Trump’s doctors gave an update of sorts, and basically all we really know is he is not dead. They otherwise gave no information, although they did blow the coverup over when he was diagnosed:
At a Saturday morning press conference, President Trump’s medical team suggested that the President knew he tested positive for coronavirus earlier than has been previously reported. Dr. Sean Conley, Trump’s physician, said that we’re “72 hours into the diagnosis,” meaning the President could have test positive as early as Wednesday.
At a press conference, Trump’s medical team at Walter Reed said the president is fever-free and that they are “extremely happy” with the progress the president has made. But the team refused to answer key questions about when the president was first diagnosed, first symptomatic and whether he had received supplemental oxygen.
We don’t know his temp, any lung damage, etc. Nothing. This all feels so Soviet- “Oh Andropov is fine he is just taking a week off. No, no- nothing is with Chernenko, he’s at his mountain retreat.”
Meanwhile, more and more of these idiots who went to the SCOTUS superspreader event are testing positive, including walking corpse Kellyanne Conway, the Outlaw Jersey Whale Chris Christie, a couple more Republican Senators, and on and on. And I hope the list keeps growing and growing. Take ’em all.
Obviously I feel bad for the staff and support and journalists who had no choice but to be there, but for the rest of them, fuck ’em. I honestly feel the same way about all these guys catching COVID and potentially dying the way I feel when I read a headline about a bunch of terrorists who accidentally blew themselves up while making suicide vests.
It’s all so… biblical. The religious nutjobs and their users and enablers, the people who blame hurricanes and tornadoes and floods on gay marriage and abortion, just had to get together and hug it out over the Supreme Court seat they are stealing in the name of Jesus, and God sent them a literal fucking plague. They very same plague they have been denying for a year. Fucking Galatians 6:7, bitches. I mean, it’s awesome.
mad citizen
Haven’t the thread below so I assume this is in there, but I was running errands listening to CNN, and right after the presser an unnamed source (seeing maybe Meadows) gave the press pool this: “The president’s vitals over the last 24 hours were very concerning and the next 48 hours will be critical in terms of his care,” person close to the situation tells reporters. “We’re still not on a clear path to a full recovery.
Don’t want to be hyperbolic, but given this administration’s relationship with the truth, I would bet things are bad.
Connor
“This is not going to end well.” — Donald J. Trump
Falling Diphthong
Re the supplemental oxygen, the eagle-eyed have this:
https://twitter.com/DrGJackBrown/status/1312259775455924231?s=20
PST
I voted yesterday. This is off topic, but I justify it by noting that if I get COVID that could cause me to become unable to vote, no worries. My vote is in and will be counted.
MattF
Politicians have always lied about their health, so Trump fits right in there. What’s unusual now is that the lies are getting shot down within minutes by the hive mind.
ETA: And, fwiw, I’m a pessimist about this. Even if he survives, he’ll be permanently weakened, IMO.
Steeplejack (phone)
Whut?
I haven’t seen Haberman even being quote-tweeted. WTF?!
DCrefugee
This just in: Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead
Gravenstone
Diane Duane posted a comment in her Twitter (found as it was in lamh’s timeline) that this conflicting reports sounds like factions within the WH fighting for control, trying to undermine each other. Another point towards your Soviet allusion.
Suzanne
Mr. Suzanne thinks Trump is going to die.
I don’t want him—or any of the other GOP—to die of this thing. I want them to survive and be humiliated.
I’m not very nice.
mad citizen
@Steeplejack (phone): What I put above happened to be a Maggie tweet, but as I heard it on CNN this unnamed source (Meadows the internet is saying) gave it to the WH press pool. As always noted here, they are simply stenographers.
I’m wondering if TMZ is already working to get a source at Walter Reed so they can be first with the ultimate news..
The CNN crew speculated that the doctors must have had instructions not to admit the oxygen use, as much as they ignored those questions.
gene108
Really am disappointed at the Soviet style bullshit on Trump’s health, as well as why White House doctors are willing to destroy their credibility for him.
azlib
I honestly believe the Republicans think they are 18 year old invicibles and decided engaging in risky behavior was okay. Sometimes reality bites and bites hard.
