Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

The willow is too close to the house.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

After roe, women are no longer free.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

No one could have predicted…

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

I was promised a recession.

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 Coronavirus / Open Thread: President Super Spreader?

Open Thread: President Super Spreader?

by | 230 Comments

This post is in: ,

It would be wrong not to speculate:

Open Thread: President Super Spreader?

Tick…tick…tick…who is next??

 

Looks like we could use a new thread…

Reader Interactions

230Comments

  1. 1.

    different-church-lady

    I can’t understand what’s holding up that earthquake, tidal wave, and asteriod….

  3. 3.

    The Pale Scot

    That Fucker better not die, I so need to enjoy watching him watch himself lose the election

  5. 5.

    catclub

    very very much yes:

    Just hours before President Trump announced that he had tested positive for COVID-19, he was mingling with fundraisers at an event held at his New Jersey golf club—and even posed for personal photo-ops with supporters. The event went ahead after the White House learned that one of the president’s closest aides, Hope Hicks, had tested positive for the disease, according to multiple reports.

    Trump was last seen in public Thursday afternoon, when he headed home to the White House after the fundraising trip to Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster. Ahead of that event, attendees were promised a photo-op with the president, and Trump was due to meet with the winner of a raffle organized to raise funds for his campaign. Despite Hicks’ test, the event went ahead as planned.

  8. 8.

    gvg

    He has had close calls before and didn’t get it. I bet they all thought the danger was over rated and a hoax.

  9. 9.

    BruceFromOhio

    Tick…tick…tick…who is next??

    The irony of these soulless criminals all being stricken to derail the SKOTUS hearing, planned MAGAtacular super spreader events, and any other shenanigans associated with the election is tasty and delicious.

    Remember, it’s a hoax, and it will go away by itself. Or something. SURPRISE! HAPPY OCTOBER!

  10. 10.

    dmsilev

    @catclub: Allow me to turn the floor over to Edgar Allan Poe:

    It was toward the close of the fifth or sixth month of his seclusion that the Prince Prospero entertained his thousand friends at a masked ball of the most unusual magnificence.

     

    And now was acknowledged the presence of the Red Death. He had come like a thief in the night. And one by one dropped the revellers in the blood-bedewed halls of their revel, and died each in the despairing posture of his fall. And the life of the ebony clock went out with that of the last of the gay. And the flames of the tripods expired. And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all.

  11. 11.

    Patricia Kayden

    For the sake of public confidence and even national security, it is crucial that public briefings on the president's condition come from medical personnel at Walter Reed, and not from White House officials.— Karen Tumulty (@ktumulty) October 2, 2020

  12. 12.

    Roger Moore

    The problem is that guidance is for people who don’t have access to rapid tests.  They will argue- reasonably, even- that it’s OK for them to go about their business as long as they get a negative test that day.  This gets back to all the stuff David Anderson has been saying about frequency and effectiveness of testing allowing people to get back to normal.  If they can get a negative test every day, they have reasonable justification to continue going out in public.

  14. 14.

    catclub

    He has already cancelled a trip to Florida for a rally scheduled for Friday night.

    “It’s hard to imagine this doesn’t end his hopes of re-election,” Rob Stutzman, a Republican consultant, told the New York Times on Friday.

     

    I figure he will be like giuliani, the less he campaigns, the better he does. Hope I am wrong.

  17. 17.

    Kropacetic

    @rk: Who’s next?

    I hope all of them.

    The Senate can’t confirm a new Supreme Court Justice if too many are sick to form a quorum, right?

  18. 18.

    SFAW

    Bill Barr will have Bull Durham open an investigation into how Hunter Biden was able to infect Hope Hicks, Ronna ROMNEY McLiar, and the Superspreader-in-Chief.

  19. 19.

    TaMara (HFG)

    I’m going to say this as a comment and not in a post because it’s of the “not particularly nice” variety.

    But having had Covid-19 and while I was wondering if I was going to end up in the hospital on a vent (not an exaggeration, we had a plan in place) and worrying about what would happen to the critters, the orange disease in chief and his spox were talking about how it was okay to sacrifice people for the economy.

    May he suffer for weeks, linger, recover and watch the humiliation of being voted out of office by record numbers. That’s the best I can do in wishing this vile human being well.

    /r

  20. 20.

    different-church-lady

    @SFAW: We’re only a couple of more plot twists away from the point where they start to gnaw their own legs off.

  21. 21.

    debit

    He was here at a private fundraiser in Minnesota just before his Duluth rally.  I assume Hicks was in the house with him and several (names unknown) local bigwigs and members of the legislature.  Gosh, I sure hope none of them get sick.

  22. 22.

    Jerzy Russian

    I finally finished watching all of the original Mission Impossible episodes.  I generally enjoyed watching.  Some observations:

    1.  They had lots of interesting gadgets.  The only totally implausible device they had (as opposed to mildly implausible) was a chess computer that also slowed down mechanical clocks (there was a chess tournament at a hotel with a safe that had a time lock).  The chess computer could not lose (recall this was circa 1970), and there was no attempt to explain how clocks were slowed.
    2. They have a “blow to the neck” to disable people that is just as effective as the Vulcan Neck Pinch.
    3. I never noticed this as a kid watching a few of the reruns, but some of their signs in “foreign” languages were a hoot, like “Dänjur”.
    4. They spent most of seasons six and seven taking on the Mob and organized crime in general.
    5. Most (if not all) of their plans involved precise timing of events. For example, Barney had to break into a safe somewhere in precisely 13 minutes, after which Jim would walk out of a building and make an off-hand comment that was overheard by one of the bad guys who happened to be coming in off the street, etc.
    6. There were several times where someone made a mask of someone on the fly (in hostile conditions).  They would make a plastic mold and then pour in some kind of latex/rubber material.  At times, that sort of thing seemed to be implausible.  Also too, many of the IMF team members could imitate other people’s voices as needed.

    I binged watched Star Trek, the Animated Series in a few days again.  I think I had seen most of them from long ago.  These episodes were so bad that they were good.

    Next up:  The original Perry Mason.  I am loving it so far (three episodes in).

  23. 23.

