Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

It could be worse. Vance could have said “post-menopausal sows.” Waiting for that audiotape to surface.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

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

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

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

Everyone is in a bubble, but some bubbles model reality far better than others!

Found liable for massive fraud, is required to post a massive bond, gets a break, then files a *fraudulent* bond!

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” is supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

You cannot shame the shameless.

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

This fight is for everything.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

An unpunished coup is a training exercise.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

I’m just a talker, trying to find a channel!

Republicans got rid of McCarthy. Democrats chose not to save him.

I conferred with the team and they all agree – still not tired of winning!

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 / Trump Campaign Open Thread: Thoughts & Prayers for Hope Hicks

Trump Campaign Open Thread: Thoughts & Prayers for Hope Hicks

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Seriously — because I believe in karma, I wish Ms. Hicks well, knowing that she’s young and otherwise healthy and in a position to get the best possible treatment. And because I believe in the Goddess of Consequences, I am quietly pleased that her illness should become public at this particular point in the campaign…

Hope Hicks, one of President Donald Trump’s top aides, has tested positive for coronavirus, three sources told CNN on Thursday.

She traveled with the President multiple times recently, including to the debate in Cleveland on Tuesday, and was seen boarding Marine One on Wednesday as Trump was heading to a campaign rally in Minnesota.

A source close to Hicks told CNN that she is experiencing symptoms and is back in Washington, DC. It is unclear how severe her symptoms are at this point. CNN has reached out to Hicks for comment…

Hicks’ positive test underscores the unique challenge White House staffers face as they try to keep the pandemic out of the West Wing while the President pushes to reopen the country.

In May, two White House staffers and a member of the Navy who serves as one of Trump’s personal valets tested positive for the virus, and in July a cafeteria employee on the White House grounds tested positive as well.

Trump has previously expressed concern that aides contracting coronavirus would undercut his message that the outbreak is waning and states should accelerate reopening, according to a person who had spoken with him…

ETA: Mig Greengard just retweeted himself:

Reader Interactions

347Comments

  2. 2.

    catclub

    so NOW there is new thread:

     

     I know that trump’s response to Hope Hicks is not “I  hope she will be ok” like normal people,

    but “who the hell let her get near me with that?’

  4. 4.

    senyordave

    Hope she has no ill effects, but would do a service to the country if she passed it on to Trump.

  7. 7.

    Ken

    Trump has previously expressed concern that aides contracting coronavirus would undercut his message that the outbreak is waning

    No, reality is undercutting his message that the outbreak is waning.

  10. 10.

    catclub

    @HumboldtBlue: we learned that everyone who works for Trump is just a trash human being.

     

    Anthony Scaramucci is probably the best of the lot.  Think about that.

    he lasted 2 weeks.

  12. 12.

    BeautifulPlumage

    Holy hell that Melania tape. Talk about a war on Christmas.

    And, what about the children? Be Best!!!!!!

  15. 15.

    lamh36

    @HumboldtBlue: foul mouth witch. As vulgar as her husband. And conservative had the NERVE to try to call Forever FLOTUS ghetto. Melanoma is the real trash!

    “BeBest” huh Melanoma! She’s as fake as we all know she is/was. Can you imagine if Forever FLOTUS Michelle O even said ONE bad word about having to decorate for Christmas. It woulda been “war on Christmas” every day and every hour

  16. 16.

    dmsilev

    It’s impressive, in a way, that Trump generates such a sustained shitsunami of bad news that just two days after that debate, it already seems like old news.

  18. 18.

    Ken

    @lamh36: CNN drops the “Melania tapes”

    Dammit, we finally get a thread dedicated to the Hope Hicks story and it’s already cluttered with a new Trump scandal.

    Maybe one of the front-pagers should just schedule hourly posts with the auto-generated title “OK, What’s He Done Now – 02 October 0200 UTC” and we can just park the newest stuff there.

  19. 19.

    senyordave

    There are more than 7 million people in the US alone who deserve thoughts and prayers before Hope Hicks. She’s an advisor to a monster who really is personally responsible for millions of cases and tens of thousands of deaths in the US. Fuck her.

  20. 20.

    Mai Naem mobile

    Not to sound conspiracy minded but I wonder if this is an excuse to be used to get Orange Douchebag out of debate number two. Either false or convenient excuse.

  22. 22.

    HumboldtBlue

    @catclub:

    Are you gonna make me track down Rick and Captain Renault?

    @lamh36:

    I’m a foul-mouthed mutha but I at least strive to be a decent human being. Again, everyone around Trump or close to Trump are just vile people.

    Irredeemable in every sense.

  23. 23.

    Leto

    Reposting from below:

    So I haven’t read the site today, outside the front posts, so I don’t know if this has been covered but here in PA:

    Pennsylvania Republicans push committee to investigate presidential vote

    Republican lawmakers in Pennsylvania, a key battleground state in the upcoming presidential election, took the first step on Wednesday to create a committee that would have wide-ranging powers to investigate the vote, including the ability to subpoena election officials and members of the U.S. Postal Service while the election and vote counting are in progress.

    A state resolution to create the new panel in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed in committee along party lines Wednesday and could be voted on by the full House on Thursday.
    Pennsylvania Democrats expressed alarm Wednesday that the proposed “select committee on election integrity” in the Republican-controlled chamber could disrupt the election by subpoenaing ballots and bringing in election officials and others to testify before the vote count has been certified.

    “This bill is a fraud,” said state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta (D), in an emotional speech during the committee meeting on Wednesday. “Democracies die slowly, and I think this bill would be a fatal blow to our democracy.”

    Maddow just had Rep Kenyatta on and I’m pissed that I missed that this was happening. PA folks need to contact their reps and let them know what a POS this bill is.

  25. 25.

    Cheryl Rofer

    About two months ago something happened – I can’t recall the exact incident – and I thought, there’s blood in the water.

    And here we are. Melania, Kimberly Guilfoyle, H.R. McMaster, and there will be more. The floodgates are opening.

  26. 26.

    Ken

    @Ian: is she from a state that supported dear leader?

    Ha. You cause me to speculate that Trump’s “cases are low if you ignore the blue states” might be a prophecy.  As cases increase, states are more likely to vote Biden…

  27. 27.

    karen marie

    @HumboldtBlue:  You close social media for a couple hours to get some work done and this shit happens.

    Does anyone know what “story” Mrs. Trump was yammering about?

  28. 28.

    Steeplejack

    This has a bit of a “Masque of the Red Death” quality to it. The coronavirus has reached its tendrils into the innermost parts of the West Wing. It’s not just “unnamed White House staffers.”

  33. 33.

    catclub

    @Cheryl Rofer: About two months ago something happened

     

    the woodward tapes were only 21 days ago. How about the judge rejecting the DOJ ‘ drop the flynn case’ filing?  I think  THAT was actually June

  34. 34.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Lawrence O’Donnell, in covering the Hope Hicks story, has called Trump and his staff “reckless” at least 20 times (conservative estimate).

  37. 37.

    HumboldtBlue

    Interesting story from the North Coast Journal about public street art and state equipment.

    Caltrans Asks Artists to Sign Over Copyrights

    The world has truly turned upside down because for the like the 50th time in the past eight months Bill Always Fucking Wrong Kristol has another decent take.

    I can think of a pretty famous Republican living in Texas–the only living Republican ex-president, in fact–who’s spoken eloquently about freedom and democracy and the right to vote over the years. He might say a word against Gov. Abbott’s voter suppression.

  38. 38.

    Kent

    @catclub:

    Anthony Scaramucci is probably the best of the lot.  Think about that.

    he lasted 2 weeks.

    I can think of only one Trump appointee that hasn’t been a complete cluster fuck of epic proportions.  And that is his Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

    I can’t come up with a second.

  39. 39.

