Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

It is not hopeless, and we are not helpless.

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

The republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

American history and black history cannot be separated.

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

If America since Jan 2025 hasn’t broken your heart, you haven’t loved her enough.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

Bark louder, little dog.

Trump should be leading, not lying.

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. keep building.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

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

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

They punch you in the face and then start crying because their fist hurts.

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 / Saturday Morning Open Thread: SS / DD

Saturday Morning Open Thread: SS / DD

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If anyone’s keeping a tally of potential members of the Face-Eaten-by-Leopards Club…

… Inside the West Wing’s narrow corridors, where staffers for months have worked in proximity largely without masks, what had long been an atmosphere of invincibility turned into one of apprehension and panic. “People are losing their minds,” said the outside adviser…

On Thursday, Hicks’s diagnosis was kept secret from the public and even from some of her own colleagues. Press secretary Kayleigh McEnany did not know Hicks had the virus when she briefed reporters about 11 a.m., but learned midafternoon, as the president was preparing to depart for another campaign fundraiser, this one at his private golf club in Bedminster, N.J.

By then, word about Hicks’s condition had begun spreading among Trump aides. Some staffers suddenly started wearing masks, a sign that something was amiss. A few senior aides were pulled from the Bedminster trip, including McEnany, who had been around Hicks extensively that week and was replaced by one of her deputies, Judd Deere.

Other aides on the trip were Johnny McEntee, Tony Ornato and Brian Jack. None wore a mask on Air Force One, but they did aboard Marine One, considering the helicopter has far tighter quarters than the airplane.

“Trump thought he could go to the fundraiser and keep it secret that Hicks had it,” Republican donor Dan Eberhart said…

In Bedminster, Trump held a roundtable fundraiser indoors where donors were sitting around the table with him. Masks were not worn in the room. The president then went outdoors to address a larger group, and some of those attendees wore masks, people present said.

Many of the attendees were elderly, a mix of real estate figures and Trump friends, including Keith Frankel, a vitamins executive who had worked with Trump on hydroxychloroquine, an ­anti-malarial drug Trump had falsely touted as a coronavirus cure…

As White House officials worked to trace the origin of the outbreak, they became concerned about a series of events Saturday: Barrett’s Rose Garden announcement and the private indoor receptions surrounding it.

Once escorted outside, guests mingled in the Rose Garden shaking hands and hugging, then took seats positioned closely together. Jenkins said he regretted “my mistake” of not wearing a mask and shaking hands at the event.

The mixing continued at indoor receptions to celebrate Barrett, which two White House officials said Friday have caused deep concern within the president’s circle. They were attended by Cabinet members, senators, Barrett’s family, family members of the late Justice Antonin Scalia and other guests, including Fox News host Laura Ingraham…

On the Friday night before the Barrett announcement, Trump attended an indoor fundraiser at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, along with McDaniel, Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia, lobbyist Brian Ballard and a coterie of Trump aides and allies.

Trump’s non-socially distanced interactions continued throughout the week. After the Barrett announcement, Trump traveled to Middletown, Pa., to hold an evening campaign rally. On Sunday, he played golf at his private club in Northern Virginia, held a news conference at the White House and hosted a reception for Gold Star parents. On Monday, Trump spoke in the Rose Garden to update the nation on the coronavirus.

All the while, Trump held debate preparation meetings with Christie, Hicks, Conway, personal lawyer Rudolph Giuliani and a handful of other advisers. Neither Trump nor Hicks showed symptoms or wore a mask, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions.

Trump traveled Tuesday afternoon to Cleveland for his first debate with Democratic nominee Joe Biden. The candidates’ podiums stood 12 feet 8 inches apart, roughly double the recommended social distancing space of six feet, according to Frank J. Fahrenkopf Jr., co-chair of the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates…

Reader Interactions

430Comments

  2. 2.

    CliosFanBoy

    with Trump and so many of his aides sick I keep thinking of the Star Trek episode “Wolf in the Fold” “DIE< DIE< DIE! EVERYBODY DIE!"

  3. 3.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Please exhibit a moment of human empathy and imagine how much he may be suffering, because it fucking rules

    Yes, I am imagining how much he may be suffering, and you know what I think? “It’s not enough.” Fuck empathy for that soulless piece of loudmouth trash.

  4. 4.

    different-church-lady

    Please exhibit a moment of human empathy and imagine how much he may be suffering

    Give me one good reason I should go first when he’s not done so in his entire life.

  6. 6.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Well I got to say from work; just taking everyone temperature as they walk in does a lot

  7. 7.

    Lapassionara

    @OzarkHillbilly: That is how I feel. Someone pointed out yesterday that there are more cases in the White House than in the country of New Zealand. That is entirely Trump’s fault, and his hubris is deadly.

  8. 8.

    MomSense

    After seeing where Pence was seated at the Contagious ACB event, I do not want Kamala to debate him in person.

  10. 10.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @HinTN: I think you’re misinterpreting his point. I think what fucking rules is thinking about how much he’s suffering – he’s (and I could be completely wrong about this) saying savor the schadenfreude.

    Kinda hard to say for sure though.

  11. 11.

    MomSense

    I feel no empathy for trump.  His administration was stealing the PPE and equipment shipments from New York while they were in the throes of COVID because he either didn’t care or wanted them to die.  He’s a murderer and he gets zero sympathy from me.

  14. 14.

    OzarkHillbilly

    I had a dream last night that I was base jumping in Chile. I blame lashonharangue.

  15. 15.

    TS (the original)

    @What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?:

    I think what fucking rules is thinking about how much he’s suffering

    Given the responses to the tweet, I think you are correct, but I had trouble seeing it up front – and I think that was the aim of the tweet – make one read it twice.

  16. 16.

    donnah

    I wake up every day and turn on TV to see if he hasn’t perished overnight. I’ve been doing that for four years, honest to god. If that makes me a monster, I’m a monster.

    Last night was the first night it might have come true, but he’s fine and I’ll wake up tomorrow and turn on TV again to see if it happened. I’m a little sad that one person can make me a monster, but mostly I’m sad for what he and the Republicans have done to the country and so I don’t care so much about being a monster. I want the American people to survive and get better and I want our democracy to survive and get better. And that’s what I hope for every morning.

  19. 19.

    Jeffro

    Tentin Quarantino really needs to finish that tweet.  It should have

    …because their Dear Leader told them so. “Signaling” gone horribly wrong, case study #895

    At the end.

    If he survives this bout with Covid, it’d be nice to see the press corps grill the shit out of him about why he didn’t take it seriously, has been opposed to masks and made fun of them, etc etc.  Was it because they smear his spray-tan, or because they’re the most obvious evidence of his failure to contain the virus?

  21. 21.

    MomSense

    @rikyrah:

    Same.  I don’t trust them.  If Trump’s conditions worsens to the extent they can’t keep it secret, they will want Pence to step in.  If Pence is already positive it will create a crisis for the GOP because they know damn well who the next in line is.

  24. 24.

    mad citizen

    @donnah: I’m in the same place as you and so many of us.  Mary Trump says it early in her book (the only part I’ve read–have a library copy) how trump is making the whole country worse.

    To the snark:

    I assume we’re shutting this nation down if he goes; after all only “he alone can fix it”

    After everything else, he has the nation in a hospital waiting room, which is never a good place to be.

    Thinking back to the 2008 Onion headline “Black Man Given Nation’s Worst Job”, here is mine today: “Obama’s Failed Presidency: How Obama failed to create executive branch that could run on autopilot for a FULL four years”

  25. 25.

    debbie

    @MomSense:

    Me too. I’m skeptical he’s even really infected. The tweet, the video where he sounds perfectly fine. I’m not buying this

    ETA: Also, that “LOVE” in the tweet is a real tell.

  26. 26.

    Betty Cracker

    Goddamnit, Cal Cunningham pulled a Weiner. Stupid fuck endangered our senate chances.

  31. 31.

    MazeDancer

    Cal Cunningham exposed as having sexted with a woman not his wife is so anger inducing.

    Yes, the language was mild, though one imagines his wife doesn’t think so. But now the people of NC have to vote for a cheating asshole.

    Otherwise, the entire Senate is in jeopardy.

    Of course, the Senate is full of all kinds of assholes. But still, so depressing he was such an idiot.

  33. 33.

    zhena gogolia

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    It’s everything you do combined that helps. Masks, distance, temperature taking, testing, trying to do things outdoors. It’s not outdoors OR masks OR distancing, as these idiots seem to think.

  34. 34.

    mad citizen

    @debbie: There were a lot (doctors, etc) on twitter saying they detected shortness of breath in the clip, although he was completing whole sentences.  Others noted it was a green screen video, the background pasted in (I’m not clever enough to notice).

    I was just thinking about their plan to take him to the hospital while he can still walk.  Again, it shows their whole operating strategy of truth denial, all image.  Why not do the best thing?  So what if he has to leave the WH in a day or two in a wheelchair or even stretcher?  He could also have recovered in the WH without leaving.  Him and his party are already toast in this election.

  36. 36.

    OzarkHillbilly

    In grand jury testimony made public on Friday, a law enforcement officer said police in Kentucky did not end up searching Breonna Taylor’s apartment on the day she was shot and killed by police who had arrived with a search warrant.

    I had thought she died for no good reason. Turns out she died for no reason at all. Words fail.

  37. 37.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @donnah: I’m a little sad that one person can make me a monster,

    trump didn’t do that by himself, he had a whole political party aiding and abetting everything he did.

  38. 38.

    debbie

    @mad citizen:

    My worry is that there will be agitation over postponing the election. I saw something from some jerk demanding it be delayed for one year.

  42. 42.

    Betty Cracker

    @rikyrah: Yes, you can play it on mobile devices, and no one has to come to your house to hook it up — it streams through the WiFi via a device like Roku or Fire Stick. Our TV has Roku built in, so we use that to access it. We’ve been pretty happy with it.

  44. 44.