    SFAW

    @catclub:

    “It’s hard to imagine this doesn’t end his hopes of re-election,” Rob Stutzman, a Republican consultant, told the New York Times on Friday.

    Unless the Murderer-in-Chief becomes heavily symptomatic (or dies), It’s hard to imagine a stupider take.

  24. 24.

    lowtechcyclist

    I don’t want Trump to die.

    I’m rooting for him to be one of the ‘long-haulers.’  I want him to live another two decades with the continual, inescapable reminder of the harm he did to this country.

    Preferably while in a prison cell.

    That may be uncharitable of me, but when a person’s been responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, I tend to think uncharitable thoughts about them.

    Speaking of people responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands, can’t someone infect Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and the rest of that crew?

  26. 26.

    BC in Illinois

    Okay, this helped to get my attitude straightened out:

    if you’re in a prayerful mood today, spare some for White House and Capitol Hill maintenance, custodial, and food-service workers, who have all of the exposure risk of the powerful people they support and less attention focused on their needs

    Truth.

    (from Seth D. Michaels )

  27. 27.

    narya

    Because I am a Bad Person, I called my mom this morning (they live in eastern PA) and asked if they had gone to the event in NJ, because I knew it would make her laugh. (My parents are very much Dems, which is why I knew she would laugh.) You may all remember the 9 Cheeses for 9 Decades gift for my dad–it is being consumed and enjoyed greatly. My mom is stealing some of them, so I threatened to send cheese for her birthday as well, but including some blue cheese (because dad likes it all but mom does not like blue cheese).

  28. 28.

    SFAW

    @different-church-lady:

    We’re only a couple of more plot twists away from the point where they start to gnaw their own legs off.

    I can only hope that Gaius Helen Mohiam is there with her gom abdul-jabbar. [Since her test was to separate a human from the animals.

  32. 32.

    Kay

    Kaitlan Collins
    @kaitlancollins
    57m
    “After a member of her family tested positive for COVID-19, the Chairwoman was tested for the virus. On Wednesday afternoon, she got confirmation she was COVID-19 positive. She has been at her home in Michigan since last Saturday,” RNC Spokesman Mike Reed says.

    I wonder how many people these incredibly selfish incompetents have infected. It has to be in the thousands by now.
    The Trump Family and Trump supporters should have been kicked out of the hall in Cleveland when they refused to follow the rules and wear masks. It is not fair to subject innocent people to these psychos.

  34. 34.

    RaflW

    To McCabe’s point: The GOP will not slow their roll. Only if Barrett tests positive would they abandon the rush (if then). Maybe she’ll meet with Senators by zoom, but this is a once in a kleptocracy moment, and they’re goin’ for it.

    Soulless ghouls will be like that.

  35. 35.

    different-church-lady

    @Sandia Blanca: They thought it couldn’t happen to them because they thought it was a moralty play, not a virus. They honestly believed it was punishment for only “those people”, and they were too pure for punishment.

  36. 36.

    Ken

    I linked to this classic Tom Lehrer last night, but now it seems even more appropriate.

    Mr. Lehrer is still alive, I wonder if he’d approve someone recording it with updated lyrics?  “I gave it to Ronna, who gave it to Hope, who shared it with Bill who gave it to Mitch and Ted the dope….”

  38. 38.

    CliosFanBoy

    @Jerzy Russian: I binged watched Star Trek, the Animated Series in a few days again.  I think I had seen most of them from long ago.  These episodes were so bad that they were good.

    A few of them (energy creature on ancient alien ship, the return of quesz, quez, that Mexican God) would have made for interesting full length “real” episodes.

  41. 41.

    H.E.Wolf

    F. Scott Fitzgerald was never more apt than for the current Republican party leadership and their figurehead:

    They were careless people – […] they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.

  42. 42.

    evap

    @TaMara (HFG):   Exactly what I wish for, I want him to live at least long enough that the election can be held without (more) chaos.  But I will add that I really really want McConnell and Barr to get it.  If I had to pick one of them, I would probably go for McConnell.

  44. 44.

    JPL

    Why is Mark Meadows bragging about the jobs reports.   It slowed this month, which indicates that the economy won’t fully recover until the Covid crisis has passed.

  47. 47.

    jonas

    @catclub: IANAL and all that, but unless they made everyone sign one of those I-acknowledge-I-could-contract-Covid rally waivers, there has to be some legal liability in there somewhere for going through with this thing while knowing that people on the WH staff were testing positive.

  48. 48.

    RaflW

    @BruceFromOhio: As someone with dear friends in Duluth, though, I’m not gleeful at all. A couple 1000 people were in that hangar and on the rope line, packed together as the good MAGA choads that they are, maskless (except in camera view behind the podium, per MN Public Radio).

    He also had a house party in a Minneapolis suburb. Private home with 40 guests. You know they didn’t social distance.

    Our own medium and little Sturgises.

  51. 51.

    jonas

    @JPL:  Why is Mark Meadows bragging about the jobs reports.

    Because he knows Trump’s supporters will just see clips of him on FB or somethig crowing about the great economy, and not pay any attention to the fact checking afterwards.

    ETA: same with comments by Trump spox after the debates — just making shit up right and left about the president’s incredible performance, knowing that it would be made into a great soundbites for the rubes.

  52. 52.

    Bill Arnold

    Trump stood on a debate stage, mostly facing Biden, and vigorously sprayed exhalations laced with lies, and perhaps with SARS-CoV-2, at Biden for 90 minutes.
    If the debate participants and other people in the room weren’t given a rapidtest before the debate, or even if they were (Trump might lie about the results), and Biden gets infected, there would be people who believe that it was a political assassination. There would be people who believe this anyway. There will be people who believe it was an attempted political assassination if Biden does not become/was not infected.
    Another angle; Regeneron[1] is well along in their trials of an antibody cocktail[2] for wealthy/connected people infected with SARS-CoV-2. (This is very known to relevant Trump administration people.) That could play out multiple ways, if Regeneron chooses to get involved in US politics.

    [1] ‘Provocative results’ boost hopes of antibody treatment for COVID-19 (Jon CohenSep. 30, 2020)

  53. 53.