The Moar You Know
@MattF: Exhibit A: Boris Johnson. Who is almost twenty years younger than Trump. Post-COVID, he’s a fucking wreck. Can’t handle questions, looks like death warmed over half the time and just exhausted all the time. Rabb is obviously doing most of the day to day work of governance, and I bet that arrangement becomes formalized in 2021. I can’t see Johnson doing the full five years in the shape he’s in.
Poe Larity
The Death of Stalin is streaming on Netflix.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Falling Diphthong:
I just read that and now need a cigarette.
Brent
Its deeply frustrating to witness, in real time, that not a single individual associated with this administration can even be bothered to keep the lies straight, let alone tell the truth about anything that happens, ever. Obviously its no news flash that these people cannot be trusted but you would think that at some point they might just all agree on a story and stick to it for more than 20 minutes. That or tell the truth (I know. LOL). Just to see what it sounds like.
Immanentize
@Suzanne: I’m more than 15 years younger than Trump and I’m in pretty good shape, not obese, and my Dr. told me that if I had to go to the hospital with Covid, I would likely die. Now Trump may not have had to go. But if he did, the odds are not in his favor.
MattF
Trump is scared.
Margaret Imber
Everyone needs to watch the Death of Stalin this weekend.
craigie
@Suzanne:
I’m with you on this. Nobody should die, everyone should be punished.
UncleEbeneezer
Amen!! And this is why I’m getting really irritated with people who want to have empathy for this fucker (fine, whatever) demanding that that somehow means everyone else must do the same (not fine.)
Victims get to decide whether or not they want to extend forgiveness, empathy, grace to their abusers. And after 4 years of relentless abuse from this fucker, I have no problem with people who are rooting for his demise and to dance on his grave. Babies. In. Cages.
AWOL
@Suzanne: They can’t feel the latter, so perhaps the former might suffice?
nwerner
If you parse the doctor’s words, I’m not certain he’s not dead.
“Fever free and not having trouble breathing or using oxygen”
“In good spirits”
we’re headed toward the Weekend at Bernie’s presidency.
trollhattan
The most recent item I read re. communicability is it is highest just before and at the very beginning of symptoms presenting. Adjust your Lying About Trump clocks accordingly–he was at his most dangerous to others a day or two leading up to first showing symptoms. We may or may not ever know when that occurred, but anybody in his presence during that period had better get tested and quarantine themselves, Bidens included.
Wapiti
Part of me really wants Trump to survive so that NY State AG James can drop him into a metaphorical financial wood chipper next year.
RSA
Wait for the White House report on Monday, when we’ll hear that some time Friday Trump expired, but on Sunday he rose from the bed… Gotta do something to keep the Evangelical vote.
Mike in NC
Took one look at the photo on the Washington Post web site: about ten doctors (and nurses?) in two neat ranks behind the podium near the hospital entrance. They were all masked, but otherwise it had a very North Korean vibe to it.
MC
All a bunch of steaming dogshit liars. All of them.
@Suzanne: I guess it depends on which fate you believe is worse.
trollhattan
@The Moar You Know:
How much energy does one need to fuck over their country, daily? BoJo seems to be doing a cracking great job at it, post-COVID.
narya
@trollhattan: This is the thing that worries me most; I am betting that several unmasked people in that hall were infectious, and their cavalier attitude pisses me off.
mad citizen
If power gets transferred over to Pence we’ll know it’s over. Trump rode out his life of CON to very end, it seems. Always a CON.
I can’t help but look forward. If you’re Pence, do you move into the WH? I say No, or at least wait for the election results. If you lose, then No. I remember reading LBJ waited a month or something to give Jackie some time.
Mai Naem mobile
Maybe Jerry Falwell Jr can come over and pray for them and his wife can watch.
Ohio Mom
Well maybe 2020 would redeem itself if Trump died, though I’d like him to linger long enough that he stays on the ballot.
I’m imagining next year’s tabloid headlines on all the squabbling over his estate, such as it will be.
RaflW
On some thread early Friday I said “Comrade Brezhnev is just taking a nap.” And here we are.
Gvg
@craigie: I think it’s important to have trials with evidence and consequences. Too many times they have gotten always with things, Nixon, Reagan Iran Contra, Bush and torture. Time for fair trials and jail time. Also a budget to get white collar crime all over the country and enforce tax laws.