    Shalimar

    It’s good that the vitamin guy who helped Trump push hydrochloroquine might have been unknowingly infected.  At least he has a large supply of medicine to treat himself with.

  51. 51.

    Jeffro

    @mad citizen: that’s a pretty good Onion headline you wrote, unfortunately

    I just saw a pic on FB that has Obama sitting there snacking on some fries, and the caption is, “Just waiting to hear how it was all my fault”

  52. 52.

    debbie

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    OT: I don’t know if you ever checked out that link to the woman who cave-dived that iceberg, but she’s got a book out about it and her other dives.

  53. 53.

    eric

    @rikyrah: yes you can and it just runs through your internet browser.   you can let multiple family members have access and use their own gmail addresses to create their own recording libraries to not overpopulate yours.

  54. 54.

    Shalimar

    @Baud: IIRC, one if their justifications is that there could have been drugs in her place.  It’s evidence they didn’t actually believe this.

  55. 55.

    different-church-lady

    I can’t find it again, but I saw a tweet this morn that said something like, “Let’s also pray for all the people who loaded their loved ones into sedans or pickup trucks instead of a helicopter, and never saw them again.”

    So yeah, let’s just say my allotment of “normal human empathy” is busy with better things at the moment.

  56. 56.

    danielx

    @donnah:

    Don’t feel bad, there’s a lot of people who feel precisely the same way. Like my 89 year auntie, an unreconstructed Roosevelt Democrat who is torn between wanting him to die quickly or having a slow, lingering passing.

  57. 57.

    prostratedragon

    @OzarkHillbilly:  I was doing some postcards for him and they’re still going out because it is what it is. A rake can get away with a lot against death itself.

  58. 58.

    Baud

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Right.  But the address on the warrant was the wrong address, no?  I don’t know exactly when the cops say they realized they were at the wrong place.

  60. 60.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @debbie: I thought I’d said Thanx for showing it to me. I’d seen it before but it was nice to view it again. Pretty cool stuff. Scary too. I’ll add the book to the endless “To Buy” list.

  61. 61.

    Skepticat

    Please exhibit a moment of human empathy and imagine how much he may be suffering …

    Yeah, no. I don’t (necessarily) want him to die, but I do want him to suffer at least a little of the suffering he’s caused many others. Well, no, A LOT. This may be the only consequence he suffers for all his evil. Hiding the fact people close to him were infected and then being so cavalier about spreading it himself was beyond unconscionable.
    And stray thought—what benighted person is going to be in charge of his hair while he’s in Walter Reed?

  62. 62.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: Making excuses for garbage behavior might be worse in the long run, arguably. If I were in NC, I’d vote for that irresponsible asshole, but I wouldn’t pretend to be happy about it.

  64. 64.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: @Shalimar: They raided her place on the *theory* that she was receiving packages for him. I say *theory* because I read where the postal inspector stated he was never asked to investigate any such allegation.

    ETA: I have not read anywhere that an officer said they “raided the wrong place.”

  65. 65.

    Shalimar

    @debbie: There is no evidence I know of that the video was taped right before he boarded the helicopter.  It could have just as easily been taped much earlier in the day when his breathing wasn’t as bad, just in case transportation to Walter Reed was necessary when he was incapacitated.

    “”Sure, he’s on a hospital bed, but it’s just a precaution.  see the video?  he’s still fine.”

  66. 66.

    Geminid

    An NBC-Wall Street Journal poll taken September 2019 comes to mind. The usual job approval question was asked, and trump got the usual low 40’s rating. But respondents were asked the question, do you like or dislike trump as a person? 29% liked him, 69% disliked him. It was noted that the highest previous “dislike” number was 43% for George Bush in 2005, after Katrina and in the middle of the Iraq war. trump had no reservoir of good will to draw on even before he botched the Covid-19 response, and I suspect most voters are indifferent to his plight. I know I am. If he doesn’t make it to election day, his presidency will still be on the ballot, and I think that the very uncharismatic Pence will lose as badly as trump would have, maybe worse.

  67. 67.

    Baud

    @Betty Cracker:

    I didn’t say make excuses or try to justify this.  But I don’t think people’s personal behavior, especially flirting, is all the relevant to an election unless the person is a moralizing hypocrite.  My biggest concern is how other voters will react.  And I wouldn’t want to give them the impression that I thought Cal’s behavior is all that relevant to the election.

  68. 68.

    prostratedragon

    @Skepticat:  Vince McMahon? Actually if he’s in an isolation unit there probably is no way to provide him with amenities like a hairdresser, which he might have on a regular ward.

  69. 69.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Skepticat:

    And stray thought—what benighted person is going to be in charge of his hair while he’s in Walter Reed?

    Heh. I was having myself a little fantasy that the doctors would have to shave his head in order to attach the contacts for a brain scan — “Just normal protocol, Sir, it’ll grow back.”

  70. 70.

    MazeDancer

    @rikyrah: Have tried Sling twice. Always out of synch. So, useless.

    Having cut the cord completely, and switched to $40 a month Visible by Horizon, am left with only one choice: YouTube TV. Which works fine, except it is pricey. And gives Google more data about me.

    But no choice.

    Hulu live won’t let you use mobile data on the TV. Just iPad, phone, devices like that. If you have cable internet, it’s a good choice, though they raised rates, too.

    Still, the Visible/YouTube TV combo, cut my phone, TV, internet bill in half. Visible is definitely an excellent value.

  72. 72.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @debbie: That’s not going to happen. The date of the election is set by law. Congress would have to change the law. Also, many offices other than the presidency are at stake. And finally, the business of the country doesn’t stop because the president is sick or dies. We elect a vice president in case of that very thing

    ETA: Also what Baud said at #41

  73. 73.

    Mousebumples

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I swear men shouldn’t be allowed to run for anything. (present company excepted)

    A few general responses –

    1) Do they make chastity belts for men?

    2) Given what “example” Trump has set, the GOP has no room to be all pious about what Cunningham’s texts.

    3) I somehow would not be surprised if Tillis had something similar in his history.

    More unrelated –

    4) Anyone have thoughts on if ACB maybe have been the index case for the Covid outbreak? Summer ended 9/21. The event was 9/26. She had a positive test “this summer” (month not specified that I’ve seen), and if they called to offer her the seat, she had to know that sharing her covid-positive status may make them pick someone else.

    I can’t say for sure, but it seems irresponsible not to speculate. ?

  74. 74.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @prostratedragon: Yes, but beside the point for me. I have lined up a bunch of Senate races where my limited funds can do the most good. If that race starts going south I’m better off sending what little money I can to Iowa, or Montana or Mississippi. I’d throw in SC but money doesn’t seem to be a problem for Jaime Harrison just now.

  78. 78.

    John S.

    @rikyrah: Yes, I’ve had it for years.

    It’s a solid and affordable service. Works just about everywhere. I even have their add on product called AIRTV which lets me use my antenna for local stations and stream them through their service as well. It’s pretty neat.

  79. 79.

    Fester Addams

    We have a WaPo subscription and that article is a Golden Corral®️ restaurant of schadenfreude.

  80. 80.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: It goes to character, and plenty of voters believe that’s relevant, though Trump demonstrated that at least 62M or so don’t.

  81. 81.

    debbie

    @Baud:

    As Sargent at Arms! Bet they’d get a lot more work done if she was standing at the doorway or even stalking around them like Trump did at the 2016 debate.

  82. 82.

    mad citizen

    From what I read (here) it sounds like trump does his own elaborate combover and maybe there aren’t replacement wigs available?  It has always looked bad, just less hair now.  As I bald man I tend to pay special attention to these things.  Always wondering about Bono, McCartney, McConaughey.  I’m in the Larry David baldist community.

    I had ABC on last night during the 30 minute Walter Reed transfer and George S mentioned how trump visits the soldiers there.  Makes me want to scream–Orwellian crap.  He visited once in ’17 or so.  The publicized 30 minute visit this past June–the famous one showing him walking down a hall wearing a black mask–there is NO evidence he visited ANY patients at that event, whatever it was.  I think he was there having a test or something.  If we was really visiting with patients the WH would have been all over it, releasing pictures.  It was a Saturday evening, for dog’s sake.

  83. 83.

    John S.

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I understand the sentiment, but women aren’t exactly immune from inappropriate behavior. Although it would appear they are far less inclined to engage in it — especially if they are in politics.

  84. 84.

    RSA

    One of my friends has COVID-19, the long-haul version with symptoms that persist for months. She’s reminded me of the implications for a Trump re-election:

    A new survey reveals a wide range of serious psychiatric and neurological complications tied to Covid-19 — including stroke, psychosis, and a dementia-like syndrome.

    What a huge risk, though to be honest the risk is huge already. I don’t think it’s been explored in the media, for the present situation.

  85. 85.

    danielx

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Having been one for several decades, I can safely say that some – not necessarily all – men are stupid sometimes. Most of them aren’t running for office, however. When someone like Cunningham fucks up in such spectacular fashion, it does call into question his judgment and fitness for office.

  86. 86.

    Baud

    @Betty Cracker:

    I’ve always been of the view that people’s marital problems are not important to their public duties.  I recognize other people feel differently, and that can hurt us in a way it doesn’t hurt Republicans.

  87. 87.

    mali muso

    I’m not sure if it’s just the overall cumulative effect of “2020” but I have to admit that despite all of this chaos and uncertainty, I feel eerily calm and almost numb.  Like…I don’t even have the mental or emotional space to worry about the clusterf* of possible bad endings to this year, so…I’m not.  Feels weird.

  88. 88.

    MazeDancer

    @Mousebumples: While I always value your comments, am hoping to persuade you – and everyone – not to use Barrett’s initials.

    Please call her Barrett, as you would a man.

    Many women are waging a campaign online to stop the practice, as they see it as an insult to RBG. The campaign is working to some extent. Have, personally, seen some journalists change.

    Because it was started by Republicans instantly pushing the “cute” initials. And selling T-shirts with Barrett, in a crown, with “Notorious” followed by her initials. Ripping off RBG’s riff on BIG.

