… Then again, maybe they are!
This is the Republican running to replace John Lewis.
I'm not kidding. https://t.co/TB5gghawzw— Charles Gaba (@charles_gaba) July 30, 2020
(I know it’s a safe blue seat but JFC…)
— Charles Gaba (@charles_gaba) July 30, 2020
It was widely reported that Matt Pottinger, deputy national security adviser, was wearing a mask. And some NSC staffers might have followed his lead. Are they still wearing masks? It’s hard for any official to justify an anti-mask order after what happened to Robert O’Brien. https://t.co/GdTu5jyyHZ
— Edward Wong (@ewong) July 30, 2020
Most staffers in members’ offices—as opposed to committee staff—are twentysomethings starting their careers. They aren’t risking a 30 year career, they’re risking a 3 year career. They choose to work for people who spread murderous disinformation. I feel zero sympathy for them.
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) July 30, 2020
Baud
Where is the “here” that King hates? Her district? The US of A?
West of the Rockies
Will any of those 20-something junior Republicans have an epiphany and recognize that their team is based on bigotry and cash?
WereBear
I guess we’re all Sicilians when death is on the line…
MattF
@West of the Rockies: They want to be in on the deal, but they’d like to be alive for the payout. Tough decision.
Martin
Founder of the Federalist Society just called for the immediate impeachment of Trump. Now believes he’s a fascist. Starting to wonder if the GOP will actually survive this period.
In other news, the US response to Covid is so bad that my investments may let me retire early. Just a reminder that people with money always have options and one of those options is to thrive during times of crisis.
Omnes Omnibus
I am with Dana Houle on this.
JPL
@Martin: Bull. Once trump says it was a joke, he’ll say whoops sorry, sir.
Baud
@JPL:
Oh, he doesn’t care about that. He’s just reading the polls and wants to get off the train.
hells littlest angel
So fucking leave already.
Good.
Yes, people are often perfectly fine prior to becoming ill. I think Sesame Street has done some good segments on before and after. Check ’em out.
Spanky
@Omnes Omnibus: +1
You took the words right out of my, er, fingertips.
sempronia
My hospital has PPE for now, although rumor last week was that we would all be asked to start reusing masks soon. That is the policy now in at least one major hospital in Sacramento, and friends in Fresno are sending us horrible dispatches. I am so tired of feeling unsafe at work. Why do these people even seek medical care if they think it’s all a hoax?
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Baud:
Yeah, really what does she mean by “here”? Because that’s exactly what a candidate for office should say.
“I hate it here! Vote for me!”
Quinerly
@Martin: re The Federalist Society dude… Sounds like he is more concerned about no election and thus Pres Pelosi in January. I guess he wants Pence to save the party
Martin
@JPL: I don’t think so. He sounds solidly in the rare never-Trump category now. I think these guys can rationalize a lot, but once a line is crossed and you decide you have to speak up, it seems to stick. There are exceptions like Lindsay, but I take it as widely understood he’s being blackmailed.
West of the Rockies
@MattF:
I guess if you want to join Slytherin, you gotta put up with the occasional (or routine) death spell from a colleague.
MattF
@Martin: Also, WaPo opinionator Henry Olsen— heretofore, a Trump supporter— sounds genuinely aggrieved by Trump’s attempt to mess up the election. A mildly comic note is that Olsen criticized Biden a couple of months ago for suggesting that Trump would try to delegitimize the election.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Baud:
@Martin:
Funny enough, the same guy has also said that Mueller’s investigation was “unconstitutional” for reasons
I’ve always thought it was funny how a conservative, supposedly freedom loving organization is named after the Federalists. The Federalists weren’t all bad, but they did have authoritarian tendencies
dmsilev
Scary thought: No, this might well be their best.
Quinerly
Very low energy Trump trying to read prepared statement right now. I hadn’t actually seen him in awhile. Definitely in some sort of physical decline. Breathing heavy, very bloated face. Anybody else watching?
dww44
@Martin: So, I just googled “founder of Federalist society” and got a Steven Calabrese as one of the founders of the Federalist societ. He is quoted on twitter calling for Trump’s impeachment for calling for the election to be postponed. One of the takeaway lines in his tweet is that until now he had always taken it as “political hyperbole”when Democrats called Trump a fascist. So now his opinion is changed by that one tweet?
The right really does believe we are all hyperbolic and they just revel in it. It’s not only pathetic that are so focused on “owning the libs” that they are endangering the very survival of our democracy. We need a few more Obama speeches. . Today, I hate the right with every fiber of my being.
dmsilev
@MattF: Olsen is basically starting to despair on Trump. He still wishes Trump will win, but he thinks it’s getting less and less likely.
It’ll really be over when Hugh Hewitt gives up on Trump.
jl
Trump’s covid-19 briefing, or presser (not sure what it is) seems to be going off the rails again. That ‘scared straight’ talk he got a while back seems to be wearing off.
Back to hoax. Lying that other countries that have suppressed epidemic can’t cope with outbreaks, US dong fine.
Actually, other successful countries have repeatedly put out serious outbreaks that are so small (compared to anything in US) that they would be unnoticeable blips here. Most of them can do so without economically ruinous total shutdowns of whole economy, or huge rollback of their reopening in fact I don’t think any successful country has had to resort to that.
Inevitable stream of covid-19 death and scary health system emergency in AZ, FL and TX will go on for weeks.
Edit: other countries are well on their way to baking covid-19 control into their health and social, occupational health and safety regs and SOP. Their ‘new normal’ is a royal pain in the ass, but not socially or economically unsustainable or hugely disruptive. More like a dozen other diseases that produce scary dangerous outbreaks. Covid-19 still an order of magnitude worse than TB, bacterial meningitis, whooping cough, Nipah, and Gawd knows how many emerging viruses (which have been emerging for thousands of years). But history of steady progress so far promises hope that they will reach success on that if they keep up the effort. Make intro of drug therapies and immunization much cheaper easier and more effective too, when they come on line.
John Revolta
@Martin: I think he looked at Trump’s Wall and saw some writing on it.
Martin
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): They’re more oligarchs. They believe that only conservatives are qualified to make governing decisions and that liberals must be relegated to some kind of underclass. They’d all be totally content with having a GOP primary and anointing the winner – but they still want that primary. They aren’t willing to give up total control, they just want things to be back to white male landowners calling the shots.