Geoboy
@Wapiti: Why metaphorical?
chopper
we all have to be kremlinologists just to figure out if the president of the united states is okay or not. this fucking year.
mad citizen
@Wapiti: Hopefully the other family members/trump org “executives” can still face charges. (the children)
The Moar You Know
@UncleEbeneezer: my wife wants every one of them to die. Horribly. Maximum pain. No apologies. I must admit that while I am not comfortable with the sentiment, I do not have a counter argument and couldn’t come up with one if asked. They’ve killed well over 200,000 of our fellow citizens and they have no plans to stop doing so until someone forces them to stop. If that’s not behavior worthy of death then the very idea of justice loses all meaning.
SiubhanDuinne
@Falling Diphthong:
I just don’t understand going to such lengths to pretend he’s not on oxygen. FFS, there’s nothing inherently immoral about requiring a hit of O if you’re having trouble breathing. And for that matter there’s nothing inherently immoral about having trouble breathing. But this stupid kind of coverup says that Trump and his enablers see it as a moral failing.
And yes, I know that Trump’s weird pathologies make him believe exactly that. But why would medical professionals go along? Why spend an extra hour or more concocting that elaborate Rube Goldberg tube machine, and dressing him in suit and tie, when that hour could have been used to get him top-notch medical attention?
The whole thing just smells of reek.
RaflW
Also soviet-style: Members of the Politburo (MN Reps Emmer, Stauber and Haggedorn) get to fly commercial with regular pax while they are at very high risk, and even though it directly contravenes CDC guidelines and Delta’s stated rules and policies.
James E Powell
You had to know this was coming. Presidential Tone Alert!
The a hole himself probably didn’t even do that tweet. What is with these people?
Villago Delenda Est!
RaflW
@SiubhanDuinne: “FFS, there’s nothing inherently immoral about requiring a hit of O if you’re having trouble breathing.”
As Max Boot says, Trump’s entire brand is on him being the impenetrable fortress man. Just going to Walker Reed was putting a very big dent in that. Admitting he’s on O2 (or, for goodness sake, a ventilator) shatters that myth.
(I don’t get the Trump as macho and strong thing, but I’m clearly not the target market for the scam)
MagdaInBlack
Well… just read a bizarre twitter thread of folks who believe that if Trump has it, “they planted it.”
“They” do it when they swab your nose.
So there you have it. Cult logic
Eta: I saw one yesterday about this being the “Storm” trigger: his statement of ” we’re in this together” = To Get Her
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@James E Powell: Alex Witt is easily the dumbest anchor on MSNBC. I was a big fan of Joy Reid’s Sunday morning show, and sometimes left the TV on out of laziness or if there was a big story to follow. Her would-be contrarian schtick and “doesn’t the President have a point” grimace finally got to be too much.
BR
@Falling Diphthong:
I think it was a photoshop — I saw that claim earlier and saw the originals as well.
BR
Ed Yong’s piece in The Atlantic is the most important question — did Trump infect Biden at the debate?
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/10/could-trump-have-infected-biden/616591/
I forgot to share the link in the previous comment thread.
UncleEbeneezer
@The Moar You Know: I’ve met a family whose dad was in an ICE detention facility for months because of a DUI from 20 years ago (and his brown, Mexican skin.). If that family wants to enjoy fantasies of all these fuckers dying slow, horrible deaths, I can’t see any reason why they shouldn’t. Same goes for all the people who were (and are again) making end-of-life plans because of potentially losing the ACA. Same goes for every woman about to lose their bodily autonomy who also sat through the Kavanaugh hearings. Etc., etc.
JoyceH
I sure don’t want Trump to die, because the very notion of that GANGSTER getting a state funeral makes me want to hurl.
As for the Trump estate – by the time the IRS and NY state AG are done dismantling it, I hope there’s a little something left for Mary, who got royally screwed by the family. The DJT spawn can be left to beg in the streets for all I care.
enplaned
This is a president who sees illness as a sign of personal weakness. Health information will be suppressed and if he does recover enough to campaign (but remains weak, which is a plausible outcome) watch for whatever events there are to be carefully stage managed.
The real issue is whether we’ll know if the president is unable to continue to act, or whether even that will be suppressed.