    Leto

    @Cheryl Rofer: I mean, it’s not the piss tapes but I’m still happy. I honestly wish HR would’ve come out with this information a long time ago, but as Adam has detailed numerous times it’s been a long standing tradition among the officers to shut the hell up. It’s a dis-service to their oaths and country when it’s something of this magnitude. It really is.

  42. 42.

    Leto

    @karen marie: Just inference from the tape, but I guess she was trying to reunite a kid with their parent (kids in cages). Great. Be best. Fucking trash human trying for a PR stunt. Fuck’em.

  43. 43.

    Chetan Murthy

    Seriously — because I believe in karma, I wish Ms. Hicks well

    Also because you’re a kind person.  I want her to die sputtering pink gobs of lung butter for weeks.  Or hover in stroke-induced limbo for decades of locked-in syndrome.   As long as no human has to dirty their soul in meting out the punishment, no punishment can be too severe.

    God I hate all these people.  All.  Of.  Them.

  45. 45.

    Sebastian

    Am I a bad person for wishing him to get the virus, to get sick but not die, but instead a faulty ventilator sold by one of his cronies damages his throat irreparably so he cannot speak, even after he recovers and lives to see his defeat and prosecution but unable to say a word?

  50. 50.

    sdhays

    @Chetan Murthy: I don’t care about Hope Hicks one way or another. Anyone who works in the Very White House has been playing Russian roulette with the people around them, so it’s only fair that the bullet hits some of them occasionally.

    I just hope that Dump is panicked and terrified that he might have it.

  51. 51.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    @catclub:

    The woodward tapes were only 21 days ago.

    We’ve only heard a tiny fraction of the content of these tapes. If Bob Woodward truly believes that Trump is the wrong person for the job, why doesn’t he just go ahead and post all of the audio online?

  52. 52.

    lamh36

    Oooh, I’ve already seen at least 3 Biden commercials since I got here to Houston (I’m at a hotel for the night until my furniture is delivered tomorrow).

    In Louisiana, I swear I saw a damn Chump commercial at least once a fuq’n night. I hated that shit!

    Oh and the very first political ad I saw once I got here was an ad for MJ Hagar against Coryn!

    Is Texas REALLY in play ya’ll???

  54. 54.

    lamh36

    @lamh36:

    BTW, I mailed off my Texas Voter Registration paperwork Tuesday, with COVID and Texas GOP ratfuckery, who knows if it will be processed in time to vote here in Texas in Nov. But just in case, I requested an absentee ballot from Louisiana since I will be out of the state on election day.

    Gotta get ready to vote out orange!

  55. 55.

    sdhays

    @lamh36: That’s actually funny that they’re advertising for Dump in Louisiana. That’s almost Schindler level “collaboration” – raise funds from Dump supporters, run ads for Dump, but run them where they’re completely useless and make a tidy profit for yourself.

    Genius!

  56. 56.

    Ken

    @lamh36: Texas is surprisingly close, but I find it more startling that the Trump campaign is running commercials in Louisiana. Are they worried about it, or just incompetent?

    EDIT: sdhays got there first, and remembered the third option – criminal.

  60. 60.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    Melania disproves the Hollywood trope about hookers having a heart of gold.

  61. 61.

    zhena gogolia

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    The NYT tax story simultaneously with Parscale was what gave me a madeleine-like whiff of the events leading up to Nixon’s resignation.

  63. 63.

    catclub

    @Wyatt Salamanca: why doesn’t he just go ahead and post all of the audio online?

     

    mass suicide  by those listening to 20 hours of Trump?

     

    There was a passage in hitchhikers guide about someone who was strangled by his own small intestine when listening to terrible poetry.

  69. 69.

    Chetan Murthy

    @lamh36:

    Is Texas REALLY in play ya’ll???

    Oh, would that it were.  I donated a ton of money to GOTV and candidates in Texas (Annie’s List and Texas Organizing Project,  Tarrant County Dems, Texas State Dems), on that hope.  And if not, well, they’ll be able to build for next time.  Someday, maybe I’ll feel safe visiting …. and I can get some real enchiladas, sigh.

  73. 73.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @catclub: Definitely not Woodward. It was, as much as the incident, the way the media took it. A bit of skepticism rather than the usual uncritical admiration.

    I will think on it. I should have written it down, but we have had so many false starts that seemed like THIS was the scandal that would take him down.

  80. 80.

    Benw

    OT: holy heck the Padres are coming back against the Cardinals. If they can hang on, they’ll force game 3!

  82. 82.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Between Kimberly, Hope, and Melania, this is turning out to be quite the Day of the Women for Trump. It’s a good thing he has such a placid temperament and can deal calmly with each little crisis as it occurs.

  84. 84.

    Kent

    @Ken:@lamh36: Texas is surprisingly close, but I find it more startling that the Trump campaign is running commercials in Louisiana. Are they worried about it, or just incompetent?

    Hey, Louisiana is cheaper to campaign in than Texas.  So someone in the campaign probably figured go for the bargain!  We all know Trump is cheap as hell.

  86. 86.

    Ohio Mom

    I had not heard about the Melania tapes until just now. I’ve listened to two snippets.

    She has some peculiar blind spots. She wore the “I don’t care jacket” to rile up the “liberal media” but is pissed no one in the media would give her credit for attempting the (as someone upthread described it) PR stunt of reuniting one of the kids in the cages with their parents. Which she then discovered couldn’t happen because she’s not The Queen, ICE isn’t going to scurry around to fulfill her whim.

    And complaining about having to decorate the White House for Christmas like she’s the one on the ladder, untangling the lights, searching for the extension cord, battling with the tree stands and whatever else?

    Entitled doesn’t even begin to describe Melania. Thinking about the both of them, there really is a lid for every pot.

  88. 88.

    Kent

    @Brachiator: “Who gives a fuck about the Christmas stuff?”

    So you just hire a good decorator, have your chief of staff supervise, and take the credit.  Which is how I suspect most first ladies actually did it.

    But no, the Trump clan even has to fuck up something that simple.

  89. 89.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Leto:

    Rachel’s show repeats at midnight ET and again at (I think) 3:00 am. Maybe you can either stay up late, get up early, or record it.

  90. 90.

    mrmoshpotato

    @sdhays: The portrayals of her on late night shows or SNL have been waaaay too humanizing for her. She’s the perfect woman for Donnie’s third wife.

    I completely agree!

  91. 91.

    NotMax

    The Deplorable Five.

    The House adopted a resolution on Tuesday to affirm the chamber’s support for a peaceful transfer of power after President Trump last week declined to commit to it if he loses reelection.

    Lawmakers adopted the measure in a bipartisan 397-5 vote, with all of the votes in opposition coming from Republicans.

    Tuesday’s vote followed one last week on a virtually identical measure in the Senate, which lawmakers in that chamber passed unanimously.
    [snip]
    The five Republicans who voted against the resolution were Reps. Matt Gaetz (Fla.), Louie Gohmert (Texas), Clay Higgins (La.), Steve King (Iowa) and Thomas Massie (Ky.).
    [snip]
    Not a single GOP lawmaker spoke in support of the measure during House floor debate. Source

  93. 93.

    sdhays

    @Kent: If she’s even bitching about this, WTF does she actually DO that keeps her so “busy”? Does she watch Pox News all day too?

  94. 94.

    Kent

    @Geoduck:@Kent: Mattis wasn’t horrible (or great) as Sec. of Defense.

    He implemented Trump’s ban on transgender troops didn’t he?   Plus all the other crazy shit that Trump did.  I don’t have the timeline of Mattis’ term of service in my head to know what happened when.  But I’m sure there was some horrid shit he signed off on or looked the other way.

    “Just following orders” went out with the Nuremburg trials.

  97. 97.

    Ken

    @sdhays: Maybe the Russian bounties story?

    About the right timeframe, mid-July.  I was remembering it as having been around February, but that was when the intelligence services first reported it and Trump may or may not have been briefed.