Baud
@dww44:
Some of us are TBH, and they get outsized attention. But the right does extrapolate that to everyone.
Quinerly
@jl: even Chuck Todd is talking about Trump’s “defeated demeanor.”
different-church-lady
What the hell does that King tweet even mean? Is she suggesting hospitals save people based on their politics?
MattF
@Quinerly: Note foot-dragging. I’m generally skeptical of the diagnosis-at-a-distance brigade, but this looks real to me.
ant
Can someone translate this for me?
What is he trying to say?
Is he saying that someone killed HC in a war? What? I don’t get it.
Ken
I am so hoping that Trump forgets to remove the tapes and photos from the Resolution desk before leaving. “Lindsay? It’s Joe. Want to go golfing Tuesday?”
dww44
@Baud: Well they’ve got more than their own share of hyperboles, doncha think… Jordan, Collins, and Gohmert for 3 of them.
zhena gogolia
@Martin:
Pressuring a foreign government to push a false story about his political opponent was A-okay, but this is what does it?
Ken
I think you need a Sanity score below 35 in order to cast that spell. Let me check my Call of Cthulhu sourcebooks….
SiubhanDuinne
@John Revolta:
MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN
zhena gogolia
@dww44:
Calabresi.
Peter Strzok.
Michael Bennet.
Martin
@Quinerly: Sure. I mean, no election, also no way of winning the House. I mean, what’s so fucking ludicrous about how the press are handling this is that Trump is also suggesting postponing the election of every member of the house and ⅓ of the senate. And the media aren’t asking them ‘are you calling for the postponement of your election?’ Instead they ask their opinion of Trump’s comment. Fuck that – this is their election too – don’t give them the easy out.
Trump now basically suggesting there’s no point to voting. No matter what we do he won’t accept the result. Which is of course the endstate were were going to reach. Stupid of him to admit it this far out, but it’s not some calculated gambit, it’s just how his busted mind is coping with the world around him.
dmsilev
Olsen’s opening:
Bear in mind, this is someone who the Post commentariat regularly describes as being a Trump lickspittle (as evidenced by that second paragraph).
Cameron
@Martin: He got his judges; nothing more Trump can do for him.
Quinerly
@MattF: I saw that earlier. His appearance today was startling to me. I generally don’t watch him. Probably been weeks. Listen to MSNBC live on Tune In App on speakers.
CliosFanBoy
@ant: she thinks Cain was deliberately infected to kill him. (eyeroll)
jl
@Quinerly: I linked to an article on Vanity Fair published today. Trumpster actually were able to get up a plan with competent experts to build out a national testing infrastructure. They cancelled it because they thought it would stay in blue states and bypass red states: immoral, criminal and idiotic.
As that plan blew up in their faces, Kushner’s billionaire business buddies cooked up BS scheme to do a last minute fix that blew up in their faces. See my comment and link at bottom of previous thread.
So, in what order: another impeachment, criminal charges, Hague, commit to an insane asylum?
JPL
@Martin: trump showed us who he was in 2016.. Where was he then? As long as they can do away with regulations that safeguard us they could care less.
Ken
It’s possible the shuffling and head-hanging are from the stroke.
West of the Rockies
@dmsilev:
I think you misspelled that name… It’s Hugh Halfwit.
RSA
@MattF: It’s hard to walk such stupidity back. Olsen:
and
zhena gogolia
@Martin:
I want to know what he and Putin talked about on July 23.
zhena gogolia
@RSA:
These people have not paid any attention to any history, even recent history.
Ken
¿Porque no los quatro?
The Moar You Know
So, now the Federalist Nazis and some of the GOP want the DEMS to impeach Trump. No. Just no. We already did that. You fucking do it this time. What? Not enough on board? Tough shit, fuckers. You elected him, you get him out or deal with the losses in November. We threw you the lifeline and you said “get bent”. So you can fucking fix it.
JPL
@Quinerly: I’m not watching but I did notice that they had him read from scripts a few weeks before the election in 2016. The fact that they are doing it earlier is a sign they are behind.
John S.
@zhena gogolia: Conservatives are weird. Like a jukebox where every button is programmed to be random.
Martin
Life in the House must be fun. Dems learned that Nunes received oppo on Biden from Russian sources during impeachment. Nunes was asked about it in committee and won’t volunteer what was sent, what he did with it, and won’t disclose it to the House Intel committee on which he sits.
Guessing his best option is to keep his mouth shut and buy time before a Dem AttyGen indicts him.
jl
@CliosFanBoy: GOP or WH put out a humanly decent comment on Cain’s passing, or are they just going to use his death as campaign fodder? That tweet needs to be deleted, probably the account.
Baud
@RSA:
Trump has talked about doing that since the beginning of this nightmare. Now he’s talking about changing the election date, and Olsen considers that a step too far?
MomSense
@Martin:
We had a meeting at work and finally got to ask what happens if we get Covid on the job (I’m the only mask wearer and not all clients coming in wear masks). We can use our PTO and if we don’t have any we will be given one week. Our insurance should cover our bills. Most of us have around $5,000 deductibles – no plans to cover the deductibles. So basically we are fucked.
Ken
Wasn’t he paying attention to Portland? People bundled into unmarked cars? Tear gas? Beating veterans and women? The press getting an injunction to stop the DHS from doing the same to them?
Quinerly
@Ken: I don’t want to get down in the weeds too much. I find Trump’s appearance revolting. Nothing remotely attractive about him. His skin looked worse than usual. Pitted, purplish red. Startling as I said. It’s probably been 3 mos since I actually stopped and looked at him. He will not make it thru the election. I’m not sure how this ends, but I think Trump in office will end prematurely.
joel hanes
@dmsilev:
It’ll really be over when Hugh Hewitt gives up on Trump.
Marc Thiessen will be clinging to Trump even as he’s getting on that last helicopter.
featheredsprite
@SiubhanDuinne: @SiubhanDuinne: ‘MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN’
Exactly!
Mike in NC
@dmsilev: Hugh Hewitt — AKA Huge Nitwit — is a hardcore Bible thumper who probably really does believe that Fat Bastard was chosen by God to lead us to the Promised Land.