    Yes, it is easier, but Barrett is no icon, and using her initials helps elevate her. Warms her up. Makes her “fun” and “catchy”.

    This may not matter to anyone here, but that should make it easier to do it. If you can stop a practice, that wounds others, why would you not at least try?

  89. 89.

    danielx

    @RSA:

    A new survey reveals a wide range of serious psychiatric and neurological complications tied to Covid-19 — including stroke, psychosis, and a dementia-like syndrome.

    The obvious comeback: in Trump’s case, who could tell the difference? Psychosis and dementia? Sounds like just another day in his life.

  90. 90.

    Morzer

    I don’t defend the wisdom or prudence of what Cal Cunningham did, but so far all that’s appeared in the media are some relatively silly texts and no evidence of actual physical interaction.  Let’s not make it more than it is: a foolish episode at a time when everyone has been feeling under strain and a bit stir crazy.  I think it’s entirely possible that the actual voters shrug their shoulders and decide that they don’t care about this sort of personal stuff, compared to the pandemic and the horror of Trump and his enablers.

  93. 93.

    danielx

    Bada-bing!

    Attendees at the super spreader Rose Garden ceremony should have known it wouldn’t end well when the Marine band began to play The Rains of Castamere….
    — TBogg (@tbogg) October 3, 2020

  94. 94.

    Llelldorin

    “People are losing their minds,” said the outside adviser…

    I keep seeing this quote. Shouldn’t that be “coming to their senses?” (Albeit much too late.)

  99. 99.

    prostratedragon

    @OzarkHillbilly:  True, one does have to think of limited resources. But I hope the Party, whose pockets are pretty deep these days, doesn’t back off from him altogether, because that looks like a gettable seat and we might not do more than sneak over the majority line.

  100. 100.

    Immanentize

    @OzarkHillbilly: You are correct.  They raided the place on the warrant.  Breona’s home was targeted because she used to date the drug dealer they were actually after.  There was talk of “deliveries” by the police, but before the raid, the post office told them there were no deliveries.

    In delivery cases, the SOP is to intercept the delivery (whether USPS, FEDEX, UPS, etc.) then make a carefully controlled delivery and only raid once the delivery has been accepted.  This was just shoddy all around.  Some police said they banged on the door shouting “police” for five to seven minutes!  Do people know how long that is?!  But no neighbor heard them do that.  It’s not like they were raiding an isolated place in the Ozarks!

    Liars.

  104. 104.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @MomSense: If Pence is already positive it will create a crisis for the GOP because they know damn well who the next in line is.

    Ivanka!

  106. 106.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Hall of Famer Bob Gibson, the dominating St Louis Cardinals pitcher who won a record seven consecutive World Series starts and set a modern standard for excellence when he finished the 1968 season with a 1.12 ERA, died Friday. He was 84.

    The Cardinals confirmed Gibson’s death shortly after a 4-0 playoff loss to San Diego ended their season. He had long been ill with pancreatic cancer in his hometown of Omaha, Nebraska.

    Gibson’s death came on the 52nd anniversary of perhaps his most overpowering performance, when he struck out a World Series record 17 batters in Game 1 of the 1968 World Series against Detroit.

    RIP Bob. You will certainly get into heaven because when you meet St Pete at the pearly gates, you’ll glare at him and throw a brush back pitch at his head and walk right in.

  107. 107.

    artem1s

    @MazeDancer:

    hoping to persuade you – and everyone – not to use Barrett’s initials.

    I support this too. thank you for bringing it up.  out of respect for RGB especially.

  112. 112.

    MomSense

    @debbie:

    If you look at the way his shoulders were moving up and down, visible even in his stop making sense suit, he was definitely short of breath.  I bet he spent two hours on oxygen right before making that video and started it up right after.  Same with his walk to the chopper.  He probably took off the oxygen right before and put it back on as soon as he got inside.

  116. 116.

    Mousebumples

    @MazeDancer: fair enough. I wasn’t sure if she should be called Coney Barrett or just Barrett, so I just went the easy way for commenting. I don’t really plan to talk about her by name on Facebook, and I rarely tweet, but I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks!

  117. 117.

    Morzer

    @OzarkHillbilly: Send him the money and reflect that he did something stupid and tacky, but nothing compared to what Tillis has enabled and will enable Trump to do.

  119. 119.

    JPL

    @MazeDancer: What I saw wasn’t sexting, it was flirting.  He was wrong and needs to fix his relationship with his wife.   Now I might change my mind if more comes out

     

    Looks like I’m alone in my feelings.   I would not send him money, but he doesn’t sound like a weiner in the sense he took pictures

    If that came out, I’d change my mind

  120. 120.

    germy

    @Morzer:

    If I recall correctly, the cure is oleander, mixed into a vitamin supplement.  Probably more painful than a merciful pillow death.

  121. 121.

    catatonia

    @OzarkHillbilly: Bad year for HoF pitchers. (Well, bad year period.) First Seaver, now Gibson. Lou Brock, Gibson’s teammate on those great Cardinals’ teams of the 60s, also died recently.

  125. 125.

    Geminid

    @Morzer: Cunningham’s indiscretions will cost him a some points, and may drop him back into “toss up” territory. A lot will depend on how he handles this between now and election. But if I had to bet money, I’d still put it on Cunningham. Aside from this affair, he is a solid candidate and is on the right side of issues that really count.

  127. 127.

    prostratedragon

    @MomSense:  Seemed that he started to list as he walked to the copter, using the Marine as a spot. I list and look for spots when my O2 level drops, which can happen for me in a short walk without the supplement.

  128. 128.

    mad citizen

    @MazeDancer: You make excellent points, I wasn’t using the initials for Barret (in fact the use always makes me wonder “what is that?), but the really common one on our side is for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.  I have uses the initials, but I get how the shorthand is bad (something Rush Limbaugh has practiced for decades).

    I’m sure there are lots of male examples, but the one I think of is when racing driver Juan Montoya decided to honor his father and became Juan Pablo Montoya.  The shorthand became JPM, but it wasn’t universally used.  (On the Formula One leaderboard all the drivers have three letter identifiers.)

  129. 129.

    Libby's Person

    A view from NC regarding Cunningham: He should be okay if he manages a quick and good/sincere apology.  Cal seems to have been an idiot, but given everything else going on now, his indiscretion will fade from the news pretty soon as long as Cunningham acts humble and chastised now.  Tillis testing positive for COVID really cements his existing image of being tightly chained to DT.  I think this is just going to be a blip assuming Cunningham can manage to avoid being an idiot again.

  130. 130.

    Mai Naem mobile

    Ron Johnson tested positive for COVID. I am beginning to believe that RBG and Beau Biden are both making the case up above on who should get a of touch of COVID. Kelly Ann’s recent twitter feed is quite ugly about Joe Biden.  I believe Beau was the Delaware AG.

  131. 131.

    Morzer

    @Geminid: I have a suspicion that Cunningham might lose 2 or so points, but probably no more – unless something worse than rather uninspiring textual flirtation emerges.

  133. 133.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @WaterGirl: If I had money to waste, I wouldn’t worry about it, but I don’t. I want to send my money where it will do some good (not the most good tho that would be nice). If the polls turn against him I’ll send it elsewhere and hope he wins anyway. I have doubts that Espy can actually win in MS but last I checked he was very much in the race. So if this actually gets some negative traction in NC, I might send it to Espy instead.

  134. 134.

    Betty Cracker

    @Libby’s Person: Hope you’re right about NC. We need that seat!

    BTW, if you use an apostrophe in your username, your comment will go into moderation every time, and someone will have to notice and approve it before it posts. I don’t know why, but here we are.

  138. 138.

    Mai Naem mobile

    @Geminid: Cunningham is lucky that some of the vote is already in the bag. I read somewhere that several days ago that NC was already past 1M votes in mail in/early voting.

  141. 141.

    germy

    Matt Gaetz is on Fox arguing that Trump getting COVID is proof that social distancing measures are ultimately futile and we should just continue reopening. pic.twitter.com/KtBA3pDYhF— nikki mccann ramírez (@NikkiMcR) October 3, 2020

    Or maybe, as Silverman and others here have said, their testing and safety protocols are crap.

  144. 144.

    Morzer

    @Immanentize: I imagine it will fade out fairly soon. There’s too much national drama for one not quite affair to matter much. Obviously, if Cal Cunningham’s wife denounced him as a no good lying hound dog, that might change things a bit.

  145. 145.

    bemused

    @Mai Naem mobile:

    Claudia Comway tiktok about her mom getting covid was quite angry. Saw photo of Kellyanne whispering in Bill Barr’s ear at Barrett announcement and now Sen Ron Johnson, WI tests positive. So many R’s testing positive this week! Who’s next? I’d be sweating if I was Barr but they seem to be oblivious to covid happening to them.

  146. 146.

    mad citizen

    @OzarkHillbilly: Thanks for this–an unbelievable great of baseball.  They changed the friggin’ rules (lowered the pitching mound) because of him!

    I never saw him pitch (we were 3 hours away from any MLB park), but have a vivid memory of being at Riverfront around 1975.  We always arrived early for batting practice and walked around.  I remember being along one of the foul lines watching Gibson run wind sprints in the outfield and the sweat just dripping off his hands when he stopped running.  Must have been a typical hot and humid midwestern day in June or July.  He was a reliever at that point.  My 87 year old dad grew up in Chicago Heights but is a lifelong Cards fan–of course, when he was young they were the great Gashouse Gang.

  147. 147.

    Betty Cracker

    @Morzer: We have to hope she’ll stand next to him and smile bravely through the humiliation as he apologizes, if she hasn’t already done so.

