This morning, our Mr. Cole said:
jesus christ someone came up with this before me and it was even featured on my own fucking blog there are no original ideashttps://t.co/aYLcfJmihL https://t.co/iknfbw93FG
— John Cole (@Johngcole) October 2, 2020
Sometimes you just have to see it, so I dusted off my crappy cartoon skills:
Yes, I have a job. Why do you ask? Also, I make no commitment to illustrating tomorrow’s “surprise.”
Open thread!
RaflW
Advent theme seems extra now that Notre Dame President Fr. Jenkins, who attended the ACB event, has Covid
zhena gogolia
OMG, I just got back to my office from my weekly Covid test (first cold day — how do you keep your glasses from fogging up?) and I thought, “No more BJ, gotta read War and Peace,” and then I saw this!! Tolstoy’s got nothing on Betty
ETA: I mean really, HOW BRILLIANT! What a beautiful image of Trump’s lovely wife Mesothelioma.
hells littlest angel
The Melania-Putin sex tape — early Sunday evening, for maximum family-viewing exposure, or on Monday, ten minutes before the Rachel Maddow Show (I love it when she has to toss out her planned show at the last minute)?
LarryB
Don’t knock yer skillz, Betty. COVID-as-wrecking-ball is damn fine.
RobertDSC-Work
This is for Adam Silverman and any other folks who like remembering the South lost the Civil War:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ShermanPosting/
I came upon this the other day on a crosspost to one of my groups. Made me laugh.
germy
Sab
I am dreading Thanksgiving. No family etc etc. And my husband, life-long Catholic
( I am Episcopalian, i. e. Catholic lite) has decided he doesn’t believe in God at all. Lots of jackals are not religious. I am okay with that. I am not okay with anti-religious rants on dog walks. I still believe. I don’t want to argue ( I won’t win) but I also don’t want to shrug it off. His whole moral framework in life is sort of Catholic ( Vatican II) so now what?
A Ghost to Most
I’m rooting for herd mortality.
germy
zhena gogolia
@Sab:
Oh, I feel for you. I am hurt by people here about this issue and don’t understand why they are so vicious about it. But to have it be your husband . . . . Well, my first husband didn’t believe but he didn’t rant about it.
germy
sdhays
@A Ghost to Most: I was just thinking that Dump, for once in his life, actually decided to lead by example in his desire for herd immunity.
It’s fitting that it was an accident.
Benw
I reckon around the 15th or so Barr’s gonna try to arrest Hunter and Joe. Or at least announce charges
germy
@Sab: Maybe he’ll change his mind again.
Even Mother Theresa struggled with her faith.
different-church-lady
For me today is more like champagne hitting the fan.
germy
Don jr. was on the Alex Jones show after the debate calling Hunter Biden “Crackhead Hunter.”
I hope he’s good and embarrassed about all the info that’s come out about Kimberly.
Matt McIrvin
@germy: The Bidens, of course, need to keep getting tested–they could have been infected on Wednesday and not test positive yet. But I imagine they know this.
Sab
@zhena gogolia: I keeping piping up ” Free will, God gave us free will and we aren’t managing our choices well.” I believe that, but he isn’t buying it.
Not that it is a choice, but I would rather have free will than Opus Dei’s God be mine.
Villago Delenda Est
I’m afraid, Betty, that the Advent Calendar is going to have to be an every eight hours window. Which means a lot more windows than your usual Advent Calendar.
West of the Rockies
The economy is terrible. Unemployment is through the roof. Covid is kicking the nation’s ass. Trump is down significantly to the 65+ crowd, a cohort he won in ’16. He’s down in multiple swing states. He’s treading water in states he won handily. We now know he’s a tax cheat and that he thinks the military is for suckers. And now he has Covid and can’t hold his shitbird rallies for at least 2 weeks.
He is going to lose, to suffer, and know his own wretchedness.
It is to laugh.
Ken
The tricky part of the Octovent – no, that sounds like a comics villain – the October Surprise Advent calendar will be picking just one event for each day. I think you’ve made the right choice for October 1, going for Melania’s F-bombs over Guilfoyle’s whatever-the-hell-that-was.
Villago Delenda Est
@germy: Cokehead Uday spouting off about Hunter? Does Uday have any brothers who served in the military?
germy
Barbara
My last phone call of the day canceled so now I am seriously considering opening a bottle of wine and starting early while I watch a GBBS season I somehow missed.
I wouldn’t otherwise care if our ruling elites want to play a game of Covid Roulette, but my son is trapped at home, and I feel seriously unsettled by all of this. These happy smiling people hugging each other in the Rose Garden oblivious to the health and well-being of the rest of us. It’s really starting to get to me.
And get this: I just got an industry alert informing me that the “be happy don’t worry” US HHS Covid campaign is now under strategic review. That is the one where they diverted $300 million from CDC to get a not too subtle pre-election boost.
jackmac
This is AWESOME!!
Kent
Been there, done that. If religion is a just a social construct then morals have a deeper basis than just religion and superstition. They come from human nature. So you find a way to keep your moral or ethical compass without the trappings of religion. You do the right things because they are actually the right things, not because the Pope or 2000 year old writings say so.
Luciamia
Its like dominos over at the WH.
Betty, you have untapped skills! If you don’t want to continue, maybe fellow jackals can send in their versions of the daily surprise and you can pick one.
West of the Rockies
Hey, Trump voters…
How’s that dopey-orange thing workin’ out for ya?
zhena gogolia
@Sab:
He should read The Brothers Karamazov or something.
randy khan
I just realized that the White House COVID-19 news was intended as a distraction from the Melania video.
WAKE UP, SHEEPLE! Keep your eyes on the ball!!!!!
Ken
@germy: I think by QAnon logic that means 262 House members have revealed they are clones, and only the 13 Republicans are the originals.
StringOnAStick
Betty, I love the Covid wrecking ball!
zhena gogolia
@Barbara:
It’s really getting to me as my life has been upended and I haven’t been able to have a simple dinner in a restaurant with my friends. I realize on the scale of things that’s a small problem, but damn do I hate them.
Benw
@different-church-lady: lol! It’s a real champaignshow
JPL
@Sab: As a lapse Catholic, I can tell you we were fed so much bullshit in school, it’s easy to let it all go.
p.a.
Can WH staff shuttle in Fallwell Jr for a laying-on (of hands) for a cure?
zhena gogolia
@Kent:
Is that a response to the problem she was talking about?
Betty Cracker
@germy: Wait, what happened with Gargoyle? Has another scandal cropped up while I was briefly attending to my duties?
zhena gogolia
@Betty Cracker:
OMG, you have some fun reading to do.
dr. bloor
@Benw:
At the rate the hits are coming for the WH, he’s gonna have to white-out the “1” in front of the “5” on those warrants, or it’ll be too late.
Starfish
@Sab: When people find new identities, they become insufferably evangelical about them.
They are probably talking out loud to organize their life around their new belief system. Some of them will lose all their friends around their new beliefs and need to get new ones.
Tell him that he can go quietly read the God Delusion or whatever he wants in the other room, but he is not allowed to cancel Christmas this year.
Kent
Not the Thanksgiving part, but the moral compass part from her last sentence.
Sab
@zhena gogolia: He is a deeply moral guy. He just cannot find an intellectual or religious basis for his morals. Very confusing. Is this just my opinion?
evap
Absolutely brilliant as always, Betty.
To be honest, I am really hoping that Dump does not get too sick and I really really really hope he doesn’t die from it, at least not until after the election. If he dies before Nov. 3 then figuring out what to do about the presidential election will be a shitshow. The law is clear (I think) that the RNC can replace Dump with another candidate, but at this point ballots are printed and millions have already voted. It’s just not clear how this could be handled.
PJ
@Kent: In fact, Catholic doctrine is that you should do good works because they are good, and not to get a divine reward or to avoid divine punishment.