Ken
Germany.
zhena gogolia
@Ken:
Yes. But also how to fuck up the elections, I am damn sure.
Quinerly
Jon Meacham is alarmed.
Redshift
From an article linked in a reply to the Charles Gaba tweet:
Just to be clear, she was nominated by the Republicans to run against John Lewis, not just for the now-open seat.
PPCLI
@dww44:
Yes, that seems rather bizarre. Why this, and not all the other stuff?
But Calabresi’s denunciation doesn’t seem to be a throw-away tut-tut of the type Ari Fleischer or Britt Hume occasionally burp out.
Maybe: All the authoritarian, anti-democratic stuff kept piling up and piling up, and finally the moment came that he couldn’t keep rationalizing it away. He’s not a stupid man, he knows that Trump was not joking, and he has had enough time to know how Trump operates to know exactly what Trump is trying to lay the groundwork for.
One can only hope.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@ant: “Oh Stewardess, I speak Batshit-Crazy.”
She’s saying that since there have only been two cases of Covid in the whole world, Tom Hanks and Herman Cain, and Hanks got better and Cain died, then clearly it’s a biological warfare plot to kill Republicans.
jl
@joel hanes: “Marc Thiessen will be clinging to Trump even as he’s getting on that last helicopter.”
I have a ghastly premonition of the last helicopter lifting off, with only a handful of total losers jumping up to get on, and Trump inner circle stomping on them.
Martin
@zhena gogolia: Yeah. I mean, step back a bit. The foreign government thing was to help Republicans. But the GOP can’t retake the House without an election. Trump doesn’t give a shit about that because he’s the protagonist of reality, but these guys play a long game. At the very least they can’t take the House without an election, which Trump is threatening to deny. And depending on how the legislative wheels turn to the question of ‘what if the US didn’t have an election’, that could leave them both completely shut out, and with a voter base so incensed at the naked power grab that the GOP can never reform their brand.
Besides, they seem to think the foreign involvement is legitimately a hoax. Can’t really deny this one as a hoax when Trump is standing at the podium defending it.
chopper
@SiubhanDuinne:
that’s hebrew for “man, man, woman, camera” right?
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Ken: Just because he hasn’t succeeded doesn’t mean he hasn’t tried. He was threatening to pull CNN off the air for being critical of him.
Redshift
@CliosFanBoy: Or that there’s a cure, but only big-name libs are getting it. Hard to translate argle-bargle precisely.
joel hanes
@CliosFanBoy:
she thinks Cain was deliberately infected to kill him.
Also:
Yes, I speak wingnut.
noncarborundum
@WereBear:
Has anyone investigated the effectiveness of iocaine powder as a substitute for hydroxychloroquine? Taken in small doses at first, of course, to build up resistance.
zhena gogolia
@Martin:
They do not think it is a hoax.
different-church-lady
@jl: The way Trump is talking, it’s more likely he’s going out in a police van.
lgerard
Had to laugh when trump said he hadn’t seen Robert O’Brien lately.
Why would he, O’Brien isn’t on TV
jl
@zhena gogolia: What a vile hash of self-contradictory nonsense and lies they are putting out. Whatever gets them through the next few seconds.
Baud
@different-church-lady:
Unmarked police van.
MattF
@Mike in NC: Hewitt has several jobs in the conservative-industrial complex. He’s a WaPo columnist, an AM radio host, and head of the Nixon Foundation. I’d assume also that he’s fully vested in the FOXiverse. I don’t expect him to change his mind about Trump.
joel hanes
@noncarborundum:
Iocaine is hard to find.
But it’s easy to find colloidal silver, and some people are trying that. Or pool cleaning chemicals. Or bleaching their hands. And of course the ever-popular hydroxychloroquine.
And many of them claim to be protected by prayer. Or angels.
Jay
Turns out the walls that we’ll remember from the Trump years are the Wall of Moms and the Wall of Vets. My eyes brim with tears as I see the images.
America is there, behind the tear gas, the lies, the pandemic death wrought by incompetence. America is there, standing strong. – George Takei
Shakti
@Martin: He believes nothing of the sort. There are no more federal judges that Trump can ram into lifetime appointments so therefore Trump’s term has outlived its political usefulness. It means he bets on Ginsburg being able to do her job for another six months at least.
Or he needs to say something is impeachable because they need a fig leaf of plausible deniability as a ‘respectable, principled’ institution rather than a cohort of Trump cheerleaders.
jl
@Baud: “Unmarked police van.”
Baud plan for police to rely on bicycles with little red wagons tied to the back shows commitment to democracy.
Martin
@PPCLI: Another component of it is surely that Trump is a bad conservative. I mean, the Federalist Society’s main goal is filling the courts, and they got that. But Trump has turned so much other conservative orthodoxy on its head, seemingly overnight, that the prospect of him as authoritarian ruler can’t be that appealing. Plus, they have to be concerned that this whole adventure incenses Democrats so badly, and delivers enough eventually members of Congress that they decide to nullify the judicial appointments by packing the court. That’s always the problem with radicalism in US politics – your opposition have ways to be radical as well and undo your work. If you’re subtle about it, they can’t get the popular support for it, but if you’re overt about it as Trump and too many elected Republicans are (Gohmert introducing legislation to make the Democratic Party illegal) then the public says ‘yeah, fix it with 2 more justices’ or calls for the impeachment of those appointed during the previous corrupt administration.
And that’s the problem with the way of thinking in the current GOP – it can only ever produce short-term gains because it’s so obvious and so poorly implemented that even sympathetic courts can’t overlook it.
Redshift
@MattF:
That seems entirely appropriate, but probably not in the way he thinks.
jl
Maybe someone got through to Trump that headlines on death and health system emergency in some red states going to drag on for weeks, and not one damn thing anyone can do about it.
And, plan to fool him with BS GOP internal polls stopped working?
ant
Thanks for the translation.
not sending their best indeed.
Baud
@jl:
Don’t forget the beanies.
SiubhanDuinne
@chopper:
Bellylaugh!
Roger Moore
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
I think the way we understand Federalism has changed. Back when there was a Federalist Party, it was being contrasted against the Articles of Confederation. That meant being a Federalist was about believing in a stronger central government. That brought in people like Hamilton who wanted the President to me more like an elected monarch, but also people who just wanted a government that could pay its debts and organize an army and navy.
