Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

Disagreements are healthy; personal attacks are not.

Innocent people do not delay justice.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

At some point, the ability to learn is a factor of character, not IQ.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

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

The willow is too close to the house.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

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

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

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

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 / No AF1 Ride for YOU!

No AF1 Ride for YOU!

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Louie Gohmert, the Jim Hoft of the US House of Representatives, has tested positive for the coronavirus, according to Politico:

Rep. Louie Gohmert — a Texas Republican who has been walking around the Capitol without a mask — has tested positive for the coronavirus, according to multiple sources.

Gohmert was scheduled to fly to Texas on Wednesday morning with President Donald Trump and tested positive in a pre-screen at the White House. The eighth-term Republican told CNN last month that he was not wearing a mask because he was being tested regularly for the coronavirus.

“[I]f I get it,” he told CNN in June, “you’ll never see me without a mask.”

Comments like that solidify the representative’s iron grip on the Dumbest Man in Congress title, despite spirited competition from offensive dullards like Jim Jordan and Matt Gaetz.

I didn’t watch the Barr hearing yesterday, but wasn’t Gohmert doing his usual nasally shouty thing throughout? Anyone who was in a 15-foot radius of that goober better get themselves tested pronto.

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

110Comments

  1. 1.

    Jeffro

    “If you see me on fire,” Gohmert said, “you’ll never see me bathing in gasoline and playing with matches again”.

    Well, you’ve that one right, sunshine.

  6. 6.

    JPL

    Rep. Gohmert went back to his Capitol Hill office after testing positive for COVID-19 at the White House. The question now is — where does he quarantine? Reporting w/ @benyc https://twitter.com/KFaulders/status/1288479426683047939?s=20

     

    hmm,   sucks to be on his staff

  10. 10.

    germy

    Gohmert looks like the kind of guy who spits when he talks.

    When he gets worked up and yells, a spray of droplets.

  11. 11.

    Major Major Major Major

    I guess the campaign commercial wasn’t working out as planned.

  14. 14.

    BC in Illinois

    And, of course, yesterday on Twitter, Brad Parscale posted a Trump/2020 campaign ad, mocking Chairman Jerry Nadler for telling the Republicans on the committee to wear their masks:

    BREAKING NEWS: The first case of the #Karendemic identified in Washington, DC.

    Because of course, the epitome of being a “Karen” is wearing a mask.

  15. 15.

    senyordave

    The Covid-19 he can put up with, so long as no one casts aspersions on his asparagus

  20. 20.

    PAM Dirac

    This study published yesterday does not look good. From the abstract:

    Findings In this cohort study including 100 patients recently recovered from COVID-19 identified from a COVID-19 test center, cardiac magnetic resonance imaging revealed cardiac involvement in 78 patients (78%) and ongoing myocardial inflammation in 60 patients (60%), which was independent of preexisting conditions, severity and overall course of the acute illness, and the time from the original diagnosis.

    Sure , “just the flu”. They really are a death cult.

  25. 25.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Major Major Major Major: Ah, they got their misleading videos for campaign commercials. That’s all they really wanted, and to show their people that Trump was willing to shoot black people and those defending them.

    Still, overall good news. I think the treats of arresting Federal officers actually had a lot to do with this.

  26. 26.

    Ken

    What’s the big deal? Shove Gohmert on the plane with Trump and give them both a big dose of hydroxychloroquine. It cures and prevents, right?

  27. 27.

    cain

    @Jinchi: Hopefully things can cool down there now.

    Nope.. not gonna happen. The PPD is still a piece of shit, and the protests are going to continue until the PPD stands down. They will continue to tear gas the protesters because that’s what they do.

  28. 28.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Major Major Major Major: 
    Just heard that, and was coming here to share and comment. This is a very good thing. Hope the Feds also decide against going, unwelcome and uninvited, into all the other “Democrat-run” cities they’re so concerned about.

  30. 30.

    Ken

    @MisterForkbeard: I think the treats of arresting Federal officers actually had a lot to do with this.

    There was also that cumulative fine for blocking the sidewalk, though I doubt it’ll ever be paid.

    Were any of the DHS secret police from DC? I thought I heard the mayor has set a 14-day quarantine for anyone entering the city. Might not apply to Oregon.

  31. 31.

    BC in Illinois

    People like Gohmert are living in a whole different world.