PST
@Poe Larity:
Don’t miss it! Amazing performances. Michael Palin’s is my favorite. On a similar subject, Children of the Revolution is a hoot. Stalin dies while having sex with Judy Davis, a Communist Australian housewife who wins a trip to Moscow.
Baud
@nwerner:
You just got Rose Twitter all excited.
Omnes Omnibus
@The Moar You Know: If one accepts the idea that “to save one life is to save the world entire” or anything like it, then I think that follows that wishing for the death of any one person diminishes as people. Now, that being said, Trump’s is a death that I would not mourn.
JPL
@Baud: I was just thinking he’s going to dead tweet like Cain isn’t he.
that’s great!
Immanentize
@BR: I go with my son’s advice: Just assume all images on the Internet are fakes.
Mai Naem mobile
My sister knows a couple at our temple(to b3 clear this was way past when closed in person services)who came down with COVID early on. Elderly(~80 yrs old) but he’s a retired doc and both are in good shape. Anyhow, they spent a little under 2 weeks in the hospital. Took six weeks after the hospital to recover to an okay functioning level.
geg6
@chopper:
The upside for me is that I finally get to use the skills I honed in my undergrad political science concentration in the Soviet Union. Which promptly fell just as I was starting to look at graduate programs. Haven’t really had the opportunity to use them much since. It’s all been the Middle East ever since, a region I never even took a class about and still don’t begin to understand. And Putin is too obvious to give those skills any exercise.
TriassicSands
@gene108:
Historically, administrations lie about serious health issues of presidents. I’d say it’s the “norm.” Of course, with this administration, the most honest in history… (I can’t type anymore, I’m choking and gagging).
elm
Trump: I wish to be President for life!
-a finger curls on the monkey’s paw-
Baud
@JPL:
I don’t care what the doctors say. The fact that he’s not tweeting from his hospital bed shows he’s not doing ok.
Amir Khalid
Never in a million years would I have anticipated that Trump might not survive to the end of his presidential term. Beau of the Fifth Column argues that Trump needs to survive to election day so that Americans get to repudiate him.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@PST: I’ll second or third or seventh the recommendation of Death of Stalin, and look for Children of the Revolution. And I’ll throw in Good-Bye Lenin, since there’s kind of a theme developing.
Mike in DC
Cole and I on the same wavelength re Gal 6: 7-9 apparently.
“God is not mocked”
Jeffrey
Vengeance is a dish best served cold.
TriassicSands
If Amy Barrett were smart enough* to be on the SCOTUS, she would have insisted her ceremony be done with masks. Her own past infection is no reason to ignore the health and safety of others.
*And decent enough.
Steeplejack
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
What you said.
Omnes Omnibus
@geg6: Yeah, my Soviet System and Soviet Foreign Policy classes had a short utility. But pity poor Condi Rice who got her PhD in it. Or not.
TaMara (HFG)
@Suzanne: “To the pain!”
Jeffrey
@Baud: Says it all. The longer he is silent on Twitter the worse his health is.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Mai Naem mobile: the authors of the new bio of James Baker say he had it and recovered, which seems pretty remarkable at 90
trollhattan
Good news, you may continue hating the Dallas Cowboys with zero qualms.
Goku (Amerikan Baka)
@RaflW:
Still, as Suburu Diane noted, why would the White House/Walter Reed doctors go along with it? HIPPA? Political pressure?
Cheryl Rofer
John (and everyone else): If you haven’t seen “The Death of Stalin,” now is the time
ETA: I see it’s been mentioned.
Chetan Murthy
@UncleEbeneezer:
Well-put. I’m stealing it UE. Very nicely put. I won’t reiterate my feelings about That Fucker and all who ride in him.
dmsilev
@Suzanne: I’m with you. I want him alive and conscious through Election Day, so he can bear witness to his crushing defeat. If the virus or side effects want to take him afterwards, fine, but we need that month.
Ohio Mom
Joyce H: From experience, I can tell you there’s always something to fight over from an estate, even if it’s just a knick-knack or a photo album (yes, those are two examples of things I’ve heard people complain about).
Steeplejack
@Omnes Omnibus:
That’s okay. She still used it as a valuable lens to distort everything she saw in office.
