Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

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

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

No one could have predicted…

Take your GOP plan out of the witness protection program.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

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

Bark louder, little dog.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

The words do not have to be perfect.

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

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 Coronavirus / Friday Evening Open Thread: World’s Best Healthcare (If You Can Afford It)

Friday Evening Open Thread: World’s Best Healthcare (If You Can Afford It)

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Good thing for him the Oval Office Occupant is on the Gold tier of the public dole…

I don’t want him to die (at least not until November 3rd), but the Goddess of Consequences knows he’s earned whatever he’s due to endure.

Also, it looks like the “President’s” physician doesn’t run his own twitter account:


==========


“Let his days be few, and let another take his office.”

Reader Interactions

260Comments

  1. 1.

    Patricia Kayden

    Every network: Trump being taken to Walter Reed.Fox News: Trump currently competing in the Iron Man competition.— Don Winslow (@donwinslow) October 2, 2020

  2. 2.

    PJ

    I’m not religious, but it is my prayer that Trump stay alive and well enough to spend the next ten years in jail.

  4. 4.

    MazeDancer

    Was surprised he walked so well to the helicopter.

    If he comes springing back in 2 weeks, while Biden laid off attacking him, will be most unhappy.

  5. 5.

    trnc

    “Asymptotic” is a math term, not virology, and “comorbities” doesn’t mean anything.

    Just Ronny Jackson hitting the sauce again.

  6. 6.

    Aleta

    Here’s my theory:  The Rose Garden was angry that day.

    September 26 (CNN)
    Many of the guests for President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nomination announcement arrived at Saturday’s event with masks on, but as the Rose Garden event got underway, masks were virtually non-existent. …
    Trump … went mask-less for Saturday’s event.

    Alex Azar, the head of the Health and Human Services Department, put on a mask at one point during Trump’s speech …. . But as he left the ceremony, the nation’s top health official fist-bumped without a mask on — going against the health recommendations he has espoused during the pandemic.

    Top administration officials, including Attorney General William Barr and Dr. Scott Atlas, a neuroradiologist who is the latest addition to the White House coronavirus task force, were also seen without masks, shaking hands and interacting closely with other attendees.
    …
    (T)wo of Barrett’s colleagues at Notre Dame, who attended the Rose Garden event and were seated toward the front of the audience, said they were not tested for the virus by the White House. The two guests also told CNN that there was no mention from the White House of coronavirus testing as a requirement to attend in any of the logistical emails they received ahead of time.

    The White House’s protocol for the past several weeks has been to test anyone who interacts directly with the President — meaning much of the audience at Saturday’s event were not tested.

  9. 9.

    Benw

    Goddammit Trump, I’ve got the Padres game three at 7 and the Lakers game two at 9! I’m kinda too busy for this!

  10. 10.

    dmsilev

    So, he went from ‘has a few cold-like symptoms’ to ‘got experimental medicine, will be in hospital for next several days’ in the space of about 12 hours. I’m going to go way out on a limb and assume that he was visibly sick well before the White House admitted to it.

  11. 11.

    Mary G

    Completely off topic, but this was so cheering for me. Vin Scully is alive and well:

    Hello everybody. October 2nd is an important day for me, marking both a significant moment from my childhood, and one from the end of my broadcasting career. I’d love to share the story with you. #dodgers #mlb #giants pic.twitter.com/dPtG1S1Qua— Vin Scully (@TheVinScully) October 2, 2020

    I was a huge Dodgers fan from the day in 1958 when they came to the Coliseum about a mile from my house, until he quit in 2016. Now I probably couldn’t name five current players. He is the antidote to Twitler.

  12. 12.

    Nutmeg again (formerly MoxieM)

    Yeah, you do think an MD’s device would do Doctor-type auto-correct. Asymptotic.  Approaching the curve, but not quite touching–that sounds about right. heh.

  13. 13.

    dmsilev

    @MazeDancer: Two weeks of COVID dominating the news because Trump is in the hospital is a far more damaging attack than any ad campaign Biden’s team could possibly run.

  16. 16.

    BR

    @dmsilev: 

    I think the antibodies he received is actually a pretty good idea — seems unlikely to have major downsides and is most effective when given very early from the early clinical trials. I think if Biden’s team should get some of that if he or others in his team test positive in the coming days.

  17. 17.

    C Stars

    @Benw: Ha! Yeah, I’m working on a wrapping up a deadline I blew past two weeks ago, hoping to finish by EOD. Not good timing.

  19. 19.

    Chetan Murthy

    That guy Ronny Jackson, I don’t think he’s Shitlord’s doc anymore, though?  He’s runnin’ for a House seat in TX, last I remember.  One presumes he actually knows what the correct words mean and how to spell ’em: he just DGAF.

  20. 20.

    TS (the original)

    I doubt going to hospital says much about his condition. There is no way the safety of any staff looking after him could be guaranteed at the white house. None of them have been wearing masks – how could you ever get them to wear PPE.

    This then makes me cynical about the 3rd Lady. Does she really have the virus?  Even if it is mild, how is she interacting with other people?

  22. 22.

    Martin

    @Oclday: No, for two reasons:

    1. As a high profile public official, he’s almost certainly waived those protections for certain individuals.
    2. It’s not possibly true.
  24. 24.

    trnc

    @dmsilev: I am not completely closing the door on the possibility that it’s being staged, especially after seeing a fairly normal looking walk (especially for him) onto Marine One.

  25. 25.

    White & Gold Purgatorian

    @dmsilev:  Agree. I figure they only admitted Trump has it because he was sick enough that his illness couldn’t be concealed.