Nowadays, Federalism is understood to be about dividing the power of government between national, state, and local branches, each of which has great responsibility within its own sphere. Thus modern Federalists are most interested in fighting against centralizing power, since they want more of the power to be distributed to state and local government.
Martin
@zhena gogolia: “How do you do it Vlad? I mean, you’ve been running the show for 21 years, you’ve managed to earn hundreds of billions of dollars while doing it, and your elections aren’t even close? I really admire all of that. What’s your secret?”
Keith P.
From a Vanity Fair article about Jared’s vanishing national testing plan:
I assume the worst, but to actually see it in words is pretty striking.
Uncle Cosmo
@dww44: Straw, camel, back, breakage. Sometimes a minuscule, nearly meaningless item, like the breeze from the flicker of an eyelash touching a pasteboard Burj Khalifa, can collapse a mighty edifice of self-delusion. Co-belligerent of the moment? Fine, all hands on deck. Argue policy later, there’s a democracy in distress.
jl
@Baud: The Baud stale beer miracle cure for covid-19 will be more popular than the hydroxy stuff, too.
And BTW, on serious note, I read a report that Trumpsters bought up millions of hydroxy pills early in the US outbreaks. That true? Surely an interesting story behind that.
Edit: I heard from clinicians that some respectable people are still fiddling around with the hydroxy stuff, but as very early treatment option for mild cases with signs of going south. Interesting. But even on that doubts growing. Modi is big on it in India with optimistic doctor reports. But now even respectable docs still fiddling are getting very impatient for the promised data, which isn’t coming.
Edit2: but on other hand, doesn’t mean much since doctors are fiddling with over a dozen empiric treatments and god knows how many variations and tweaks to try to find something to steer patients away from severe outcomes early in course of disease.
Frankensteinbeck
@joel hanes:
You do. I was going to provide a translation, but you got it spot on in every detail. Bravo, Sir. Bravo.
Baud
@Keith P.:
That member should be named.
Barbara
@Omnes Omnibus: Pretty much. I have some sympathy for people who have 15 or more years into their careers as Republican operatives, but if you are under 25 and this is your first job out of college or law school, it’s time to move on if you possibly can. Or, you know, just wear a damn mask and take the abuse. FFS.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Baud: Yeah. Isn’t arresting his opponents what that investigation that Barr has going is about?
Betsy
Miss Angela Stanton King also posted that photoshopped picture purporting to be an injection of light into a person’s vein via a UV saline drip. I saw least one “friend of a friend on Facebook” who picked it up and shared it in a local community group, citing it as proof that the President was speaking of a real treatment, light injection.
Redshift
@Martin: Since impeachment of federal judges is incredibly rare, I’m not optimistic it will happen just because the process by which they were appointed was corrupt. But I do have some hope that some of these supremely unqualified clowns they’re putting in will do things that are bad enough to get them booted out, or will be greedy enough (since they are wingnuts) to do something like deciding their lifetime appointment isn’t making them rich enough, and resign to go work for some oligarch in return for making a ruling transparently to favor them.
HumboldtBlue
All these explanations about these right-wing fuckbags finally pointing out Trump’s malfeasance ignorance and penchant for authoritarianism will be writing about the great prospects for Tom Cotton for ’24 beginning in January next year and they’ll pump out shitty column after poorly researched and poorly written article every day screaming about the economy, the job market and the DEFICIT!!!
They are using Trump’s absurdity as cover to pretend they actually have principles that lead to good government. They’re the fucking GOP and that means today, tomorrow and for every day after they are working solely to enrich themselves and harm others they don’t feel are worthy of basic human respect.
This is just more smokescreen bullshit from people who are finally realizing the fucking monstrosity they created — gleefully and with great endeavor may I add — in the GOP is being exposed for the racist, thieving dishonest grifting it has always been.
featheredsprite
@chopper: Clever.
It actually translates to “You have been weighed and found wanting”.
Most apt.
MattF
@Uncle Cosmo: I have to admit it never occurred to me that Trump-aligned conservatives would balk at attempts to delegitimize the election.
Calouste
@Martin: Methinks mr. Calabrese is going to have an unpleasant experience finding out what the shitgibbon cult thinks about apostates.
Baud
Even Putin doesn’t postpone elections. He just rigs them.
jl
@MattF:
” I have to admit it never occurred to me that Trump-aligned conservatives would balk at attempts to delegitimize the election. ”
Enough of Congressional GOP and state level governments told Trump to eat shit on it, that they see the way the wind is blowing. Need to be above a critical minimal level of support in those places for a good chance for a successful plan to completely corrupt election. At some point, people have to decide when to jump ship or go down with it, either to jail or personal and financial ruin.
Edit: we are still in extremely dangerous crisis for democracy, but today a critical mass of people who can damage Trump’s maniacal scheme said ‘hell no’.
Frankensteinbeck
@featheredsprite:
Literally, “Numbered, numbered, weighed, divided.” So they needed Daniel to provide a little context for that odd message.
Jay
@MomSense:
sadly, we are on our own.
on Monday, had a Contractor come in, just to thank me.
he asked me in Feb what I thought about the Novel Covid,
Told him, social distancing, masks, gloves, eye protection, wash hands, no face touching, for two years. Temp checks, pulse oximeter, 14-21 day quarentines, handling/changing masks , gloves, safely.
he has been “religious” about it.
Out of 17 subcontractors working on a 3 tower, 34 story condo project, they are the only group on schedule, no missed days and in one tower, they are the only contractor working.
all the others have had Covid outbreaks and quarentines.
in the beginning, he got lots of push back and slacking from his employees, but as Covid ripped through the project, and they watched other workers, in some cases, drop on the spot, they have all become “believers”, even with the “opening up”.
Ken
@Jay: You have made the world a slightly better place. Congratulations.
Baud
mdblanche
@Omnes Omnibus: “If they got killed, it’s their own fault.”
@Redshift: She may not be fit to carry on John Lewis’ legacy, but she can carry on Darrell Issa’s.