    Say, does Biden have access to all the presidential daily briefs now that he’s the candidate, or just the new ones?

  98. 98.

    Sebastian

    @Kent:

    That’s like the joke of the drunk guy looking for his lost car keys under the street lamp because there is light.

  100. 100.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    @zhena gogolia:

    gave me a madeleine-like whiff

    Thanks for the Proust reference.

    @catclub:

    mass suicide  by those listening to 20 hours of Trump?

    Actually, it’s closer to about 9 and a half hours in length.

    I’m hoping Woodward will one day find his conscience and release those tapes.

  102. 102.

    zhena gogolia

    @sdhays:

    Fools around with her bodyguard or something. Or what was he, security guard at Tiffany’s or something like that.

  103. 103.

    WaterGirl

    @Cheryl Rofer: Now McMaster wants to speak up?

    What the fuck is wrong with these people that they propped him up for so long?

    I can’t buy that all these people have suddenly developed a conscience.  Do they simply wake up one day and see which way the wind is blowing and realize that if they don’t hop on the bus now, it may be too late for them to be part of polite society for the rest of their lives?

  107. 107.

    lamh36

    @Ken: IDK…but I basically watch Cartoon Network during my internet surfing in the evenings.  I barely watch what playing it’s mostly background noise, but damned if that damn Chump commercial didn’t start coming almost nightly since at least 2 weeks ago.

     

    Had to stop watching CN

  108. 108.

    dmsilev

    @Kent:

    So you just hire a good decorator

    Or, if you’re Melania, you hire someone who thought Pan’s Labyrinth would make for a dandy and festive holiday motif.

  111. 111.

    lamh36

    Chump and Melanoma in self quarantine awaiting results of COVID test after Hope Hicks positive result.

    Hick was also at the debate, so I guess that means Joe an Jill and any Biden campers in her area or presense will need to self quarantine as well?

  112. 112.

    Kent

    @dmsilev:Or, if you’re Melania, you hire someone who thought Pan’s Labyrinth would make for a dandy and festive holiday motif.

    Yeah, I mean only a Trump could fuck up Christmas.  Sheesh.  Just hire someone from Macy’s or something.  There are a bazillion decorators who know how to do Christmas.

  113. 113.

    sdhays

    @Ken: That was the first story that I thought, “This is really going to give the media heartburn, because it means that they have to pick a side between Dump and ‘the troops’.”

  114. 114.

    Wag

    @karen marie:   I agree. From An epidemiologic standpoint, it makes complete sense. Only we had someone in the White House who would listen to the science…

  118. 118.

    Kent

    @lamh36:Hick was also at the debate, so I guess that means Joe an Jill and any Biden campers in her area or presense will need to self quarantine as well?

    I hope to God that no one in the Biden campaign got with 50 ft of any Trump people.  They should fucking know better.

  122. 122.

    patroclus

    @lamh36: Yes, Texas is in play.  Biden will probably need a 10-point win nationally to win it (currently about 7.9), but after that disastrous debate performance and all the other news, it’s doable.  I’m not predicting it, but it’s possible (and would push Biden well over 400 EV’s).

  123. 123.

    lamh36

    So Chump is now blaming the military members for Hope Hicks getting COVID…smh

    That fuq’er really has no respect for our troops!

  124. 124.

    Ian

    @Ken: There are parts of Texas that are reached only from New Orleans media market.  If I recall correctly those parts of Texas are redder than it should be possible to even feasibly draw a district.  Their internals must not be looking good if they are trying scrounge up voters in the smallest most conservative corners of the state.

  125. 125.

    sdhays

    @WaterGirl: If you want to be charitable (and I’m generally not for these people, I’m just pointing it out), speaking up now is probably the time where it will have the most significance. If he spoke up before, it wouldn’t have gotten the Republican Senate to reign him in. But speaking up now puts the information in front of people who actually might do something about it right before they’re making the decision.

  129. 129.

    ballerat

    @senyordave: Fuck that. I have members of my family who have died or have had lingering side effects from covid.

    She was complicit in this administration’s genocide. She can fucking die. That would be a minimum  of what these dirtbags owe 200,000 people and their families.

  131. 131.

    sdhays

    @lamh36: So, if he quarantines for the recommended 14 days (ha!) and he’s not sick (with COVID-19), he’ll be free to go to the town hall debate the next day! I’m sure he’ll be thrilled!

    If he’s got it, then that’s an awful lot of trouble just to get out of having to debate (debat?) Joe Biden again.

  132. 132.

    cain

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Oh man, he’s going to be MAD. This is was his time, to go out and do his rallys to get his attention. He’s going to be tweeting like a son of a bitch …

  136. 136.

    lamh36

    The WH saying they are awaiting results of COVID testing for Chump and Melanoma.

    Rapid test can detect a positive within 3 mins, negative in 10min.  If they are negative by the rapid method, they’d want to test using the longer rapid method which is still an under 1hr test usually.  If the rapid was positive, there should be no need they would confirm by longer test unless wanted to see if they had it before or if they were carriers.

    They already know if Chump is positive or not. They surely tested him soon as they knew Hicks was positive.

  138. 138.

    patroclus

    FWIW, my electoral map currently has Biden at 321, with 99 toss-ups.  I’m actually beginning to believe that this is going to be a blow-out.

  140. 140.

    Kent

    @Ian:@Ken: There are parts of Texas that are reached only from New Orleans media market.  If I recall correctly those parts of Texas are redder than it should be possible to even feasibly draw a district.  Their internals must not be looking good if they are trying scrounge up voters in the smallest most conservative corners of the state.

    Houston is twice as close to the TX/LA border as New Orleans is.  But who knows. That whole region is a cesspool.  Also probably some parts of NE Texas around Marshall are probably served by the Shreveport media market. That’s Gohmert’s district so not just bright red, but bright stupid as well.

    If they are running ads in Shreveport to try to reach Marshall TX then wow….

  141. 141.

    WaterGirl

    @zhena gogolia: 5 minutes is what I have read.  And my understanding that it’s in the same space – since it’s airborne, she doesn’t have to have breathed directly on you.  That’s my take, anyway.

  142. 142.

    mad citizen

     

    @patroclus: My optimist map a week or two ago was 400+ EC votes.  But now we have the caveat of: as long as he doesn’t succumb to covid given to him by the sputing orange mess during the shoutfest.

  143. 143.

    jl

    So, if Trump tries his 2016 stalking trick at future debates with Biden, will that be assault? Can they frog march him out right there and then? Trump must have been exposed.

  146. 146.

    dmsilev

    @Kent: I assume the Biden people are sensible and were masked up. Also, the audience in the debate is usually split, with each camp on its own side of the room, so it’s more likely that she infected the entire Trump family in one go.

  147. 147.

    sdhays

    @lamh36: If it’s very early in the infection, the tests are less accurate, right? I thought I read that the tests are much more positive about a week after initial infection, although I might be mixing that up with something else.

  148. 148.

    Kent

    @patroclus:FWIW, my electoral map currently has Biden at 321, with 99 toss-ups.  I’m actually beginning to believe that this is going to be a blow-out.

    I’m not counting electoral votes until it is all over.  Although I will concede that the electoral votes here in WA state are pretty safely in the Biden camp.

    I need more proof than polls before my faith in the American people starts to get rebuilt.

  149. 149.

    Marcopolo

    Honestly I hope Trump is negative because he was only a few feet away from Biden on Tuesday night yelling his head off in Biden’s direction. And one of the things we know is that someone with the virus yelling can spew it the length of a 20 foot room.

  151. 151.

    WaterGirl

    @lamh36: Maybe one or both of them was positive with the rapid test, and they are waiting to confirm with the test that takes longer.

    Maybe the 14-day quarantine “just in case” is because one or both tested positive.  Surely from his perspective, “just in case” looks better than “the dumpster has it.”