    Either that, or they’re making his illness up. Why? Because making shit up is what Trump does, and is the one constant in his behavior.

  27. 27.

    trnc

    @Chetan Murthy: That guy Ronny Jackson, I don’t think he’s Shitlord’s doc anymore, though? He’s runnin’ for a House seat in TX, last I remember. One presumes he actually knows what the correct words mean and how to spell ’em: he just DGAF.

    Did we have a reason to think he had given up the sauce?

  29. 29.

    Mary G

    Those of us who have researched the Reagan assassination’s aftermath know that communciations silence even in good faith damages national security. My sense as to why the White House isn’t briefing: fear and paralysis. They don’t know what to say. No one knows anything.— Marc Ambinder (@marcambinder) October 2, 2020

    In information voids, silence (or paper statements) tends not to suffice. Probably the plan was to let POTUS’s video statement speak for itself along with the press guidance. Won’t work if people don’t trust the messenger.— Marc Ambinder (@marcambinder) October 2, 2020

  32. 32.

    jl

    @Mary G: Only truthful and reliable communication WH could give would be his current status exactly right then. IMHO, they should do that regularly.

  33. 33.

    Robert Sneddon

    @Martin: If he were asymptotic, he could get increasingly close to Walter Reed but never actually reach it.

    That would only be true if he was being attended by a pair a’ docs.

  36. 36.

    Jeffro

    Haughey, Kilgore, and Hoarse all in a row like that…by my troth, they nearly hath slain me!  LOL

    He better hope he’s actually sick.  With this WH, if they’re faking, we’ll know within a week and then we’ll get him to that 27% approval after all.

  37. 37.

    germy

    Greg Gutfeld is on Fox News saying Trump got coronavirus because he’s brave and he was “doing it for us.” Gutfeld says Trump “didn’t hide from the virus” because he didn’t “want America to hide from the virus.”

    — Max Tani (@maxwelltani) October 2, 2020

  38. 38.

    LongHairedWeirdo

    “Asymptotic” is a math term, not virology,

    Yeah, but spell-check/autocorrect can *very* easily cause that, especially on twitter. It would only be *important* if the fellow had the sort of “measure twice, cut once” job that required careful accuracy and communication, like being… a physician.

    Man, I hope that twit was corrected.

    (Trump and his ilk “twit”; normal folks “tweet”.)

  39. 39.

    Rusty

    Or he isn’t that sick, but being a germaphobe and a hypochondriac he demanded over the top treatment and the hospital.  When it eventually leaks he will look even weaker.  That could explain the walk to Marine one.

  40. 40.

    different-church-lady

    @germy: Wouldn’t it have been easier if he… now, just hear me out on this… if he just didn’t get the virus at all?

  41. 41.

    The Moar You Know

    Wouldn’t Ronnie Jackson saying Trump has no co morbidities be a HIPPA violation?

    @Oclday: lotta misunderstandings about what is and is not a HIPPA violation. The law is fucking complex.

    Information released about a patient by that patient’s doctors with that patient’s consent cannot be a HIPPA violation.

  42. 42.

    Mary G

    Thinking about everybody who had to die alone, everybody who did not have a physician at their residence, everybody who didn't have access to a clinical trial, everybody who got covid-19 because of a stupid, vicious denialist. https://t.co/EF323n8Cin— Mark Harris (@MarkHarrisNYC) October 2, 2020

    CNN reporting that President began to panic over night as symptoms began to set in. "We are told he became increasingly alarmed by his diagnosis and as he developed symptoms over night." (You probably would too. It's a scary situation.) pic.twitter.com/ffHXrEysO5— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) October 2, 2020

  43. 43.

    japa21

    Since we are all guessing about what is really happening with Trump I might as well put in my one cent worth.  That was Trump walking to the helicopter.  To me he really didn’t look great but not horrible either.  The general run of things with this disease is that the symptoms at the start are mild but can get much worse. Heard one doctor say earlier today that the fact he is showing these symptoms relatively early is not a good sign.

    Considering what is definitely possible, and in fact, highly likely in terms of worsening condition, he is better off at Walter Reed instead of the WH.  If they waited a couple days he quite possibly would not have been able to even make the walk and that would have been disastrous for him.

    One thing that all the mask wearing has done is make me aware of all the other signals that are sent facially, particularly with the eyes. When Trump gives a thumbs up, like he did on that walk, he usually has a little smugness which shows up around the eyes. Not today.  He looked beat.

  44. 44.

    germy

    Per @HallieJackson: Jim Jordan was exposed to Hope Hicks without a mask, as well as both Melania and Donald Trump who have now also tested positive for Covid-19. @Jim_Jordan is refusing to quarantine, which will expose many others on Capitol Hill to the virus.

    — Amee Vanderpool (@girlsreallyrule) October 2, 2020

  47. 47.

    jl

    @germy: They just don’t, or don’t want to, learn, even after all signs show that approach leads to their own destruction. Amazing and horrible.

  51. 51.

    cain

    @germy: Well, I’m in no danger – I don’t want to know anyone who would like Jim enough to see him. I hope he visits all his friends in the senate though!

  52. 52.

    Kent

    @different-church-lady:@germy: And most of those were gonna vote for ACB, so you go Jim!

    He’s in the House, not the Senate.  They rarely mix, even within the same party.  Washington DC and Congress is weird that way.  I worked for a while in the Senate Offices and basically never once saw or met anyone from the House or any House staff.

  55. 55.

    catclub

    This then makes me cynical about the 3rd Lady. Does she really have the virus?