    TS (the original)

    @RaflW:  If too many Senators test positive & are too ill to take part, they may have to slow it down.

    It seems to have been a smart choice of the Dem Senators not to meet  privately with Barrett. Karma can work both ways.

  54. 54.

    Kay

    Toluse Olorunnipa
    @ToluseO
    ·30m
    Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien sends note to staff: “…any campaign staff member who has had exposure to someone testing positive should immediately begin self-quarantine.”
    Also calls on staff to wear masks, wash hands and social distance.
    Campaign HQ remains open.

    Low quality Trump team have to be told this- the rules the rest of us figured out 6 months ago and follow. They have so little regard for their co workers, friends and family members – let alone all the people who don’t know them and have to wait on them hand and foot- they have to be told not to go out and infect others. They won’t follow any of these rules. They consider themselves special exceptions to rules.

  55. 55.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Jerzy Russian: I remember being vaguely bothered as a kid that they would actually have to pass as natives in all these countries, since in reality they would speak different languages and not just English with an accent.

    I decided to ignore it and enjoy the show. We’ll just pretend that people on this team can speak fluent Bulgarian, Spanish (with regional accent!), Russian, whatever as needed.

    I loved that show. And one of the best theme songs on TV too.

    (I also liked the Secret Agent theme song, which reportedly Patrick McGoohan detested.)

  58. 58.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @evap: Part of my schadenfreude today is imagining the cold sweat McConnell must be in this morning. “How long was I within 6 feet of him? When was he contagious? I can’t taste my turtle food this morning, is that bad?”

  60. 60.

    germy

    Here’s a possible scenario for the scriptwriters of our current dystopia:

    Trump survives COVID, but it alters his brain chemistry.  He enters a brief coma, then when he awakens he looks around, blinks his eyes and whispers “What a fool I’ve been… What a fool!”

    Then he jumps out of bed, throws on a suit that fits and starts issuing instructions to his startled underlings:

    “I want the Affordable Care Act preserved… but I want it even better!  A generous public option for anyone who wants it!  You don’t have to be poor to qualify… just fed up with greedy private insurance companies!  And I want relief checks mailed out TODAY to every struggling American!  Two thousand dollars a month until we can stop this virus.  But tell Mnuchin, no more money for his friends or his wife!  And get me Fauci on the phone.  I”m putting him in complete charge of this pandemic response.  Let’s start listen to science for a change around here!”

    Unfortunately, this scenario would likely end with Jared or Bill Barr pressing a pillow firmly on his face until he flatlined.

  61. 61.

    debbie

    It will be interesting to see if any of these stand-ins can persist with the same kind of obvious lying like the old man.

  62. 62.

    Punchy

    @Patricia Kayden: Hahahahahaha!  Because “health officials” associated with the WH are so trustworthy?  A fat-ass president weighing in at 239lbs?  Yeah, nobody and nothing anyone associated with this shit admin can be trusted to say anything truthful and accurate…..

  65. 65.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @germy: I’ve always hated the Happy Scrooge part of A Christmas Carol, no matter who plays it.

    How about he has a stroke and can’t communicate, but he has an “interpreter” who declares that what he meant was all those things. Meanwhile in a voice over we hear the proclamations he’s actually trying to issue.

  66. 66.

    topclimber

    @jonas: IANAL either, but why should that stop us from speculating? IWBIN2 .

    I think the Cleveland Clinic might have the bigger liability problem. It was their venue, their rules and they did not act responsibly. You turn off the lights and the mikes except for one for a CC spokesman to announce that until the MAGAts do the right thing (either mask up are get out), the debate is being delayed.

    You know, sort of what a fire marshal would expect of them if their room was packed beyond its capacity.

  68. 68.

    Patricia Kayden

    I’m with Mary.

    I reserve my sympathy, empathy, and despair for those who are sick and for those who have died because they were misled, lied to, or ignored.Wear a fucking mask.#VOTE— Mary L Trump (@MaryLTrump) October 2, 2020

  73. 73.

    Jerzy Russian

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:   Yes, the language issue.  It could have been really interesting of various members of the IMF had language skills and they spoke the language and bad subtitles.  After all, real life spies usually speak the local languages.  For example I read somewhere that Putin speaks fluent German and can mimic a few of the local accents.

  75. 75.

    PJ

    Like many people, I had some pretty harsh criticism for the writers this season, but I do feel like this most recent ironic twist almost redeems the ludicrous storylines they’ve given us so far.  I particularly admire how the “he’s lying, right?” aspect of the Trump character throws whether he has the deadly illness into doubt, and just ratchets the tension up more.    The climax in November is going to be a doozy.

  77. 77.

    Kay

    @topclimber:

    Part of the reason we get big outrages like Donald Trump breaking every rule at a debate and ruining it for everyone else is no one checks the Trumps and their employees on smaller infractions.

    They should have been asked to leave the hall when they wouldn’t follow the rules. They have taken the lack of consequences on smaller rule breaking to mean they also won’t be held accountable for any rule or lawbreaking. It isn’t fair to the people who follow the covid rules that the Trump Team refuse to. Now, because that rule wasn’t enforced, thousands of people were exposed to them.

  78. 78.

    Ken

    @MattF: The Twitter says that WH staff is now panicked.

    “Wait, it can infect Republicans?  And rich people?”

    Yeah, dopes, to the virus we’re all just blobs of vulnerable cells.

  80. 80.

    RaflW

    @different-church-lady: “The second biggest lie the hippies ever told was that everyone was inherently deserving of sympathy and kindness.”

    Indeed these are the days that sorely test a Universalist. But we’re not hippies. Bad people don’t deserve kindness. We just believe that no soul is inherently irredeemable. I admit that I do harbor (very occasional) fantasies of Mike Pence having to fill out a lot of repentance forms and wait in some very stuffy, ugly, loud and chair-less waiting rooms just outside the pearly gates.

    (And to clarify: I don’t believe in those gates, St. Peter being the doorman, etc. But if Pence does, then that’s the treatment he gets since Republicans create their own realities, as it were)

  83. 83.