Cermet
While certainly they will never post bad news but lie, the reverse isn’t true. Let’s not talk of his death or forced release of power. I am just happy he got it, had to go to the hospital (maybe just because he’s a cry baby) and will not be able to live this down regardless of the out come (unless some of you BJ’ers turn out prophetic or something.)
Mai Naem mobile
@Ohio Mom: he stays on the ballot. It’s too late for new ballots and a new candidate. I heard somebody on radio say that the RNV nominates somebody new I’d Pemce and Donnie both kick the bucket.
TriassicSands
@craigie:
With COVID-19, death is a form of punishment — the ultimate punishment — it’s just not equally applied.
For Trump, humiliation, permanent humiliation, might be as bad as death, or even worse. But in America is any politician permanently humiliated?
Goku (Amerikan Baka)
@TriassicSands:
She probably knew that if she insisted on that Trump would withdraw her nomination. Still incredibly selfish
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack: That would be the reason for my “Or not.”
trollhattan
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Why the fuck couldn’t Trump be our Chernenko or even better, our Andropov?
“Hello, comrade. Farewell, comrade. Next.”
Ken
Does the probate court get access to the real accounting books?
JoyceH
I’m interested in the number of Republican senators who are testing positive – and all Republican you’ll notice. Saw something today that said the Senate GOP caucus meets in person three times a week, almost all maskless, while the Dem caucus meets virtually. If they lose their ability to steal yet another Supreme Court seat because they followed Dear Leader down the maskless route, I’ll just laugh and laugh.
Bruce K
@Margaret Imber: Death of Stalin isn’t available on Netflix in Greece. I searched for it and what came up was The Big Short. Which seems oddly appropriate.
Tony Jay
Over here in the Disunited Oblast of Lesser Brexitannia it’s wetter than a hippo’s fart and greyer than Clooney’s merkin. We’ve got the worst ‘Government’ in our history wreaking havok on every institution while robbing the country blind and an ‘Opposition’ far more interested in clamping down on internal Party democracy than in challenging Tory malevolence, everything is shitter than Highlander 2 and absolutely will get a LOT worse next year, and yet, and yet, the thought of Flapwig Fattypunk slowly choking to death from the same ‘hoax’ he’s allowed to run rampant…. that doesn’t sound so bad.
I know, I’m a bad person, but my bag of fucks is sooooooooo empty.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@JoyceH: If Lindsey Graham gets The Bug, I may have to rethink my atheism
LeftCoastYankee
That hidden oxygen tank makes sense. It seemed odd he was wearing such a tight mask if he is having breathing issues.
The fact that they wouldn’t have him off it for the duration of the journey between the WH and Walter Reed probably means it’s more than prevention.
TaMara (HFG)
@elm: You have won the internets for today. We may all go home.
JPL
@dmsilev: Same.. I am afraid of a possible Pence/Haley ticket.
Steeplejack
@Omnes Omnibus:
Just piling on.
JoyceH
Saw on twitter or somewhere that October 2020 is when the Democrats started believing in God and the Republicans started believing in science.
Ken
I think the Riddler’s line was “If you kill him, he can’t learn nothing.”
(That would be the Jim Carrey Riddler in Batman Forever.)
Mai Naem mobile
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: wow. I did not know that.I may not have liked Balers politics but I never saw him as a traitor and I know he was competent.
Barbara
@Immanentize: I think it’s likely that most people would not have gone to the hospital as quickly as Trump did. That is, they are being more cautious with him than most of us would be with ourselves. Which means that there is even more uncertainty about whether we should trust what the doctors are telling us. This is really insane. It’s even more insane that he continued with these mass events after Hope Hicks tested positive, and just beyond the beyond that he might have done so already knowing that he was positive.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack: Pile away.
Brachiator
There’s also a long tradition of American presidents lying about their health. It’s good to finally see norms respected.
//snark
Outlaw Jersey Whale.
Love. It!
enplaned
@RaflW: Real men use bronzer, apparently, and spend 70 grand/yr on their hair. That’s what it takes to be a real man in Trumpland. Who knew.
Argiope
@Ken:
It’s probably all in trusts to avoid probate.
Baud
@JPL: Mother would never allow it.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud:
I guess Rose Twitter never saw the movie.