JPL
@Betty Cracker: After reading you can put a post up and we can take votes as to which significant other is worse, Donald or Jr. Lara gets a pass this time.
aliasofwestgate
I am glad the Bidens and Harris are testing negative right now. All the talk of it being a possible hoax were basically cast in doubt of my brain going ‘odds are he has it for sure. look at all the at risk behavior shit he’s been pulling’. He seriously was going to get it sooner or later, and this is the ‘later’.
Aziz, light!
I want the fucker to be coughing up both lungs throughout the month and to die soon after the election so that he won’t be around to do any more damage to our country (inciting civil war, trashing our laws and institutions, etc.)
Satisfying though it would be to see him live to suffer criminal charges, loss of his holdings, and boundless shame and ridicule, the nation comes first.
oatler.
I remember the advent calendar in “Bad Santa” that had aspirins and cough drops in it.
Sab
@Starfish: This new evangalist you are positing is not him. He is the same guy he always was. He has just lost the moral framework for his beliefs. The beliefs are still there.
sherparick
@RaflW: Father Jenkins, President of Notre Dame University, was at the Rose Garden Event that announced Judge Barrett’s nomination. He might be patient zero for this particular event. Also, apparently Judge Barrett had COVID-19 earlier this year, which explains why she did not catch it this time. https://twitter.com/jackmjenkins/status/1312068942157025280
Matt McIrvin
@Sab:
He’s going to have to figure all that stuff out, but, speaking as a nonbeliever here, he also needs to respect you and your beliefs. Right now he’s probably going through some hard times emotionally but that’s no excuse.
I grew up more or less nonreligious surrounded by religious people in my neighborhood, so I developed an instinct for stepping lightly here. Recently lapsed folk maybe don’t have a sense of that, except that by rights it ought to be similar to interacting with people of a different religion.
rp
A friend at work is dating a guy whose father is a chef at the White House (I know…hearsay upon hearsay). Apparently, he was told yesterday that he has the next 10 days off with no explanation. Found out from the news about the COVID diagnosis. Totally irresponsible, but what else is new?
germy
@Betty Cracker:
(Warning: This story includes Kimberly demanding a “thigh massage” from her horrified assistant)
zhena gogolia
@Sab:
Just be happy he’s deeply moral. You don’t have to agree about metaphysics. Really.
hueyplong
@RobertDSC-Work: Oh God I love that.
PJ
@zhena gogolia: The problem is not that her husband has lost his religion, but apparently that he is ranting about it at her when he knows it bothers her. In other words, her problem is that he is being an asshole.
zhena gogolia
@Sab:
FWIW, I belong to a UCC church, and we have boatloads of former Catholics. Maybe he should check it out.
sherparick
@Sab: When you lose your faith, you lose your faith. I would just tell him that you have not lost yours yet and would ask him to respect that matter.
patrick II
After not being seen for weeks, at his first Zoom rally Trump looks suspiciously like Max Headroom. Says everything is f-f-f-fine, why do you ask?
zhena gogolia
@PJ:
Yes, that too.
ETA: The most my former husband would do would be to say, “You’re a terrible Christian” whenever I was ranting about Reagan or Bush or whoever.
Kent
And on a wider scale, every society seems to know the fundamental difference between good and bad or right and wrong. Suggesting this is an inherent trait of humanity and not something imposed or invented by religion. Taking away the trappings of religion shouldn’t affect someone’s basic moral or ethical code because those things have a deeper root. I don’t need the 10 Commandments to tell me respect my parents and my neighbors and not kill people. And neither do say….the Japanese.
PJ
@Sab: Most people never have an intellectual or religious basis for their morality. Unless you are a sociopath, you have a sense of right and wrong based on how your actions help or hurt yourself or others. Obviously, a lot of this comes from upbringing and socialization, but no formal instruction from the academy or church is required.
ETA: @Kent said the same thing a few seconds before I did.
Old School
There’s been no additions to the Book of Trump either. What do my subscription fees go to?
patrick II
When Trump told the Proud Boys to stand by — it was the virus talking.
Martin
@Sab: I’ve never been religious and my moral framework in life is also sort of Catholic as my family was Catholic, so it’s cultural. But I went to a religious college and particularly enjoyed the religion classes I took, so my moral framework borrows from a lot of places.
I find the faithful-turned-atheists are challenging. Atheism isn’t anti-religion, but people that turned from faith often seem to become anti-religious because they are in a sense recovering from something. Usually they left the church because they feel betrayed or lied to, etc. That isn’t really anti-religion so much as it’s a response to a specific institution.
My suggestion is to try and focus him a bit. If he’s disillusioned with how the Catholic church manifests christianity, that’s perfectly fair game, and he may need to express that. But to folks like me, the underlying stories and views expressed in most religions are quite interesting, tell us a lot about how we interact with the world, and offer up some excellent ideas for thought – just strip away the institutional bits and take the lessons, which it sounds like he would generally agree with.
The Moar You Know
@germy: Better stay that way. 2-5 days typical incubation. I’m not going to be at ease about this for a week.
Roger Moore
@zhena gogolia:
There’s a big difference between always disbelieving and losing your existing belief. I think converts to atheism can be just as busy proselytizers as converts to belief.
Sab
@zhena gogolia: I know. I just don’t want to argue on dog walks (You are endangering this elderly cocker spaniel we inherited’s’ faith! He may seem not bright but he is listening.)
Aleta
As long the calendar ends on Election Eve and as the presents we want come on Election Day, I might be able to handle it.
JPL
Has everyone watched the trailer about the government’s response to Covid? The documentary will be on Hulu It’s brutal. link
Martin
@evap: They can replace a candidate up until the state deadlines for the ballot, all of which I believe have now passed. In some ways that makes this simpler. If Trump/Pence were to win, Pence becomes President and nominates a VP.
Ken
@rp: The surprising thing is that there are still chefs at the White House. I would have expected they’d all quit years ago, muttering “two Michelin stars and expected to reheat f*cking carryout from McDonalds”.
narya
@Sab: Third-generation atheist here. That said, two very close friends are . . . believers? Don’t know how they would characterize themselves, tbh. But it turns out that the golden rule will get you really far, whether you think there is/are deity/ies, and we can have very deep conversations around Life And Stuff because of that. I am also truly interested in how those who have a deity in their worldview understand that, how it affects them their lives, etc.; that curiousity also helps, I think.
trollhattan
@Sab:
I’m curious whether Judge Barrett is one of those Catholics who does not recognize Pope Francis as the actual pope. Doubt there’s a way to ask her during hearings but given what we know about her, I’ll put money on it.
If she can do that, will she ever recognize a “Democrat” president as president?
different-church-lady
@zhena gogolia: Holy god, I just read the allegations! It’s possible the entire lot of them are absolutely batshit insane.
Brachiator
@Sab:
I can imagine that a lot of re-examinations of beliefs are taking place, especially in 2020.
If his moral framework has not changed, maybe you still have much in common. I guess it’s one thing if he is working through his beliefs, and needs or wants to vent with you. You still don’t have to participate, but I guess it should also be the same if people had wildly different political beliefs. Any discussion has to be respectful or avoided.
MomSense
@Sab:
I’m sure you still share many values and morals and faith changes and changes and changes throughout our lives. If you tell him that the rants are upsetting to you and ask him to find another outlet for those feelings, would he be ok with that?
Ken
@different-church-lady: Yes, it’s definitely a memorable twist on the usual sexual harassment story. I expect the porn parodies are already being filmed.
germy
I believe all living things (humans, animals, all life) are windows into the same life force. Our windows are all different shapes and sizes, some dim, some bright, but whatever light shines out emanates from the same source.
Kent
@Martin: This.
If he is rebelling against Catholicism then it is still ultimately controlling his life just as much as if he were still a devout believer. It’s like the rebellious child who does the opposite of what her parents say, just because.