  148. 148.

    germy

    Curious that Trump received 8 gram dose of Regeneron monoclonal antibody cocktail. As the company reported earlier this week, providing this slide, 8g (green) looked no better than 2.4g (red) at reducing viral levels.https://t.co/ZwGd4ZayUa pic.twitter.com/sNe1oFNuGu

    — Jon Cohen (@sciencecohen) October 2, 2020

    “GIMME THE REGENERARION”

    “Sir, there’s no evidence that it will –”

    “IT’S THE BEST. GIMME”

    “OK. For dosing, we recommend –”

    “GIMME THE MOST” https://t.co/PcTHdIcHyD

    — Roy Edroso (@edroso) October 3, 2020

  149. 149.

    Immanentize

    @Morzer: I am worried about the Dem voters who will think, “Damn, dude, that was some weak sauce!  Do you have no game?  Players win, winners play.”

    That could be a point shaved

  150. 150.

    Skepticat

    @RSA: A new survey reveals a wide range of serious psychiatric and neurological complications tied to Covid-19 — including stroke, psychosis, and a dementia-like syndrome.

    So, he had COVID-19 quite a while ago?

  151. 151.

    Mai Naem mobile

    @MomSense: they also may have given him dexamethasone which would help with the breathing and given him a euphoric feeling which may explain the way he talked on the video.

  153. 153.

    WaterGirl

    @OzarkHillbilly: I totally get what you are saying.  And I totally get having to make choices about where to spend the money you have.  I have to do that, too, so I really appreciate the folks with more discretionary income who are stepping up.

    My thought is that if he’s still getting donations that could help prevent the media from being able to spin this as a huge thing.  Just a thought.

    I am a fan of Nancy Pelosi’s “just win, baby.”

  158. 158.

    MomSense

    @Mai Naem mobile:

    I’m sure he is getting all the things.  My son had to take decadron when he was little and it can mess with your heart rate so it’s not without risks either.

  159. 159.

    Mike in NC

    Woke up this morning to read that just about everybody in Fat Bastard’s inner circle is testing positive. This is my surprised face.

  160. 160.

    germy

    Chris Christy gave tRUmp only one piece of advice as debate coach:

    “People who overcome stuttering have a harder time maintaining their train of thought when interrupted. Keep interrupting him and he’ll stumble when he tries to speak. This will enforce the ‘senile’ narrative.”

    — Lucian (@LucianRandolph) September 30, 2020

    And then George Snufflelopogus had Christie on after the debate for “analysis”

  161. 161.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Betty Cracker:

    On the good side for her, she has his nuts in a jar in the freezer for the rest of time. That has a marital value all in and of itself.

  162. 162.

    MazeDancer

    @Mousebumples: Thanks. And to everyone.

    The fight against making Barrett cool and groovy wasn’t original with me. Think it was a spontaneous uprising kind of thing. Especially against the T-shirts. (Too disgusting to link.)

    Also, have to admit I have been wondering if one or two of her children isn’t an asymptomatic COVID carrier.

    Barrett had the virus in “late Summer”. The Equinox was 4 days before the superspreader event.

    Though it could be her. Tillis, apparently, always wears a mask. Pics show him in one in audience. But pics also show him with Barrett, indoors, in a room, unmasked.

  164. 164.

    Immanentize

    @MomSense: me too.  The perfect Republican.  White, attractive, mean as shit to others.  Hiding that all in “the law.”. I like to think she is raging all over her house, scaring the kids, realizing her dream may now slip out of her grasp.

    “Why did this happen to ME?!!”

  166. 166.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @mad citizen: I may well have attended a game he was pitching in as my Cub fan old man took us every time the Cubs were in town, but I can’t recall it. I do remember watching one of his World Series games in school. Back when baseball was more important than reading, ‘riting, and ‘rithmetic.

  167. 167.

    JPL

    @Immanentize: Marsha Blackburn was heavy into smoozing inside so she might be next, but like Grassley and others will refuse to be tested.   They needs symptoms.

  168. 168.

    germy

    Thread:

    Asking marginalized people to publicly perform grief for the folks singularly focused on our destruction is largely about one's own guilt for being complicit in systems of oppression. You're worried that if we can't forgive them, maybe we won't forgive your racist family. Or you.

    — Ryan Ken (@Ryan_Ken_Acts) October 2, 2020

  170. 170.

    dmsilev

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Heh. I was having myself a little fantasy that the doctors would have to shave his head in order to attach the contacts for a brain scan — “Just normal protocol, Sir, it’ll grow back.”

    There’s precedent:

    ‘It Was, For, Uh, Medical Reasons,’ Says Doctor To Boris Johnson, Explaining Why They Had To Give Him Haircut

    LONDON—Calling the procedure “a fast, er, effective way” to treat symptoms of the Covid-19 virus, doctors at St. Thomas’ Hospital reportedly told British prime minister Boris Johnson that the haircut he’d received on Friday “was for, uh, medical reasons.” “Well, you see Prime Minister, because of your severe respiratory issues, we, um, actually needed to access that part of your head for a…surgery thing, yes,” said senior clinician Dr. Randal Jensen, taking long, awkward pauses as he looked between his medical charts and Johnson’s new head of short, well-coiffed hair. “Simply put, if we had kept your hairstyle the way it was, you could have risked death or something else, probably. We believe this is because the uh…keratin in your hair is related to your lungs, but don’t worry too much about that right now. We actually do it to all our patients. Right, yes, we definitely do that.” At press time, the prime minister had reportedly informed his medical team that after his emergency lifesaving haircut, he’d never felt better.

  173. 173.

    Betty Cracker

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: True. I remember reading a story after a mass shooting at a theater. An engaged couple was there, and the dude not only ran away from the room, leaving his fiancée behind, he got in his car and drove away from the building!

    Both survived, and the interviewer asked if they still planned to get married, and they said yes. That woman can hold the incident over his head forever. “Are you going to take out the trash, or are you going to run away like a chicken,” etc.

  175. 175.

    Aleta

    @MazeDancer:  Sen. Ron Johnson, Chair of Homeland Sec  and Gov. Affairs Committee.  Possibly aiding Putin’s interference campaign?

    1

    (Sept. 14, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)  Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson said Monday that President Donald Trump should win a Nobel Peace Prize for helping forge “historic peace agreements.”

    Johnson also said Monday that the U.S. Senate committee he chairs is poised to release a report aimed at Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.

    “Stay tuned. In about a week we’re going to learn a whole lot more of Vice President Biden’s unfitness for office,” said Johnson, chair of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

    2

    @ChrisMurphyCT, Oct. 1

    …   6/ The head of intelligence at DHS (the top guy!) files a whistleblower complaint [on 9/9]. He says the White House instructed him to bury info on Russian interference because it “made the President look bad.”

    7/ A day later (coincidence!), the Treasury Dept. sanctions Andriy Derkach, a Ukrainian politician in charge of spreading Biden conspiracy theories, and notes, offhand, that Derkach is indeed a Russian agent.

    8/ No press conference from Intel or the FBI or DHS that they’ve caught a Russian agent who has been in regular contact with the President’s inner circle. Nope. Just buried in a sanctions announcement. …

    9/ What’s happening is clear. American intel agencies, that are supposed to be totally apolitical, have been folded into Trump’s campaign. They are keeping info about Russian interference hidden, and overhyping info about China and Iran helping Biden.

    10/ It’s why Trump’s former National Security Advisor, H.R. McMaster, said something today that is as shocking as it unsurprising. He said Trump is “aiding and abetting” Putin’s interference campaign. Wow. But of course he is. And now you know the details.

    Murphy’s tweets about China and Iran are here: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1311772832234385409.html

  177. 177.

    Barbara

    @germy: That is too sophisticated in most cases. Mostly, it’s just a sense of rank entitlement and inflated self-worth.

  179. 179.

    JMG

    Cunningham raised almost $30 million in the last quarter, so he’s not hurting for dough. One more thing. For every man and woman who have an extramarital affair, and many do, there are many more who consider it and then chicken out. Cunningham’s texts sure sound like a guy headed for path number two.

  181. 181.

    hueyplong

    JFC, I am so glad I live in NC and most of you do not.

    I will vote for Cunnningham without the slightest hesitation.  Lives hinge on control of the Senate, and the path to 50/51 runs through NC.  The Marquis of Queensbury is nowhere to be found in a knife fight.

  182. 182.

    Mai Naem mobile

    @Betty Cracker:  you cannot make this story up. The Rose Garden which Melamoma decided to fuck up and no doubt some fucking Trumper like Stephen Miller pushed for the ceremony to be held in the Rose Garden to own the libs.

  184. 184.

    Barbara

    @germy: JFC, Biden has been dealing with this his whole life. One might have deduced that he is not “most” people.

  185. 185.

    germy

    Amy Coney Barrett brought her 7 unmasked kids to a super spreader event to show how pro life she is so she could be confirmed by a group of pro life people who have presided over 200K+ deaths to be a pro life judge that will uphold the death penalty and take away health insurance

    — J-L Cauvin (@JLCauvin) October 3, 2020

  186. 186.

    Betty Cracker

    @OzarkHillbilly: Right? I was in a mass shooting once, so I perfectly understand why the guy ran away. Instinct takes over, and you run away, even (and perhaps even especially) loud-mouths who say if they had been there, they’d have swept the shooter’s legs or some such nonsense. But driving away was kind of egregious if you ask me. :)

  187. 187.

    JPL

    Can’t wait until a former Secret Service member starts to talk.  For trump winning is everything, and it doesn’t matter how much harm he does to get there.   Biden had better be ready for the republicans onslaught of misinformation.   They are going to criticize him no matter what, so he needs to be prepared.

  188. 188.

    RSA

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    You will certainly get into heaven because when you meet St Pete at the pearly gates, you’ll glare at him and throw a brush back pitch at his head and walk right in.

    LOL, snort. I was curious and looked up the list of single-season ERA leaders of all time. Gibson comes in at #4, with 1.123 in 1968. Even more impressive, 47 of the top 50 entries are before 1920—with Gibson, fans were seeing a level of pitching dominance that they hadn’t seen in almost 50 years.

  190. 190.

    JPL

    This makes a lot of sense.