    Monday, I drove my SIL to a cataract appointment. Medical building, distancing, masks, temperature checks, seats in the waiting room taped off so that people can’t sit together, etc.

    The second question they asked me was “Have you been in contact with anyone who has tested positive for the caronavirus?”

    At this point, Bill Barr, all of Gohmert’s staff, and every GOP Rep will have to answer “yes.”

    They should self-quarantine.

  36. 36.

    LeftCoastYankee

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Governor Brown has been impressive in 2020.

    @Jinchi:

    Local activists have been amazingly consistent in stating they are protesting the treatment of black people by the Portland Police.  The PPB is technically banned from using tear gas unless they are threatened, so they declare every night a threat.

    With the city council considering a proposal that the Police union is crying about, I don’t see the protests stopping.  Mostly it will go back to being a local news item instead of national.

  37. 37.

    Kelly

    @cain: Oregon State Police will guard the federal building not Portland PD. Interesting development which may help defuse the situation. Yes, OSP jerks went into a Corvallis restaurant and refused to wear masks.

  39. 39.

    Ken

    @SiubhanDuinne: all the “Democrat-run” cities

    MAJOR STRASSER: How about New York?

    RICK BLAINE: Well, there are sections of New York, major, that I wouldn’t advise you to try to invade.

  40. 40.

    BC in Illinois

    Nadler, on Twitter

    Rep. Nadler

    @RepJerryNadler

    I want to wish ⁦  @replouiegohmert a full & speedy recovery. When individuals refuse to take the necessary precautions it puts everyone at risk. I’ve regularly instructed all Members to wear their masks and hope this is a lesson by all my colleagues.

    A dose of good wishes, with a sprinkling of “I told you so” and “I hope this is a lesson to the rest of you.”

  41. 41.

    Jinchi

    @Major Major Major Major: it would certainly behoove the protestors to do their damnedest to keep things peaceful

    Agreed. But I’m pretty sure some of them are Proud Boys or Boogaloo Bois who want the chaos to go on.

  42. 42.

    Joey Maloney

    @Kropacetic: 

    Republicans are going to regret that conference-wide kissing party.

    Fortunately, Trump’s ass is wide enough to allow for some social distancing.

  43. 43.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    On an informative note, Gohmert’s  Chief of Staff, Connie Hair, has a credit as a soft core porn actress in the bad hard R “Women In Prison” movie “Fake Out”.

    During a shower scene, she tells a character (Pia Zadora, as I remember) to “relax, enjoy” in a prison rape sequence.

    I’ve seen the clip, back in my wingnut-curious days during internecine squabbles.

  44. 44.

    Aleta

    Well, everyone has to sacrifice for the cause!  Seriously, every high profile Republican who gets real sick could (by that news) save lives, reduce spread to the innocent people;  seems OK to hope for the greater good.

    On the darker side of the real man, yesterday (when I suspect he knew) Gohmert  “went on to say that liability protections for businesses are of utmost importance.”

  45. 45.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Aleta:

    Here’s hoping that he chokes and drowns on his own lung fluid, alone and ignored.

  46. 46.

    Yutsano

    @Leto: Dammit Zoomie! I was just coming here to post that.

    Apparently the Lincoln Project is going all in on the Senate. Plus Al Gross looks like a decent candidate for Alaska. It’s a long shot, but if it’s going to be a wave year, let’s go for everything.

  47. 47.

    bbleh

    @Major Major Major Major: But it featured the Wall of Moms, Naked Athenas, and — in an only-in-the-US touch — Dads with Leaf Blowers pushing tear gas back on the Feds.

    Is it any wonder the second largest export of the US is entertainment?

  48. 48.

    Aleta

    (Gohmert  was promoting the GOP act to protect churches, businesses, schools from lawsuits if they infect others.)

  50. 50.

    LeftCoastYankee

    Apparently the feds have to cleanup the graffiti before they leave.

    That feels like some mom-shade being thrown there….

  56. 56.

    Another Scott

    @PAM Dirac: Thanks for the pointer.  Looking at the graphs, there’s a lot of scatter and some overlap between the group (e.g. fig 2).  As one might expect for any study of humans.  But they look like they tried to make the study as strong as possible (given the relatively small number of people).

    It would be great if there was heart imaging of people before their infection and then of the same people after they recovered.   That would be the gold standard for saying that COVID damages hearts even for “mild” cases.  The way things are going, such data will be available if we wait long enough.  :-(

    Thanks again.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  59. 59.