I was the same way. It took me a long time to get past it. I don’t know if there is a shortcut. But at some point you eventually stop obsessing one way or the other about the faith in which you were brought up and just move on.
Emma from FL
@Sab: Is he a good man? If he is, he’s not likely to turn into a member of the Hell Fire Club at this point in his life. this is my guide in life: Abou Ben Adhem By Leigh Hunt
(added) It’s my firm belief that your deeds are what make you good in the eyes of God. All this “I’m saved so I can do anything I want” types will get one hell of a surprise in their afterlives.
RaflW
By the way, the idea that college students at various schools have been suspended or expelled (some without refund or recourse other than perhaps lawsuits), while the head of Notre Dame goes to a maskless celebration and stands close and shakes hands, then issues an ‘apology’ for his ‘poor choice’ is just enraging.
Anotherlurker
@Kent: I endured 12 years of Catholic education. For me it was a damaging experience . I saw my younger brother, at that time a 2nd Grader, get grabbed by his ears and have his head slammed on his desk by a nun. This was for the crime of talking in class.
In 8th grade, I was cornered and groped in the locker room by a pedophile priest. He insisted that I come to the rectory that evening to be measured for an athletic supporter (I kid you not, this was one of his tactics). I did not show up.
Although the encounter lasted less than 2 minutes , I paid for my non compliance with 5 more years of the well respected priest’s passive/agressive bullying and belittlement .
In my 40s, I finally embraced the concept of atheism. I started to be able to deal with the damage done to me by catholic education. I also started therapy. I made progress in my recovery and can now recognize the origins of my trigger points.
I guess my point is that I respect religion a way of dealing with the world but I expect the same respect for my atheism . It is just my way of dealing with the world.
I don’t harm anyone, I give to charity, I don’t eat babies. I guess I’m saying that I do good for doing good’s sake. I don’t do good because I’m terrified of the wrath of some sky daddy.
Ruckus
@Kent:
Well said.
Religion is a number of things. One is a way to live so that you don’t make it far worse for others. Not that it’s ever changed much but still that’s the premise. If you can get there in a straight line, bypassing religion, ask yourself what is the point of religion? And if you fail, using religion as a crutch, what’s the point? And what if religion was/is just a way to control that which you can’t imagine, how is it different when you can not only imagine but can actually see what you couldn’t imagine centuries ago?
Benw
@dr. bloor: this admin don’t use white-out! The entire warrant will be “GET BAD BIDEN MANS” scrawled in Sharpie with Donald’s ridiculous siggy under it
JPL
According to twitter the White House staff is going to release another list of folks who had positive tests. We know that today a journalist has, and a white house staffer.
The Moar You Know
@Sab: Well, hate to tell you this, but when the religious break, they break hard. I was raised irreligious, so got over the urge to tell everyone just how wrong they were by my early teens. But that’s a hard temptation to fight, especially for the formerly religious, as they still see the world in terms of “The Answer” and “The Truth” and that takes a long time to cure.
Your hubby needs to come to terms that everyone needs something to get them through the night, no matter how “deluded and wrong” he thinks they are, and more specifically, that you do. How you get there is going to likely involve some marital counseling.
Being understanding with your spouse is how you keep a good marriage going. An insistence on being right is one of the top three ways I can think of to wreck one.
Sab
@zhena gogolia: I just wish he wouldn’t talk about it. I love that he trusts me with his issues. But I have mine. I guess he is communicating too much. Lol. Such a flaw in a husband. I should just pipe down.
Martin
@Sab: IMO, there’s never a religious basis for morals. There are cultural basis, though, which religion contributes to. It’s why Catholics in the US aren’t like Catholics in Mexico or Italy. Catholics in the US support abortion in roughly the same ratios as the overall nation does – the national culture supercedes Catholic doctrine – and does so quite a lot,
There almost certainly is an intellectual basis for his morals, but he’s not explored it, and that can be kind of enjoyable to do. Culture is nothing more than a set or rules passed down to us that we follow. We often don’t know why those rules came about, or why we continue to do them, but we do. But there is a story there. There are reasons why our morality is what it is. My main criticism of organized religion is that it’s moved away from the process of exploring those questions and into the process of dictating the answers (especially Catholicism).
I’ve found that the time I spent exploring those questions both really helped reinforce my moral convictions and in some cases changed them. It’s not a quick process though.
trollhattan
@germy:
Wowzers. Shouty Woman has a few additional screws loose.
Steeplejack (phone)
I talked with my semi-connected insider DC friend a while ago. Two gossipy tidbits:
1 (fact). Amy Coney Barrett is also against in vitro fertilization, so it’s not just about “right to life,” it’s about (radical) control of women’s fertility. News stories emerging now.
2 (opinion). Friend thanks Melania does not have COVID-19, but the White House thought the optics would be weird if only Donald and “pants presser” Hope Hicks got it. ?
germy
@trollhattan: I think her screws are nice and tight. She’s just a mean, sadistic and vindictive person.
Bex
@Sab: It’s called “deconstructing” and lots of people go through it. Some go back, some go somewhere else and some stay out. Usually you hear about evangelicals in this context, but there are plenty of people in other denominations who experience it. Start with Google and you’ll find lots of info, podcasts and other resources to look into.
Matt McIrvin
@The Moar You Know: He might, at this point, think he can flip other people with the mighty power of Facts and Logic. It’s a common mistake. People come to these realizations for their own reasons and they’re not going to translate from person to person.
germy
@Steeplejack (phone):
Opinion #2 makes sense to me. It draws sympathy and diverts attention from the leaked tapes (and more tapes to come)
She gets to do this all day:
trollhattan
@RaflW:
Consider the fate of Herman Cain: 1. prominently photographed unmasked and crowded in with “African Americans for Trump” group at Tulsa Trump rally. 2. Dead of the COVID.
Being head of Notre Dame does not render you bulletproof.
Haroldo
@Sab:
My credo about most things:
“I realize you’re a newly minted atheist* but just calm down about it.”
*your favorite annoying feature (and I certainly include self-annoying here)
Fair Economist
@Sab: Doesn’t the hubby respond to “Sweetheart, I don’t want to argue religion with you?” All relationships have to deal with disagreements.
Lapassionara
@Betty Cracker: it is always great to have some Betty Cracker art work on the blog. Thanks, Betty.
Starfish
@Matt McIrvin: This is the same boat that I am in.
trollhattan
@germy:
I found her convention speech as out of control as Flynn’s in 2016. It may have been part performance art but seemed to take over her very personality at some point.
RaflW
@Betty Cracker: What the fucking fuck? I just googled — as I was busy yesterday and missed the Guilfoyle allegations. I refuse to click thru, but Politico (ptuh ptuh feh) has a new article up that came from my above italics search term titled “Are women about to lose all the progress they’ve made?”
Gaaaaahhh!
cain
@Sab:
I think it’s worth noting that religion has been a key driver in a lot of hate – it’s why we have to have separation of church and state because it corrupts both.
Having made the decision – there is going to be a time of when he’s going to be vocal – and he’ll eventually normalize. But he should have respect for your beliefs even though he might have lost his.
Kent
Parties. They were partying same as any frat.
Subsole
@Sab: That sounds really rough.
Was it a specific thing that tripped it, or just a gradual build up or what? I guess I mean is it an angry rejection or not??
Could you tempt him over to the Episcopalian side? I mean, they’re pretty much just Catholics who get to have fun occasionally. (I say that as a person raised Episcopalian…)
zhena gogolia
@germy:
the replies are vomit-inducing, except this one:
Gravenstone
Just got an RNC mailer touting how Trump took “decisive action” against the “China virus”. Yeah, that seems suitably ironic right now. Enjoy your covid-19 experience, you useless fuck.
trollhattan
@germy:
germy
@zhena gogolia:
That’s funny!