Omnes Omnibus
@Argiope: Well, there is such a thing as an empty trust.
Suzanne
@dmsilev: Yes. I want him to lose the election in absolutely humiliating fashion, live to see Joe’s much bigger inauguration, live to see Melania divorce him, live long enough to see all of his family members become either pariahs or completely irrelevant (or both), witness his reputation fall into such shame that even his diehard supporters pretend they were never on Team Trump, and THEN die.
And then no one will watch his funeral on TV.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Immanentize: UNFAIR! Only some of my images are fake(and I disclose).
JoyceH
Come on, we’ve all heard him talk about the virus – for most people it’s nothing, they barely notice it, blah blah blah.
Poe Larity
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: The timing is such that I may have to start going to church again.
Mary G
It’s ironic that their racism is coming back to bite them. As soon as it came out that outcomes were so much worse for BIPOC than Whites, they decided they couldn’t get it and acted accordingly. Math isn’t their strong suit. Less often doesn’t equal never.
I feel it’s bad for me to wish him dead, but I do wish he experiences all the symptoms. All of them. Major diarrhea, body aches, coughing, trouble breathing, covid toes, neurological effects. For the whole month until the election. Which he loses.
Barbara
@Margaret Imber: I saw it on an airplane. I will watch it again. It is very good. The New Yorker’s review was enlightening, explaining that the director saw no other way to really tell the story except through comedy. I think I saw it on the same flight that I saw In Bruges.
Calouste
@JPL: There might be a “ticket” like that, but it won’t mean anything. AFAIU, if the shitgibbon dies before 1/20 and Pence is VP-elect, Pence becomes President, and there will be no VP, until one is confirmed via the normal procedure which includes a majority of both the House and the Senate.
Roger Moore
@azlib:
They’re used to their privilege protecting them from the consequences of their actions.In this case, they believed their access to rapid tests meant they never had to come in contact with anyone infectious, so they could continue acting like business as usual. Now reality has caught up to them and they’re incapable of adapting to a problem they can’t bargain, lie, or bribe their way out of.
A Ghost to Most
@mad citizen: Live or die, the symptom is still a symptom. His followers will simply pick a new dear leader, likely Tom Cotton.
Jess
@elm:
I had the same evil thought. ;-)
That, and the Chinese curse (oops–did I really do that?), “May you live in interesting times. May you get what you want.”
Bill Arnold
@SiubhanDuinne:
FWIW, that explains the delay in getting him to Marine One; they had to improvise the oxygen apparatus disguise.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
geg6
@Omnes Omnibus:
Heh. Not. Thinking she should have taken some Middle East classes, too.
JCNZ
@UncleEbeneezer: I agree with just about about everything I read on balloon-juice, anyway – but in the case of your comment in particular I agree to the power of a million squllion.
TriassicSands
@Goku (Amerikan Baka):
True, but a good Christian should care more about the safety of people than her own nomination. Wait, she’s a right winger. Forget what I wrote. Plus, dying just speeds the journey to heaven, so no real downside (unless you’re a non-believer).
RobertDSC-iPhone 8
I am “expecting” news of his death to appear at any time. I hate his guts yet feel a sense of dread waiting for that shoe to drop.
frosty
@Suzanne: I like your timeline! I want him alive at a minimum through the election. Alive and aware for Truth and Retribution hearings would be gravy.
Lapassionara
I don’t think Trump will die. He is probably not even going to need a ventilator. I have seen various accounts from people who have had it. One never ran a fever, but felt awful for weeks. Another had some days feeling ok, than days of feeling awful. The most likely outcome is days of deep fatigue, which he can hide from the public by careful staging of events.
My prediction is that he will “rebound” maybe tomorrow or Monday, and try to use this as proof of his superior genes.
Geoduck
You spoke too soon- he’s tweeting again, or someone’s doing a very good job of imitating him.
rikyrah
They lie about every phucking thing, Cole.
Every damn thing.
It can’t surprise you.
You do realize that if it wasn’t for the REPORTER who told about Hope Hicks, that we’d still be in the dark?
The White House DID NOT RELEASE THE INFORMATION ABOUT HOPE HICKS.
Brachiator
@Tony Jay:
What can the opposition actually do, shott of asking Boris Johnson snarky questions and waiting for the next general election?