     

    somebody posted that Just trump and Hope Hicks, but NOT Melania, would look funny.

  57. 57.

    germy

    I saw this elsewhere:

    “Trump hates Socialism, but he’s getting thousands of dollars worth of government medical care, and all  he paid was $750.”

  58. 58.

    H.E.Wolf

    @mali muso: I am also not religious, but I will add an Amen

    As will I. I wish him a long life.

    PS, off-topic: Are you by any chance a Rapinoe fan?

  59. 59.

    Gravenstone

    Ronny Jackson is clearly a fucking moron. Asymptotic is NOT the same as asymptomatic. Maybe it’s just auto-correct, but he’s probably just that ignorant.

  60. 60.

    Citizen Alan

    @Gravenstone: As I noted in the last thread, everyone is focusing on “asympotic” which might well have been autocorrect. But he also misspelled comorbidities as “comorbites.” Don’t know how you get that through spell check.

  61. 61.

    Brachiator

    I know we’ve all become inured to this stuff, but sentiments like these would be much more reassuring from someone who knew how to spell the basic concepts involved. “Asymptotic” is a math term, not virology, and “comorbities” doesn’t mean anything.

    I think that “comorbities” may have something to do with showgirls

  62. 62.

    The Moar You Know

    I would normally say “great way to get out of the debates, which he was going to fail at just as badly as the first one” as he really needed a way to do that gracefully and without looking weak, but this was the one thing he absolutely could not politically afford to have happen to him.

    it also might kill him but nobody gives a shit about that

  63. 63.

    Urza

    @germy: I looked through the comments on that twitter pic.  I cannot for the life of me figure out whats going on there.  I mean its probably him and his mistress, but its just so odd.

  66. 66.

    CliosFanBoy

    @Mary G: As a Reds fan I DESPISE the dudgers, but even so, I could listen to Scully call any game. Perhaps the best baseball announcer EVER.

  67. 67.

    H.E.Wolf

    lotta misunderstandings about what is and is not a HIPPA violation. The law is fucking complex.

    The acronym is worse. It just begs to be misspelled.

    Why name it the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act… when it could have been named the Health Insurance Portability and Privacy Act – which is basically what it’s about, anyway?

  68. 68.

    LuciaMia

    Add this to the conspiracy theory trough.   Maybe hes planning to fake his own death. Fed up with the presidency, knows he’s going to lose and facing multiple legal and financial woes. He’ll enjoy seeing a big state funeral (almost as good as a big military parade.) and fake burial at Arlington.  A few years from now a pudgy, orange hued old guy shows up in the background of some tourists selfie in the Bahamas.

  69. 69.

    Chetan Murthy

    Shitlord’s doctor is (IIR(ead)C) a guy named Conley.  Jackson -used- to be his doc, and AFAICT is now a GrOPer Congressional candidate in TX.

  71. 71.

    The Moar You Know

    “Trump hates Socialism, but he’s getting thousands of dollars worth of government medical care, and all he paid was $750.”

    @germy: Thousands? Just the antibody shot – the one injection – he got was several million dollars. His medical bill for this will exceed his net worth by quite a bit when and if he is discharged.

  73. 73.

    dan in auburn

    Asymptotic refers to the limiting behavior of a function, i.e., asymptoting to zero.   So maybe he was being accurate.

  75. 75.

    TS (the original)

    And to me trump again proved how weird he is. I don’t know anyone who gets dressed up in a suit to go to hospital.

  77. 77.

    LuciaMia

    comorbites

    I think thats what that planet crusher in the StarTrek episode, ‘The Doomsday Machine’ was made of.

  78. 78.

    chopper

    @The Moar You Know:

    His medical bill for this will exceed his net worth by quite a bit when and if he is discharged.

    that would be true if his medical bill were negative nine hundred million dollars.

  80. 80.

    sdhays

    @LuciaMia: Don’t make these people into something they’re not. They’re utter morons who think they are untouchable, from law enforcement to highly contagious viruses. Being rich in America makes it all to easy to suffer that delusion without consequences, but it’s still a delusion. They’re not going to run until it’s either too late or almost too late, and they’re not going to plan until the last minute. And then they’re going to do it in the stupidest, laziest way possible. Because that’s what they know.

  82. 82.

    Baud

    @germy:

    Can you imagine how bad our representatives would have it if the Republicans still controlled internal House rules.

  86. 86.

    sdhays

    @LuciaMia: I think you’re thinking of the “Corbomite Maneuver”, which was a bluff Kirk pulled on an alien threatening to destroy them all.

  88. 88.

    evodevo

    @TS (the original): Remember that tale of the time he was supposed to take one of the sons (don’t remember if it was Uday or Qusay) to a ball game, and came to pick him up at his campus dorm room, and supposedly punched him because he wasn’t in a suit ….

  90. 90.

    TS (the original)

    @evodevo:

    Now you mention it – I do remember that story – but was it Donald’s father coming to pick him up?

    Like I said, weird.

  92. 92.

    JPL

    So tomorrow between his we are family segments, can the next President talk about trump’s Health Care.   He might also consider having a surrogate call out the trump team on their comments while their cult leader is in the hospital.

  93. 93.

    Morzer

    @sdhays: If even Trump thinks that Don Jr. has a punchable face, can you imagine what Kimberly Guilfoyle is doing to the sniffling, red-eyed wretch every day?

  98. 98.

    opiejeanne

    @Mary G: I love Vinnie. I was 8 when the Dodgers came to LA. When they built the stadium my dad had to inspect the lights on the towers in the outfield. I don’t remember if I asked him how he did that and it’s too late now because he’s gone, but I always assumed he had to go up to the top. Every time I went to a game as an adult I’d look at those lights and get dizzy.