    Vice President Mike Pence and Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris will be separated by 12 feet at their debate on Wednesday, a source familiar with the plans tells CNN

  194. 194.

    Anya

    @OzarkHillbilly: None of these people deserve empathy. They are awful people who couldn’t even wait few hours to let a family and nation mourn and remember the legacy of RBG. I just wish they experience suffering and as much pain as possible. Maybe they’ll learn empathy.

  195. 195.

    JPL

    Wow trump really has a herd mentality.   

    + Donald Trump + Melania Trump + Hope Hicks + Kellyanne Conway + Sen. Ron Johnson + Sen. Mike Lee + Sen. Thom Tillis + Ronna McDaniel, RNC chair + Bill Stepien, campaign mngr + Notre Dame Pres. Jenkins + 3 White House reporters + 11 staffers from debate

  196. 196.

    Ohio Mom

    MazeDancer @162: I wondered about the Barrett children as possible vectors too. She could be fully recovered and no longer shedding the virus but we all know how bugs go through a family, infecting everyone in turn.

    On the other hand, her kids look like they’ve been thoroughly taught to be seen and not heard. They are probably too pretrified to get near an adult they don’t already know.

    I don’t expect any medical authority to do backward tracing and don’t think we will ever know who started it all.

  199. 199.

    Omnes Omnibus

    As far as  sextexting and the like go, we are just going to have start accepting that people are going to have that kind of shit in their pasts.  Cell phones and the internet are ubiquitous.  Unless it is something like unsolicited dick pics, which are harassment, I think we need to ignore it.

  200. 200.

    hueyplong

    @RSA: But 1968 was effectively a dead ball era year.  Hitting was so bad that Gibson lost 7 games while compiling that 1.12 ERA.

    On the other hand, he broke a leg and basically compiled a year’s worth of innings anyway.

    Gibson was great.  His WS game one in 1968 is legendary.

    Goofy story about how his teammates looked up to him.  As a teenager I stayed at the same hotel with the Cardinal team one weekend and induced the players to sign their individual cards from a baseball board game.  I caught Gibson on an elevator because I knew he didn’t sign autographs, and thought maybe I could talk him into it if in a place with no witnesses.  The ploy didn’t work.  At all.  A borderline player was on the elevator too, and he also refused to sign because Gibson was standing next to him.  They’re the only two players I didn’t get.

    It was pretty clear the younger player had no intention of doing anything differently from Gibson.

    I was actually frightened while asking Gibson because he was so intimidating.  Pretty sure I stuttered a little.  And the signed cards were lost a few years later anyway.

  204. 204.

    kindness

    My sister forwarded me a text of someone’s tweet:

    Corona has clearly mutated.

    It started by infecting the nose, lungs, and upper respiratory tract.

    Now attacking assholes as well.

  207. 207.

    BlueNC

    @hueyplong: Ditto that. But I wasn’t particularly impressed with Cunningham before, and this doesn’t help.

    Better than Tillis is a low bar.

  208. 208.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Van Buren: Well, they would if there was any body cam footage available to release. *Conveniently only one of them was wearing a cam* and his was turned off.

    **the reason being undercover cops don’t have to wear one, which just begs the question of how undercover were they banging down a door at 3 AM with guns drawn and supposedly screaming “POLICE!” repeatedly.

  210. 210.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Anya:If that’s the case, do we still care about that stuff in the Trump era?

    That is the question that the polls will answer because while we here don’t, the “we” there just might.

  214. 214.

    Aleta

    @Betty Cracker:  IMO the Rose Garden is a prime suspect in the horror story version.   The spirits of the dried out, displaced trees and hacked up rose bushes close in around attendees, who ignore their cries for restitution.   So the air is circulated to redress the bio-wrongs.   “Ah, a  pleasant breeze,” the attendees think as they inhale.

  215. 215.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @hueyplong:I was actually frightened while asking Gibson because he was so intimidating

    Now imagine him throwing a 100 mph fast ball at your head. I don’t know about you but that’s “pissing in my pants” territory there.
    .

  217. 217.

    M31

    from twitter

    “I will Venmo $100 dollars to the first Walter Reed staffer that dresses up like Herman Cain and warns him that he’s going to be visited by three ghosts tonight.“

  218. 218.

    MomSense

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I agree.  If it is just sexting, I’m not bothered by it.  If it was unsolicited that is a different matter.

    My kids tell me that sexting is a common courtship ritual.

    Also, thank dog there were no cell phones when I was growing up.  A certain evening involving Boone’s Farm Tickle Pink and ocean skinny dipping is best left to memory.

  219. 219.

    JPL

    Rula Jebreal

    @rulajebreal

    White House incompetence on full display for the world to see! On Monday, the entire city of DC had only 14 new cases of COVID. Trump WH alone is now responsible for 23 new cases & rising. They had every privilege available to them to limit the spread of the virus & they blew it.

  223. 223.

    Ian

    @MomSense: 
    Pelosi becomes president if they both pass, not if they both become sick. The chances of Trump and Pence both passing from Rona is too damn slim.

  228. 228.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @MomSense: Also, thank dog there were no cell phones when I was growing up.

    I am pretty sure that anyone who doesn’t thing that is either lying to themselves or an exhibitionist.

  230. 230.

    schrodingers_cat

    Do we know when Amy B have COVID-19?  Was she still contagious at the ? garden event?

  231. 231.

    LurkerNoLonger

    @JPL: Vice President Mike Pence and Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris will be separated by 12 feet at their debate on Wednesday, a source familiar with the plans tells CNN

    Pence breathes a sigh of relief that he doesn’t have to stand so close to a woman who isn’t his “mother”.

  232. 232.

    Immanentize

    @MomSense: And hopefully the memory is well tinted by rose glasses.

    I tell my students every semester that their peers in the class understand one set of community rules, but often the people who hire them will be older, white, and male.  So they should clean their social media.  I’ve even had some students hire professionals to sanitize their discoverable past.

  236. 236.

    Ken

    On Thursday, Hicks’s diagnosis was kept secret from the public and even from some of her own colleagues.

    I wonder what things are like for our alternative selves in that timeline where a Bloomberg reporter didn’t break the news about Hicks.

    Do we know about any of the Rose Garden 7 9 10 13? Maybe they don’t even know they have covid yet, since the WH might not bother telling the senators about Hicks.

    What are we being told about the President?  Another half-physical but this one may last a few days or weeks?  Could they conceal the move to Walter Reed?

  237. 237.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Hank Aaron once counseled Atlanta Braves teammate Dusty Baker about Gibson.

    “Don’t dig in against Bob Gibson; he’ll knock you down,” Aaron said, according to the Boston Globe. “He’d knock down his own grandmother if she dared to challenge him. Don’t stare at him, don’t smile at him, don’t talk to him. He doesn’t like it. If you happen to hit a home run, don’t run too slow, don’t run too fast. If you happen to want to celebrate, get in the tunnel first. And if he hits you, don’t charge the mound, because he’s a Gold Glove boxer.”

  239. 239.

    different-church-lady

    @germy: “PUT ME IN THE REGENERARION!”

    “Sir, it’s not a machine, it’s a…”

    “AND PUT IVANKA IN THE REGENERARION WITH ME!!!”

  241. 241.

    Gvg

    @hueyplong: We are afraid of what the voters in mass will decide, stupid or malignant. Not what we ourselves would vote. We have been traumatized by our fellow Americans, mostly 2016, but also Bush and the more and more extremist GOP winners in the last couple of decades. It makes us panic, sometimes too soon. It makes me think I don’t know what the heck the mass of voters will think about a lot of things.

  243. 243.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Immanentize: I have a cousin who maintains two sets of social media.  One under his name and one under a nickname.  It wouldn’t survive facial recognition software, but it would suffice (and has sufficed) for a casual social media check.

  247. 247.

    sdhays

    @debbie: Why do they have to be in the same room at all? Just put in on Zoom, dammit! Why do these fuckers insist on going out of their way to pretend that everything is normal? It’s not fucking normal!

    I want Dump to live to experience the breadth of revulsion America throws his way on November 3rd, but if I can’t get that, I hope he kicks that bucket sooner rather than later. Maybe if he dies just before the VP debate, they’ll cancel/reschedule it and Kamala can be safe.

  248. 248.

    Immanentize

    @MomSense: no one ever planned for that.  If the pres is incapacitated and relinquishes control, the VP becomes acting pres.  If the Pres does not give up control (Trump) then either the cabinet or a Congressional committee would have to remove him.  The VP becomes Pres.  But that only lasts until the president sends a letter saying, “I’m not dead yet!, No impediment to my leading”. Then he becomes Pres again.

    So the same path would have to be followed, I think, for each of the two, president and vice, if they both became incapacitated but not dead.

  249. 249.

    Aziz, light!

    @OzarkHillbilly: St. L. native here. The sixties were a time when working class people could afford tickets to a series game. So I got to see games in the ’64, ’67, and ’68 series with my dad, including watching Gibson get 17 batters to whiff. I can still reel off the names of the Cards’ whole starting lineup. RIP Bob Gibson (and the late great Lou Brock a few weeks ago).

  250. 250.

    debbie

    @sdhays:

    Agreed, especially because there will be questions from the audience. Last night, a doctor was on the BBC talking about aerosols and how if a person is yelling (as Trump was), the social distancing needs to increase to at least 20 feet.

  251. 251.

    Mel

    @Mai Naem mobile: It can also cause elevated blood sugar levels, weight gain, pancreatitis, hair loss, etc., and in rare cases iatrogenic Cushing’s Disease, or even steroid induced dementia. Usually, side effects happen with longer-term use, but in some people they happen sooner or at lower doses.

    Even if he had the initial cortisol rush, the follow-up effects are not likely to be pleasant.

  253. 253.

    JPL

    Twitter is saying that Sen. Scott has tested positive.   I’m not seeing it any where else though

  255. 255.

    debbie

    @Aziz, light!:

    I hated him for beating the Tigers in the World Series, but many years later, I listened to an interview and found I really liked him. One more reason to hate sports and what it does to a person. ?