Sab
My husband is curently trying to share his chair with an old blind cat ( my dad’s, dad being in a nursing home.) My husband has known and liked this cat for fifteen years. Cat is old, absolutely stone cold blind as a bat, and kind of grumpy. Husband is bigger in the chair than cat would like. Issues ensue.
JPL
Barron tested negative, but that would make sense. I wonder if his parents even know where he is.
RaflW
@Kent: Nit picking, but a celebration is a party. :)
Betty Cracker
@trollhattan: Lisa Page asked an interesting question on Twitter:
narya
@Sab: Maybe watch “The Good Place” together :-). More seriously, one of the things I have enjoyed tremendously about it, atheist though I am, is that I was a philosophy major, but the other thing is that it explores the notion of “good” person, and how that happens and what it means. Good luck, in any case–and perhaps remember the words of my dad. When I was a kid I asked why we celebrated Christmas if we didn’t believe in Christ; he responded, “We celebrate Halloween and we don’t believe in ghosts; why give up a perfectly good holiday?” Over the years, I’ve also come to see the importance of SOME kind of communal gathering; the involvement of a deity is optional (for me), but that communal aspect is very important. I could go on about this . . .
Kent
I LOCKED MYSELF in a room with a crazy man for money. Now it turns out he doesn’t have any. Can someone come fix!
Anonymous At Work
I will put in for Trump to have a Cabinet meeting before the two weeks are up and require vocal support from each Cabinet Secretary against the use of the 25th Amendment. October 5th to 7th, I would imagine.
Sab
@Subsole: Tried that for twenty years. He says no. I am still hopeful.
JPL
@Betty Cracker: If you have a chance would you watch this trailer? You might want to put it on the front page.. NEON
germy
@JPL: Just keep him away from Kimberly.
Kent
That’s my point. The media has been all over college students for “partying” during covid but doesn’t use the same language when rich powerful adults do exactly the same thing.
satby
@Sab: He’s entitled to his change of heart about his beliefs, and you’re entitled not to be harangued about it. So let him know if he can’t respect your beliefs while you respect his, dog walks will consist of either you or him and the dog. Same for other joint activities. He can believe whatever he wants, but so can you, and it’s not a subject that needs constant discussion.
And if he can’t abide by that boundary, you honestly have bigger issues and should consider couples counseling.
Mai Naem mobile
@sherparick: depending on when Barrett got it she can get it again. Also if her kids are in school they may have brought it home and don’t forget she’s got seven kids.
Subsole
@narya: I haven’t celebrated holidays in a long time, but I really, really like your dad’s answer.
cain
@Aziz, light!:
but the conspiracy theories will be flying – there might be a civil war already – there might even be a rush to war against China with the premise that China found a way to assassinate the president. Yes, people are that stupid.
Subsole
@Kent: I swear, if we live through this the gallows-comedy movies are going to be legendary. Like, Death of Stalin legendary.
RandomMonster
@Luciamia:
A lot of us would be happy to!
Barbara
@Martin: For too many moral questions, the Church starts with the answer and work backwards to a justification that isn’t too tortured. Unfortunately, this pattern is so bound up with an overarching agenda of institutional authority that it doesn’t seem like it will ever change, at least not for the RC.
debbie
Please, please, please keep this going for the entire month! (I know it’s asking a lot. Maybe there are other artists willing to take some of the days?)
Martin
Fixed.
trollhattan
@Betty Cracker:
Good one!
How many careers has Trump ruined? I have zero idea how we’re to reconstruct the federal government once he’s outta there.
Kent
We need Monty Python to really do it properly.
Mai Naem mobile
@Kent: I am Einstein veesa reeseepieyent and kant work out how to open lock. Don’t yu kair about meee?
narya
@Subsole: Yeah, me too! Some of my fondest memories are of holiday dinners of some kind. And I see now that my parents were trying to find a way to have us not be TOO different from other kids in my small hometown. When my ex-stepson was going to catechism (as a 5-year old) he got very upset when i said that I didn’t believe in a god–he thought that I was saying that he was lying. I said no, different people believe different things, and that’s okay. And he saw me come to his 1st communion, which I suspect also helped reinforce that approach.
Subsole
@Barbara: Eh, we either have empathy or we don’t. Everything else is building a bridge backwards from our answer to that distinction.
trollhattan
@Martin:
“Who? Oh yeah, the kid riding the lion.”
JPL
@germy: another picture for her collection
catclub
@A Ghost to Most: well, you sure ain’t gonna get herd morality.
zhena gogolia
@JPL:
Oh, man, yes that needs to be on the front page.
Kent
We can do it. We’ve done it before. This country is full of bright young people. A lot of boomers are just going to have to step aside (and I am one….barely).
divF
@Sab:
I Like Florence King’s version of this – “soft-shelled Catholic”.
Martin
@trollhattan: That is such a wild picture, not the least of which is that you have 3 people with 3 VERY different expressions regarding why they are there.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Mike Lee hugging and kissing people at the WH six days ago, today announces he’s tested positive. I remember seeing clips of that “ceremony” and noticing nobody was wearing a mask.
I am thinking un-christian thoughts about the Senate Republican caucus….
Brachiator
@cain:
Religion is just another excuse. The hate often comes first, and religion becomes the convenient “explanation” to justify the horrors that come after.
And I say this as a lifelong atheist who believes that religion is at best an innocuous delusion.
Subsole
@Kent: I’m frankly not sure who COULD do this properly…
I mean, just what we’ve seen down on the ground floor is like ‘Fargo’ meets ‘Apocalypse Now’.
Sab
cain: My husband currently isn’t much into Trump, except hate. That is intense.
cain
@Martin:
For me religion was formalizing rules of being in a pack – against nature. The ten commandments are a set of rules so that you don’t end up fighting yourselves in the desert.
Ken
@Anonymous At Work: It’ll be a remake of The Legacy, where Jason Mountolive is a hideously withered husk in a hospital bed hidden by plastic sheeting, wheezing his instructions to the people who hope to inherit his wealth and power.
Subsole
@Sab: Sorry if I am stepping over a line but was it sudden? Or tied to something specific?
Sab
@divF: I suspect this will be mean and hurt my feelings. I am tough. I will survive.
Kay
Special people. So super privileged and entitled they believed they were not even subject to the spread of infection. They were confident there would be no consequences of any kind.
Jinchi
I don’t think the boomers need to leave, the federal government is under staffed already. Just ramp the size of federal agencies back up.
catclub
what an unlucky ship name
Brachiator
@cain:
So far, no general or admiral has been that stupid. Now, idiots like the Proud Boys, etc., might want to go to war with China, but they couldn’t find China on a map, even if you gave them some hints.
Sab
@Subsole: Long term. 21st century sucks if you believe in anything at all.
Wyatt Salamanca
Mitch McConnell Dickishness Update:
h/t https://www.npr.org/sections/latest-updates-trump-covid-19-results/2020/10/02/919492624/amy-coney-barretts-supreme-court-confirmation-will-move-forward-mcconnell-says
JoyceH
@Kent: I don’t believe Melania is even in the White House. She and Barron are in Maryland with her parents, IMO.
catclub
@divF: although I did notice one item in the Episcopal prayerbook that is probably not in Catholic ones (since it is kind of a stick in the eye for Mary) ” … Jesus, our only mediator and advocate.”
let me know if it IS in the catholic prayerbooks.
Gravenstone
@Wyatt Salamanca: Willing to bet a much larger number of Republican Senators and others affiliated with the attempt to ram her nomination through are going to test positive before 10/12. Good luck, Turtle.
Betty
@Sab: The only advice I would give you is to suggest to your husband that there is more to this universe than any mere human will ever understand. It is good then to remain skeptical about the nature of whatever forces exist beyond those our five senses and limited intellect can discern. If your religion is a comfort to you, he really ought to respect that, even if it thinks it’s foolish.