HumboldtBlue
@Jay:
That’s awesome, Jay, well done and well done to the contractor who listened, that may have literally saved lives.
jl
Also, re tweets quoted in post, a serious revolt inside Trumpster WH will be devastating to the camp followers and outside hack supporters.
When the praetorian guard high tails it out of the palace, or starts tattling on the war lord, or shows signs of revolt, that is a very bad sign.
Probably need to break out some reading on late Roman Empire’s version of term limits for high leadership to get a good feel for the process.
PsiFighter37
@Baud: How about “eliminate caucuses entirely, especially in Iowa”? That’s a reform I can get behind.
The stupid scaremongering about superdelegates should go away as soon as Bernie croaks and AOC realizes she has no shot of ever being president.
KenK
dog forbid the po-lice nit be able to gas citizens.
https://news.yahoo.com/police-agencies-withdrawing-security-democratic-223321714.html
Baud
@PsiFighter37:
Hopefully eventually, especially if Iowa goes for Trump again.
CarolPW
@Baud: And then expressed like an anal gland.
KenK
@Baud: yeah, her ‘message’ makes absolutely no sense. Logically or grammatically
Drdavechemist
@dww44: Curiously, his kids have all gone to my liberal-leaning Quaker school (from which he is also an alum) and at least one of the kids has been re-tweeting a lot of liberal stuff, so maybe one or more of the kids have been able to talk some sense into their dad?
KenK
Christ, no! Bless your heart.
sanjeevs
Inspiring and reassuring words from the President today
jl
If this research holds up: Dogs! Dogs! Dogs! Wonderful dogs! They will save us from ourselves!
Need a huge BJ blog praise post on this, since BJ is the premier almost top 10,000 pet blog.
Article says dogs can detect infection with 4 percent false positive rate, and 16 percent false negative rate. That will work fine for a very cheap quick and easy screening. Good enough to pass on pos or neg test results to further test, depending on what test is used for (say, diagnosis in clinical setting or outbreak control for contract tracking and isolation) And boon to job market for every good dog. Research says indications that dog screening will work for flu too.
Trained Dogs Can Identify COVID-19 Infections, Study Says
Carolyn Crist, July 30, 2020
Medscape
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/934876?src=soc_tw_share
jl
@sanjeevs: ‘ TRUMP: “So, can you assure anybody of anything?” ‘
Trump will go down in history as number one president in fetid snark.
Roger Moore
@chopper:
Very well played.
Omnes Omnibus
@PsiFighter37: I wouldn’t bet against AOC having a shot at the presidency. Too much charisma and raw talent to be written off.
Spanky
@sanjeevs: Sounds like a clinically depressed man to me, tho IANAD.
Jeffro
@Martin:
@MattF: They are just wound up now that trumpov has finally crossed the last line and made fools of the GOP.
“You silly liberals! As if trumpov was going to try and canc…er…what? No way! Are you serious?”
Spanky
@Omnes Omnibus: Forty/fifty years is a long time. This timeline would have been unimaginable in 1980. Anyone can be anything.
Roger Moore
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I don’t know about that, but it’s sure as hell what chants of “Lock Her Up!” were about. If Trump just suggesting postponing the election is impeachable, isn’t just suggesting arresting his political opponents just as bad?
Jeffro
Sometimes…not often, but sometimes…I wish I could just let go of all my mental faculties like this and drift freely in a sea of insanity as warm and welcoming as this one.
No wonder we have a hard time getting them out of ‘The Bubble’. What a soothing place it must be!
BruceFromOhio
From another thread, but this is my rallying cry until it’s over.
trollhattan
Don Jr. picks fight with Barbie(tm). I am not a crank.
https://twitter.com/ruralgirl22/status/1288449737524260864?s=20
Jeffro
@Keith P.: This is what they all thought. It would only hit blue states, so who cares? In the meantime, they could all make big $$$ by investing – one way or another – in hydroxychloroquine and banging on Democrats for creating a “hoax”.
Think about what that means, America.
debbie
@Martin:
His man Rudi suggested the same thing in NYC after 9/11. Volunteering to serve another (illegal) term for the sake of us all. It went nowhere.
I’m going to try and listen to Glenn Beck tomorrow. I’m curious about Mr. Constitution’s take on Trump’s suggestion.
WaterGirl
@jl: I think that was in one of Anne Laurie’s COVID posts this week. It is truly amazing! I hope it’s true.
jl
@trollhattan: Deep State Barbie alert! What next? Ken wearing a mask?
If the successful initial research on dogs testing for covid-19 pans out, I eagerly await the alarms about the Deep State Dog menace.
Ken
I happen to have The Lives of the Twelve Caesars by Suetonius handy. Let’s see; assassinated, allegedly poisoned, assassinated, assassinated, allegedly poisoned, assisted suicide, assassinated, suicide, assassinated, natural death (probably), allegedly poisoned, assassinated.
I think the process for the early empire is pretty clear.
Quinerly
Nice collection of how RWNJ viewed Pres Obama’s eulogy. I guess we all knew it would hit a few nerves.
https://www.mediamatters.org/black-lives-matter/right-wing-media-attack-barack-obamas-eulogy-john-lewis
piratedan
aren’t we supposed to be on the cusp of a Presidential Health Plan announcement? We’re we promised something like that two-three weeks ago? Something that would be better than the ACA that would give us the opportunity to shit-can that dubious legislation… or was that just a fever dream lost in the daily occurrence of infrastructure week?
jl
@Ken: My memory of it might be bad. Been a while since I read Twelve Caesars. Maybe it was early empire. I didn’t mean to suggest the same exact methods be used. We are still far away enough from that for more civilized mechanisms to be effective: a flood of leaks on Trump’s complete incapacity, criminality and dishonesty; some resignations with tattling, maybe a phone video of a staffer getting chewed out and cussed at for wearing a mask.
piratedan
@Quinerly: surprised that the GOP isn’t directing FOX to reference him with an R beside his name….
debbie
@MomSense:
That is fucked. Sounds like they’re banking on getting liability protections from McConnell et al. Bastards.
SiubhanDuinne
@Quinerly:
As an antidote, I offer the headline and subhead from Charlie Pierce’s take:
debbie
@Martin:
“What’s your secret?”
“No golf, you nogoodnik.”