    BruceFromOhio

    @RaflW: Thank you for checking me on that. I hear you. I thought carefully about “irony is sweet” without veering into worse. There have been far too many threads capturing the guy (and it seems it’s always a guy) posting and tweeting about ‘hoax’ and ‘fake news’ followed by selfies out with friends, no masking or distancing, followed by “I’m sick” followed by “his memorial is next Tuesday.” There’s no glee in any such tragedy.

    I temper that with simple calculus – all of these people have choices where so many do not. The preznit chose to behave the way he did, his supporters had (and have) the same choice. These are the consequences. If there is any good to come out this, it’s convincing others to make better choices and avoid these consequences.

    What angers me is the people who have NO choice that get exposed to the covidiots: all of the handlers and workers who have to staff these events like the ones you describe, serving the food or parking the cars, or have to clean up afterwards, who get exposed as the disbelieving unmasked go about making their choices. There’s no glee there, either, only contempt for the MAGAts.

    I don’t wish this illness an anyone, and precious little sympathy for those who choose to behave with no regard for others.

  84. 84.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Omnes Omnibus: No, it’s Tiny Tim who cannot help being awful in any version of A Christmas Carol.

    Especially the part where he pulls out his ukelele and starts singing “Tiptoe Through the Tulips.”

  86. 86.

    Anoniminous

    “In recent days, the media has taken to sounding the alarm bells over a “second wave” of coronavirus infections. Such panic is overblown. Thanks to the leadership of President Trump and the courage and compassion of the American people, our public health system is far stronger than it was four months ago, and we are winning the fight against the invisible enemy.”  — Mike Pence  June 16, 2020.

  87. 87.

    Bill Arnold

    @lowtechcyclist:

    I’m rooting for him to be one of the ‘long-haulers.’ I want him to live another two decades with the continual, inescapable reminder of the harm he did to this country.

    Re long-haulers, if anyone (or anyone you know) is getting COVID-19 prevention/avoidance fatigue, try reading (having them read) a half dozen random comments from this reddit thread. It is long (10k comments last night) and extremely … sobering. (Stories couldn’t be used in journalism without verification of course.)
    [Serious] People from Reddit who survived Corona, how has your daily life changed? What are the side effects after?

  90. 90.

    mrmoshpotato

    @The Pale Scot:

    That Fucker better not die, I so need to enjoy watching him watch himself lose the election 

    And extradited to New York so the AG can beat him with rotten fish.

  91. 91.

    Citizen Alan

    @Jerzy Russian:

    I binged watched Star Trek, the Animated Series in a few days again.  I think I had seen most of them from long ago.  These episodes were so bad that they were good.

    If  you can find it, get a copy of Chuck Norris and the Karate Kommandos. There were only 6 episodes, but they are hilarious. They make the Mr. T cartoon from the same era look like Ghost in the Shell. I think my favorite scene was one where the bad guys were trying to hijack the space shuttle. Part of the plan involved hurling a party of ninjas accompanied by alligators wearing parachutes towards Cape Canaveral with catapults.

  93. 93.

    TS (the original)

    @MattF:

    No way trump understands about isolating at home. Given he will expect the staff to look after his every need, they have good reason to panic.

    Anyone going near him should be decked out in PPE. That might just panic trump as well. Otherwise he should be shuffled off to hospital & the white house disinfected, like we disinfect our stores when a covid positive person has been there or worked there,

  94. 94.

    SFBayAreaGal

    @Jerzy Russian: I saw the first episode of the original Perry Mason the other night.

    When the credits started rolling, I noticed in the lower left corner a circle with something in it. When I got a better look it was the advertisers products being shown. I recognized one of the products Dutch Cleanser. I also noticed a product named Bleach Beads.

  95. 95.

    Ken

    @Jerzy Russian: Mission: Impossible trivia:  The switch to organized crime in the later seasons was to save money.  Printing those “Dänjur” signs costs.

    Also, the theme comes from the Morse code for MI:  dash dash  dot dot

  96. 96.

    mrmoshpotato

    Now, and hear me out, MAYBE THESE SHITSTAINS SHOULD’VE TREATED A GLOBAL PANDEMIC SERIOUSLY!

    Just a thought!

  97. 97.

    Kay

    Jeremy Diamond
    @JDiamond1
    ·19m
    Meadows says he expects more WH staff to contract the virus: “I fully expect that as this virus continues to go on, other people in the White House will certainly have a positive test result.”

    Well, I’m just rooting for the lower-level people who have had to serve the Trumps and the Trump hires. They’re the only victims in this IMO.
    Good luck to housekeeping, security, staff assistants and all the other people who have to come close to these people in order to do their jobs. The Trump people themselves? They can go fuck themselves. I don’t care what happens to them.

  101. 101.

    lafcolleen

    @germy:  a version of Dicken’s Christmas Carol?

    But instead of being welcomed back into a community that values support and connection, Trump gets (permanently) exiled by a horrific dystopia social structure that he engineered?

     

    contrast the closing images:

    Tiny Tim (at Christmas dinner): God bless us, every one!

    Melanie: who cares about f***ing Christmas?

  102. 102.

    Ken

    @LeftCoastYankee: As Terry Pratchett said in one of the Discworld novels, it’s hard to be an atheist when the gods come around and throw bricks through your window.

    Also, week’s not over yet…

  103. 103.

    JPL

    Jonathan Karl is saying that he heard Hope Hicks was quite ill.  He also said that it’s difficult to believe anything from the White House.

  104. 104.

    Ken

    @JPL: As I said in the earlier open thread, we’re going to have to persuade some Kremlinologists to come out of retirement.  They have the experience in interpreting state propaganda and figuring out what the truth may be.

  105. 105.

    NotMax

    @CliosFanBoy

    Fortunately there’s only 22 of them

    Which is 21 too many.

    ;)

    Ever see the teaser for a fan-produced episode which includes a CGI Lt. Arex? Never expanded upon after Paramount and CBS wielded the banhammer on such projects.

  108. 108.

    Alice

    My SIL who is an ICU nurse in Green Bay is beside herself with relief that this happened before Trump’s rally tomorrow. As it is they are in such bad shape that there are plans to possibly bring in field hospitals next week.

    I don’t wish for Trump to die, but I do want him to get sick enough that he is scared to death and crying for help.

