx

    @patrick II:

    Nixon’s press secretary at one point said that a certain “…statement was nonoperative.” Trump’s statements are nonoperative also, in the sense that dynamite is nonoperative after it explodes.

  187. 187.

    lgerard

    @lgerard:

    Cool Ranch Clorox

    i just remembered that Clorox owns Hidden Valley, popularizer of all things “ranch”.

    maybe trump is doing some sort of guerilla marketing thing on behalf of “one of our great companies”

  188. 188.

    Lyrebird

    @Omnes Omnibus: Do you remember a song you linked here a year or two ago with a video set in a locked carnival?  Female lead singer (blonde with highlights maybe?) and other band members sneak in, try to avoid security, spin around on some of the equipment?  Voice similar to Sam Phillips?

    If so, kindly re-link.  That was a really good song.

    Thanks either way

  189. 189.

    Mike J

    @Kent: Thanks for checking.  When I got the email, we didn’t have enough in mine, and now we’ve got the raw numbers, but I don’t know if we have the proper Biden/Bernie split (we’re 12/11, with 27 people running total).

  191. 191.

    trollhattan

    File under not quite ready–had an 18-mile bike ride this afternoon and it hit 92 degrees, which makes it feel like a 28-mile ride afterwards. #ToomuchToosoonSummer

    Also, too, state fair cancelled for the first time since WWII. We’ll all be off at the B-24 assembly line, so no point.

  194. 194.

    Kent

    @Mike J:@Kent: Thanks for checking.  When I got the email, we didn’t have enough in mine, and now we’ve got the raw numbers, but I don’t know if we have the proper Biden/Bernie split (we’re 12/11, with 27 people running total).

    There were plenty of Biden folks in 18.  Lots of them looked like long-time local Dem activists from their profiles, or they are highly exaggerated.  I didn’t count the Bernie folks.

  197. 197.

    JaySinWA

    @rikyrah: Is there some source for the demographics of nursing homes either in general or in Georgia? ‘Cause I tend to think of them as old white people, but maybe I am wrong.

  198. 198.

    debbie

    @rikyrah:

    In Ohio, they are only reporting the number of nursing home residents who have COVID-19. I think they’re going to start reporting deaths sometime next week. I don’t think this is a good sign.

  199. 199.

    Yutsano

    @Mike J: @Kent: My district (8) seems to be well representative of the delegate split here. I looked at what was going on and it does push my religious boundaries. But if Jackie shows up (I believe she’s in my district) we can discuss that with her. Death Panel Truck is in another district I think.

  200. 200.

    patrick II

    @danielx:

    I know.  I was trying to get “alternative facts” and “non-operative” into a single line as a brilliant meta-sarcastic finisher, but I forgot “non-operative” exactly and wrote “no longer operative” instead.  The perils of old age and an imperfect memory.

  203. 203.

    Lyrebird

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    YAYY thank you so much!

    Brain was stuck on “Falling” which ain’t it…  “Trying”

    Good song.

    Thanks also for sharing it in the first place.

  210. 210.

    Brachiator

    @JaySinWA:

    Is there some source for the demographics of nursing homes either in general or in Georgia? ‘Cause I tend to think of them as old white people, but maybe I am wrong.

    Nursing home deaths are a worldwide problem.

    Patients and staff.

  211. 211.

    TriassicSands

    Damn, yesterday, after hearing Dr. Trump’s comments, I swallowed a UV tanning lamp! Now, I find out he was being sarcastic? At least I haven’t plugged it in yet.

    Q: Do you think I’ll need a laxative to pass it?

  212. 212.

    HarlequinGnoll

    Just want to get this rant off my chest in a thread where it’s somewhat related.  Every single time my idiot coworkers could sneeze in our secured work space someone would get up and spray Lysol into the air like it was air freshener.  This was for worries over “flu virus”.

  213. 213.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Geoboy: America’s mayor my ass.

    (FTFY) America’s goombah, more like.

    I have no clue as to where Crudy-Colludy Ghouliani’s ultimate “resting place” will be – but I’d put good money on his penultimate location being a half-filled cement bag** in the trunk of a Coupe de Ville, en route to whatever deepwater inlet whose benthos has been chosen as that final destination.

    And good riddance, too. No Italian-American with an IQ over 80 should ever think of that scumbag without crossing him/herself & muttering Che vergogna…

    ** (“That cement is just there for the weight, deah,” as “Mack the Knife” so delicately puts it…)

  214. 214.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @danielx: Nixon’s press secretary at one point said that a certain “…statement was nonoperative.”

    Ron Ziegler – and the precise term was “inoperative,” not nonoperative. Check his obituary. I lived through that bullshit as a politically active (Democratic) young adult; I remember like it was burned into my frontal lobes with a soldering iron. /pedant

  215. 215.

    Matt McIrvin

    @catclub: Circular polarization is used in modern 3D glasses. It keeps the stereo effect from being too messed up if you tilt your head.

  217. 217.

    LongHairedWeirdo

    @beef: It varies, and depends on the laws. Really, it does make sense to say that suicide within a certain period of time might be planned, but most people are completely uninformed about suicide.

    Obviously, the laws of physics, as we understand them, don’t forbid the possibility that rational people might commit suicide, for “logical” reasons, and didn’t want to be rescued, but equally obviously, we can *never* know if that was the case. We can say that, almost invariably, people rescued from suicide are grateful to be alive, and glad to have failed – but for some people that’s not enough evidence, because the negative hasn’t been proven – that no *successful* suicide victims would have been upset if stopped.

    Thing is, there hasn’t been a human misery that can’t lead to a semi-fulfilling life with proper supportive care. Quadriplegics don’t keep blinking “kill me” in Morse code (though some may feel that way at first) if they have good care, and if they *do* feel that way, it’s more of a problem to be solved, *not* a reason to die. Sure, their life isn’t what they’d have chosen – but they can still find meaning, and some level of content. So, why would someone with an objectively lesser problem be determined to die, over the long term?

    (If their situation is objectively worse than quadriplegia, I’d say that we’ve hit the ethical point where people might discuss hastening the end, either via hospice or the equivalent, or assisted suicide. I’m not writing this to debate any side of that issue; I’m just noting the point as one where I think there’s broad agreement that the situation has changed.)

    People do become *obsessed* with the idea, and talk about it, but except possibly in extreme, unknowable outliers, all evidence says that a healthy (physically, mentally, emotionally/spiritually) will avoid unnecessary death, and certainly not plan to kill themselves sometime in the next 12-24 months, after their big, year old, life insurance policy covers suicide.

    Still, suicide has been a thorny legal issue for a long time. There was a time when, if you survived, you could be hanged for the attempt. (Which sounds like something Trump would support. Maybe an reporter should ask that question during one of his briefings. If turnabout is fair play, trolling Trump is as fair as it gets.) It’s so often viewed from a moral perspective, as if people contemplating suicide have the proper mens rea to commit a serious crime!

    So part of the anti-suicide laws for life insurance are based on that incorrect moral perspective – that even if it’s not an attempt to enrich one’s heirs, it’s still a horrible thing, that must be punished.

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