  105. 105.

    germy

    Official says masks will still not be mandatory at the White House, even after president tested positive for the virus. The official described facial coverings as “a personal choice,” despite overwhelming evidence that they help stop spread of virus. https://t.co/l9wGB4pTVj— AP Politics (@AP_Politics) October 2, 2020

    Might be a good time to observe that the GOP has evolved into counter-majoritarian party. And a counter-majoritarian party is by necessity counterfactual. The conflicts with journalism, evidence, science, public health are structural, not a matter of poor choices by dumb actors. https://t.co/xKTQqIlIbt— Jay Rosen (@jayrosen_nyu) October 2, 2020

  107. 107.

    prostratedragon

    101 years to the day, you say? I don’t exactly believe in signs, but earlier I’d been thinking that so much of what is happening in headlines these days has the trappings of a 101st airborne division of chickens coming home to roost.

  110. 110.

    sdhays

    @Mary G: I literally laughed out loud. And then my wife asked what was so funny, and when I told her, she also loudly LOL’d. ?

  113. 113.

    H.E.Wolf

    @mali muso:  Me too! She’s a good role model as well as a great athlete.

    I asked because one of your comments a day or two ago sounded like someone I knew, though the odds were unlikely.

    Being virtual acquaintances here on BJ is also nice, and will suffice. :)

  114. 114.

    Mary G

    @Immanentize: They aren’t naming names. Many MSM reporters seem pretty compliant with mask protocol, so I’m theorizing it’s the OAN lady, Fox, and other such, though I have no evidence

    ETA: Literally no idea, because I stopped watching his press conferences after the bleach and light fiasco.

  116. 116.

    different-church-lady

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: I don’t tell a lot of people this, but I solved Zeno’s paradox: eventually you get down to atomic levels, at which point there aren’t any more increments, so you pass the last one and there you are.

  117. 117.

    H.E.Wolf

    @chopper: better if it was the Health Insurance Portability and Privacy Order, right?

    Hee hee. It would for sure be easier to remember!

  119. 119.

    Booger

    “comorbities” was the stuff that Captain Kirk bluffed Baalok about in the ST:TOS S1E10 episode “The Comorbities Maneuver.” Look it up.

  121. 121.

    Jeffro

    @germy: they’re counter-factual and counter-majoritarian because acknowledging our biggest problems and putting forth genuine solutions to them would ding the profits of their big donors.

    ACA = conservative solution to getting health care to more people.  Carbon tax = market solution that would start reining in (never mind, too late for that) mitigating climate change.

    But oops, we would only make a half gazillion dollars instead of the full gazillion, so…let nihilism reign!  It’s just nuts.

  123. 123.

    jl

    @germy: “Official says masks will still not be mandatory at the White House, even after president tested positive for the virus.”

    Still trying to keep up the facade? Betting that Trump will miraculously recover quickly and be able to strut around and say ‘I told you it was not big deal’? Completely lost in fantasy?

    Unbelievable, just unbelievable. Crazy, depraved, nuts… is there a long German word, or any language word, to wrap it all up? Ain’t nothing I know of in English.

  124. 124.

    Grace

    I’m sorry to harp but I still don’t believe he has it. His hike to Marine One looked perfectly normal (for him). I’m not sure I think he and/or his minions came up with this monumental distraction from all the other BS that was swirling around him less than 24 hours ago, but there are still some strategic people at the RNC and God knows McConnell could game this out. He’s such a germophobe and hypochondriac he could easily stress himself into feeling fatigued and feverish when told he has it. Meanwhile, not a soul can raise or ask a question about his taxes, the debate, the Proud Boys, healthcare, Covid, the struggling economy, none of it. It has to have generated an absolutely HUGE sigh of relief for McConnell, that neither his Senators nor candidates are going to be asked any bothersome questions about any of those topics for a few weeks leading up to the election. They can all just piously warble about “thotsnprars” for their beloved Dear Leader and murmur about how inappropriate it is that Dems are pursuing partisan politics at a time of national crisis. They had to know Dump is a goner, and they’ve gotten pretty much everything they could from him anyway, so concocted this gambit to try to save the Senate majority. So very, very convenient in its timing…

  125. 125.

    jl

    @different-church-lady: But at quantum level, you are both there an not there at the same time, until you fall into the black hole and then it all evaporates after a trillion trillion years. Or some other damn thing.

    It gets complicated.

  127. 127.

    NoraLenderbee

    @Morzer:

    The same poll showing Biden in the lead found 72% of voters disapprove of calls to “defend the police,”

    It’s a great day for autocorrect!

  128. 128.

    patrick II

    @Jeffro:

    No, it’s more than hypochondria.  He has coronavirus and he’s scared and he’s the president.  So, he’s going to the hospital.  And yes, he’s a hypochondriac.

  133. 133.

    Roger Moore

    @Booger:

    Kirk also referenced cormorbities in “The Deadly Years”, when he bluffed the Romulans into retreating from the Enterprise by sending a message about it in a code he knew they had broken.

  135. 135.

    different-church-lady

    @jl: PARADOX DON’T GIVE A SHIT. PARADOX JUST TAKES WHAT IT WANTS!

    (DCL, +1.78 give or take…)

  136. 136.

    frosty

    @opiejeanne: The Dodgers were my dad’s favorite team. In Brooklyn. I was sharing a house in SoCal with two rabid Dodgers fans (OK, me too) and my dad stopped by when he was out at a conference. When they found out he’d watched the Dodgers at Ebbets Field I got instant cred. It was one a great moment.