  110. 110.

    Kay

    Jake Tapper
    @jaketapper
    ·52m
    If this was a Cleveland Clinic requirement it was not enforced. Which makes it not much of a requirement at all.
    And now we know definitively — not just in theory — the acquiescence to those who are reckless put everyone in the debate hall at risk.

    One of probably the top three health care centers in the country were too cowardly to enforce a simple, common sense safety measure. We really have a bigger problem than the Trumps. How can the Cleveland Clinic remain credible in their area of expertise if they behave like this? They can’t be this weak. It’s killing us.

  112. 112.

    NotMax

    @SFBayAreaGal

    Common practice back when. Can sometimes see the sloppy work done on stripping out the Winston insert during the closing credits of The Flintstones.

    ;)

  114. 114.

    Betty Cracker

    Gotta say the media coverage I’ve seen so far has focused on how irresponsible the Trump admin has been. It’s not sympathetic at all. Also, I saw a brief clip of Pelosi, and she had no fucks at all left to give. She basically said what did the idiotic asshole expect? Good for her.

  115. 115.

    Jay C

    @SFBayAreaGal:

    SOP in a lot of old TV shows: the sponsor(s). – especially if they had contracted for the whole season – very often got a visual inserted into the closing credits as a sort of “bonus”.

  116. 116.

    E.

    Was interested to see if the news this morning would have any effect on local behavior. Went to the town coffee shop. Two employees, seven other people plus me. I was the only one wearing a mask. This is a small place — everyone in it was within 3-5 feet of the next person, and often closer. They were mostly polite about it, nobody attacked me for the mask. So I guess a little progress has been made here in the last few months.

  117. 117.

    Archon

    When it comes to Trump I’m on some Bane on Batman Rises shit.

    When you have truly understood the depth of your failure, we will fulfill the Democratic Parties destiny… We will destroy the Republican Party and then, when the election is done and the GOP is…ashes… then you have my permission to die.

  118. 118.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    Just spitballing here but if I was Melania I would hire a food taster ASAP.  Hear me out, she is an embarrasment at the moment, (f*ck Christmas)  she dies and they can blame COVID, voila! Trump gets out of the pre-nup and then goes for the sympathy (grieving Widower) vote and gets re-elected.  I am sure that Putin has already advised him of his access to certain poisons.

  119. 119.

    Ken

    @Betty Cracker: I wonder how much of that is because a lot of those reporters have been in the press pool or the WH briefing room in the last few days, when the administration knew Hicks (at least) had the virus but weren’t warning anyone?

  120. 120.

    Seanly

    If a certain someone is dead, then it is an impossibility for said person to remain in an undeserved position of authority and renders moot said person’s campaign to remain in said position. Therefore, the motherfucker can fuck off and die immediately. Nobody is going to select his weirdo Race Bannon-looking sidekick.
    While it would be wonderful to imagine said person being  ill for an extended time, they can’t hide it if he’s dead. Well, maybe for a little bit… sort of some bloated version of Weekend at Bernies 3: White House.

  125. 125.

    Raoul Paste

    At this pace of events the Saturday Night Live crew will be re-writing their sketches the night before the show

  127. 127.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Kay:

    One of probably the top three health care centers in the country were too cowardly to enforce a simple, common sense safety measure.

    I might be completely misremembering this, but I have a recollection of Trump visiting the Mayo Clinic fairly early on in the pandemic. They sent him advance notification that he and everyone in his party needed to be masked. There were signs up everywhere. He didn’t wear a mask, and the clinic didn’t enforce their rule.

    But as I say, I might be remembering the episode all wrong, or be conflating two or three unrelated events. I can’t manage anything about this timeline.

  129. 129.

    Barbara

    @TaMara (HFG): They’re sociopaths.  Every last one of them.  The kind of sociopath whose life has been so free of the kinds of tribulations that bedevil ordinary people that they start to believe that they have nothing in common with ordinary people.

  130. 130.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    Speaking of Amy Coney Barrett:

    NEW: Judge Amy Coney Barrett failed to disclose to the Judiciary Committee her participation in a 2006 two-page ad in the South Bend Times calling for Roe v. Wade to be overturned and ending the “barbaric legacy” of the law, two Democratic committee aides confirm to NBC News.

    — Heidi Przybyla (@HeidiNBC) October 1, 2020

  131. 131.

    germy

    @SiubhanDuinne:  One of probably the top three health care centers in the country were too cowardly to enforce a simple, common sense safety measure.

    There are two sets of laws in this country.  One for wealthy, politically connected people, and one for the rest of us.

    If my family or I had been there without masks, we would have been escorted out by security officers.  No one is going to give Ivanka, Tiffany or Melania that treatment.

  134. 134.

    C Stars

    I dunno, with the way 2020 is going thus far, Biden will get it and kick the bucket and DT will come out of it in a couple of weeks crowing about hydrowhateverthefx.

  135. 135.

    James E Powell

    @JPL:

    Olivia Troye mentioned that they all thought it was a hoax.

    Amazing the way she and her whole story got disappeared in a day or two. Didn’t even reach Tan Suit Alert level.

  137. 137.

    JPL

    @SiubhanDuinne: The CDC is or was careful not to piss off trump, because he can cut their funding.    I assume that both MAYO and Cleveland Clinic receive some federal funding for research.

  143. 143.

    germy

    @JPL:

    Yes, I imagine Kimberly is breathing a sigh of relief her story has been replaced with this latest insanity.

    She must have been royally pissed to see that New Yorker piece.

  145. 145.

    Kent

    @Kropacetic:The Senate can’t confirm a new Supreme Court Justice if too many are sick to form a quorum, right?

    If they lose 4 Republicans then the Dems can vote her down.  There is no remote voting in the Senate.  They gotta be there in person to vote

    What would actually happen is they would postpone the vote until they had the votes, which could be never.

  147. 147.

    germy

    @Steeplejack (phone):

    Raymond Burr is in the Marx Brothers movie “Love Happy” where he plays a sadistic henchman.

    I haven’t seen it in years, but I recall he tortures Harpo by locking him in a washing machine.

  149. 149.