    Kent

    @LeftCoastYankee:Governor Brown has been impressive in 2020.

    I honestly was not that impressed with her management prior to 2020.  Especially with respect to public education which his an open sore in Oregon.  But she has been impressive together with Inslee in 2020.

  60. 60.

    p.a.

    @Major Major Major Major: is tRump now ‘… and others…’??!!  Or completely out of the loop?
    tRump Inc. so incompetent they can’t even instill fear in a majority of middle class white people correctly: fucking up the rethugs 60-year go-to ploy.  Yay us, for now… until a competent fascist comes along at least.

  63. 63.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @MisterForkbeard:

    Ah, they got their misleading videos for campaign commercials. That’s all they really wanted, and to show their people that Trump was willing to shoot black people and those defending them.

    I doubt it.  If they got the footage they wanted, they wouldn’t have had to be circulating fake crap like the Ukraine policeman beating.  Trump specifically did not get to prove to his people that he was willing to shoot blacks and those defending him.  A few protestors illegally detained for a few hours does not cut it.  What Trump has been plain that he wants, and what I know from experience his base wants, is troops gunning down rioters with military weapons.  The police already had tear gas.  Trump has no footage or news stories of him actually putting a stop to violence with his boot on the head of minorities.  Personally, I think this whole thing was about making Trump feel strong and campaign copy was a distant second, but either way – it failed.  Everything Trump touches turns to shit.

  64. 64.

    SFAW

    the Jim Hoft of the US House of Representatives,

    In the past, I have suggested that the Stupidest Man in Congress (Louie), the Stupidest Man on TV (Hannity), and the Stupidest Man on the Internet (Hoft) have a steel-cage death match to be crowned “King of All Public Stuff,” with no one winning until they’re all dead.

  65. 65.

    Yutsano

    @Kent: Inslee has frozen all phase statuses for the counties indefinitely. That’s not going to go well on this side of the mountains. But it’s the right call to make. Oh and I will LAUGH if Eyman can’t buy his way out of the primary. Apparently Loren Culp has some momentum over here.

    Different subject: looks like the Lincoln Project is working on the Senate today. I posted about the Democratic Senate candidate from Alaska above. Don’t know if you saw it but feedback is appreciated.

  66. 66.

    Kay

    @Leto:

    It’s good. I like the voice. I trust the Never Trumpers more when they attack GOP in Congress. It isn’t just Trump and if they’re going to be “truth tellers” they have to say that.

  68. 68.

    LeftCoastYankee

    @Kent:

    I think given the circumstances of Oregon’s population distribution (one big city, and a whole lot of rural), she timed the shutdown well.

    I think she benefits from comparison to mayor Wheeler, who seems to overreact and then flail around.

    I saw a headline that Portland Schools have a ballot measure for school funding.  Doesn’t really help the rest of the state though….

  69. 69.

    Kelly

    @Kent:I honestly was not that impressed with her management prior to 2020.  Especially with respect to public education which his an open sore in Oregon.  But she has been impressive together with Inslee in 2020.

    I don’t rank her as great governor but the Democrats have been up against Republican legislators happy to use any obstructive tactics. We are hamstrung by a supermajority requirement for money raising bills which we are 2 votes short of in one chamber. Perhaps a massive blue wave will deliver that this year.

  70. 70.

    joel hanes

    @zhena gogolia:

    I wonder if the hearings had an effect.

    We’ll never know, of course, but I’m guessing that Rep. glorious Jayapal’s takedown of Barr —  over the egregious difference between federal responses to armed right-wing militias explicitly calling for the death of a governor vs. unarmed protestors  — was the final blow.

  72. 72.

    PAM Dirac

    @Another Scott:

     

    The way things are going, such data will be available if we wait long enough. :-(

    yeah, as the number of survivors goes up and the initial “just do anything to keep people alive” fades, we are going to have to deal with the long lasting effects. There have been plenty of anecdotal evidence that surviving the crisis phase does mean the end of your problems, but this is the first report I’ve seen that starts to get at the magnitude of the long term problems and while it hardly proves that a significant fraction of survivors will have long term problems, it certainly doesn’t give any reason to think that the long term problems will be rare.

  73. 73.

    Kent

    @LeftCoastYankee:

    @Kent:

    I think given the circumstances of Oregon’s population distribution (one big city, and a whole lot of rural), she timed the shutdown well.