  152. 152.

    Kent

    @dmsilev:@Kent: I assume the Biden people are sensible and were masked up. Also, the audience in the debate is usually split, with each camp on its own side of the room, so it’s more likely that she infected the entire Trump family in one go.

    Or caught it from one of them.  The Trump spawn have been living large and going mask free.

  153. 153.

    gwangung

    @dmsilev: Um, remember that masking is more effective for preventing transmission if you have covid, and not preventing you from getting it if you don’t. A mask-less Hicks is dangerous no matter what.

  154. 154.

    J R in WV

    @sdhays:

    I just hope that Dump is panicked and terrified that he might have it.

    Drumpf knows he can’t have it — that would be the end of the world, which can’t happen with him in the world. I think that’s how people with his mental condition think.

    But, yes, I hope he can’t sleep, or think (wait, we KNOW he doesn’t think much at all!) or anything, for quite a while.

  155. 155.

    Goku (Amerikan Baka)

    @lamh36:

    Exactly this. I bet he and others in his family have tested positive with the rapid test, so now they’re waiting on the PCR test to confirm the positive result. If he had tested negative with the rapid Abbot test, we would’ve heard that already, right?

  157. 157.

    NotMax

    @Ken

    Someone’s second cousin owns a Louisiana TV station?

    “There’s room at the trough post-Parscale.”

    //

  158. 158.

    Goku (Amerikan Baka)

    @gwangung:

    That’s actually not true. Masks are just as effective at preventing the wearer from being infected. It works both ways

  159. 159.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @lamh36:

    if they follow his CDC recs, 14 days

    As is so often the case, “if” is doing more than its share of heavy lifting in that sentence.

  160. 160.

    Marcopolo

    @dmsilev: Biden wasn’t masked on stage and masks are to protect everyone else.  I assume Hope Hicks was seated in the audience w/out a mask on.

    If Trump is positive with his yelling he could have spread virus all over the stage area.   That is what I’d be worried about.

  161. 161.

    sdhays

    @Marcopolo: I wonder how this will affect Chris Wallace’s coverage of Dump and the coronavirus. Conservatives tend to change their tune quickly when reality hits them personally.

  166. 166.

    Kent

    One thing I have noticed.   I have a TON of extended family on Facebook that were rabid MAGA folks in 2016.  I have a very very large extended family scattered across states like MI, IN, PA, AR, and OH.  Most of them were all-in for Trump in 2016 and polluted my FB feed with endless pro-Trump shit.   Honestly it has been deathly quiet from that side of the family on FB for the past year or so.  I mean, I still get the recipe forwards, and the occasional evangelical christian tropes.  But they have all been dead silent about Trump.  Basically they seem to have disengaged from politics.  I know a bunch of them have been royally fucked by Trump’s farm policies and Covid

  167. 167.

    danielx

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Yes indeed.

    In truth, I could almost feel sorry for anyone working in the White House at the moment, since they are subject to the whims of a sociopath who is melting down at a rate that increases by the day.

    Almost. They didn’t have to be there.

  170. 170.

    Kent

    @Geoduck:@Kent:  The WA state presidential votes are safe, but man, I hope we don’t repeat the national disaster and elect Culp governor.

    There was a time when WA would elect the occasional GOP governor. But it was always some very establishment, highly qualified mainstream type GOP daddy with a big long resume. Culp ain’t that.

  172. 172.

    WaterGirl

    @lamh36: I can believe that.  I wouldn’t trust either trump or anyone in this administration.  But then I wouldn’t be in their circle in the first place.

    A bunch of users and losers.

  173. 173.

    Kent

    @TS (the original):

    I have it as a Biden win.  electoralvote.com has it as barely GOP.

    The Texas Governor has just announced only ONE drop box per county for mail-in ballots.

    Cheating and voter suppression is the only way Trump wins Texas.

    It’s not just about Trump. They are trying to keep their legislative supermajorities as well. TX statehouse is all powerful.  And redistricting is coming up soon.

  174. 174.

    Martin

    I’m a terrible person, but I sincerely hope Hicks dies from this. Maybe, just maybe, that’d be close enough to Trump to cause some federal action, because we’re lining up for another 100K dead before inauguration day, and Trump doesn’t care about them, but I suspect he cares about the Ivanka clone.

  175. 175.

    sdhays

    @Kent: They have majorities, but I didn’t think they had super-majorities. Don’t the Democrats just need to flip 6 or 7 seats to take back the Texas House?

  176. 176.

    debbie

    @lamh36:

    Makes you wonder what the friend was about to be blamed for.

    I’m still back on those red Christmas trees. She didn’t pick them for some sort of misguided design idea; she picked them to purposely piss off the liberal world. Some Christians these two turned out to be!

  178. 178.

    patroclus

    I have a boatload of extended family members in Texas (having been born and raised there).  All of them are Biden voters this time whereas in 2016, it was much more mixed.  My soon-to-be 98 year-old Dad, WWII vet and notorious fence-sitter, is as rabidly anti-Trump as anyone you could possibly name.

  180. 180.

    HumboldtBlue

    @danielx:

    Almost. They didn’t have to be there.

    Keep in mind the professional staff and their families and extended families and friends. Some people have to be they’re and they are being put at serious risk by careless, vile human beings.

  182. 182.

    Kent

    @sdhays:@Kent: They have majorities, but I didn’t think they had super-majorities. Don’t the Democrats just need to flip 6 or 7 seats to take back the Texas House?

    I think you are right.  And I’m not sure if supermajority actually means anything in TX anyway as they don’t have a Dem governor to veto override.  All they need is a majority to do what they want.

    But anyway, don’t assume all this voter suppression is about Trump.  It’s about maintaining their legislative majorities by suppressing the Black and Hispanic vote in the big cities.  Same as always.

  185. 185.

    TS (the original)

    @SiubhanDuinne:

     

    Trump told his fervent supporter and Fox News personality, Sean Hannity, around 9:50 p.m. ET that he and his wife had been tested.

    “She did test positive, I just heard about this, she did test positive. She’s a hard worker. A lot of masks, she wears masks a lot but she tested positive and I just went out with a test, because you know we spend a lot of time and the First Lady just went out with a test also, so whether we quarantine or whether we have it, I don’t know,” Trump said on the show.

    My bold – from what I understand she did not wear a mask at the debate & neither did any other trump supporter. The lies never stop.

  186. 186.

    PaulWartenberg

    I was so busy writing a blog article tonight that I only got to see the reports on both Hicks AND Melania’s Christmas Meltdown in the last ten minutes.

    JEEEEEESUS.

    Where the hell is 2020 taking us.

  189. 189.

    Kent

    @patroclus:I have a boatload of extended family members in Texas (having been born and raised there).  All of them are Biden voters this time whereas in 2016, it was much more mixed.  My soon-to-be 98 year-old Dad, WWII vet and notorious fence-sitter, is as rabidly anti-Trump as anyone you could possibly name.

    I have a ton of friends in TX who are mostly teachers and former work colleagues and they were mostly Dems to begin with.  So I don’t have a good sense of the current zeitgeist in TX even though I lived there 13 years.  We left in 2016 before the election so my last memories of TX were of Obama derangement syndrome amongst the white suburbanites.

  191. 191.

    marklar

    For those here worried that Trump could have passed it on to Biden, that’s highly unlikely.  If Trump caught it from Hicks on Sunday or Monday, he probably wouldn’t have become sufficiently infected until today through Sunday (extending up to 14 days) to be spreading it.  Thus, it’s highly unlikely that he could have passed it on to anybody on Tuesday.

  193. 193.