    Ken

    @JPL: It’s like Game of Thrones, or any other show when they’re told it’s the last season. The writers try to wrap up all the story lines in a few episodes and give short shrift to some of them.  Not that Guilfoyle was any sort of fan favorite.

  150. 150.

    germy

    @debbie:  Jane Mayer,  It came out a few days ago, I think.

    (Warning:  the story describes her demanding a thigh massage from her assistant)

  152. 152.

    CliosFanBoy

    I remember reading years ago about Perry Mason that during the end of the trial scene if you watch people’s reactions they always dropped a clue who the guilty party was by their subtle reaction.  Careful viewers could tell before the final reveal.

  155. 155.

    Gravenstone

    @SiubhanDuinne: Unfortunately, too many people and places lean towards deference to the office. Ignoring the greater good of enforcing proper rules because they don’t want to “embarrass” the occupant. Or maybe they’re afraid of a mean tweet aimed in their direction…

  156. 156.

    mrmoshpotato

    @germy:

    Yes, I imagine Kimberly is breathing a sigh of relief her story has been replaced with this latest insanity. 

    What about the sexual-harrassing psycho alleged lesbian?

  157. 157.

    NotMax

    @germy

    Burr had a successful, if low level, career in the movies playing heavies for years before the TV version of Mason came along.

  158. 158.

    Kent

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I might be completely misremembering this, but I have a recollection of Trump visiting the Mayo Clinic fairly early on in the pandemic. They sent him advance notification that he and everyone in his party needed to be masked. There were signs up everywhere. He didn’t wear a mask, and the clinic didn’t enforce their rule.

    But as I say, I might be remembering the episode all wrong, or be conflating two or three unrelated events. I can’t manage anything about this timeline.

    No, you remember it right.

    But also understand that once the President is at your facility, you lose control of it for the duration.  It becomes his stage not yours.  Secret service will be everywhere and no one just walks up to the President to tell him what to do.  You won’t get remotely close to him unless they want you to, even if you run the place.

  159. 159.

    RobertB

    @germy: It takes more guts than most folks have to make the president’s entourage follow the rules.  Doesn’t mean they shouldn’t enforce the rules, but…

  160. 160.

    germy

    @NotMax:

    I really think a celebrity like Burr might have a tough time in today’s show biz industry.  Maybe not so much because of the closeted stuff, but apparently he made up all kinds of stories about his past, including military service and a son who had passed away?

    Nowadays some intrepid “entertainment reporter” would dig into his background and Burr would eventually have to go on an apology tour.

  162. 162.

    Ken

    @debbie: Or, further evidence he’s faking the whole thing.

    I’m leaning toward not-a-fake, because the near-universal reaction has been “well what did you think would happen you F*CKING IDIOTS”.  Of course since they’re f*cking idiots they might have thought this would get them a sympathy boost.

    Also, they’ve announced that Trump has some symptoms, which must be fairly severe to rise above the background level of sniffling. I don’t think he’d allow that if he weren’t sick. He’d demand the storyline “Trump’s iron constitution let him fight off the virus with no ill effects”.

    (Say, do I need the asterisk any more?  If the First Lady can use it and the New York Times can print it, it must be OK. The movie industry will love that, it means they don’t have to substitute the dialog for the broadcast releases.)

  163. 163.

    BC in Illinois

    From “@AmyDenata” on a possibly deleted tweet:

    Anyways, if a conservative complains about your Trump covid jokes, tell them to stop being so politically correct.

    ( cf. Dock Ellis. )

  167. 167.

    J.

    Remember in the 1980s when Russian leaders were reported to have bad colds or “mild symptoms” and then we found out they were dead? This reminds me of that.

  169. 169.

    Humanities Prof

    @germy: He was also, I believe, in one of the very first Godzilla films.  I show trailers from the movie in one of the classes I teach.

    I know he got better with age, but in that film, his “acting” was so bad that it’s absolutely hilarious.

  170. 170.

    Leto

    @debbie:

    The Secret History of Kimberly Guilfoyle’s Departure from Fox
     

    As President Donald Trump heads into the 2020 elections, he faces a daunting gender gap: according to a recent Washington Post/ABC News poll, he trails Joe Biden by thirty percentage points among female voters. As part of his campaign, Trump has been doing all he can to showcase female stars in the Republican Party, from nominating Amy Coney Barrett for the Supreme Court to naming Kimberly Guilfoyle, the former Fox News host and legal analyst, his campaign’s finance chair. Guilfoyle, however, may not be an ideal emissary. In November, 2018, a young woman who had been one of Guilfoyle’s assistants at Fox News sent company executives a confidential, forty-two-page draft complaint that accused Guilfoyle of repeated sexual harassment, and demanded monetary relief. The document, which resulted in a multimillion-dollar out-of-court settlement, raises serious questions about Guilfoyle’s fitness as a character witness for Trump, let alone as a top campaign official.

  171. 171.

    Kent

    @E.:Was interested to see if the news this morning would have any effect on local behavior. Went to the town coffee shop. Two employees, seven other people plus me. I was the only one wearing a mask. This is a small place — everyone in it was within 3-5 feet of the next person, and often closer. They were mostly polite about it, nobody attacked me for the mask. So I guess a little progress has been made here in the last few months.

    Where are you?   Here in SW Washington mask use inside businesses is mandated by law and universal from what I’ve seen.  Our Covid rate is also low compared to the rest of the country.

  173. 173.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    @Roger Moore: There are also questions about the error rate of “Rapid” tests:

    Problems grow with Abbott’s rapid test

    ““There’s no way I would be comfortable missing 2 out of 10 patients,” said Susan Whittier, director of clinical microbiology at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center. Whittier and co-authors found that the Abbott test correctly identified 74% of positive samples compared with a rival test from Roche, another diagnostics giant. A point-of-care test from Cepheid, a rival company, correctly identified 99% of positives.”

  174. 174.

    patroclus

    @Kent: No.  The current Senate breakdown is 53 Republicans, 45 Democrats and 2 Independents who caucus with the Dems.  It would take 7 sick Republican Senators to flip it under the current line-up.  That would only change if Murkowski or Collins or others announced their opposition to the nomination; not just its timing.

  178. 178.