    I think she benefits from comparison to mayor Wheeler, who seems to overreact and then flail around.

    I saw a headline that Portland Schools have a ballot measure for school funding.  Doesn’t really help the rest of the state though….

    Yes.  Oregon’s numbers are about as good as can be expected given the rest of the country.   I have not been particularly impressed with Wheeler, although I’m not sure anyone could really run Portland well.   Especially with how government operates in that city.

    Education is a state-wide disaster in OR and has been for decades.  I mainly blame Brown for not tackling the problem with more urgency.  I view it as the #1 statewide priority and i don’t see the urgency from her or hardly anyone else in office frankly.   That’s honestly one of the reasons why my wife and I ended up WA when we moved back to the PNW.   That and the fact that we had better job offers up here.

  76. 76.

    Kent

    @Kelly:I don’t rank her as great governor but the Democrats have been up against Republican legislators happy to use any obstructive tactics. We are hamstrung by a supermajority requirement for money raising bills which we are 2 votes short of in one chamber. Perhaps a massive blue wave will deliver that this year.

    Up until 2020 she felt like more of a follower than a leader.  I would have been hard-pressed to say what she was really fighting for and what her priorities were.  Maybe that was just her low-key leadership style.  But I don’t think I was alone.  And I pay attention.

    I’m well aware of the GOP obstruction.  But fuck them.  I was living in TX when basically the same thing happened with the positions reversed and the GOP was trying to push mid-decade redistricting through.  The Dems left the state for a bit but then ended up caving.  The GOP was remorseless and sent troopers after them.  I would have liked to see OR Dems be more badass when it comes to that sort of thing.   One of their issues was vaccinations for fuck’s sake.   They are just really shitty about wielding power.

  77. 77.

    LeftCoastYankee

    @Kent:

    I briefly contracted at a state agency a dozen years ago or so.  Oregon was soooo backwards in it’s budgeting and funding processes.  Plus with all kinds of stupid revenue requirements that the “taxpayer rights” goons got on ballot measures back in the day, the state has been chronically underfunded.

    There at least seems to be the political will now to unravel some of this, but in the short term it’s still ugly.

    And don’t get me started on “The Kicker”.  If there is a dumber state law in the US, I will eat my hat.

  78. 78.

    burnspbesq

    Today’s Con Law exam question: does the Speech and Debate Clause prevent D.C. from prosecuting Louie for reckless endangerment?

  79. 79.

    Kent

    @LeftCoastYankee: Yes.  I grew up in OR and my family is 5th generation here.  But sometimes it astonishes me how far the state has tailspinned since the days of Mark Hatfield and Tom McCall.   There is really no excuse for it.  By all rights, OR should be as well run as say MN.  Instead there is example after example of how it is run more like Arkansas.  The timber tax fiasco is just the most recent example to come to light.  Billions of dollars stripped out of rural communities by treating giant private equity timber companies like small family farms for tax purposes.  No other state on the west coast does that.  And it was a Dem governor who signed it into law.  That wasn’t some ancient history constitutional provision.  That was a timber lobby sweetheart deal signed into law by a progressive Dem governor Kitzhaber in 1999.  https://projects.oregonlive.com/timber/

  80. 80.

    lgerard

    Gohmert attended Tuesday’s blockbuster House Judiciary Committee hearing with Attorney General William Barr in person, where lawmakers were seated at some distance from one another.

    But footage from before the hearing shows Gohmert and Barr walking together in close contact, with neither wearing a mask.

  81. 81.

    Kelly

    @Kent:They are just really shitty about wielding power.

    Agree, but their power is thin. Fixing the Legislature quorum requirement would help but will take a Constitutional amendment approved by referendum. A big lift that they don’t seem to be working on. No interest in going after the supermajority tax requirements. Sad truth due to decades of Republican “the government is the enemy” propaganda most voters think supermajorities are prudent.

    Hoping the next round of redistricting helps but the Dems won’t play hard ball there either.

  82. 82.

    germy

    “Im so sorry for him,” @SpeakerPelosi tells me of reports @replouiegohmert tested positive for COVID. “But I’m also sorry my members, who are concerned, because he has been showing up at meetings without a mask and making a thing of it.”

    — Garrett Haake (@GarrettHaake) July 29, 2020

    And making a thing of it.

  85. 85.