  138. 138.

    Princess Leia

    @Grace: The walk onto the helicopter is def suspicious. And just HH and Melatonin? No one else? None of the kids? I’m not buying either.

  139. 139.

    jl

    @different-church-lady: The whole situation is unbelievable. Outbreaks among WH Secret Service occurring over months, them justifiably complaining about it periodically for months.

    This is a bad political thriller remake of Groundhog Day.

    Edit: and unlike Bill Murray’s character, the GOP will never figure out how to get themselves and the country out, they don’t even want to.

  140. 140.

    LongHairedWeirdo

    As a side note, do you all know that this really, honestly, is all Trump’s responsibility?

    If Trump had given the orders to crush community spread, the odds that anyone would have entered his orbit to infect him would have been low, and *much* more easily caught with the frequent testing they use.

    *EVERYONE* (who has a right to have an opinion) had told him this. There’s no controversy that allowing 10s of thousands of new daily infections was dangerous.

    I’ve heard a couple of reasons he didn’t. One of the foulest is simply “it’s hitting blue states, so why worry?” The one that most intrigued me was “if he didn’t take action, he couldn’t be blamed” – so, better to just say “that’s all the states’ job!” because he is such a lazy coward.

    And, of course, regardless of the reason, let’s face it: the Republican Party just showed they’d cover up for his criminal behavior and abuse of office, and then made a big production out of cheering him during the state of the union. He guessed, correctly, they wouldn’t criticize his response.

    I won’t cheer anyone’s suffering/death (well, in general – I might cheer the bully’s bloody nose, but only because I expect it’ll heal cleanly, and I’m not cheering the bloody nose, so much as the administration of it, if you see the difference). But I will hold a secret hope that we’re starting to see the collapse of the Republican Party. If he were to die from Covid-19, I think every reporter should be asking every high ranking Republican official “so, why *didn’t* you try to set the record straight about the dangers of Covid-19? Why were you so quiet when he said “this is their new hoax” when the Democrats called for better containment measures?”

    (NB: he claims the Democrats were pushing the notion that Covid-19 was dangerous to harm him, and that the concern was a hoax. I don’t see how that’s different from saying “the virus is a hoax” but it seems proven beyond doubt to me that their concerns were justified, and not at all a “hoax”.)

    I confess, though, as always, if this *doesn’t* go a long way toward breaking the Republican Party’s backbone, it’s going to be really scary going in America for a while. We now know there’s nothing the Republicans won’t allow or support, so long as it doesn’t hurt their polling. I mean, we already *kinda* knew that, from George W., but now it’s proven beyond any reasonable doubt.

  143. 143.

    cain

    @patrick II:

    If he had a stroke before, I’m willing to bet that he’s in danger of having another one or a heart attack. I don’t think this virus is going to leave his blood pressure alone.

  145. 145.

    SFBayAreaGal

    @Mary G: Die hard Giants fan here. I was at that game at Oracle Park. I remember singing and seeing him on the giant screen. He received a standing ovation. It was a great day.

  147. 147.

    cain

    @Mary G:

    Hey maybe we might get some ambitious journalists who doesn’t really care if they don’t get cocktail hour with politicians and ask some real tough questions.

  148. 148.

    Aleta

    @Mary G:  I see that only one of the journalists was at the Rose Garden event on Saturday.

    One went on the trip to the Pennsylvania rally Saturday.  The one who went to the Saturday Rose Garden event went  to  the WH presidential news conference on Sunday and was in the pool to the golf course Sunday.   The third positive journalist also went to the WH news conference on Sunday.

    (WKRG , Sept. 27)

    “The president and the First Lady are scheduled to host a reception in honor of Gold Star families Sunday at 6 p.m. “

  150. 150.

    Roger Moore

    @Jeffro:

    I honestly think this stuff is less about how much money the ultra-rich make and more about them wanting to be in total control of everything.  Even with ruinous tax rates, the ultra-rich would still never want for anything.  They just don’t like the principle that they might have to pay for stuff that benefits other people.

  151. 151.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @frosty: When the kid got interested in watching baseball, she lived in the OC and was an Angels fan.  After she move to LA for school, she still was for a while.  Now she sports a blue LA Dodgers hat all the time.

  152. 152.

    cain

    @Morzer:

    See I actually feel bad for Don Jr. considering that he was abused as a kid. I’m betting he’s getting sexually abused privately by this woman. We should never feel happy of anyone who has been a victim of abuse in the past and likely is showing behavior because of it.

    Gah, just thinking – she might even role play his dad.. she seems that psychotic.

  155. 155.

    TS (the original)

    @lamh36:

    Wouldn’t it be something else if that SCOTUS nominee annoucement event was the super spreader event?

    It has been suggested & looking more likely. Chris Christie was looking decidedly worried when talking about debate prep – but he was also at the SCOTUS nominee event – hugging folks.

  156. 156.

    dmsilev

    @JPL: Also a Judiciary Committee member. Definitely lends credence to the theory that the rush to dance on RBG’s grave was the spreader event.

  157. 157.

    jl

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: ‘ As an astronomer in Australia says: “Life is meaningless and we’re all going to die.” ‘

    Gonna take a lot of outstanding pix to make up for that happy contribution.

  158. 158.

    Roger Moore

    @lamh36:

    Wouldn’t it be something else if that SCOTUS nominee annoucement event was the super spreader event?

    It would be brutally ironic if so many Republican senators were infected at the event that they couldn’t approve the nominee.

  159. 159.