Kent
I don’t necessarily mean leave. I’m a former Federal bureaucrat. But there is a lot of ossified procedure across the Federal government. Sixteen different sign-offs to get something done that should take three, for example. And a lot of people are very protective of their turf. This isn’t a GOP vs Dem issue, but about getting the Federal government functioning again without dissolving into years of process. We need younger people who aren’t so invested in the process and turf battles that have been going on for decades. The orcs are at the door and there is a lot of shit that just needs to get done without endless process for the sake of process and to protect everyone’s “turf”
Ohio Mom
Barron lives with his grandparents in the DC suburbs, and that affords him some protection from the virus, depending on Melania’s visiting schedule.
I find it mildly amusing that this arrangement is somewhat similar to the Obamas’, who brought Michele’s mother to the White House to help look after the girls.
Roger Moore
@Steeplejack (phone):
Of course the radical “right to life” people will say their problems around in vitro fertilization are related to the production of excess embryos, which have a right to life. It’s as much bullshit as the rest of the “right to life” business, but they can at least make it sound intellectually consistent with their overall public worldview.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@narya: Did we ever see new kitchen pics? If we did, I missed it.
Steeplejack
@Sab:
Total shot in the dark, but maybe suggest that he read Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations? Marcus has always seemed the most Catholic of the “pagan philosophers” (not that I’m any sort of expert in philosophy), and his stoicism fits the mood of our current times.
My guess is that your husband is a deeply moral man, but there are aspects of his faith that he formerly took for granted and which now have been unexpectedly battered. So he is going through something of a reboot, starting with the pendulum swing to the other extreme.
Marcus might help him temporarily reposition his “moral framework” a bit, sort of like scaffolding while he works on the underlying structure. And if he ends up permanently as an atheist, Aurelian stoicism wouldn’t be a bad endpoint.
ETA: Subtext is that having something to read and engage with might be better than just grinding his gears in (mental) isolation.
Aleta
@JPL: Do you know who made the documentary?
surfk9
@Kent: My wife works for the Federal govt. She is a supervisor. If they lose an employee, the agency won’t fill behind. Its been that way from the time Trump took over. There are lots of holes to fill.
sdhays
@Wyatt Salamanca: If ACB also contracts COVID-19, wouldn’t that be a pretty strong indication that God is not happy with the plan to shove her on the Court in the next few weeks?
SiubhanDuinne
@Old School:
Funny you should mention. Working on a new Book of Trump chapter right now.
Aleta
@Steeplejack: Interesting
mali muso
@sdhays: From what I’ve read, she already had COVID sometime this summer.
Mary G
JPL
@Aleta: I think Neon cut the film, but obviously a lot of people participated. It will be on demand and on hulu.
JMG
WaPo is reporting that some Republican Senators have advised McConnell to adjourn for a week or so because if some of them were to get sick, Barrett’s nomination could be rejected on the floor.
gvg
@Sab: Which morals?
I have never believed although I wanted to when I was a teenager, because I didn’t like feeling like an outsider all the time. I learned to keep my mouth shut and very few people even know. On the other hand, I always thought questions of right and wrong were terribly important but didn’t have much to do with religion, they have to do with human nature and survival of family. I think religions mostly had to fit to human social nature, not the other way around. I also think being moral is almost the same think as self interest if you take the long view not the short. For instance allowing the stronger to murder the weaker is self destructive if you can see that there is always someone stronger/smarter/luckier/in a bigger gang than you and that even a strong man gets old and weaker.
Another angle is that we are all longer lived, healthier and better fed because of a strong interconnected society. When people prey on each other too much, nobody ends up with the best life.
There are a lot of reasons ethics happen. Some people don’t reason well and want authority to decide, but go look at what happens if you don’t follow morals and mostly results are bad. Exceptions exist and some morality is not going to hold up. IMO mostly involving who’s in charge and sex. The Golden rule is still important and Fair trials for instance.
different-church-lady
@Mary G: “Death cult”: it’s not just a cute exaggeration. It’s the absolute truth.
Betty Cracker
@JPL: Bookmarked for later (the mister is watching TV, so I can’t view anything with sound).
JPL
@surfk9: Michael Lewis spoke about that in the Fifth Risk. trump is tearing down what’s good about the government. Someone must be giving him specific information on how to accomplish it. He’s just not that bright. In the energy department the first thing they wanted was a list of all the employees who believed in climate change.
Kent
They have the new “compromise” Covid relief package that the House just passed on their plates. Can they actually walk away from that right before the election?
JPL
@sdhays: She had covid last summer, so what are the chances that she gets it again?
JPL
@Betty Cracker: Watch it together. It’s a two minute trailer about the administrations handling of the virus. The documentary is next week.
RaflW
@Kent: At risk of an ‘argument of agreement’ my original post was making the same point.
Kent
Not “someone”. We know EXACTLY who is doing it. It is the smart corporate lobbyists for all the extractive industries who have been regulated by those branches of government all these years and now finally have an opening to re-make the bureaucracies that regulate them in their image. It’s not ideology. It’s about corporate profits and regulation and capturing the regulators.
PJ
As other people are pointing out, Trump hasn’t tweeted all day.
He is very sick. Maybe he’s already on a ventilator.
RaflW
@JPL: That trailer is a flame thrower. Good.
trollhattan
@Jinchi:
A huge hurdle is reclaiming institutional knowledge. Most of the federal employees I know (current and former) are scientists and you simply can’t swap in a passel of 27YOs as replacements without grievous disruptions. Suspect the same is true for investigators, attorneys, etc.
Assuming sane people take the reins in January we all owe a huge debt to the folks who swallowed their pride and bunkered in the last four years. Their lives have all been varying degrees of hell.
James E Powell
@Kent:
LOL. Yes.
trollhattan
@PJ:
Or, his ghost-tweeter doesn’t have access to his phone.
germy
Kent
I know you were. I was just pointing out how the media covers these things differently. College students “party” Republican big wigs “attend events”
JPL
@Kent: If we have both the House and Senate, laws need to be passed on the qualifications of those positions. Joe wasn’t my first choice, but I’m glad it’s him. Although it won’t be fixed immediately, he’ll put folks in charge who can make a start.
The Moar You Know
@Matt McIrvin: so did I. When I was eight. Turns out people did not really want to listen to my Facts and Logic and were willing to say so with their fists.
Which was an incredibly valuable life lesson that came at what was a pretty low cost.
PJ
@trollhattan: That the ghost-tweeter (Dan Scavino) doesn’t have access doesn’t make sense to me. I think the tweeting has gone silent because if Scavino continues to tweet, at some point the press are going to want to see or hear Trump. And if Trump were well enough, I don’t think anyone could stop him from tweeting.
A Ghost to Most
@Steeplejack: Philosophy, like religion, is just mental masturbation.
Sloane Ranger
@sherparick: My fantasy is that it turns out she still carries virus but is asymptomatic. Sort of like she’s Typhoid Mary. The Track and Trace system finds this out and Trump gets so angry she gave him the Gina Virus, he pulls her nomination.
germy
Trump has ‘mild symptoms’ of covid-19, chief of staff says
So it’s a bad case, then.
geg6
@zhena gogolia:
Perhaps if you were a young pregnant teen like me and your mother and her church officials locked you up in a home for wayward girls, scolded and shamed you for the next five months, forced you to bear a child and then stole the child from you, you might understand some of our hostility to religion and such. Fuck religion. It’s toxic.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@PJ:
Mulvaney always struck me as a dolt. I wonder if he even knows he’s setting a bar for trump here. “If he can”…. LOL
Obvious Russian Troll
@Starfish: I feel your pain.
I am an atheist. My wife is an atheist. I am reasonably sure my brother-in-law is an atheist, and my sister-in-law is definitely an atheist.
We still go to Christmas every year with my wife’s evangelical family, and none of us talk about religion. The trick is to find some common ground, which you still have with your husband, and stick with that.