Quinerly
@CarolPW: how do I subscribe to your newsletter? ?
sanjeevs
@piratedan: He said two weeks so he still has a day or two left. It’s going to be so great believe me.
Quinerly
@SiubhanDuinne: ????❤️
ballerat
Question for the jackalariat:
What happens if a candidate dies before the election?
With early voting and mail-in voting, it seems there might be a larger window where a large number of people who have already cast votes for someone who cannot take office, so shifting to any non-Trump candidate would not seem possible.
WaterGirl
@MomSense: This is so wrong it feels like my head will explode.
It’s so wrong. I assume you feel you can’t quit, or you would have done that already.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@debbie: I’ve been thinking today that the news and fall-out about Louie Goehmert to make a point about McConnell’s determination to protect stupid and abusive bosses.
As far as Dana Houle’s tweet goes, I wouldn’t go as far as he does, but isn’t just about any twenty-something working in an MoC’s office somehow connected? And in an R’s office, either by money or (especially in Goehmert’s office) Pastor Jethro’s Blessed Congregation of Prosperity and Private Jets?
Uncle Cosmo
@zhena gogolia: “Donald, my cyber people can alter the election returns so that you win. But first I require a few favors:”
(Followed by a laundry list that even Agolf Twitler in his diminished mental capacity realized would make him the worst traitor in US history. To be done NLT, say, October 1. When there will be more demands.)
IMO he realizes he’s fucked no matter what happens. His only way out is to kill himself, & he’s too much of a coward for that.
And yes, I hope I’m wrong. But Vlad has him over a barrel.
Jay
https://www.utoronto.ca/news/u-t-tests-show-canadian-made-mask-deactivates-99-sars-cov-2-virus
Reusable MN-95’s, cleaned, sterilixzed, ( University of Manitoba), recharged with Covid Killer, coming soon to a hospital near you.
Later, the Public.
jl
@debbie: Can read about different European countries’ covid-19 response at WHO European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies
https://www.euro.who.int/en/about-us/partners/observatory
Much stronger programs to ensure workplace safety for essential workers. Proper attention to protection of workers and staff, better procedures for outbreak control. Common finding in outbreak studies is that disease can spread like wildfire through co-workers. Which is another time bomb ready to blow up just in time for election: teachers going down in large groups after crummy poorly planned schemes to reopen schools.
The public sector capacity in the US has decayed and been so starved, prevented from doing anything except hunker down and protect itself for so long, it just is not good at this. Even in better run blue states. In NYC mayor talking about just bringing the kids back into crowded rooms. No, no, no, no country that has reopened schools successfully did it that way. And they had a better chance since started with 1/5 to 1/10 level of circulating disease than even NY.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@SiubhanDuinne: I was expecting Pierce to lapse into “Where was this Obama…” stuff. Very pleased he didn’t.
@ballerat: I do believe that the un-ironic answer is: The party decides. I think, but I’m not sure, that scenario is written into the rules of both parties.
debbie
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Yeah, it’s a pretty insulated place, kind of a good ol’ boys network for young people.
BruceFromOhio
Blast from the past! From October, 2005:
Cleek’s Law and Fox News, 15 years later.
Jay
@jl:
works on asymptomatic cases as well. We just need a mix of therapy dogs for the Masked Asymptomatic, and attack for the Covidiods and the FluKluxKlan.
Drdavechemist
@dww44: Curiously, his kids have all gone to my liberal-leaning Quaker school (from which he is also an alum) and at least one of the kids has been re-tweeting a lot of liberal stuff, so maybe one or more of the kids have been able to talk some sense into their dad?
chopper
@featheredsprite:
i know, it’s an old story where i come from.
jl
@ballerat: I wonder if Trump is having a series of transient ischemic attacks. Would explain the series troubling signs flaring up. Gradual serious disability developing, but dribbling out in sudden spurts. Them some going away after series of attacks subside, or he can adapt.
debbie
@jl:
IKR? Why does everyone always seem to think they’ll do a better job of it, when it’s not about the job at all???
jl
@Jay: It the dog testing pans out, will need to get up a contribution page for shelters as the Trumpsters kick their Deep State Dogs fifth column out of the house.
But if it does pan out, a major advance. Extremely quick and cheap screening device. If test characteristics pan out, as good as some of the quicker cheaper tests.
debbie
@Jay:
Seriously, that is an excellent plan. And that contractor has proven it works. Is there some way you can get this published in some way? It’s an action plan that works. There’s not much of that around anymore.
Drdavechemist
@Calouste: He doesn’t care. He teaches law at Yale and Northwestern, so there’s nothing any of the true believers could do to hurt him.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@jl:
My father did, and that two hands to drink from a glass thing looks very familiar.
Jay
@jl:
naw, Brutis’s, ( Brutii?) all the way down.
jl
@debbie: I think combination of decayed and starved public infrastructure in US just cannot cope, in addition to very limited experience in outbreak control of serious disease in recent history, and further hobbled by malfeasance and sabotage at national level. A perfect storm.
Some signs CA’s vaunted Dept of Public Health and their proclaimed 10 year pandemic plan not up to par. They are very belatedly realizing that they have to get state occupational safety and health dept on board, very belatedly realizing importance of essential worker protection, didn’t do much of anything to shore up lousy quality control in nursing homes.
This morning I heard they let the expert committee advising on testing strategy wither away. Just stopped using it over month ago, and now disbanded or inactive, or something.
We are really messed up in so many ways.
Edit: I think countries that really got on the case early, avoided disastrously large outbreak, and then real serious control and good steady reopen keeping prevalence at low levels, all had experience with serious control problem for serious disease threat in recent history. SARS and MERS in Asia, for Eastern Europe and Baltics multi-drug resistant TB and public health disaster after Soviet Union broke up (that was a hard multi-year slog to get through successfully)
Edit: and economies of some Eastern European countries had to face some serious resource and economic constraints that we do not face. Small country international trade reliant economy deficit and financing issue is major problems for Baltics.
Ken
For President, we don’t know since it’s never happened before. Technically the voters are choosing electors, and the party could tell the electors to vote for a replacement (almost certainly the VP). But how that might interact with the recent “faithless electors” laws, upheld by the Supreme Court IIRC, is unknown.