  256. 256.

    Edmund Dantes

    @OzarkHillbilly: why are undercover cops serving a warrant on someone they suspect is a criminal. It is exposing your identity to the very people you are supposedly going to try to be undercover with later on.

    There is no logic.

  260. 260.

    Ken

    @MomSense: Tim or Rick?

    I suppose we could figure it out by finding which one is on the Judiciary Committee, or went to the Rose Garden.

    EDIT: Florida for the win.

  261. 261.

    different-church-lady

    @hueyplong:

    I was actually frightened while asking Gibson because he was so intimidating

    He looked like he was going to come down off the mound and eat you.

  266. 266.

    schrodingers_cat

    # of COVID-19 positive R senators so far

    1. Tillis
    2. Lee
    3. Johnson
    4. Scott

    Well done COVID Amy

  267. 267.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Heh. I just looked at my notes. Cunningham was in the “Do not contribute to” list because he was up by 4 points and I want to concentrate my money in races where the DEM is either up or down by 2 points or less. So if Cunningham loses a couple points, I will be sending him a few bucks.

  268. 268.

    Ken

    We’ll get confirmation that RBG has the smite button if McConnell starts appointing Judiciary Committee replacements and they each come down with covid.

  270. 270.

    Juju

    @MazeDancer:  Holy moly, get a grip!!  As an N.C. resident I hope Cal wins and I will see how he does in his new job as senator before I’d consider voting him out of office six years later. I hadn’t heard, nor do I really care about some PG 13 text messages he sent to a married woman. It was a stupid lapse in judgment, and it’s something that he and his wife should deal with in whatever manner they choose.  People do stupid stuff sometimes. We are not perfect. Think of Governor Northam in Virginia.  People wanted him to resign, but he didn’t, and he’s been a pretty decent governor.  Call me whatever you want to, but I can forgive this one transgression.  If it turns out there is more to the story, I’ll rethink things.

  272. 272.

    JPL

    GOP Sen. Rick Scott said this morning on TV that he tested positive for covid. His office says he misspoke and he actually tested negative.

  273. 273.

    Anya

    @OzarkHillbilly: The thing is can his opponent’s campaign make anything out of it without bringing Trump into this? I mean, Trump paid a porn star hush money, and it’s a well established fact that he cheated on all his wives +the Access Hollywood tape+all the other horrible things he’s been accused off so… if Tillis makes this a character issue, why is he supporting someone who’s done so much worse? With their lockstep support of Trump the republicans accepted that stuff so no take backsies.

    I must admit, I don’t know much about Cunningham but I am hoping he can address this in a skillful way.

  276. 276.

    germy

    Just want to make sure that everyone outside KY is aware that, in the midst of 3 members of his caucus testing positive in 24 hours, Mitch McConnell is wandering around KY holding press conferences and refusing to tell anyone whether he has been tested. https://t.co/KX0in8dT2c— marisamcnee (@marisamcnee) October 3, 2020

    "Have I ever been tested? Yes," said McConnell after repeated attempts at the question. "But I'm not going to answer questions about when."— marisamcnee (@marisamcnee) October 3, 2020

    Magic Turtle Energy. He’ll be fine.

  277. 277.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Anya: There’s always the Evangelical go to – “but King David”, which is how they excuse Trump.

  278. 278.

    different-church-lady

    @Ian:

    The chances of Trump and Pence both passing from Rona is too damn slim.

    Are you aware of how many episodes are left in this season?

  279. 279.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Anya: One thing I have noticed is that if a Republican sufficiently supplicates himself there is no sin that can not be forgiven by Evangelicals. If a DEM says something easily misconstrued however, s/he should be burned at the stake no matter what they do.

    I don’t know what percentage of NC voters are Evangelicals and their fellow travelers.

  283. 283.

    JPL

    @sdhays: That was my read, or he just doesn’t understand the difference between positive and negative.   Since it appears that trump was sick during the debate, he doesn’t either.

    It’s a republican thing

  285. 285.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @germy:

    Amy McGrath’s team sucks. If they were smart, they’d be pelting the state with ads about how he is in such a hurry to flex on Barrett, he’s been creating events that endanger his caucus.

  289. 289.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @debbie:

    I met him in the ‘90s when he was on a book tour (somewhere I have an inscribed copy of Stranger to the Game) and was kind of surprised by what an amiable person he was.

  290. 290.

    germy

    Are there any updates on Gohmert?

    Other than
    Gohmert tells Trump, first lady he’s sorry they have “the Chinese virus,” wishes their recovery

    I know Gohmert was one of five Republicans to vote AGAINST the resolution affirming the peaceful transition of power, but I haven’t seen any reports about his struggle with the virus

    EDIT:

    Oh wait, I just saw this:

    https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/congress/louie-gohmert-is-covid-19-free-and-he-credits-hydroxychloroquine

  291. 291.

    Ken

    @Omnes Omnibus: CAn reptiles get the ‘rona?

    Not that I’ve heard, but a number of mammal species are also vulnerable.  I worry about the (other) great ape species, as they’re already endangered.

  292. 292.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    Maybe someone has raised this question already but this occurred to me this morning: under what scenario does a person who is covid positive go to a hospital for just a few days?

  295. 295.

    Anya

    The  White House unveiling of COVID Amy’s nomination is probably the superspreader event but who is patient zero? Wouldn’t the people who attended it want to know? I am bet if COVID Amy or any of her family members were the ones who gave Trump the COVID, he would rescind the nomination. Wasn’t Lindsey Graham also present? I’ve looked and I haven’t seen anything about his COVID status.

  297. 297.

    Ken

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: under what scenario does a person who is covid positive go to a hospital for just a few days?

    Whiny-ass hypochondriac with access to the nuclear codes?

    If it’s more than just a few days, there are lots of other scenarios.

  298. 298.

    sdhays

    @Anya: If we never find out who patient zero is, I think it should be assumed that it’s her and they figure if it becomes known, that really could endanger her confirmation. And they don’t have a lot of time to switch horses at this point.

  301. 301.

    Humanities Prof

    Here’s how bad things have gotten by this point.

    I was browsing the front page at TalkingPointsMemo, and in their list of stories updating readers on Trump’s COVID diagnosis, they have a headline that reads “Conway, Stepien Infected.”

    The first time my eyes skimmed over it, I read “Conway, Stepien Indicted.”

    Not that this would particularly surprise anyone.

  302. 302.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Trump friends, including Keith Frankel, a vitamins executive who had worked with Trump on hydroxychloroquine

    so many words that just don’t make sense: a vitamins executive….trump friends

  303. 303.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @sdhays: From the standpoint of cosmic justice, I hope it turns out to be her.

    From the standpoint of public health and the implications for all of us, I hope it’s not the case that a recovered patient can be a super spreader.

  305. 305.

    debbie

    @germy:

    Along that line, I saw a screenshot of a tweet from someone named Anna4congress which wondered if Trump’s illness should be considered an assassination attempt by China.

    Back to reality, were any Dems even invited to that ceremony? Wonder if there are any regrets now? Wonder if Dems will ever show up to anything where there are GOPers.

  307. 307.

    bemused

    @germy:

    Jim Hagedorn is right at the top of most stupid legislator. He was diagnosed with kidney cancer Feb 2019 and reportedly doing well with treatments. He is one of those physically compromised people yet he’s not wearing masks, distancing and flying around the country with trump and ignoring Delta guidelines. As stupid as it gets.

  312. 312.

    Calouste

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: Why assume that Barrett spoke the truth when she said she had recovered? I assume she lied, because she knew that if she said she had Covid, the shitgibbon would have nominated someone else. For everyone involved rushing this nomination through before the election is by far the most likely scenario that it will actually happen.

  313. 313.

    WaterGirl

    @JPL: Will they care?  The Rs didn’t seem to care about Hermann Cain.  Just another black mascot for the R party?  I’m sure they think they can find another one.

  315. 315.

    Aleta

    @Omnes Omnibus: “It did seem to me like people were starting to coalesce”

    A perception needs to be supported by numbers (or rough estimate) to verify if it’s true.   “Not one single person here has said they wouldn’t vote for Cunningham”  offers that.

    This is a tiny benign example, because this month is critical:  The habit of pushback based on subjective perception of others’ (few) comments (i.e. “seem(s) to me like people were starting to coalesce”)  can derail a more serious discussion and be unproductive to ‘our cause.’  In my subjective opinion.

  316. 316.

    sdhays

    @Calouste: That’s a good point. Also, she’s a Federal judge already – how did she contract the virus in the first place? Lots of people get infected even though they took COVID seriously. I’m doubtful that she’s one of them. So it stands to reason she would continue that reckless behavior.

  317. 317.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Omnes Omnibus: She works for the mob? I had no idea. I’d worry but I’m a union thug and we get along well with mob enforcers. Professional courtesy and all that.

  319. 319.

    PJ

    When I read these comments, I feel like it’s the 90’s, and I’ve stepped into a crowd of Joe Liebermans.

    1) after Trump, everything is permissible.

    2) family and romantic relationships are not a reflection of performance as a politician (or in any job, for that matter).

    3) what consenting adults get up to is not the business of the public.

    4) you may be in a happy relationship, and would never ever engage in even a fantasy of extramarital activity, but nobody wants to hear your self-righteous judgments about people who do.

    5) once someone is the candidate, hand-wringing about what other voters are going to think or do is a waste of energy.

    6) all of that said, elections are popularity contests, and it would be good if all Democratic politicians were smart all the time and did not engage in personal behavior that will damage them at the polls, but they are human beings and they are going to screw up.

  322. 322.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Aleta: I am obviously a very silly person and I have derailed a serious discussion.  Whatever way I thinking?  I must most humbly beg your forgiveness.

  326. 326.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    I will Venmo $100 to the first Walter Reed staffer that dresses up like Herman Cain and warns him that he’s going to be visited by three ghosts tonight.