(I admit that can be hard when you’re surrounded by Trump-loving evangelicals.)
Uncle Cosmo
They can say that with a straight face? The same crowd who made out like bandits selling indulgences???
Gimme a f’ing break…
Mary G
narya
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Nope. I have the post about 80% done, though. The one thing that’s missing is a couple of hooks I want to add; just today I thought that I needed to get those so I can post the pics!
JPL
There’s gonna be a Friday night news dump, isn’t there? no rest for the weary
Mai Naem mobile
@Wyatt Salamanca: i wouldn’t be so quick about this if I were Mitch. I am guessing Elaine Chao was at Barrett’s nomination event so there’s two ways the virus can get into that household.
geg6
@Sab:
I’d say it’s the other way around. He lost his belief system but he still has his morals. I know that’s true for me.
sdhays
@JPL: Well, not that I’m wishing it on her (I’m truly not), it has been known to happen. If you believe in that sort of thing, it would be about as close to God shouting as you’re ever likely to get. Somehow I’m skeptical that the “righteous” Senate Republican caucus would get that message.
germy
Someone attacked Rick Moranis on the street. Punched him and then walked away.
catclub
I agree. That trailer looks pretty
good.devastating.Peale
@Uncle Cosmo: Well, if you don’t have time for the good works, a little payment to the Archbishop will most certainly do. It only takes seconds to write that check.
catclub
@JPL: It sure has dropped the melania tapes from the news.
Mai Naem mobile
So what happens if Pence is acting president and enough GOP senators get sick that the Barrett vote is a tie. Does he get to still be the tiebreaker?
Baud
@germy:
Oh man. RIP.
bluehill
via TPM –
hahahahahaha
sdhays
@PJ: Apparently Herman Cain can tweet from the grave, so why can’t Dump tweet from his sickbed? (Not that I’m complaining…)
Roger Moore
@Barbara:
This isn’t exactly limited to the Church. There are whole schools of Christian apologetics devoted to explaining why certain passages of the Hebrew Bible do or don’t apply to Christians, and it’s clear they have a lot more to do with whether those Christians want to obey them than any kind of serious understanding of what Christ was trying to say. And then there are all the people trying to explain why certain things Christ said- e.g. that rich people need to give away all their money to have a chance of getting into heaven- don’t mean what they obviously sound like.
Baud
@Mai Naem mobile:
Good question. I don’t think so, but I’m not sure.
narya
@A Ghost to Most: Hey! Philosophy major here! I will note, however, that I was interested in philosophy in so far as it was a means for discussing real people’s real lives, not as a means for discovering the True Nature of the World. The later Wittgenstein is particularly useful in this regard.
germy
@catclub: There will be more tapes apparently. I think her ex-friend is doing the slow drip thing. I think she has hours of tapes.
Ken
It would be irresponsible not to speculate.
J R in WV
@zhena gogolia:
Wife and I were in town Wednesday for her dentist appt, in which she had a crown reglued, which took from 1:30 to 2:30… after that, we were hungry, but ‘rona and all. So we went to Thai Chow – which is now carry out only, and got a chicken pad Thai and split it sitting in our car. Not ideal, but surprisingly satisfactory.
Then we ran some shopping errands on the way home.
ETA: First meal we ate that I didn’t cook in months, so very good, they do a great job at Thai Chow.
germy
TV and more TV.
I mean what is he going to do? Read Heidegger?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@different-church-lady: Sounds messy.
mad citizen
@Baud: Yes, I can’t help thinking today about how TMZ scooped everyone on the Michael Jackson news. Wondering if they are angling for that here, even though (I think–not a consumer of them) they cover L.A. stuff.
Kay
How can these people STILL be so fucking stupid? The rest of us figured out a negative test isn’t a guarantee of anything and it probably wasn’t at this thing since now possibly 4 people who were there may have been infected. Do they read nothing?
My son attends an ordinary public high school. They wear masks 6 hours a day 5 days a week. They have had no trouble at all with compliance. Kids 13 thru 18 and they behave better and more responsibly than US Senators, university president’s and a potential sc justice.
Bodacious
So from above link, Sen Mike Lee has now tested positive from ACB event. Could it be possible that the votes wont be there because too many Repub’s will be positive and in isolation????
Van Buren
@zhena gogolia: needs an upvote button
Jim, Foolish Literalist
some of my extended family are extremely religious (RC), and assume I am too. It can make for some awkward moments. I had dinner with some cousins I don’t see too often last spring, and one told me something like “They make the best burgers here” and I mentioned I had a cheeseburger the night before and she looked at me with genuine confusion and said, “Yesterday was Friday”. I didn’t even know it was Lent.
When my parents died, we had masses for them– my father had specifically said he didn’t want one, but it meant a lot to my mom, so… I admit I would have loved to have told a couple relatives the old man was an atheist, just to see the looks on their faces– and my atheist siblings and I all had to sit in the front row, and I’m sure everyone could see we didn’t know any of the moves. My neck hurt from looking back at my aunts to see “Is this a kneely thing?”
Ken
Every day is going to be Friday until November 4. The good news is there will always be something for the advent calendar!
PJ
@germy: He hasn’t spent much timing governing from the White House in the past three and a half years, and he ain’t gonna start now.
But, seriously, I think he’s incapacitated. We’ll see if there’s any word from him in the next 24 hours.
Kent
I agree 100%. I worked for nearly two decades in a federal science agency on the regulatory side (doing fisheries regulations). Institutional knowledge is immensely important. But there is also a lot of inertia that comes with it.
When I would do simple regulatory actions affecting some arcane issue to do with fishing gear in Alaska I would need to spent 6 months getting sign-offs from 3 or 4 different NOAA attorneys from Juneau to Washington DC along with a long list of other bureaucrats and branch chiefs and different agency consults from the Coast Guard to the BIA. And at every point along the way it would get stuck someone’s in-box under 45 other more important things. Most of this is about protecting “turf” Somewhere 10 years ago some fishing regulation ran afoul of the Coast Guard, or ran afoul of some tribal fishing issue, and so now they want to review everything and sign off regardless of whether they have the expertise or whether it is even relevant to their mission. But people get very very pissy when you question the “process”
Bureaucracies have a whole different logic to the way that the rest of the world works. What I don’t want to see happen is a bunch of Biden folks try to reverse the executive branch wreckage and vandalism of the past 4 years and run into an impenetrable wall of “process” to where we are still doing analyses and holding “stakeholder meetings” with affected industries 6 years from now about whether we should roll back just 50% of some Trump environmental regulatory change that they just rammed through in 6 months without doing any of that.
Just back-filling open positions isn’t going to get it done. We are at a higher level of emergency than that, especially when it comes to climate.
Princess Leia
So now only Trump, Mel, and Hope have tested positive from the WH? I really feel like that is unlikely given the proximity to each other over the trip. Seems just too convenient…
Kay
Our ridiculous, coddled elites were all too vain to wear a mask so now we have a yet another national shit show caused by their stupidity and arrogance.
They couldn’t skip the parties to celebrate they stole a SCOTUS seat. That was too much sacrifice for them.
danielx
@Sab:
I too was raised Episcopalian, though I haven’t attended a service for years in fear that the roof would collapse when I walked in the door. I decided a while back that everything I needed as far as moral precepts are concerned is contained in the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount – everything else is about control. God, presuming he/she/it/they exist(s), having created everything, probably has his attention elsewhere. If we fuck up the paradise created for us (whether in seven days or billions of years), he’s not going to sweat it – a gardener doesn’t worry if a single petal falls from a flower.
On the other hand, things like Covid do come along every so often to remind us we’re not really in charge.
trollhattan
@Kay:
One of the tells in the “debate” was when Trump tried to mock Biden for wearing a mask all the time and how big his mask supposedly was. “I’ve never seen one that big.”
Donny is forever stuck in fourth grade.