For other offices there are precedents. In the 2000 Missouri Senate race, for example, Mel Carnahan died before the election. The governor announced that if Carnahan won the election, he would appoint Carnahan’s widow. That’s what happened, making John Ashcroft the only sitting Senator to be beaten by a dead man.
There have been a few such cases for the House. The idea seems to be that death is not a bar to being elected, but when the term begins the office is vacant as if the person had died immediately after taking office, so is filled by whatever mechanism the state sets up. Possibly that would happen with the Presidential office, with the VP taking office instead.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
@trollhattan: why is he fighting with his sister?
Jay
@jl:
packs of therapy Labradoodles, Golden Labs, Black labs, Border Collies, Poodles roaming the streets looking for Masked Asymtomatic,
packs of Attack trained Shepards, Canine Corso, Dobermans, PitX and of course, Dachsunds and Chihuhas for the unmasked Covidiots and FluKluxKlan.
jl
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch: I didn’t know there was an El Greco barbie. At least that is how she strikes me.
germy
So Pompeo says he fought at the East/West German border?
Is this a case of stolen valor?
jl
@Jay: “Dachsunds”
OMG. Don’t even think about something so implacable and cruel. Horrifying thought.
germy
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Ken: It depends on how far before the election. Both parties have provisions for a mini-convention to select a new nominee if the nominee is unable to run.
jl
@germy: “Is this a case of stolen valor?”
Can you steal valor for a mythical theater of combat that did not ever exist?
The Trumpsters raise so many interesting philosophical questions.
BTW: I won four medals of honor in the horrific Antarctic campaign in our great patriotic war with Andorra. Campaign ribbons for dozens of shoot downs of the vicious flying wombats.
BTW2: forgot to mention my Nobel Prize for work on Baud’s flat beer antipersonnel weapon.
Ken
@jl: Your war story reminds me of this XKCD.
Pompeo’s makes me wonder if transient ischemic attacks are contagious. Or maybe he just outed himself as a deep KGB mole whose original posting was on the east side of Checkpoint Charlie.
Jay
@debbie:
I say the same thing to friends, family, DYI, Contractors, Associates.
few listen. Associates more now that we are renting vehicles again and each one could be a Covid VBIED.
It is the Provincial Health Plan, the WCB/Employer Plan, but it’s volentary, not mandated, ( stupid).
but, it’s what Kim and I have been doing since late Jan, because we are taking this seriously and deal with masses of “The Public” every day.
I am not afraid of being killed by Covid, I am afraid of being crippled by Covid. Both sides of my family, have long histories of strokes, and the penis thing, well, in a time of Covid and all the other crap, it has been a wonderful respite. Not being able to do that going forward, would end me.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@germy: he also said Bill Barr will decide if we have an election. Harvard should revoke his diploma. West Point should punch him in the mouth.
Roger Moore
@jl:
The Roman Republic had some strict term limits. At least in theory, no sitting official was supposed to be reelected, and there was a minimum waiting period before they could run for the next higher office. The highest officials of all, the consuls, had to wait for 10 years to run again. Consuls who served as military commanders and praetors who governed provinces could have an extended term as an acting (pro-) official. For example, when Julius Caesar served in Gaul, he was serving as proconsul*. The rules could be broken in emergencies, though; Gaius Marius served 5 consecutive terms as consul, for instance.
*Caesar’s desire to run for election was what triggered the civil war. He needed to return to Rome to run for reelection and wanted to bring his army home with him, both as personal protection and so they could have a triumphal procession that would all but guarantee his reelection. His erstwhile colleague, Pompey, arranged to deny him the right to bring home his troops, and Caesar’s decision to lead them home anyway triggered the civil war.
5x5
@zhena gogolia:
I adore you for this.
germy
@jl:
Mike Pompeo was born in 1963. He saw a lot of action on the German front.
Chief Oshkosh
@CliosFanBoy:
So fucking delusional. If you had that capability, would you go after Cain? Shit no! You’d go for way, way bigger fish..
…like, Baud.
zhena gogolia
@5×5:
You’re the only one!
Patricia Kayden
Jay
@jl:
“when they go low,……….”
Patricia Kayden
debbie
@germy:
Don’t you recognize swagger when you see it? //
Brachiator
@Martin:
Trump always admits stuff far in advance, in a Twitter message, at one of his ego-stroke rallies, to a Fox News pundit or random guest at Mar A Lago.
Some staffer may claim was just joking, or even deny that Trump said anything.
But the crazy always comes back.
Trump never thinks, “Should I do it?”
It’s always, “I want it. When can I make it happen?”
Ruckus
@dmsilev:
It’s unfortunate but it’s true, they are sending their best. Best being a relative word. Relative to anywhere near good their best isn’t. Relative to what they want, their best is just fine. It’s a simple equation, you want shit you hire republicans. You want good, reasonable, fair, responsible, best for the most people, not to screw 99% of the population – republicans are not your guys.
Gin & Tonic
@zhena gogolia: Well, you know I’m with you on Strzok.
zhena gogolia
@Gin & Tonic:
Yes, but what about Cornel West?
Ruckus
@dww44:
What the hell is wrong with every other day?
Wyatt Salamanca
@germy:
He looks 8-10 years older to me. In any case, he’s still an asshole.
How many more times before Election Day, will this dumbass motherfucker Trump pull this bullshit “I was only kidding” excuse after saying or tweeting something insane?
Jay
@Ruckus:
Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, on a two week schedule?
or did you mean “every day”?
that I am onboard with.
zhena gogolia
Wow, this 6-and-a-half-minute LP video is brutal:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TogbPPyQQM
Jay
@germy:
humm, 1981,
“
From 1986 to 1991, Pompeo served in the U.S. Army as an armor officerwith the West Germany-based 2nd Squadron, 7th Cavalry in the 4th Infantry Division. He served as a tank platoon leader before becoming a cavalry troop executive officer and then the squadron maintenance officer.[15] Pompeo left the U.S. Army at the rank of captain.[2][16][17][18]”
so bsically bullshit.
99% of his “action” would have been filling out paperwork for repairs and maintenence, and compensation claims for West Germans who suffered property damage from repositioning and exercises.
did he get a purple heart for each paper cut?
WaterGirl
@Patricia Kayden: Un-fucking-believable. Except it’s not.