    Yutsano

    @LongHairedWeirdo: Eh. That was Princeling Jared who came up with that. Now he present it to his father-in-law, but that idea didn’t come from the brain tribble. In fact I think the poor beast is working overtime just trying to keep up basic bodily functions right now.

  162. 162.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Cermet: Unlike doctors (PhD in the sciences) physicians aren’t really all that smart (great at memorizing, though)- some are brilliant, of course, but the vast majority – no.

    MDs get through med school mostly by memorizing; PhDs have to write and defend a thesis containing original work. But many of those theses don’t contain much that’s significant, students are often dragged through their thesis topic by their advisors, who then lobby the examining committee to get them through their defense. (Particularly in non-scientific fields. All you really need to know is that Newton Leroy Gingrich, “a stupid person’s idea of what a smart person is like,” has a PhD.)

  163. 163.

    Mary G

    Womp womp:

    Ousted federal vaccine expert and whistle blower Dr. Rick Bright is the one who fast-tracked the Covid treatment Trump received –> https://t.co/pPu9irWF8f— Geoff Bennett (@GeoffRBennett) October 2, 2020

    Details:

    ?re Dr. Rick Bright & Regeneron: ?The contract with Regeneron, to urgently develop this treatment for COVID-19 was the very first contract @RickABright put in place as BARDA director to respond to the virus. Negotiations started in Jan & contract finalized on Feb 4, 2020. 1/5— Kendra Barkoff Lamy (@kabarkoff) October 2, 2020

  164. 164.

    Roger Moore

    @frosty:

    The thing I find most amazing about Scully is that he was announcing for the Dodgers all the way back when they were in Brooklyn.  He was a rookie the year before Willie Mays and was in the booth when Bobby Thomson broke the Dodgers’ hearts in ’51.

  167. 167.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Reposted from tail end of dead thread below:

    Senator Thom Tillis has tested positive. Just announced.

    Why yes, he was at the Rose Garden event last Saturday, why do you ask?

  168. 168.

    Roger Moore

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    “Life is meaningless and we’re all going to die.”

    Life may have no inherent meaning, but we can choose to give it one. That ability to give life meaning is what makes great moral leaders great; they choose to give meaning to their lives rather than living selfishly.

  174. 174.

    frosty

    @Roger Moore: I loved listening to Scully in the 70s when I was a Dodger fan, but I didn’t know he moved out with them from Brooklyn. What a great story!

  176. 176.

    chopper

    @JPL:

    given the way goopers have been treating this recently, tillis won’t be the last this week. or next, or after.

  179. 179.

    frosty

    @Immanentize: I moved to Baltimore in ’79. I was disappointed with the Orioles who didn’t look good early on, after seeing my team get to the Series two years in a row. And then the O’s did it too! Better yet, it was pretty easy to get tickets, so I was in the stands for both the ’79 and ’83 Series.

    ETA: They used to be one of the top teams in the AL East. I think the $$ and difference between small- and big- market teams is what’s causing the problems. They used to have no problem beating Boston.

  181. 181.

    Kirk Spencer

    I admit to evil in my soul. I want him to live.

    I want him to live, spending weeks with breathing assistance, months of painful fatigue and physical therapy, and long-termer symptoms for years — most of which are spent behind bars in a federal pen as special circumstances holding for an inmate convicted in multiple states after humiliating trials conducted after January 20, 2021.

  184. 184.

    Immanentize

    @frosty: yes, I was a Red Sox fan in the ’80s.  They would break your heart every year  But when I was In Miami in the late 80s, I went to tons of Spring training Orioles games.  Learned to love those sad sacks too.

  185. 185.

    lamh36

    @TS (the original): it’s been reported that Amy lady had COVID and “recovered”. First…coulda been a false negative…second, no evidence that I am aware has come yet that having the disease and “recovering” from it means you are immune to re-infection?

    I’ve been busy though so maybe I missed something, but it’s kinda my job to pay attention to these types of things.

    It would be irony of EPIC proportions if ole girl Amy is the Typhoid Mary that started this dominoe effect!

    Oh and ahemm…

    @soledadobrien

    (Claudia Conway is telling us her mom is “coughing all around the house” on tik tok.)

    Kellyanne was apparently directly behind Melanoma, near now 2 of the Senators who tested positive and in front of the Notre Dame priest who is not positive as well

  188. 188.

    HumboldtBlue

    On a more pleasant note, gay men on Reddit have taken over the tag Proud Boys and are posting photos of their coming out, hanging with family, getting married, it’s wonderful to see. I learned the term “Gunkle”

  189. 189.

    realbtl

    I listened to Vin and the Dodgers almost nightly on my brand new portable transistor radio.  Also went to a game in the Colosseum with my dad.

  190. 190.

    Aleta

    (NYT) The Michigan Supreme Court struck down Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s executive orders issued over several months that were aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus on Friday.
    In a 4-3 decision, the court ruled that she illegally drew authority from a 1945 law called the Emergency Powers of Governor Act that did not apply to the pandemic.
    “The governor did not have authority after April 30, 2020, to issue or renew any executive orders related to the Covid-19 pandemic,” the court wrote.
    Just hours before the decision was handed down, Governor Whitmer, a Democrat, had issued a fresh executive order rolling back the reopening of the state’s Upper Peninsula. The order restricts retail capacity, the size of social gatherings and requires schools to enforce mask requirements.
    That order drew authority in part from the 1945 law the court said does not apply. It was not immediately clear if the new order was enforceable.
    “Today’s Supreme Court ruling, handed down by a narrow majority of Republican justices, is deeply disappointing, and I vehemently disagree with the court’s interpretation of the Michigan Constitution,” Governor Whitmer said in a statement on Friday evening, adding that the ruling would not take effect for at least 21 days and that the existing orders would “retain the force of law” until then.
     