It is also wild to see Johnson’s own party essentially admit “Yes, he royally screwed up BREXIT, so we decided that it would be great to sit back and let him screw up the pandemic as well.”
And I don’t know if it is just the media, but even other Labour MPs and commenters seem to enjoy sniping at Starmer.
“Of course he asks good questions. He was a QC.”
What else do people expect?
Baud
@Geoduck:
Then he’s doing ok. Odds are he’ll recover. Even at his age, most do.
Ken
Would he get one? I thought most covid patients didn’t, or at least not one that family could attend. Interment of the ashes, perhaps, after the body was cremated in the hospital’s biohazard facility. It’s one of the more horrible things for the families, along with not being able to visit them in the hospital.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Lapassionara: I think Zeke Emmanuel said last night on the Maddow show that the risk of fatality (if that’s the term?) is 5-12%
So odds are we’re looking at much shorter appearances where, as you say, he brags about being too “tough” for the virus, and the howler monkeys will be thrilled. I clicked on MSNBC to see if there were any new developments my twitter addiction was missing, and they were interviewing trumpsters who are apparently having some kind of vigil at his NJ golf course, and they all said he’s “strong”.
A Ghost to Most
@JoyceH: No, and no.
different-church-lady
@Mike in DC: Neither is the virus.
MazeDancer
Read this on Twitter:
Amy Covid Barrett
Thought it was good.
Wondering if reason Barr isn’t getting tested is so he can hang on long enough to block President Pelosi. And install, instead, fellow theocrat Mike Pompeo. Who will call off the election.
Ivan X
So, I’ve been having a polite back and forth over email with my identifies-as-Libertarian-and-supporting-Trump friend. He made me an offer. I’ll write him (my friend) in, and he’ll write me in. We are both voting in New York State. Do I accept? It feels wrong, but it’s tempting to deprive Trump of any vote I can.
Steeplejack
Thread:
Crashman06
@Ivan X: Hell no. Especially in a blue state. Make that libertarian coward sacrifice his alleged principles and own his vote.
C Stars
I don’t care if he dies. The utter and complete incompetence on display here–the fact that through sheer intellectual impotence he couldn’t even keep himself and his most valuable stooges safe, much less THE ENTIRE COUNTRY–should kill any chance of anyone trusting him to be in charge of any decision forever after
Of course, this is ‘Murica, so he’ll probably get another term…
JPL
@MazeDancer: Barr’s safe. Bats tend to be super spreaders, and as such avoid getting sick.
craigie
@Mai Naem mobile:
Nice one.
Librarian
“General Secretary Andropov has a cold.”
Omnes Omnibus
@MazeDancer: Under what authority?
Roger Moore
@The Moar You Know:
I totally get wanting them all to die painfully. For tactical reasons, I would prefer for any Republican senator who dies to do so after an extended stint in the hospital so their governor can’t appoint a replacement in time for the confirmation hearing. But above all else, I want the Republicans to face consequences for their actions. They need to get the idea that their stupid, wrongheaded actions will result in personal pain and suffering. It’s the only way they’ll become better people.
Bill Arnold
@Lapassionara:
If he gets better, the story will be that he was cured by the quadruple-dose Regeneron polyclonal antibody cocktail.
Since it will be reserved for the rich and/or powerful, it will be very divisive.
John S.
Whatever the outcome of Trump’s condition, I don’t think the outcome of the election changes one bit.
It doesn’t matter what the GOP ticket is: Trump/Pence, Pence/Haley, Someone/Anyone. The entire party has been thoroughly corrupted by Trump. They stood by him every step of the way, and there is no escaping the event horizon of the black hole that is his narcissistic id.
As Galatians says, you reap what you sow.
Baud
@Ivan X:
I wouldn’t trust him to keep up his end of the deal. And I wouldn’t do it anyway because this is not a game.
VOR
I will absolutely watch his funeral on TV, repeating on a loop.
JCNZ
@Mai Naem mobile: Oh, STOP!!!!!!!!!!!!
Brachiator
@Ivan X:
I would tell the guy to vote Biden or not to vote at all.
If he goes back on his word, Trump gets a vote and you get nothing. Otherwise you can at best cancel out each other’s vote.