I hope Benjamin Wittes nails them to the wall with lawsuits.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@germy:
And just think – his graduation year, he was one of the best that West Point had to offer.
Ken
@zhena gogolia: Wow. And that’s what the Republicans are saying about him.
rikyrah
????
WaterGirl
@zhena gogolia: Wow. Totally deserved.
jl
@rikyrah: Setting aside the criminality, I can’t believe the stupidity. Respiratory epidemics like covid-19 spread everywhere, go every place, among everyone, sooner or later.
Wyatt Salamanca
h/t https://www.mediaite.com/politics/trump-wh-reportedly-ditched-national-testing-plan-in-april-because-virus-was-only-hitting-blue-states-hard/
rikyrah
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Baud: More like the Federalist are trying to rationalize it’s Trump, not their philosophy that’s at fault. It’s like the Communist who don’t want to admit to themselves the only way to their utopia is threw a mass blood bath.
Ladyraxterinok
@SiubhanDuinne:
‘You have been weighed in the balance and found wanting’—message from God appears on the wall
Appropriate
Enhanced Voting Techniques
So thanks to a cooking mishap I got ill, work made me get the Virus test and I have a week off of work.
Test it’s self went quickly, maybe two cars in front of me. The swab up the nose was a bit like snorting a soda in the discomfort.
James E Powell
@Quinerly:
Chuck Todd is eagerly awaiting the opportunity to do the Trump comeback story. He’s probably written most of it already.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@rikyrah: That’s so utterly petty and stupid I would believe they did it.
I am also noticing now the Red States are getting plastered the theme from the Right is how this all a libertard plot because look the Blue states aren’t dying like the Red ones.
Jay
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@zhena gogolia: I recognize Stephen Root, can’t quite place the other actors
Bill Arnold
@dww44:
In that tweet, Trump blatantly suggested that he would be OK with not upholding the US constitution.
That’s a big deal. It’s happened before, but grayer usually.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
ETA : A few days ago, Rick Wilson teased that the LP was going after Fredo. This is cute, I guess, but I really hope this isn’t.
Bill Arnold
@Drdavechemist:
Ah, did not know that. Good.
jl
<a href=”#comment-7797753″> @James E Powell</a>:
” Chuck Todd is eagerly awaiting the opportunity to do the Trump comeback story. He’s probably written most of it already. ”
He’ll have to wait for the reboot. Likely a problem with the message and amount of money going down the drain. The loot the Lincoln Project bigshots are making must pale in comparison to what the Trumpster campaign team is stealing (note contrast: making versus stealing).
Sometimes I am tempted to respond to one of those weak ass Trumpster opinion polls, which are almost all identical, for the joyful prospect of making some trouble. But I’m afraid they’ll download some malware onto my computer.
@CNNPolitics
NEW: Trump campaign temporarily halts ad spending for review of messaging strategy
https://twitter.com/CNNPolitics/status/1288998586458546177
jl
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: When the blue states get hit, it shows indisputably that they are losers destroyed by incompetent liberal commie policies. When the red states get hit, it shows indisputably that the blue states are waging a fiendish super genius Dr Evil plot to destroy the red states while sparing themselves.
Only a fool can’t see that simple truth.
Edit: the idea that with a pandemic disease like covid-19 everyone gets hit sooner or later is an obvious Deep State Fake News Soros plot. People who believe that already have a Bill Gates mind control chip planted under their skin, which are in all the masks, even the ones you make at home out of a handkerchief.
Why oh why can the libtards not see the obvious, right under their noses? Because they won’t see, is all.
Bill Arnold
@Spanky:
If you can get them to believe in Reality TV, D.J. Trump as POTUS is more plausible.
debbie
@rikyrah:
Christ. There haven’t been nearly enough whistleblowers in that damn place.
ETA: This cynical, ruthless asshole makes Nixon look awfully wimpy. He better go down but fast.
Jay
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
cooking mishap?
Ken
@jl: IIRC, congresspeople are allowed to keep some (all?) of their campaign warchests when they retire, does that apply to the presidency?
If so, a sure tell that Trump thinks he’s going to lose (not that he’d ever admit that, perhaps even to himself) would be a sharp reduction in campaign expenses such as advertising. Leaves more in the pot for him, you see.
It should be funny to see the media reaction if half the presidential ad revenues disappear.
Jay
Ken
@Jay: I assumed food poisoning. From my one bout with it many years ago, it can be a little embarrassing to explain how you got it. Phrases like “you thawed it how?” or “and you ate it anyway?” keep coming up.
Jay
The
Jay
@Ken:
food posioning sucks, no matter how you got it, and these days,you can do everything “right” at home, and have it arrive vacume packed.
Jay
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>The <a href=”https://twitter.com/washingtonpost?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@washingtonpost</a> gave me—an anarchist and student of leftist history—space to write about why this narrative is not only false, it’s extremely dangerous. Under Trump, thanks to this framing, we’re all “anarchists” (but some of us, like, *actually* are) <a href=”https://t.co/iV1D3dTdq7″>https://t.co/iV1D3dTdq7</a></p>— Kim Kelly (@GrimKim) <a href=”https://twitter.com/GrimKim/status/1288879722701754373?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>July 30, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>
Anne Laurie
Pshaw, ‘protestors’ aren’t people. But the mere suggestion that white men in suits might be arrested for doing something which they are totally entitled to do — such as voting — THAT, good sir, is a bridge too far!
texasdoc
@MattF: I know this thread is dead, but it doesn’t look to me like he is dragging his right foot–he’s throwing it out to the side and then the front because he has foot drop and can’t dorsiflex his foot (bend it at the ankle upward).
Original Lee
@zhena gogolia: Belarus. Aside from the 200 mercenaries hired by Russia to mess with the election, there are also two Russian Army battalions activated and ready to move in “if necessary.” No linky, since I got this info from a friend in Poland, who is worried about being called up as part of Polish support of Belarus.
ballerat
@rikyrah: That’s why I call it genocide.
ballerat
@Ken: Thanks Ken. From what I’ve found online is it could be complex and a bit of a fustercluck, varying by state and involving legal challenges.
In a trumpian environment I think it would be an existential crisis for democracy. I mean, even more of an existential crisis than it is now.
ballerat
N/A