    — Lord Scott Baxter Bowser (@scott_bowser) October 3, 2020

  328. 328.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @PJ: It’s funny.  My first instinct was to use language close to that in your point 4 above, but I tried very hard to soften it.

  330. 330.

    evodevo

    @Baud: It was the “right” address, but the guy they were looking for (her ex) was long gone, and there weren’t any drugs there…the perp had had a package delivered there in the previous month, and they, for some reason, thought it might have had drugs, but turned out to have been clothes and shoes.  The idiots never followed up, got a “no-knock” warrant, and the rest is history.  Happens in MY rural neck of the woods – cops are usually WAY behind the curve.  They need to know WAY more about the community they “serve” than they actually do.  The local postal employee knows who lives where, and we get inquiries all the time from the local County Attorney about current residents at various addresses.

  332. 332.

    BR

    Any word on Biden taking a test again and/or any testing plan he and Jill are going through? It’s super important that he’s tested daily or even twice a day for the next week.

  333. 333.

    trnc

    Per DT doctor – 72 hours into diagnosis. So, Wednesday morning is when he tested positive unless I misunderstood.

  342. 342.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Immanentize:

    No! My grandmother used to recite it. And either she or I got it slightly wrong. Turns out (I just looked this up!) that it’s a 1935 bit of doggerel by one James Ball Naylor. Here’s his original:

    King David and King Solomon
    Led merry merry lives,
    With many, many lady friends,
    And many many wives;
    But when old age crept over them —
    With many, many qualms! —
    King Solomon wrote the Proverbs
    And King David wrote the Psalms.

    (But I know my grandmother said “concubines,” not “lady friends”!

  348. 348.

    trollhattan

    Meanwhile

    NEW YORK Amazon says nearly 20,000 of its workers have tested positive or been presumed positive for the virus that causes COVID-19.

    Amazon says in a corporate blog that it examined data from March 1 to Sept. 19 for its 1.37 million workers at Amazon and Whole Foods Market.

    It said it compared COVID-19 case rates to the general population, as reported by Johns Hopkins University for the same period. Based on that analysis, if the rate among Amazon and Whole Foods employees were the same as it is for the general population, it estimated it would have seen 33,952 cases among its workforce.

    The company says it is conducting thousands of tests a day, which will grow to 50,000 tests a day across 650 sites by November.

  351. 351.

    Dagaetch

    OMG this press conference! “72 hours into diagnosis”….means he was diagnosed midday Wednesday! and being very non-specific about oxygen use.

  359. 359.

    Sloane Ranger

    Well, that was one of the most obviously evasive press conferences I have ever seen! The doctors definitely didn’t want to answer the question about steroids, they scuttled back into the safety of Walter Reed as soon as they were asked.

  361. 361.

    debbie

    @Dagaetch:

    NPR, after parsing the conference remarks, thinks Trump was given oxygen on Friday morning. Not bad for a “slightly overweight” man, as the doctor phrased it.

  365. 365.

    laura

    I share Anya’s hope that his nominee is patient zero superspreader and trump withdraws her nomination as payback for sickening him and making him “not strong like bull.” I hope that the senators who are all turning up positive are at a minimum incapacitated for a good long while and if the almighty sees fit to call a number of them to their heavenly home, who am I to object.

  366. 366.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Jackson Proskow@JProskowGlobal ·7m
    Questions WH doctors won’t answer:
    – how high Trump’s fever was
    – when / how he became infected
    – date of last negative Covid test
    – evasive on the question of supplemental oxygen at any point

  368. 368.

    trollhattan

    Son of meanwhile.

    Staff at Merced County Public Health Department have said U.S. government officials tried to intimidate them into keeping Foster Farms’ Livingston plant open despite a serious outbreak of COVID-19 outbreak, according to a story posted Thursday by CBS News.

    The Livingston plant was ordered to be shut down by Merced County on Aug. 27 because of the outbreak, which resulted in 392 Foster Farms employees testing positive for COVID-19, and nine deaths.

    The plant did shut down for about a week starting Sept. 1. The plant was officially removed from the county’s outbreaks list Wednesday.

    But Merced County Director of Public Health Rebecca Nanyonjo-Kemp told CBS News that amid the outbreak, federal agencies had suggested to her that county officials couldn’t shut down the plant, citing the Defense Production Act. That act was part of President Donald Trump’s executive order to keep meat plants running.

    Anna Werner, CBS News’ investigative correspondent, asked Nanyonjo-Kemp if someone from the federal government suggested that the county shouldn’t shut down the plant.

    “Correct,” Nanyonjo-Kemp told CBS News. “They were trying to intimidate. We refused to be intimidated.”

    Nanyonjo-Kemp also told CBS News that Foster Farms only initiated limited testing. Plus, Salvador Sandoval, county health officer, told CBS News that Foster Farms had initially reported “misleading” data, stating that cases of workers who had died were marked “resolved.”

    Foster Farms told CBS News “There was no intentional effort on the part of Foster Farms to deceive the Merced (County) Public Health Department,” and said, “All issues related to the reporting of data were quickly resolved.”

    I wish to emphasize that certain parts of our administration and federal government are proactively getting people sick and dead. Because “economy.”

  371. 371.

    trollhattan

    @trnc:

    Would be helpful to know which testing technology(ies) is being used, what the false positive/negative rates are and whether verification testing is given using a more-reliable technology. For the entire WH staff or just select members of his inner circle?

  372. 372.

    Kent

    @OzarkHillbilly:Yes, I am imagining how much he may be suffering, and you know what I think? “It’s not enough.” Fuck empathy for that soulless piece of loudmouth trash.

    As always, there is Trump history.   This was Trump mocking Clinton for contracting pneumonia exactly four years T0 THE DAY from when he came down with Covid

    https://youtu.be/gT-LfVlTE94

  376. 376.

    J R in WV

    @Skepticat:

    Hiding the fact people close to him were infected and then being so cavalier about spreading it himself was beyond unconscionable.

    And stray thought—what benighted person is going to be in charge of his hair while he’s in Walter Reed?

    Probably some heroic former combat medic slowly recovering from PTSD from treating combat wounds under fire.

    Actually, those guys were the nurses who treated my wife for septic shock in 2013 (IIRC, I’m bad with dates!) — former combat medics who came home and went to college for their BS in an RN program. Great guys, totally unflappable, totally competent, very compassionate.

    I imagine Walter Reed is full of those guys. A shame they have to treat Trump now, but I’m sure they will handle it as well as if they were taking enemy fire.

  377. 377.

    Jazzman

    I was in high school during that memorable 1967 World Series between the Cardinals and Red Sox.  So many of my classmates were sneaking transistor radios into school to catch it that the teachers monitoring study hall gave up and brought in their own radios so everyone could listen (they wanted to hear it too!)  And batters had good reason to fear facing Bob Gibson back in the days before batting helmets.  Remember what happened to Tony Conigliaro that year.

  379. 379.

    Immanentize

    Twitter takes:

    “It’s a Republican Red Wedding.”

    And

    “”We have found what makes Democrats believe in God and Republicans believe in science.”

  382. 382.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @germy:

    “Have I ever been tested? Yes,” said McConnell after repeated attempts at the question. “But I’m not going to answer questions about when.”

    WTF?

  383. 383.

    Jinchi

    Please exhibit a moment of human empathy and imagine how much he may be suffering, because it fucking rules

    I felt a moment of empathy and then I started reading about all the people he deliberately exposed during the days after he learned of Hope Hick’s diagnosis, all the while mocking people who wore masks and ensuring that everyone in the room was pushed as close together as possible. Never a word of warning or caution, never a word of remorse, and we all know that will never come.

    So screw him. I’ll save my empathy for all the nameless aides, secret service officers, janitors and servers that he recklessly endangered and none of his people have spared a second thought towards.

  386. 386.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    @MazeDancer: FDR and JFK say hi.

    And LBJ. And RFK. And MLK.

    Maybe it’s a liberal thing? I mean, on one side we have Barrett (see? I don’t even know her initials). On the other side we have AOC, FDR, JFK, LBJ, RFK, MLK, maybe others.

  388. 388.

    Kathleen

    @Ken: The Rethuglican Death Cult is being revealed in real time as The Plague. It’s pretty profound when you think about it.

  389. 389.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @RSA: Yeah, before 1920 the ball was “deader.” Ty Cobb (still dead and rotting in hell) hated when they went to a “live” ball because it meant even mediocre players could get hits. This substantially “dumbed down” strategies and base running skills.

  390. 390.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Baud: So does Pence’s, cf. US Constitution, Amendment XX., Section 1.

    Section 3 is, mmm, interesting:

    Section 3. If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the President, the President elect shall have died, the Vice President elect shall become President. If a President shall not have been chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of his term, or if the President elect shall have failed to qualify, then the Vice President elect shall act as President until a President shall have qualified; and the Congress may by law provide for the case wherein neither a President elect nor a Vice President elect shall have qualified, declaring who shall then act as President, or the manner in which one who is to act shall be selected, and such person shall act accordingly until a President or Vice President shall have qualified.

    Should the Democrats gain/hold a majority in both houses of the 117th Congress (to be seated on 3 January 2021), the Dems (at least in theory) will determine who becomes Acting President if the GOP continues to can contest the 2020 election past 20 January.

    If it were up to me, I would be sorely tempted to install Hillary Rodham Clinton as APOTUS & let She With NFLTG overturn by Executive Order as many of the Thuglican atrocities and no-quality appointments as fast as possible. Or maybe use the threat of HRC as a clue-by-4 to induce the GOP to sit TFD and shut TFU.

  391. 391.

    MomSense

    @Immanentize:

    It was one thing to drink that stuff when I was a teenager and didn’t have access to better, well anything else actually.  How about 3 ounces of Maker’s Mark in a wooden cup!

  392. 392.

    slakko

    @mad citizen: JPM is awesome, true. However, that qualifying record was broken in 2018 with Kimi Raikkonen knocking another couple of tenths off the time.  Lewis Hamilton then took it down into the 1.18s this year.

  396. 396.