    Mai Naem mobile

    https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/trumpinc/episodes/trump-inc-freddie-mac-kushner-loans

    The day just gets better for Trumpworld. Blood in the water indeed. I think a lot of powerful people have decided they got their tax cuts, their judges and their deregulatory needs taken care of. The incompetent handling of COVID19 has spooked them enough that they don’t want a Trumpov dynasty.  The firehose of attacks on the Trumpovs is going to go on until election day.

  194. 194.

    Anya

    @debbie: she explained that. She said she pleaded with Melania when the Trump world started framing her for the inauguration swindle. They started leaking stories about her and when Melania basically told her to fuck off, that’s when she started recording her. She said, I never taped my friend… meaning at that point she didn’t consider Melania her friend b/c she was ready to throw her under the bus. To make matters worse, she expected her to sacrifice herself to save the Trumps.

  195. 195.

    J R in WV

    @patroclus:

    October 1, 2020 at 11:31 pm

    I have a boatload of extended family members in Texas (having been born and raised there).  All of them are Biden voters this time whereas in 2016, it was much more mixed.  My soon-to-be 98 year-old Dad, WWII vet and notorious fence-sitter, is as rabidly anti-Trump as anyone you could possibly name.

    Congratulations on your family being illuminated~!!~

    If we win TX wife and I will drink TWO bottles of champagne!! The good stuff. And I will eat oysters!

  196. 196.

    Mousebumples

    The Hoarse Whisperer (@TheRealHoarse) tweeted at 10:23 PM on Thu, Oct 01, 2020:

    Something doesn’t add up.

    If this report is true, Trump is clearly lying about awaiting test results.

    And if he’s lying about test results, it ain’t because he was cleared. https://t.co/shSwDc8MBL

    (https://twitter.com/TheRealHoarse/status/1311869373540335616?s=03)

    Speculation I’m seeing on Twitter is that his rapid test came back positive, and now they’re waiting on the longer test results/confirmation.

    And now I’m worried about Biden’s possible exposure. *sigh* Why can’t reckless covid behavior be like Darwinism, and not have one group’s bad decisions impacting innocents.

  197. 197.

    catclub

    @TS (the original): and I just went out with a test,

     

    huh?  what does that mean?

    on the one hand I say he has his talking point lined up for rapid fire, and then I wonder, who talks like this?

  198. 198.

    Kent

    @HumboldtBlue:

    I posted this downstairs but yet again we learned that everyone who works for Trump is just a trash human being.

    Kimberly Guilfoyle was fired by FOX after they settled a multi-million-dollar settlement with a woman described horrific sexual abuse at her hands.

    How in God’s name did Gavin Newsom wind up with such a vile human being?  Was that one of those celebrity things?   I mean seriously, I expect he had plenty of other options of women to marry.  You don’t turn into this vile of a human out of nowhere.  There had to have been signs going back to childhood.

  199. 199.

    TS (the original)

    @patroclus:

    Biden will probably need a 10-point win nationally to win it

    On 538 Biden is currently up 8.2. All the recent polls range from +5 to +13 with the likely voter polls ranging from +8 to +13.

    A couple of days ago the 538 margin was 7.1

    Only r.fing by republicans will stop Texas turning blue.

  200. 200.

    Kent

    @Mousebumples:

    (https://twitter.com/TheRealHoarse/status/1311869373540335616?s=03)

    Speculation I’m seeing on Twitter is that his rapid test came back positive, and now they’re waiting on the longer test results/confirmation.

    And now I’m worried about Biden’s possible exposure. *sigh* Why can’t reckless covid behavior be like Darwinism, and not have one group’s bad decisions impacting innocents.

    Doesn’t the White House have their own testing lab to basically get instant results even from the longer test?  I mean it ain’t like they have to send the samples out of state and wait in line.

  201. 201.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    @Martin:

    Trump doesn’t care about them, but I suspect he cares about the Ivanka clone.

    I don’t think so.  Trump is a goddamn psychopath and a rat fucking bastard who only cares about himself.  This bastard belongs in prison for the rest of his goddamn life for the criminal negligence that has led to the deaths of over 200,000 Americans.

  204. 204.

    TS (the original)

    @catclub:

    huh?  what does that mean?

    I just report it. I am not a Fox reporter, I don’t interpret it.

    I can’t decide whose command of language is worse – the president* or the 3rd lady.

  205. 205.

    Mai Naem mobile

    @TS (the original): poor Melania. She has that kidney issue to worry about. COVID affects kidneys. Also if Orange Douchebag did have a stroke he’s got issues to worry about as well. And then Melania’s elderly parents who magically don’t have to worry about healthcare even though they immigrated here not that long ago.

  207. 207.

    Amir Khalid

    @TS (the original):

    Challenging this very hinky one drop box per county order in the courts seems to me the logical response. Is someone, maybe the ACLU’s Texas chapter or a voting-rights organisation, going to do that?

  208. 208.

    J R in WV

    @Wyatt Salamanca:

    Trump is a goddamn psychopath and a rat fucking bastard who only cares about himself. This bastard belongs in prison for the rest of his goddamn life for the criminal negligence that has led to the deaths of over 200,000 Americans.

    Well said, perfectly said in fact. He can’t live long enough for the proper sentence, really. Florence CO for him. High and dry.

  211. 211.

    Mai Naem mobile

    @Kent: Newsom had a messy personal life. I can’t believe even in California he became Lt Gov. I believe he screwed around with his best friends wife/girlfriend which is just  really shitty behavior. I don’t really care about people’s personal lives but screwing around with your best friends partner just makes me question somebody’s judgement and assholishness.

  212. 212.

    oldgold

    If Trump comes down with Covid, is it a net political positive or negative for him?

    If he were to become bedridden for 2 weeks or so, would he demand the election be postponed?

  213. 213.

    jl

    @Mai Naem mobile: An outbreak that brought down multiple very high profile Trumpsters was bound to happen sooner or later. With lots of high risk close mixing, with lax and spotty precautions, and for those reasons, mixing in a network of people with much higher than average risk, just a matter of time.

    Edit: Forgot that this is not the first outbreak to get close to people like Trump and Hannity.

  214. 214.

    Amir Khalid

    @Kent:

    Those who succeed at being vile have typically learned how to conceal their vileness when tactics require.

  215. 215.

    Kent

    @Goku (Amerikan Baka):

    @Kent:

    Were they all freaked out about that National Guard operation in 2014 or 2015?

    No, they just hated Obama and “Hitlery” with a passion.

    Most of the state just floated through the early 2000s basically apathetic about politics with low turnout and the GOP crazies took advantage.  Apparently that is finally starting to change.

    Texans have never been that full of anti-immigrant MAGA types.  They like them some Mexicans.  Who else is going to mow the lawn and build the cheap houses and work in all the factories?  They just don’t want them to vote.   George W Bush actually pretty much perfectly captured the Texas political zeitgeist much better than Trump.  He was a perfect fake Texan and they loved him because most Texans are actual fake Texans.

  216. 216.

    bluehill

    I think Putin has ordered all the popcorn available in Russia and probably seized any supplies in Belarus and Ukraine.

  220. 220.

    lamh36

    @marklar: not just about his proximity to Trump.

    Apparently Hicks was maskless in a van w/aides and other staff before the debate and times after.  The WH knew about her positive result at some point and tried to cover it up but a reporter got wind and reported it.

    It’s about who Hicks came into contact with during all this time.  If she is symptomatic, she’s been carrying and spreading the virus for longer than a minute

  221. 221.

    jl

    @oldgold: As Adam and others put, we’ve been through the map and off the looking glass for quite a while.

    But there are laws and rules for what happens if a candidate is incapacitated, so no postponing elections. But, if there is doubt about whether one or more of GOP ticket is incapacitated, or the extent of the damage, then it will get interesting.

    Edit: but I think the SATSQ for the MAGAs, yeah, obviously a Deep State plot. What it could be, who knows and who cares? But something.

  222. 222.