    Kropacetic

    @Leto: forty-two-page draft complaint that accused Guilfoyle of repeated sexual harassment, and demanded monetary relief. The document, which resulted in a multimillion-dollar out-of-court settlement, raises serious questions about Guilfoyle’s fitness as a character witness for Trump, let alone as a top campaign official.

    Sounds like the perfect person to represent the Trump campaign tp women.

  179. 179.

    Kent

    @Ken:

    I’m leaning toward not-a-fake, because the near-universal reaction has been “well what did you think would happen you F*CKING IDIOTS”.  Of course since they’re f*cking idiots they might have thought this would get them a sympathy boost.

    Also, they’ve announced that Trump has some symptoms, which must be fairly severe to rise above the background level of sniffling. I don’t think he’d allow that if he weren’t sick. He’d demand the storyline “Trump’s iron constitution let him fight off the virus with no ill effects”.

    The Trump campaign has been desperate to change the subject away from Covid to anything else.  ANTIFA.  Black people moving to the suburbs.  Hunter Biden.  Anything but Covid.

    Faking Covid cases within the White House is not exactly the way to do that.  We are going to get Covid coverage 24/7 for the duration now, and that’s not exactly Trump’s strongest subject.

  180. 180.

    RobertB

    @Ken: Benioff and Weiss weren’t told to wrap it up; they decided to wrap it up themselves.  HBO was more than willing to spring for the original 10 seasons @ 10 episodes per season.  Those two chucklefucks were bored, and wanted to move on to an alternate history where the South won the Civil War, and/or a Star Wars series.  And as a consequence, GoT seasons 7 & 8 are garbage.

  184. 184.

    Ken

    @Humanities Prof: Burr wasn’t in the first Godzilla, but he was in the American release of the film.  The producers thought the US audience would need a viewpoint character they could relate to (read: white), so they filmed Burr’s scenes and spliced them in.

  185. 185.

    Bill Arnold

    @C Stars:

    Biden will get it and kick the bucket and DT will come out of it in a couple of weeks crowing about hydrowhateverthefx.

    If this happens, it will be treated as a political assassination by some. (I’m serious.)

  186. 186.

    Gravenstone

    @Punchy: Expecting coherent thought from a cult is your first mistake. But reading the article, it sounds like they think it’s an excuse to keep him “safe” ahead of the coming violence.

  189. 189.

    Kent

    @patroclus:@Kent: No.  The current Senate breakdown is 53 Republicans, 45 Democrats and 2 Independents who caucus with the Dems.  It would take 7 sick Republican Senators to flip it under the current line-up.  That would only change if Murkowski or Collins or others announced their opposition to the nomination; not just its timing.

    Yeah, you are right of course.  I was conflating the 4 Senate seats we need to flip with the number of Senators who would need to be absent to affect a vote.  But, of course, being absent is not the same as a no vote.

  191. 191.

    NotMax

    @Germy

    Not alone in that either. Yul Brynner related more disparate tales about his background than Heinz has pickles.

    ;)

    Another one who moved on in TV to better things from being typecast in films as a heavy was Harry Morgan.

  192. 192.

    misterpuff

    @germy:

    Then he jumps out of bed, throws on a suit that fits and starts issuing instructions to his startled underlings:

    “I want the Affordable Care Act preserved… but I want it even better!  A generous public option for anyone who wants it!  You don’t have to be poor to qualify… just fed up with greedy private insurance companies!  And I want relief checks mailed out TODAY to every struggling American!  Two thousand dollars a month until we can stop this virus.  But tell Mnuchin, no more money for his friends or his wife!  And get me Fauci on the phone.  I”m putting him in complete charge of this pandemic response.  Let’s start listen to science for a change around here!”

    Unfortunately, this scenario would likely end with Jared or Bill Barr pressing a pillow firmly on his face until he flatlined.

      But before they do, can he run to the window and yell to a passing Antifa protester and say “Lad, have the biggest Goose you can find delivered to the Biden household and keep the change!” And little Hunter Biden said God Bless Us Everyone!

  193. 193.

    Ken

    @Gravenstone: And if he dies, they’ll be saying it was faked and he’s in a secret bunker (not the WH one, a classy one) directing the uprising.

    Though it’s possible a few might pull a Jonestown, in which case, tots and pears.  (I only just noticed the image in the post – my eyes tend to skip over them, thinking they’re an ad insert.)

  195. 195.

    Captain C

    @mrmoshpotato: You could probably cover the entire MTA and DoE budgets if you let the public line up and whack him with that fish for ten bucks a pop; you’d just have to figure out how to do it in a socially distanced and safe manner.

  196. 196.

    Carol

    @catclub:

    Just 2 days before the announcement  he was on the same stage with Joe Biden spewing toxic air throughout while his family was sitting maskless in the audience.  My thoughts an prayers are for the Bidens.

  197. 197.

    misterpuff

    @germy:

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:  I can’t taste my turtle food this morning, is that bad?”

    I imagine it’s a thin, pasty gruel they puree and then feed him from the tip of a toothpick.

      He’s happy with some iceberg lettuce and a rock to sun on.

  198. 198.

    Chris Johnson

    @Punchy: I believe it.

    QAnon is Russia-driven demented terrorists consuming infinite conspiracy theories.

    They are not directly controlled: some of us call it ‘stochastic terrorism’, they’re run through feeding them a pile of nonsense. Anything that happens, they’ll try to fit it into their nonsense. They’re self-selected for believing any damn thing.

    Therefore, the explanation for ‘there is no coronavirus and it’s a hoax’ plus ‘stand back and stand by’ plus ‘Trump says he has the coronavirus’ is, ‘this must be the secret code for everybody attack right now!’. Because everything has to be a secret conspiracy to either be attacked by, or fight, the underground mole people or rather the shady conspiracy that keeps the underground mole people in slavery to eat their precious bodily fluids.

    Stay safe, folks. The FBI and law enforcement are gonna be kind of busy. They would like to be beating down black people and liberals, but it turns out demented QAnons are more likely to actually flip out in such a way that police will be triggered into acting in their military-style way. Law of unintended consequences?