    Matt McIrvin

    @germy: Honestly, I am one of those guys, a wet talker. Can’t turn it off. It’s one of the reasons I’m pretty fanatical about masks.

  88. 88.

    Kent

    @Kelly: Oh, I know it’s tough. But they could be a lot more hardassed.  They could, for example, push every damn issue of interest to rural GOP lawmakers to the back of the agenda so they block all their own stuff by walking out as well.   About the only thing I admire the GOP for during the time I spent in TX was how remorseless they were at wielding power.  Especially procedurally.   Honestly 98% of the public doesn’t even pay attention.  And those who do are partisans on either side so not persuadable voters anyway.   Dems rarely ever have the nerve to do that, or the organization to make it work.

  89. 89.

    senyordave

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: On an informative note, Gohmert’s  Chief of Staff, Connie Hair, has a credit as a soft core porn actress in the bad hard R “Women In Prison” movie “Fake Out”.

    Connie Hair actually sounds like a bad porn star handler, certainly not up there with Dirk Diggler.

  92. 92.

    Punchy

    O/U on days that Louis actually properly quarantines?  4? 4.5?  $10 he’s out in public by the end of the weekend.

  93. 93.

    Bex

    Barr will be tested for COVID-19 today.  He and Gohmert  were talking less than arms length away yesterday.  Neither was wearing a mask.

  94. 94.

    Kent

    @Bex:Barr will be tested for COVID-19 today.  He and Gohmert  were talking less than arms length away yesterday.

    Barr has to be at prime risk for severe Covid.  He is 70 years old, severely obese, and wheezy.   Sooner or later one of these fuckers is going to land on a ventilator.

  95. 95.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @burnspbesq:  While some actions are expressive conduct and thus speech for 1st Amendment purposes…. Fundamentally, one needs to determine Gomer’s intent, was he trying to say I am a dumbass, or was he simply being a dumbass. It is a tough question.

  96. 96.

    H.E.Wolf

    @Omnes Omnibus: 
    I notice which commenters repeatedly fantasize about other people’s violent deaths.

    It’s… not in the spirit of John Lewis, whatever else it may be.

  97. 97.

    germy

    Rep. Gohmert was tested several times before his planned trip to Texas with POTUS. Now he will isolate for 10 days.

    @replouiegohmert: “I can’t help but wonder if by keeping a mask on, if I might have put some… of the virus on the mask and breathed it in” https://t.co/FSNbdLtvk3

    — Cynthia McLaughlin (@cynthiasmu) July 29, 2020

    Now that’s what I call committing to the bit.

  101. 101.

    Soprano2

    I had a choir director who spit on the first row sometimes when he talked. That’s one reason I always sat on the back row. He finally retired, so that’s not a problem anymore.

  102. 102.

    Chris Johnson

    @H.E.Wolf: True that. I sympathize more than they could possibly imagine, but it still doesn’t change the fact that returning to rule of law and things like courts instead of things like vengeance, is better.

    Let’s make sure our crumbling institutions turn out to be NOT so crumbling. It’s defeatist to think that we gotta resort to wingnut tactics, as if civilization has been proven not to work. It takes longer, that’s all, and you don’t get to do as many end-zone taunts and victory dances.

  103. 103.

    Punchy

    @Bex: Shit doesn’t manifest in day.  Results from today would tell him nothing about Lou’s poison droplets.  Testing on Sunday would be best.  Perhaps right after he goes to a maskless church and he sings at full volume.

  108. 108.

    Bill Arnold

    @Punchy:

    $10 he’s out in public by the end of the weekend.

    Even odds he makes a big thing out of taking hydroxychloroquine.
    Or hydroxychloroquine + zinc, the RW miracle cure of the week. There are other RW combinations additions too. A few of them have some observational study backing, none completed RCTs that I know of. Scientific jury is still out on hydroxychloroquine given very early in a SARS-CoV-2 infection.
    Betcha it doesn’t prevent lung/heart/brain damage, which seem to happen at much higher rates than the case fatality ratio (much much more than infection fatality ratio).

  109. 109.

    KrackenJack

    @Kelly:

    “Life will find a way.”

    We can deal with megafauna threats, but apparently microbes are beyond are capability to deal with as a society.

    I have yet to hear a story in any religious tradition that is remotely as awe-inspiring as this one discovery. Also, it would seem to raise the probability of finding life on Mars, considerably…

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