  202. 202.

    jl

    Hoo boy…

    @atrupar

    ‘ Jim Acosta just now on CNN: “I talked to a Trump campaign advisor a short while ago that said this is serious. That the president has been having some trouble breathing, that he’s been very fatigued today, very tired.” ‘

    https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1312183105881423873

    From so many angles, this is bad news.

    How many top GOPers are coming down with it? How many are old and look in poor health anyway?

    Edit: found via joshtpm twitter.

    As has been mentioned by several commenters, very serious cases can have a mild onset.

  208. 208.

    Ken

    @lamh36: Kellyanne was apparently directly behind Melanoma, near now 2 of the Senators who tested positive and in front of the Notre Dame priest who is not positive as well

    This is sounding like one of those movies where the serial killer draws an “X” through each face in the class photo.

  210. 210.

    jl

    If that report Trump’s condition is already getting serious is accurate, and he pulls through (as I hope he does), he’s probably down and out and partially incapacitated until election day. Getting back on your feet often takes several weeks, usually more than 3, a month or more, with serous cases even in young very healthy people.

  211. 211.

    Shalimar

    @jl: Or maybe Trump already has it,  and he doesn’t give a damn whether anyone else in the White House dies or not.  No one can infect him now.

  213. 213.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @lamh36:

    @soledadobrien

    (Claudia Conway is telling us her mom is “coughing all around the house” on tik tok.)

    Well, it would be wrong to wish a serious illness on anyone. I certainly do not hope this vile creature has the ‘Rona. No sirree, Bob, I do not. Because that would be wrong. And surely I do hope that Lindsey Graham does not become the third member of the Senate Judiciary Committee to test positive. By gum, I hope Lindsey is hale and hearty, honest and for true.

  214. 214.

    Ken

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: He’s looking at it from an astronomical perspective.

    At least it’s cheerier than the cosmological perspective, which goes on “and all the stars will burn out and all the protons will decay”.

  215. 215.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Immanentize: I am really sorry about the Orioles. Every year.

    The Woes are perhaps the classic illustration of Be careful what you wish for, you might get it.

    For many years Baltimore was terrified that the O’s out-of-town owner would either move the team (Edward Bennett Williams was always suspected of wanting to spirit them off to DC) or sell them to someone who’d move them. We need local ownership, we cried, committed to keeping the Birds in Baltimore.

    And we ended up with the Mesothelioma Bazillionaire, Peter G. Angelos, who had moved from Pittsburgh many years before and had adopted Baltimore as home. Who (I believe) really did want all the best for the team and for the city – so long as we would fall all over ourselves praising his magnificent stewardship of the O’s, maybe even build him a statue. Unfortunately “the Angeloser” proved, over long years, that he couldn’t organize or run a winning baseball franchise to save his soul, and in the process wrecked one of the proudest names in the sport…

  217. 217.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    @Benw: stick with baseball, the outcome is unknown.   Meanwhile Lebron is going to steam roll Miami

  219. 219.

    Mai Naem mobile

    I know somebody who got COVID.  She’s not a Trumper but she did pooh pooh COVID and thought it was all ‘politics.’ Anyhow she’s over 20 years younger than Donnie and healthier overall.  She said she felt like total crap. She couldn’t do anything for a couple of weeks. Hard a hard time making it to the ensuite bathroom. Basically spent three weeks in her bedroom. She now says people who think COVID is a hoax are stupid and dangerous. If Donnie has it I don’t think this is going to turn out well for him and I am as big an anti Trumper as you can get but I want him to survive to get a drubbing like you’ve never seen in the election.  Worse than Goldwater.

  223. 223.

    HumboldtBlue

    @Uncle Cosmo:

    Unfortunately “the Angeloser” proved, over long years, that he couldn’t organize or run a winning baseball franchise to save his soul, and in the process wrecked one of the proudest names in the sport…

    Yup.

    I grew up listening to Richie Ashburn and Harry Kalas in Delaware as a Phils fan and the Orioles were a damn good team until Angelos took over. Always had a soft spot for the O’s.

  225. 225.

    Ken

    Since Trump’s in the hospital anyway, maybe this would be a good time to get that DNA sample for E. Jean Carroll.

  226. 226.

    jl

    @lamh36: I remember reading warnings like that too. Immunity from natural infection may be extremely variable between individuals, and some may have it for only a few months. That is a snag seldom mentioned in the dangerous ‘let ‘er rip’ herd immunity plan that the Trumpsters keep hinting at, then denying.

    From what I read, evidence is that carefully designed vaccine immunity will last at least a year for most people. I know vaccines for closely related dog and cow coronavirus infections need boosters every couple of years.

  228. 228.

    Quiltingfool

    Hey!  October is a “blue moon” month (once in a blue moon).   There are two full moons this October – today and on Halloween!  I kinda miss teaching astronomy to 8th graders – and one website I used all the time to make sure I didn’t mess up astronomy explanations was Phil Plait’s Bad Astronomy.

  233. 233.

    jl

    @zhena gogolia: Older people can have mild infections right up until a sudden crash. And younger people too. Seem fine, then crash over night or in a few hours.

    Walking OK in the afternoon and in ICU by midnight is a real thing with this disease.

  234. 234.

    Kay

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    I think there’s a third option – you could hope they get better or hope they get worse, or you could just not care that much what happens to them.