JPL
@Aleta: This is one of the producers, Alexander Gibney . Wikipedia says he is a renown and he has done the Looming Tower. Suzanne Hillinger who does The Weekly for Hulu. Ophelia Harutyunyan and she already lists Totally Under Control.
They documented and produced along with others.
The Moar You Know
@trollhattan: The ghost tweeter had access to it last night. He didn’t write the last one. I mean, c’mon. “We will get through this TOGETHER!” That’s the last fucking thing that guy would write, it would never even occur to him.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I’d be surprised if Big Willie weren’t at the Coney Barrett thing. Fingers crossed!
There go two miscreants
Larry Kudlow just said Dump has a “very moderate case” so that means he’s probably already on a ventilator.
trollhattan
@germy:
Normal/actual presidents have zero spare time. More norm-shattering from Trump.
germy
Old School
@SiubhanDuinne: Hooray!
bluehill
@germy: One proxy for his condition is whether he tweets. So much TV coverage and not one tweet since last night. That makes me think that “mild” is pretty bad. From the little I’ve read, the disease can progress pretty rapidly after the onset of symptoms.
JPL
The LA Times has more info about the documentary Totally Under Control. Does anyone have an account, because it’s behind a pay wall.
Totally Under Control
trollhattan
@JPL:
Are you suggesting this isn’t it? Can’t wrap my mind around the notion there could be more.
Mary G
Hope it’s the OAN lady.
Ken
@bluehill: Yeah, as others have said, assuming Trump is still conscious nothing about his day will change. He’ll still be spending twelve hours watching Fox. This isn’t going to suddenly make him “disciplined”.
hueyplong
@There go two miscreants: So has he gone from “mild” to “moderate”? I’m having trouble keeping up, except to say that sick Soviet Premiers from decades past seem to be our guide here.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Kay:
They couldn’t skip the parties to celebrate they stole a SCOTUS seat. That was too much sacrifice for them.
I’m hoping one of the Dems on the committee just read through a short list of everything Republicans have looked the other way on, from the cheap grifting to the sabotage of our elections, from the destabilization of our most important alliances to the effective green-lighting of the North Korean nuclear weapons and ask her, ‘what’s it like knowing that you are basically the ransom paid for all the damage this corrupt, incompetent racist has done?”
Klobuchar can serve it up with some passive-aggressive “Minnesota nice”
Just One More Canuck
@germy: He could think you under the table
trollhattan
@Mary G:
Remember the M*A*S*H theme song? “Suicide is Painless”
The Moar You Know
@germy: definitely on ventilator and possibly already dead.
Barbara
@Uncle Cosmo: That was 500 years ago, and the Counter Reformation did intervene between then and now. Not unduly defending the Church, but there are much more recent examples of moral weakness to bolster the case.
different-church-lady
@There go two miscreants: Yeah, it’s a very moderate case. THAT’S HOW IT STARTS OUT, YOU BUNCH OF NUMBNUTS!!!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@germy: could just be that his favorite rerun of I Dream of Jeannie was on
Aleta
Too bad McConnell has been masking and presumably careful around the loose cannons.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Martin: Until the election the candidate is a party matter, they can replace him. After the election it becomes a matter of law, not party rules.
zhena gogolia
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
That video of that gathering makes me so damn mad. I haven’t hugged a friend in six months, and I miss hugging my friends. But I don’t, because I have a sense of responsibility to those around me. But these мерзавцы?
zhena gogolia
@Kay:
This is how they feel about climate change too. I think they’re in for another rude awakening.
Ken
“Trump’s on the roof and won’t come down.“
Betty Cracker
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
We had a similar experience when my husband’s dad died a few years ago. We’ve been married for 23 years, so I’ve been to several Catholic funerals. At my FIL’s, I was pleased to encounter a photo of Pope Francis in the church. His dour predecessor’s photo always depressed me further. :)
Steeplejack
@JPL:
I was able to see the whole story by turning off my ad blocker for that site.
From the story:
Martin
@Mary G: That’s, what, 7 attendees of that event infected?
SiubhanDuinne
@germy:
That is the question.
Aleta
@germy: “call w/ govs on Covid-19 support for vulnerable seniors”
Were Democratic governors on this call too? If not, Pence making contact right away to keep the Rs on the same page would make sense.
zhena gogolia
@geg6:
We were talking about faith, not religion.
Atheist Joseph Stalin murdered millions of people. Does that make all atheists evil?
JPL
The fker knew It was Tuesday
Scenario
@ScenarioLENS
Chris Wallace is on Fox right now confirming that the Trump family arrived late at Sunday’s debate to avoid being tested by the Cleveland Clinic as required by the venue’s rules. They knew!
Jeffro
It’s probably a variety of bad actors advising the maladministration what do to – the Kochs re: energy, Putin re: the State Department, the Federalist Society wackos re: DOJ, and so on.
geg6
@Brachiator:
Unless, of course, your life has been damaged by said religion. Not so innocuous to raped alter boys and single unmarried mothers in Irish church work houses. Religion is toxic.
eric
@Ken: “very” moderate. i see. that is like extremely average.
Martin
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Except the state filing deadlines are a procedural matter, timed to when ballots are printed and sent out. How do you replace the candidate the day before the election when no ballot can reflect the change?
And a vote for a candidate does not convert to a vote for their replacement. It only works for Pres/VP because you’re voting for the combined ticket, so as long as the VP can assume office, it works fine. And that’s what the courts would say – the whole point of having a joint Pres/VP ticket is that you have a succession plan built into the ticket, so once the filing deadlines have passed (and courts would push them to allow the change unless they were procedurally past a point of no return) the VP just winds up being the pres nominee and he and the party can reveal who the VP candidate would be either before or after the election.
Baud
@SiubhanDuinne:
:-)
different-church-lady
@The Moar You Know: Wait, wait, I’m seeing this now: Pence finally murdered Trump in a fugue rage like in “The Long Good Friday.” They say he’s got COVID to cover up the fact that he’s not seen in public. His symptoms keep getting “worse”, which buys them time until election day, when they hope the Russians have figured out a way to hack the vote totals, and then announce Trump’s dead before the electoral college meets…
Mary G
@JPL: LAT article is pretty short:
Jeffro
There have been times in the past four years when this atheist has seen the sheer amount of cruelty and malice from trumpov on down and wondered just a bit about Satan…
…if this virus knocks out the GOP’s Senate majority for the next couple of months, I’ll have to seriously consider divine providence in all its many forms.
But then on Jan 20th I go back to being an atheist! ;)
Jinchi
There are enough Catholics in the country that they almost perfectly split on issues in the same numbers as the general population. This is why I get exasperated when media report on who is “winning the Catholic vote” as though that had anything to do with abortion or support for gay marriage. There is no ‘Catholic’ vote. Tell me who won an election and by how much and I can pretty accurately tell you who won the Catholic vote and by how much.
Republicans can try to argue that opposing ACB is anti-Catholic, but I’ll bet she’d do just as poorly if you asked actual Catholics what they think.
different-church-lady
@JPL: They knew and they still refused to wear masks.
PPCLI
@RaflW: Yes indeed. The Notre Dame student newspaper has an editorial today rather archly pointing this out.
Mary G
Mary G
Thank Dog:
different-church-lady
@Jeffro: I’m starting to think there’s some credence to the “RBG died so she could work with God directly on getting this shit fixed” theory.
LuciaMia
If by “focused and disciplined” you mean “climbing the walls.”
Jinchi
Please let him call in to Fox and Friends for a 45 minute rant while he’s laid up and feverish with corona.
Although, would we be able to tell if he’s delirious?
Sloane Ranger
All administrations have downplayed issues with the President’s health. In one as dishonest as this one, its best to assume he’s twice as ill as they’re admitting. That, plus the fact he hasn’t tweeted probably indicates he’s showing significant symptoms.