    I am not one bit surprised that QAnons were celebrating. They would celebrate reports of Trump _dying_, because they would be uniformly convinced it was some heavily symbolic lie to cover some heroic nonsense. Those people are really, really far from reality, and can barely function.

  200. 200.

    Ken

    @patroclus: I’ve seen the contact/infection diagrams for a couple of outbreaks (a day-care center was one IIRC).  I wonder if anyone is putting together one for this incident?

  203. 203.

    Just Chuck

    @RaflW: I see universal compassion as a bit like opposition to the death penalty: it’s not so much the penalty itself (while it’s not a universal view, in my book, some people just deserve to die) it’s the process of it.  Even if everyone receiving it were guilty, the spectacle warps our humanity too much to be worth it.

    So as a Buddhist, T is supposed to deserve my compassion.  Not so much sympathetic compassion, just the recognition of his shared human experience.  Fuck him, he doesn’t get it from me, I never said I was a good Buddhist.  But there’s still principle of the thing.

  211. 211.

    Bill Arnold

    Reminder. Donald J. Trump was not wearing a mask during the debate, even though he was infected, so he was spewing vigorous unfiltered SARS-CoV-2 contaminated exhlations at Joe Biden. (If he, or anyone associated with him knew that he was infected, this was an attempted political assassination at best, depending on outcome.)
    Donald Trump & Joe Biden 1st Presidential Debate Transcript 2020

    President Donald J. Trump: (06:20)
    No, I think masks are okay. You have to understand, if you look… I mean, I have a mask right here. I put a mask on when I think I need it. Tonight, as an example, everybody’s had a test and you’ve had social distancing and all of the things that you have to, but I wear masks-
    Vice President Joe Biden: (06:33)
    Just like your rally.
    President Donald J. Trump: (06:33)
    … when needed. When needed, I wear masks.

  212. 212.

    bemused

    @RaflW:

    Star Tribune: Stauber, Emmer, Hagedorn traveled to and fro from DC to MN on Air Force One with trump and entourage Wednesday. At Mpls airport trump briefly visited with Gazelka and wife, Daudt, Jason Lewis. Emmer embraced the Gazelkas. Stauber fist bumped Gazelka and hugged Maralee Gazelka. Hagedorn shoot Gazelka’s hand and briefly hugged Maralee.

    Jim Hagedorn was diagnosed with kidney cancer Feb 2019 and reportedly doing well with treatment. With his very serious pre-existing condition, he should be masked and should be distancing far away. What a dope.

    AFTER the news of trumps and Hicks diagnosis, Galzelkas and Kurt Daudt say they will quarantine and get tested. Bit late to be cautious, imo.

  213. 213.

    Sab

    @Kay: I am furious that the Cleveland Clinic allowed these people with their diseased advance and planning people and aides etc to fly into the area and reinfect us all. Cleveland has been one of the hot spots in Ohio from day one.

  214. 214.

    Barry

    @Raoul Paste: 

    “At this pace of events the Saturday Night Live crew will be re-writing their sketches the night before the show”

    They’ll go home and just put a live newsfeed on the Teleprompter.

  215. 215.

    E.

    @Kent: I live in a tiny little town in the mountains on the border of California and Oregon. Nobody here, including the City Council, the police, or the Department of Public Health, favors or enforces mask wearing. They leave it up to individual businesses to enforce on their own, if they wish. Which, for the business owners and their employees, is an ominous responsibility with potentially dangerous consequences.

  216. 216.

    VeniceRiley

    SNL cold open should be Alec Baldwin in a hospital bed set up in the oval with an oxy canula sweating and mumbling “Hoax. Fake news.” over and over.

  217. 217.

    Medicine Man

    Am I a terrible person if I pray to the Gods of Vengeance that Mitch McConnell has his rendezvous with destiny?

  218. 218.

    E.

    @Chris Johnson: I can beat that. I recently watched a YouTube video of Qanon people decoding Trump’s tweets and they treated it as *accepted knowledge* that Trump had been murdered already by the Dems and the Trump who walks around is a biological copy of him that can be controlled, if necessary, from afar. Yes I am serious. They also said there would be pay-per-view assassinations of Hillary Clinton, Obama, and others in the basement of the White House right after the elections.

  221. 221.

    Ruckus

    @Leto:

    Does Matt mean the sycophants that work for shitforbrains?

    Or does he mean the support staff that run the building, the cooks, the butler/maid folks, the cleaners and all the people that are not political actors, just normal folks who work in the building to keep it running, the gardeners who had to turn a nice rose garden into a ugly monochromatic mess, the secret service people who have to guard the fucking idiot, from himself and those who might want to do the world a favor, etc.

  222. 222.

    Ruckus

    @Martin:

    That sounds like a very logical faith. I mean if you are going to have a faith, one that has a good and a bad, it’s refreshing that it actually sees the bad and understands cause and effect.

  223. 223.

    J R in WV

    @jonas:

    …there has to be some legal liability in there somewhere for going through with this thing while knowing that people on the WH staff were testing positive.

    There could be legal liability if someone dies… it’s called negligent homicide in some states.

  225. 225.

    evodevo

    @M31: YES!!! THIS!!! lololol – that’s all we got when we went to hippie friends’ homes in the Sixties/Seventies…and I am a chocoholic, so it was doubly devastating…mouth all set for choc cake and…..ptui

  227. 227.

    Citizen Alan

    @Omnes Omnibus: 

    No, it’s Tiny Tim who cannot help being awful in any version of A Christmas Carol.

    If you can find it, check out “A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong” in which Tiny Tim ends up being played by a 30-something actor who’s well north of 250 pounds because the kid who was supposed to play him was knocked out in an accident during a live broadcast. (Well, an “accident” in the sense that said ham actor was trying to take out the guy playing Scrooge so he could get that role instead.)

  228. 228.

    Citizen Alan

    @lafcolleen:

    I’ve often wondered if conservatives view A Christmas Carol as a terrifying horror novel in which a successful man of business is frightened into becoming a socialist by evil spirits.

  229. 229.

    Citizen Alan

    @Luciamia:

    Just saw it. It was great. The signature challenge was making an entire place setting out of cookies (or biscuits over there). Some of the results were absolutely amazing.

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