    900 frontline health care workers have died of covid, and no one at the White House has bothered to have any kind of formal recognition of it or memorial event, yet they held three celebratory events for a prospective supreme court justice, none of which were essential, and at which they didn’t bother to take the most basic precautions because they’re all too vain and full of themselves to wear a mask.

    I’m just not generous enough to spend any time worrying about them. I have enough to worry about.

  236. 236.

    mrmoshpotato

    @jl: Some are willing to risk death to ram through a crooked SCOTUS nomination  asap?

    Sorry.  I’m a lifelong Democratic party member who has always voted straight ticket.

  238. 238.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @frosty: I think the $$ and difference between small- and big- market teams is what’s causing the problems.

    It’s a bitter irony that the NFL has a salary cap but probably doesn’t need one for the sake of competition, whereas MLB is in dire need of a cap but will never get one. One reason is that the major source of revenue for football is the national TV contract, which is spread among the teams, so that the gap between the cash-flush and cash-poor teams isn’t enormous; meanwhile baseball revenues are primarily team-specific, so the haves are filthy rich compared to the have-nots and can easily outbid small-market teams for their stars when their rookie contracts expire. (The NFL draft, with college programs used as a shared “farm system” to “graduate” players who are practically field-ready, also beats the hell out of the MLB system where draftees can take most of their rookie contract to reach the majors, blossom late, and after a few seasons be bought up by the plutocrat franchises.)

    I think it was over the 2018-19 offseason, Sports Illustrated published an article about the future of baseball with a drab and dour prediction: Maybe half a dozen clubs would have the finances to outbid the rest for stars coming up for new contracts, and these teams would be perennial postseason competitors. The rest would have to draft astutely and develop young players expertly to assemble a roster that for a couple of years might make the playoffs, but would then sink back down the standings for many years after the big-bucks organizations bought the young stars they’d worked so hard to develop.

    Really very sad. I grew up in a baseball family – my dad played on one of the best semi-pro teams of his day – but I prefer football now as far more competitive.

  243. 243.

    HumboldtBlue

    @Immanentize:

    And Frank Robinson one of the all-time greats.

    They had some teams and those were my young formative days and imprinted on my mind.

  244. 244.

    Jinchi

    @japa21: One thing that all the mask wearing has done is make me aware of all the other signals that are sent facially, particularly with the eyes.

    One of the downsides of Trump refusing to wear a mask all this time because it makes America look sick and vulnerable is that now when we see him wearing a mask it reminds us that he is sick and vulnerable.

    Is it too late to start infrastructure week?

  245. 245.

    Miss Bianca

    @LuciaMia: This synopsis is making me yearn for a modern-day Dumas to bring it to (fictional, please, Jesus) life!

     

    @jl: It does seem like we’re entering “Downfall” territory over at Hitler’s Bunker the WH.

  246. 246.

    Captain C

    @Brachiator:

    I think that “comorbities” may have something to do with showgirls

    I bet we could convince the Qllective that “comorbites” is a Greek code name for John Kennedy, jr., the stepson of the Greek shipping magnate Ari Onassis (who may have conspired with Ted Cruz’s dad to kill Kennedy, sr.).  Thus, this tweet is actually a code for…something.

  249. 249.

    frosty

    @Uncle Cosmo: SI has a pretty good synopsis there. I was a huge O’s fan until they moved to Camden Yards, oddly enough, because I couldn’t walk to the games any more. Now my kids have me watching the Ravens every week, like you, and Lamar Jackson has made them very entertaining.

  254. 254.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Immanentize: AFAICT Boog still has the bbq concession under the RF stands at Oriole Park at Camden Yards – cross fingers he’ll still be doing it when this crap is past us & you can come take in a Sawx game at OPACY.

  255. 255.

    James E Powell

    @Kay:

    Word! (As we said in the 80s) Our next door neighbor is an ER nurse. She got the corona back in May when Trump and right-wingers all over the country were pushing against medical advice. She was in the hospital for three weeks. She said she thought she was going to die. Imagine that. She and her husband have four young children. Imagine the misery and anxiety and fear they all went through. Multiply that by 200K.

    These are garbage people. All of them.

  256. 256.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @frosty: Which direction were you walking from? I too was within foot distance of Memorial Stadium for its last few years. In fact on the afternoon of the last game ever there, I wandered down & found a guy selling a ticket at face value. Went in, realized I’d forgot my camera, talked the ushers into letting me go home for it. The postgame ceremonies were awesome – tough guys in the stands were openly weeping as the heroes of their childhood one after another after another came out in uniform to take their old positions in the field….

    (Just FTR: Anyone who claims there isn’t a bad seat at OPACY is lying; I’ve been in several. Sit far enough back in the lower deck & any ball hit more than 40 feet in the air gets lost in the upper-deck overhang – you can’t tell if it’s a homer or a pop-fly until it comes back down. Seats along the foul-lines are oriented perpendicular to those lines, forcing you to twist your body to view home plate, which gets kinda painful over the course of a game. I could go on…)

  257. 257.

    TS (the original)

    @Aleta:

    Wish they would just kill themselves and not take democrats with them.

    Hopefully this will increase Biden’s lead in Michigan.

  260. 260.

    ...now I try to be amused

    @Uncle Cosmo:

    Unfortunately “the Angeloser” proved, over long years, that he couldn’t organize or run a winning baseball franchise to save his soul, and in the process wrecked one of the proudest names in the sport…

    For me, Angelos’ worst offense was firing Jon Miller — Hall of Fame broadcaster Jon Miller — for telling the truth about the Orioles. Even when a team is bad, a great broadcaster can make them fun to follow.

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