    Ken

    @debbie: Not bad for a “slightly overweight” man, as the doctor phrased it.

    I’m sensing unspoken subtext.  “And miraculous for one as obese as this,” perhaps.

  399. 399.

    dogwood

    @Betty Cracker: 
    Hoping that any woman will face public humiliation like a trouper is a sad thing to contemplate. But wives on both sides of the aisle do it all the time. Offhand the only woman I can think of who refused to be humiliated was Mark Sanford’s wife.

  400. 400.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Jeffro:

    I just saw a pic on FB that has Obama sitting there snacking on some fries, and the caption is, “Just waiting to hear how it was all my fault”

    He appointed James Comey as FBI director.

  401. 401.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @mad citizen: They changed the friggin’ rules (lowered the pitching mound) because of him!

    Him and a lot of others:

    During what later became known as “the year of the pitcher” [1968], Bob Gibson set a modern earned run average record of 1.12 and a World Series record of 17 strikeouts in Game 1, while Series opponent Denny McLain of the Detroit Tigers won 31 regular season games, the only player to reach the 30 win milestone since Dizzy Dean in 1934. Don Drysdale of the L.A. Dodgers pitched 6 consecutive shutout games in May and June, ending with 58 2/3 scoreless innings. Mickey Lolich won three complete games in the World Series, the last player as of today to do so. Luis Tiant of the Cleveland Indians had the American League’s lowest ERA at 1.60 and allowed a batting average of only .168, a major league record (since broken by Pedro Martinez in 2000). Both MVPs for that year were pitchers.

    339 shutouts were recorded in 1,619 regular-season games. The St. Louis Cardinals alone pitched 30 shutouts, the most in the Majors. The 472 runs allowed by the Cardinals led the MLB that year and remains the lowest total ever recorded by any Major League team in a 162-game season.

    Hitting was anemic. Carl Yastrzemski of the Boston Red Sox had the lowest batting average of any league champion when his .301 was good enough for the American League batting title. The AL’s collective slugging average of .339 remains the lowest since 1915 (when the game was still in the so-called dead-ball era), while the collective batting average of .230 is the all-time lowest. The Chicago White Sox scored only 463 runs during the regular season and were shut out a league-high 23 times. Both those totals are still all-time records in the era of the 162-game season.

    It should be noted that those baseball purists who are enthralled with 1-0 pitchers’ duels are far outnumbered (and financially overwhelmed) by fans who want to see hits, runs, and homers. Keep in mind that the most difficult athletic feat in all sports is arguably to hit with authority a baseball thrown by a MLB pitcher.[1, 2] – Therefore:

    After the season, the Rules Committee, seeking to restore balance, restored the pre-1963 strike zone and lowered the height of the pitching mound from 15 to 10 inches. Four expansion teams joined the majors. 1969 batting averages returned to their historical averages and never again would pitching have as large a statistical average over batting in the major leagues.

    [1] Mean release point is ~60 feet from home plate, and even the slowest pitch gets there in < 2/3 second, during which time the batter has to figure out where it will cross the plate & get the bat moving to contact it there.

    [2] Note that an NBA player who only hits 50% of his shots and an NFL quarterback who only completes 50% of his passes are benchwarmers – but an MLB hitter who can consistently over a number of seasons put a pitched ball in play for a base hit just 30% of the time is bound for the Hall of Fame.

  403. 403.

    Mai Naem mobile

    @JPL: yes, I tested negative but I was so relieved that I started telling everybody I tested positive. Jeezus. this party is fucking crazy. This is the guy who had an interest in a lab that did the drug testing of welfare recipients and a Medicare fraudster but he can’t tell the difference between negative and positive.  He shouldn’t be a senator making national decisions

  405. 405.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Betty Cracker: That woman can hold the incident over his head forever. “Are you going to take out the trash, or are you going to run away like a chicken,” etc.

    And she’ll never have to say a word. Just make clucking noises.

  408. 408.

    cain

    @MazeDancer: Perpetuating the GOP majority will kill people. Cheater better than murderer.

    He should be shamed though after he’s in. I feel bad for his wife. He needs to show that he’s going to go to counseling – and is doing things to resolve his family life because we don’t want any more distracting events. But I think it should be made clear that he’s done – and that the next cycle he’s going to get a primary challenger for being a stupid fuck when so many things are riding on us taking over the senate.

  411. 411.

    J R in WV

    @JPL:

    Biden had better be ready for the republicans onslaught of misinformation. They are going to criticize him no matter what, so he needs to be prepared.

    Come on, guys! This isn’t the first time Biden has run against despicable Republicans. He’s got this.

  412. 412.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @OzarkHillbilly: Now imagine him throwing a 100 mph fast ball at your head. I don’t know about you but that’s “pissing in my pants” territory there.

    A 100 mph fastball thrown at the batter’s head is what they call “a pitch with a purpose”- & that purpose is not to injure him, but to back him away from home plate so he has trouble getting to a ball on the outside corner.

    “Assault with intent to injure” is when the pitcher throws behind the batter’s head – because the batter’s natural reflex when he sees the pitch coming in on him is to flinch away from the plate & thus right into its path.

    If you watch MLB over many years you will note that batters will not normally “charge the mound” with murder in their eyes after a “brushback” pitch – that’s part & parcel of the game – but they will do so (sometimes still holding the bat like a club) after a ball is thrown behind their heads (without hitting them).

  413. 413.

    Geoduck

    Re: the Shiatgibbon’s health. The fact that he’s put out one atypical tweet since this started indicates that he’s at least not having a good time, if not seriously incapacitated.

  415. 415.

    mad citizen

    @slakko: Dead thread but thanks for the correction/update–it was an old video. I saw mention of Kimi and Lewis in the comments but didn’t put it together. My F1 following has been much less and mostly on the web since I dropped cable about 4 years ago.

  416. 416.

    WaterGirl

    @trnc: That’s not good.  Are you saying Trump tested positive on Wednesday morning, not on Thursday morning as we thought?

    Because then he would have been for sure contagious on Tuesday at the debate.

  417. 417.

    LongHairedWeirdo

    Having COVID was the worst experience of my life. Every moment was just the most appalling suffering and pain, fighting for breath, doubled over coughing. Please exhibit a moment of human empathy and imagine how much he may be suffering, because it fucking rules
    — David Mowatt (@ducklingsmith) October 2, 2020

    I try not to be a moral scold, but I also try to remind people that it’s not *good* to wish ill, or celebrate bad luck, on others.

    That said, if there’s *anyone* who deserves forgiveness for wishing ill on, or celebrating the bad luck of,  another, it would be someone like Mr. Mowatt, angry at the dereliction of duty by the President.

    Crush community spread, and you can open the economy, let people gather, and hug, and hold, etc., carefully, with an awareness of the risk. Don’t crush community spread, and *everyone* is in danger, always, and constantly.

    And don’t forget: while Trump screwed the metaphorical pooch, the entire Republican establishment offered up plenty of unnamed pooches, rather than explaining that, “sure, *I* would handle the pandemic differently, but I do support the President, who I hope is using science and prudence to fight Covid-19.”

  419. 419.

    WaterGirl

    @debbie: Yep.  It’s just like political polls.  it is a snapshot of that instant, and it doesn’t tell you whether you are in an incubation period where it doesn’t show up yet.  And it’s no guarantee that tomorrow will be the same.

  421. 421.

    James E Powell

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: 

    Amy McGrath’s team sucks. If they were smart, they’d be pelting the state with ads about how he is in such a hurry to flex on Barrett, he’s been creating events that endanger his caucus.

    I’m not so sure that’s the kind of thing that would convince ignorant, hateful bigots not to vote for the ignorant, hateful bigot candidate.

  422. 422.

    Bill Arnold

    @JPL:

    Vice President Mike Pence and Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris will be separated by 12 feet at their debate on Wednesday, a source familiar with the plans tells CNN

    Not f-in good enough. They need a transparent floor to ceiling barrier between them, and Pence (and Harris) needs to be tested daily, and by the debate organizers, not “honor-system”:

    Trump Reportedly Arrived to the Debate Too Late to Be Tested by Organizers (Aaron Mak, Oct 02, 2020)
    During a Fox segment on Friday, Wallace said that Trump arrived too late to the Health Education Campus of Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Clinic to be tested. “For them to get tested, there wouldn’t have been enough time to have the test and have the debate at 9 that night,” he said. “They didn’t show up until 3, 4, 5 in the afternoon. Yeah, there was an honor system when it came to the people that came into the hall from the two campaigns.”

    Trump was certainly positive and infectious. Since Trump is devoid of honor, I will assume with middling high probability that [he] knew he was infected, and was hoping to improve the odds of Biden getting infected by spewing loud (loud spreads SARS-CoV-2) lies/exhalations in Biden’s general direction. (That and disrupt Biden’s thought processes re Christie above, ugh.)

  423. 423.

    J R in WV

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I don’t know what percentage of NC voters are Evangelicals and their fellow travelers.

    I no longer remember where I saw it, but very recently I saw a report that several senior Evangelical pastors in leadership positions were forming a committee to support Joe Biden for president.

    Like a dozen old white pastors over-qualified to tell everyone in their church who to vote for. Seems odd, but maybe Trump killing off their donors, er, sheep, no, suckers… has put them across a line.

  426. 426.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    @hueyplong: I was upset about Cunningham because of the danger to him of not being elected because of his sexting, precisely for the reason you give (we HAVE to take the Senate).  I personally don’t give a damn.

  427. 427.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    @JPL: No, what would make sense would be to have a Zoom version of the debate.

  430. 430.

    ema

    When the patient is elderly, has risk factors, and, as has been reported, has mild difficulty breathing and [as has not been reported but should have been] (probably) has low O2 sats.

    You don’t send an elderly infected patient with risk factors and access to a fully equipped medical wing at “home” to the hospital unless you have a good indication. (I am sure they could intubate at the WH, if they had to, but you don’t want to transport an intubated patient if you don’t have to.)

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