Hope they keep lying and he doesn’t take a turn for the worst because if he ends up in hospital, Joe and his campaign will have to rethink their approach. Can they continue to campaign when the Head of State and his opponent is in hospital, fighting for his life?
The fainting couch will collapse under the collective weight of all the VSP falling onto it while clutching their pearls if he tries!
Baud
Out: Believing in God.
In: Believing in Baud!
JPL
So Chris Wallace’s doctor. thinks trump had Covid during the debate. His family did not have testing by the Clinic because the campaign tested them before hand. We now know why Melania had her mask on the whole time.
BR
I hope they test Biden and staff twice a day for the next week to be sure to catch it early in case he did catch it at the debate. Every day counts, and there are responses that when applied early can make a difference, and every little bit matters.
Baud
@JPL:
I thought I saw a photo with her without the mask. Maybe a different event.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Mary G: I thought this one was interesting.
His nuttiness about Biden’s “injections” only firmed up my suspicion that trump takes something pretty regularly, though I guess mood swings are also symptomatic of certain mental illnesses
geg6
@JPL:
Gibney is one of the greatest documentarians of our time. Bar none. I watch a lot of documentary films, so you can take that to the bank.
Kay
Why would he stop? He’s acted responsibly through this whole thing. He shouldn’t have to pay for the Republicans vain and silly refusal to take ordinary common sense measures.
PJ
@Sloane Ranger: Biden won’t stop campaigning. They’ve already announced they are going forward with all of their events. The VP debate is still on for next week. If Trump dies, they may pause for a day or two, but that will be it.
Mary G
McNinny puts out note from Dr., Twitler tired and has had antibody cocktail, Melanoma has cough and headache:
karensky
@JPL: That was a doozy of a trailer!
bluehill
Given the number of positives that have been reported, the ACB press conference seems like a superspreader event.
JPL
@different-church-lady: From what I verified independently, Wallace’s doctor thinks he had it then. Trump’s campaign tested him and the campaign said he was negative.
Melania wore a mask
They lost Chris Wallace.
Nora Lenderbee
Chump needs to be functional for at least a month.
1. If he dies before Nov 3, some Never-Trumpers might sigh with relief and vote for Dense.
2. I want him to be publicly humiliated by his loss. I want everyone to see his face.
bluehill
@JPL: Well played, Melania. Well played.
Jinchi
Hydroxychloroquine is strangely absent from that list, even though it included zinc, vitamin D and melatonin.
BR
@Kay:
He could still get sick — for the next five days at least they need to be cautious and keep his schedule light and test him and everyone around him daily.
Jinchi
Wow!
Although, how does arriving late get you exempted from the venue’s rules?
LuciaMia
@JPL: He certainly looked like shit at the debate. Sweating more than Nixon.
Jinchi
@BR: Five days without hearing Trump’s obnoxious voice!
p.a.
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Maternal side of my family often gives directions by RC churches near target point (this is RI, can’t swing a wicken cat without hitting one?): completely useless for me. Always tell them to use bars/packies instead.
BR
@Jinchi:
I meant Biden should take it easy for five days — he’s not out of the woods until mid next week at the earliest.
LuciaMia
So at CNN, WH saying Trumps had a fever since the morning. Im surprised theyre being that open.
Ken
I may have to make some act of contrition, for imagining RGB hitting God with a ruler a la Sister Stigmata in The Blues Brothers.
There go two miscreants
@Ken: Trump’s on the roof…
That’s a more nuanced take; I was just riffing on “Kudlow is always wrong”.
geg6
@zhena gogolia:
People are free to believe whatever crazy shit they want in my world. They bring religion into it, they better be ready for a fight. Religion is toxic. Whatever it touches dies, kinda like Trump. I was irreligious long before I became an atheist. Probably starting in kindergarten and definitely by first grade.
Sab should cut her husband a break. He’s doing what people do when they lose their religion and the faith that it props up. He’s angry and bitter about the waste of time and effort and emotion he probably invested in it. I’m bitter at religion, not faith. I have faith. It’s just not faith in invisible beings. I have faith in myself and I am stronger for it. People of “faith” tried to break me. I have come out that stronger in my faith in myself and with nothing but disdain for it all. I feel sorry for her husband because, like me as a child and teenager, he has no one who empathized or understood. He needs to find a like-minded group of people who do understand. I had to work it out for myself almost fifty years ago. There are lots of places, online and in person, that could give him that empathy since she’s so uncomfortable with it. But all those here giving her advice about religions they think he might like aren’t doing him or her any favors.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@hueyplong: I remember when Andropov had a cold, 24 hours later they were playing solemn music on the radio in Moscow.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Martin: The state filing is for the nominee of the party, not the person. The party can change the nominee, both parties have rules about this exact thing.
ETA: Walter Mondale was brought in as the candidate after Paul Wellstone’s death.
zhena gogolia
@geg6:
I’m sorry for what you went through and how you were treated.
My father (born 1892 in Austria-Hungary) was so bitter about Catholicism that I think something must have been done to him in his childhood. He told me that if I got married in a church he wouldn’t attend. (I didn’t get married until after he died. First time not in a church; second time in one.)
zhena gogolia
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
YEAH — EVERYBODY: If you turn on the TV and they’re playing Swan Lake, IT’s all over.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@JPL:
She didn’t. The whole family arrived masked and then removed them when they sat down.
debbie
@Sab:
Why not just tell him that subject is off limits?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: You are correct, sir.
zhena gogolia
@debbie:
Sounds as if she has.
Litlebritdifrnt
The new Spitting Image drops tomorrow, but only if you have Britbox (which I do)
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@Litlebritdifrnt: yay!love Spitting Image
Brachiator
@geg6:
And I say this as a lifelong atheist who believes that religion is at best an innocuous delusion.
That’s why I said “at best.”
People can be monsters and are the worst when they hide behind religion and other institutions to do evil. The Church, the Boy Scouts, a college or university.
Beth formerly from Florida
Oh I’m so late to this thread but Betty Cracker, your cartooning is fantastic. More! More!
Dahlia
@Kent: Why not Armando Iannucci? He did a great job with The Death of Stalin.
debbie
@zhena gogolia:
Good. Hope it works.
Uncle Cosmo
@Peale: Dad used to say that the only thing the Church cared about was how much cash was in your collection envelope each Sunday. I listened pretty carefully to the sermons in our parish each week from age 5 to age 13, noted the high percentage of instances devoted to whining for more $$$, concluded Dad was right, & roughly 6 weeks after my Goyishe Bar Mitzvah (Confirmation) left the Church for good. I’ve known a few devout Catholics who were decent folk – including by all accounts Pope Frankie – but not nearly enough to redeem that medieval, moribund, greedy, arrogant, fascist-friendly operation in my eyes.
VeniceRiley
They gave him an antibody cocktail? There is no FDA approved antibody cocktail!
Uncle Cosmo
@geg6: While I agree with your general take on the issue, you probably should have reread Brachiator’s post a couple more times in order to catch his “at best” qualification.
Abnormal Hiker
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I know the feeling well
J R in WV
@germy:
On NPR’s 5 pm newscast they told us the description was changed from “mild” to “moderate” which they assumed meant he was a little worse than he was this morning.
So, swell, a typical progression that often ends with a vent in ICU.
Citizen Alan
@Sab:
What I tell people is usually something along the lines of “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” is still a pretty good way to live your life regardless of whether the guy who first said was born of a virgin, did a bunch of miracles, and came back from the dead.
J R in WV
And now I see Marine One being kept warm to fly Trump to Walter Reed~!!~
So we see today a progression of mild, –> moderate –> hospitalized in 12 hours. Sounds pretty serious.
Miss Bianca
LOL!! Betty, please, PLEASE keep these coming!
evodevo
@VeniceRiley: Yeah…not approved yet…experimental from Regeneron…we’ll see, I guess lol