    Kent

    @Mai Naem mobile:@Kent: Newsom had a messy personal life. I can’t believe even in California he became Lt Gov. I believe he screwed around with his best friends wife/girlfriend which is just  really shitty behavior. I don’t really care about people’s personal lives but screwing around with your best friends partner just makes me question somebody’s judgement and assholishness.

    So he probably just married her back then because she was young and hot and ambitious and looked to make a perfect political wife.  Transactional.

  223. 223.

    lamh36

    @Mousebumples: If they’ve known since Wednesday, then either no one told Chump co, or he’s lying about being tested?

    There is NO WAY they would wait to test the POTUS if a close aide tested positive.

    But this isn’t a normal presidency, as we know.

  225. 225.

    Goku (Amerikan Baka)

    @Kent:

    I’m glad to hear that Texas may be beginning to change

    By the way, how did your daughter’s debate report go? Did the teacher just cancel the project and give everyone credit? ?

  226. 226.

    lgerard

    @catclub:

    How about this example from a few days ago:

    “We’re sending hundreds of thousands of additional rapid tests to nursing homes,” he said at a news briefing last week. “The staff now is being tested on a very, very powerful and on a regular basis, but very strongly at the finest level, the highest level, and the best tests.”

    It sounds like a bad translation by an inexperienced tourist from an obscure foreign language

  227. 227.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    If Trump tests positive for COVID-19, it simply means that we’re absolutely, positively rounding the corner.

  228. 228.

    TS (the original)

    @marklar:

    For those here worried that Trump could have passed it on to Biden, that’s highly unlikely.

    Shame there isn’t a guideline from the CDC so everyone could have the same knowledge.

    My understanding is that you are contagious at least 2-3 days before symptoms show, so Hicks was certainly contagious at the debates. Whether she had passed it on to trump by then – who knows, although he had his “fast test” before the debate, so maybe not.  I heard she was not wearing a mask & was backstage. Who knows how close she was to Biden, who is always friendly to both sides.

  229. 229.

    Goku (Amerikan Baka)

    @jl:

    I hope Trump doesn’t die because I don’t want any sympathy votes for Trump or people “coming home” to vote for Pence

  230. 230.

    mrmoshpotato

    @oldgold: If he were to become bedridden for 2 weeks or so, would he demand the election be postponed?

    People are already voting.  People have already voted.  I have my vote-by-mail ballot sitting next to me.  The election (and defeat of the Soviet shitpile mobster conman) is underway.

    Also, the states run their own elections.  Democratic secretaries of state can tell Dump to go suck Putin’s asshole.

  231. 231.

    lamh36

    What about Pence.  Was Hicks also in close proximity to him. Cause I don’t want Pence no where near Kamala for the VP debate next week.  Make it a Zoom debate if they have to, or put Pence in a booth…

  232. 232.

    jl

    @lgerard: No kinda of testing no matter how bigly best and top, do it every two hours, whatever, can protect individuals or small groups who engage in high risk behavior.

    It’s great for outbreak control, but in that case, it is working the averages to prevent a large outbreak, and preventing another sustained and disastrous epidemic wave. Random individuals will still come down with cases, fantastic top testing or not.

  233. 233.

    catclub

    @Amir Khalid: Challenging this very hinky one drop box per county order in the courts seems to me the logical response.

     

    Abbott does not care if it was legal. They will tie it up in court as long as possible. And appeal.

  235. 235.

    jl

    @Goku (Amerikan Baka): I think any politician in the reelection getting very seriously ill, or worse, would just be bad news at this point. I have to hope for the best for everyone, though kind of ashamed to admit I am not enthusiastic about having to do that for some.

    We don’t need any more weird and destabilizing developments of any sort.

  236. 236.

    Patricia Kayden

    Heh

    BREAKING: The president just announced that he can't release the results of his Covid test because they're under audit.— Jerry ? (@js_edit) October 2, 2020

  237. 237.

    catclub

    @jl: Edit: but I think the SATSQ for the MAGAs, yeah, obviously a Deep State plot.

     

    Did you know that the  Trump plan to sweep  the floors of timberlands is being blocked by Deep Forest? They are all federal lands after all.

  238. 238.

    Leto

    @Morzer: Blaming military members again. Another bullet in the chamber for Biden.

    You get close, and things happen.

    He hasn’t had a grenade shoved up his ass, so i don’t think he’s been close enough. This just really fucking irritates me.

  239. 239.

    TS (the original)

    @Amir Khalid:

    I’ve no idea – but it’s being done to make sure the “votes are protected from fraud” and I don’t know enough about Texas to know how the courts would reply – I suspect they would support the governor.

  241. 241.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    No Rachel Maddow rebroadcast tonight.

    I’ll bet anyone on this thread that Trump does not know the dictionary definition of quarantine.

  242. 242.

    cain

    @Goku (Amerikan Baka):

    I think most would just stay home.. Nobody gives a shit about Pence. They want Donald. Some might, but it wont be the same and all the down tickets will suffer as well.

    But mostly I’m hoping that the fool gets sick and won’t have the energy to contest anything because he’ll be out of commission. Of course, then Pence will have to take over but boy that kid isn’t ready for the big time.

  244. 244.

    Amir Khalid

    @lgerard:

    English is clearly not Trump’s first language, even if it’s the only one he knows at all. What on earth does it mean to be tested for coronavirus on a powerful basis? Does a humongous 350lb weightlifter stick the swab up your nose?

  246. 246.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    I old enough to remember when Dump said Hydroxychloroquine would prevent Covid contraction.

  247. 247.

    cain

    @lamh36: It’s about who Hicks came into contact with during all this time. If she is symptomatic, she’s been carrying and spreading the virus for longer than a minute

    That will be some hilarious shit if Hicks is complacency manages to put most of the senior administration officials out of commission. While I don’t desire their deaths, I will be happy with them seeing them out of the game and not causing harm.

  248. 248.

    TS (the original)

    MSNBC reporting on Hope Hicks – shows picture of Miller walking alongside Hicks to an event.

    Interesting events.

    Edit: I went to see the Rachel repeat, I either have the times wrong or they are letting Brian go with this news.

  249. 249.

    debbie

    @lamh36:

    The BBC reported just now that she became symptomatic in Minnesota, so that would have been about 14 days after she caught the virus.

    Maybe he already has it; they’re self-quarantining for two weeks. Imagine how many tweets will be sweatily tweeted!

  251. 251.

    cain

    @Morzer:

    That’s some serious lying.. imagine the military being so exuberant as to senior white house officials like they were some aunt they were fond of. There is military protocol to adhere to.

    Otherwise you’re saying that they don’t run a tight ship over there.

  253. 253.

    Morzer

    @cain: Trump might as well admit that he does indeed think that the military are losers and suckers. He’s still using them as scapegoats for his own grotesque inadequacy and corrupt behavior.

  254. 254.

    cain

    @jl:

    On the other hand, if it just affects Republican politicians.. imagine if a couple senators croak making it difficult to seat a SC nominee. What if the nominee itself got sick.

    There would be outright panic.. the Russian bots will know what to do though.

  255. 255.

    The Moar You Know

    If Trump comes down with Covid, is it a net political positive or negative for him?

    If he were to become bedridden for 2 weeks or so, would he demand the election be postponed?

    @oldgold: if he gets sick enough to be “bedridden” for two weeks, at his age and with his risk factors, the election will no longer be of any concern to him as he will be dead.

  256. 256.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:

    At this time of breaking news, let us not forget this classic golden oldie:

    So, supposing we hit the body with a tremendous – whether it’s ultraviolet or just very powerful light and I think you said that hasn’t been checked but you’re going to test it. And then I said, supposing you brought the light inside of the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way. And I think you said you’re going to test that too. Sounds interesting. And then I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning?

  263. 263.

    Kent

    @Goku (Amerikan Baka):

    I’m glad to hear that Texas may be beginning to change

    By the way, how did your daughter’s debate report go? Did the teacher just cancel the project and give everyone credit? ?

    He hasn’t graded it yet and they haven’t talked about it yet because they are on every-other-day zoom sessions with their classes.  Tomorrow I expect they will talk about the debate.

    I’m more interested in how it went then she was.  She just wanted to get it finished and then run off to the basement to hang out with her gamer friends.

  265. 265.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Goku (Amerikan Baka): I’m with you on this one. If Trump dies, you can bet there’s going to be trawling of Democratic tweets and media responses from the past several months where Dems say things like “Maybe he’d take it more seriously if he caught it”.

    And then the Rs and Media would spend the next few weeks making Trump into a martyr and Democrats into bullies, because they actually wanted Trump to be careful. And he refused.

  266. 266.

    NotMax

    @TS (the original)

    There are individual counties in Texas encompassing more square miles than the entire state of Rhode Island. Imagine if RI mandated only one drop box in the state.

    Just sayin’.

  269. 269.

    jl

    When you think about it, the childishness is amazing. Wear masks all the time, stay six feet apart, don’t shake hands, and the washing and good hygiene routine. Pretty much done on prevention, and can get a lot done that way. But… no…

    So, is this like the third or fourth outbreak at the top of the WH? They don’t learn, won’t learn, don’t want to learn. At least the Dear Leader doesn’t.

    Edit: and I forgot about the WH Secret Service outbreaks. Yeesh.

  270. 270.

    Kent

    @TS (the original):I’m with you on this one. I’d like him to get covid-19 after the election, not before.

    I could give a shit about Trump.  What I want is for the 5 or 6 oldest GOP Senators to all come down with Covid before the SCOTUS hearings and then spend 2 months on respirators under sedation until Congress adjourns in late December.

    And then a couple of GOP appointed Justices to come down with Covid as well.

    I’m afraid we won’t get that lucky.

  271. 271.

    TS (the original)

    @lamh36:

    What about Pence.  Was Hicks also in close proximity to him.

    Talking about contact tracing, or lack thereof on MSNBC. Reporters should be concerned if trump decides to carry on his campaign  No way I would be flying on AF1 until after 2 weeks quarantine. And many reporters were with Hope Hicks in recent days.

    In my part of the world, everyone at the debate & everyone who travelled with Hope over the past week would be in 2 weeks quarantine – going nowhere – not work, not shopping, not exercise.

    If I was a Biden staffer I probably would be freaking out about Biden being close to these people at the debate.

  272. 272.

    Kent

    @NotMax:

    @TS (the original)

    There are individual counties in Texas encompassing more square miles than the entire state of Rhode Island. Imagine if RI mandated only one drop box in the state.

    Just sayin’.

    This ain’t about any of those big counties in West Texas.  This is about suppressing the Black and Latino vote in Harris County (Houston).  And to a lesser extent the liberal vote in Austin.  Those were the only counties, to my knowledge, that were even doing drop boxes in the first place.  They aren’t normally a thing in Texas.

    What is normal is early voting where they have the polls open daily at central locations for early voting for a couple of weeks prior to the election.  If you are in a white part of TX it is super easy and convenient to do early voting.

  274. 274.

    Yutsano

    @Geoduck: @Kent:  I wouldn’t worry about it. The whole plan was for the nomination to land firmly in Eyman’s lap so he could try to make a good go of it and Culp would just be an also-ran. Eyman, the idiot that he is, totally misread where the Republican party in Washington is. Culp appealed to the lawnord’r types (did you know he’s a sheriff?) and racist Evangelicals in Bellevue, Chehalis, and the East Side. Culp ended up catching the car and now he’s sticking to whatever Inslee is for he’s against. Granted Inslee stuck his foot in it today by threatening Boeing but I don’t see that as killing him on the Wet Side.  I’m having a hard time imagining that much ticket splitting up here.

  275. 275.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    @Amir Khalid:

    What does it mean to look into something very strongly?

    Greta Thunberg’s understanding of English grammar is significantly better than Trump.

    No politician has ever butchered the English language like this maniac.

  278. 278.

    jl

    @Wyatt Salamanca: strongly = bigly + winning. Everyone knows that. The best people, people so big you wouldn’t believe it, have come to me, called me ‘Sir’, wept, and told me that, privately.

  281. 281.

    TS (the original)

    @NotMax:

    There are individual counties in Texas encompassing more square miles than the entire state of Rhode Island.

    Wouldn’t those counties be mainly filled with trump supporters? Maybe Gov Abbott didn’t think this through?

    @Kent:  Thanks for the update – I didn’t  know that –  makes sense as to what Abbott usually does.

  282. 282.

    Morzer

    @scav: It’s getting so a president can’t even hole up in his bunker without being drenched in precious bodily essences by adoring members of the military.

  283. 283.

    Kent

    @Yutsano:@Geoduck: @Kent:  I wouldn’t worry about it. The whole plan was for the nomination to land firmly in Eyman’s lap so he could try to make a good go of it and Culp would just be an also-ran. Eyman, the idiot that he is, totally misread where the Republican party in Washington is. Culp appealed to the lawnord’r types (did you know he’s a sheriff?) and racist Evangelicals in Bellevue, Chehalis, and the East Side. Culp ended up catching the car and now he’s sticking to whatever Inslee is for he’s against. Granted Inslee stuck his foot in it today by threatening Boeing but I don’t see that as killing him on the Wet Side.  I’m having a hard time imagining that much ticket splitting up here.

    No, I’m not worried about Culp.   He’s actually a good thing because he taints all the other GOP candidates with his crazy just by getting close to them.   There was going to be some GOP candidate for governor.  Might as well be a crazy small town sheriff from at town in eastern WA of about 2000 people.  I wouldn’t be half surprised if he turned out to be Q-anon as well.  He fits the profile.

    I would be more worried about some senior GOP daddy type in the Mitt Romney mold.  But WA doesn’t seem to produce those types anymore.  The last one was Slade Gorton.

  284. 284.

    dmsilev

    @oldgold:

    If he were to become bedridden for 2 weeks or so, would he demand the election be postponed?

    He can demand whatever he wants, but the more important question is will anyone listen? And, as far as delaying an election because he caught the hoax-virus, I can’t imagine that there are very many Republican Governors or Secretaries of State willing to crawl out on that limb for him.

  285. 285.

    catclub

    @Wyatt Salamanca: So, supposing we hit the body with a tremendous – whether it’s ultraviolet or just very powerful light

     

    This made me think of putting Trump in the hohlraum of a nuclear weapon. Actually I just wanted to remember the word ‘hohlraum’.

    The idea of reflecting x-rays is amazing.

  286. 286.

    Kent

    @TS (the original):Wouldn’t those counties be mainly filled with trump supporters? Maybe Gov Abbott didn’t think this through?

    No, he knows what he is doing.  The only places that were even using multiple drop boxes in the first place were Houston and Austin.  This is entirely about the Black and Hispanic vote in those two cities (and the liberal vote in Austin).  It has no meaningful effect anywhere else in TX.

  288. 288.

    Marcopolo

    Probably already been said somewhere way way upthread but the Comey statement “Lordy let there be tapes” strikes again. Christ, what a bunch of taping assholes.

  290. 290.

    Bill Arnold

    Anne Laurie, for a morning COVID-19 thread:
    [Serious] People from Reddit who survived Corona, how has your daily life changed? What are the side effects after?
    It is long (10k comments so far) and sobering. Snippet from a sample comment:

    A little comic relief: A guy in the bodega was refusing to wear his mask, saying it was fake and “no one even knows someone who really had it” and I was so incensed, my wife still in the hospital, neighbors dying left and right, that I decided “fuck it, I’m gonna punch this man in the face despite knowing what a horrible idea that is and that it solves nothing.”
    But I was still so weak my body was like “nah bro, you aren’t gonna do that.” And I walked home and cried for the first time in my adult life.
    I hope there is a reckoning. Really. I don’t want people to get hurt…but I want to see this entire administration thrown in prison. And that’s about as civil as I can be at the moment.

  291. 291.

    Emma from FL

    Jesus Christ. Spend a lovely evening listening to Pentatonix. Decide to take a quick drive-by to BJ before bed. And the fucking world has been set on fire again. What’s that, six times in 48 hours?

    No wonder people want Biden. The man exudes calm and patience and “don’t worry honey, I’ll take care of the monsters under the bed.”

  292. 292.

    Morzer

    @Emma from FL: So you missed the ten alarming moments and trends that occurred while you were writing your comment.

    Joking aside, I am starting to have visions of stadiums full of people chanting  “We want boredom! We want boredom!”

  293. 293.

    Miss Bianca

    @WaterGirl:

    Do they simply wake up one day and see which way the wind is blowing and realize that if they don’t hop on the bus now, it may be too late for them to be part of polite society for the rest of their lives?

    Yeah, pretty much.

  296. 296.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    @jl:

    @catclub:

    Trump is the Mt. Everest of stupidity.  I only hope we have the good fortune of seeing this babbling buffoon stand trial after he leaves office.

  297. 297.

    Danielx

    @TS (the original):

    Got that right. We have a niece who lives in Redding who got Covid-19, and the same day her test came back positive the California state health authorities called her and said fourteen day quarantine for you, no passing GO, no $200.

    Niece by marriage, a good kid but has drunk evangelical Christian kool-aid. As has her mom, a physician…who is a good person, love her dearly, has helped us a lot with the daughter unit’s health issues. But she’s going to vote for Trump, because soshulism. And because she believes what she hears at the megachurch she attends, at which she went through the whole body baptism thing a few years back. Originally Catholic, but now regards Catholics as pagans.

    If I ever hear a word from her about how character counts or about how personal morality in political leaders is important, I’m going to be hard pressed not to piss on her shoes.

  303. 303.

    Leto

    @Bill Arnold:

     

    I caught it from a patron who visited the bar I worked at in March. He was laughing about coming back to the UK from Italy, which had the worst rate of infection at the time.

    I was really ill and couldn’t really breathe for a long time and ended up with pneumonia and cracked ribs from coughing. No doctors wanted to see me and I couldn’t get a test because it was so early on, so I had to manage by myself from home. I was exhausted all the time and worried that I wouldn’t wake up because I was too tired to breathe by myself. I recovered after about three weeks and managed okay from then until it came back again in July.

    It was so much worse the second time. I have spoken to about 15 different doctors and they all say it’s more likely to have been reactivation rather than catching it for a second time, but I ended up in hospital with oxygen saturation of 88%. I was unconscious in the ambulance and had to go to A&E but myself as my boyfriend wasn’t allowed with me. It was incredibly scary. They let me go with some oxygen canisters and serious monitoring for the next four weeks.

    Since then I have stopped coughing but the fatigue is unreal and I am experiencing what I would call “Covid brain” . I still have scarring on my lungs, and I’m not sure that I will ever be as well as I was before again. Occasionally my cough will come back but most of the time now it’s the not being able to work or move all that much. Everything is exhausting.

    All of this because someone decided they’d rather have a pint of beer than save lives. I nearly died at the hospital. He doesn’t know me or the effect he’s had on my life, But I hope a tiny part of him feels guilty. I’m desperately sad and angry.

  307. 307.

    peej01

    Trump and Melania have now tested positive for Covid-19, per MSNBC.

    They’re showing film of HH walking with Jared and Steven Miller….I hope they get it too (yeah, I’m bad).

  312. 312.

    TS (the original)

    Just heard it. Unbelievable. No masks.

    I fear for Biden. With that vulture spitting his hate all over the stage.

  320. 320.

    Another Scott

    Congratulation to great friend of the Kazakh people @realDonaldTrump for winning debate today! Impressive and amazing result for a strong premier who always put America and Kazakhstan first! pic.twitter.com/qLljQ8b5UU

    — Republic of Kazakhstan ?? (@KazakhstanGovt) September 30, 2020

    I assume the video in the Tweet was one of the one’s they’re showing in LA/TX ?? Then again, maybe not…

    Hehe.

    (via Popehat)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  322. 322.

    Miss Bianca

    @NotMax: What? For fucking real?

    Lord, I hope Joe doesn’t get it from standing on that stage with that mad orange monster spraying spittle into the air for 90 minutes.

  325. 325.

    Another Scott

    So much for quarantining/waiting for his test results to come back – POTUS daily schedule has him going to a donor event at the Trump Hotel in DC and then Fla for a rally.

    — Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) October 2, 2020

    Why would anyone think otherwise? He lies about everything.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  326. 326.

    Mike in NC

    But Fat Bastard insisted for two months that it was all a Demoncrat hoax to make him look bad.

  327. 327.

    guachi

    I’m not certain what to think now. Does Trump croak and Pence gets elected? Are the debates off? I guess it’s wait and see.

  328. 328.

    Steeplejack

    Brian Williams doing a live report on NBC right now confirming that Trump has tested positive for COVID-19. (Melania, too.) This is beyond the “quarantine process.”

  330. 330.

    Kent

    Yep..   BBC news flash on my phone 15 second ago says Both Trump and Melania tested positive.

    Wow…..

  333. 333.

    Fair Economist

    @peej01:

    Trump and Melania have now tested positive for Covid-19, per MSNBC.

    Can somebody have a talk with the scriptwriters about too many twists for plausibility?

  334. 334.

    Kent

    @TS (the original):Deeply ugly whatever happens. And if the fool gets a sympathy vote I will resign from life.

    Yeah.  But seriously.  How would that even work?   I was gonna vote for Biden but now that Trump has Covid I’m changing my mind?

  335. 335.

    TS (the original)

    @guachi:

    I don’t usually quote trump – but here it is

    Tonight, @FLOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19. We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately. We will get through this TOGETHER!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 2, 2020

  336. 336.

    TS (the original)

    @Kent:

    I was gonna vote for Biden but now that Trump has Covid I’m changing my mind?

    I put nothing beyond the brain of a US  republican voter any more.

  339. 339.

    MisterForkbeard

    @TS (the original): I really hope he doesn’t die from this – sympathy votes, martyrdom, the works.

    But I’ll be even MORE pissed if the fucker gave it to Biden when he was yelling sending spittle across that stage.

  341. 341.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Mike in NC: But Fat Bastard insisted for two months that it was all a Demoncrat hoax to make him look bad.

    Shit!  Dump should drop out of the race NOW if the Democratic party can turn hoaxes into reality!

    ETA – Dump should also resign (for his fat, orange fascist health), and Dunce too!

  343. 343.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Kent: Yeah. But seriously. How would that even work? I was gonna vote for Biden but now that Trump has Covid I’m changing my mind?

    I should open my ballot now and vote for Biden so I don’t suffer from a pang of…

    Fuck ’em.  Fuck the Soviet shitpile mobster conman and his Eurotrash 3rd wife.

  344. 344.

    Ian

    @TS (the original): Should get stricken down pretty quick.  You can’t change election procedure this close to an election.  I saw tweets from the Texas dem party chairman to that effect earlier.  As to the courts backing us up… ?

  345. 345.

    Amir Khalid

    @Steeplejack:

    Symptomatic or not, I can think of two good reasons to put Trump in hospital. First, a man his age and with his health issues could go downhill very quickly. Second, he cannot be trusted to observe a fortnight’s strict quarantine. And it would serve him right to have to campaign via Zoom from his hospital room.

    Okay, that was three.

  347. 347.

    a thousand flouncing lurkers was fidelio

    @Kent: Southernmost  Mississippi is also going to be within reach of the New Orleans/Baton Rouge media markets too, I suspect.

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