FelonyGovt
@SiubhanDuinne: Yes! Just shows what pathological personalities we’re dealing with- who wears a suit and tie to go to the hospital?
Another Scott
https://electoral-vote.com has Biden at 368 EC votes now, vs 324 yesterday.
https://projects.economist.com/us-2020-forecast/president has him back at 335 after a small bump after Donnie’s lie-a-thon on Tuesday.
Cheers,
Scott.
Goku (Amerikan Baka)
@TriassicSands:
Oh absolutely! It was incredibly selfish of her, at the very least. Imagine if Trump dies (or more hopefully just becomes severely debilitated), several senators become too sick to attend her hearings and Trump loses to Biden in the end. Talk about snatching defeat from the jaws of victory!
Chetan Murthy
@Ivan X: Accept it, and renege. It’s what any good Libertarian would do.
Steeplejack
@Ivan X:
Your friend’s vote won’t affect the outcome and doesn’t need to be “negated.” You should vote for Biden and make sure your friend knows that if he votes for Trump he will have to live with that.
John S.
@Ivan X: Your friend can vote for whomever they like. They have to live with it on their conscience, whether they tell anyone who they actually voted for or not.
It’s not worth the stain on your conscience to not vote for your convictions. This is not a game.
ETA: That’s about as unanimous as you will ever see anything from this group of jackals.
MagdaInBlack
@Steeplejack: My personal conspiracy theory is they came to the debate knowing, and hoped to infect Biden.
Subsole
It would be just like that oily little shit to check out before the bill comes due…
Chetan Murthy
@Ivan X: Also: is he a Christian? I have it on good word that “Christians” are OK with lying for their faith. So just lie to him, and afterwards (assuming there -is- an afterwards) you can explain to him that you were practicing your faith, which requires lying to Trumpists.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack: @John S.: I agree. Also, fuck placating some self-indulgent shitbird.
Goku (Amerikan Baka)
@Brachiator:
Wasn’t Tony Jay a big Corbyn booster?
Gvg
@Ken: the family will over ride rules, even though it will be stupid, and then spread the germs further, because that’s what they do.
trollhattan
What does this even mean?
Maybe DeSantis can bookend this by declaring a day of thought.
Brachiator
@Lapassionara:
Apparently some of his supporters don’t think he is sick or that he has god given super genetics which will crush the Covid virus.
It’s a cult.
Omnes Omnibus
@Goku (Amerikan Baka): A couple of questions for you: Why not ask Tony Jay directly? And what if he is/was?
Eunicecycle
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: My husband’s uncle recovered from it at 92!
trollhattan
@MagdaInBlack:
Would it have been too obvious if Trump had chased Biden around the stage “C’mon Joe, give Donny a hug!”
Agree they probably went, knowing he’s infected. It’s so Trump.
Ivan X
Ok, you have all reinforced my lean. But I was curious what the opinions would be.
but he wouldn’t renege. He’s not the type. I liked the suggestion that *I* do it, though.
Goku (Amerikan Baka)
@Geoduck:
@Baud:
Could just be somebody else tweeting in his name
Ivan X
@Chetan Murthy: he is an avowed atheist. But good one! I like how you think.
Goku (Amerikan Baka)
@Omnes Omnibus:
1. Because he’s not very active and I was asking Brachinator.
2. I don’t care if he was or not. It might explain the “internal Party democracy” comments.
ChuckInAustin
@trollhattan: I’m a life-long Cowboy fan. Many years ago my then-10 year old daughter asked, ‘do the players hate Jerry Jones?’ I replied, ‘everyone hates Jerry Jones.’
WaterGirl
@MattF: Anyone would be scared after finding out they have COVID.
Goku (Amerikan Baka)
@trollhattan:
It means Pro-Forced Birth whack-a-doodle DeWimp is sucking up to Trump
Mai Naem mobile
I really want to know who was at the NJ fundraiser and do they ask for regular checks, credit cards or cashiers checks at these things? If they were regular checks and credit cards I wonder how many have been cancelled. The campaign is supposedly in a cash crunch. Also I badly want to see the people at the Contagious Amy event ID’d – maybe with a number on each person with the ID on a list. I only recognize a small number.
Goku (Amerikan Baka)
@Tony Jay:
Because Omnes encouraged me to ask, were you a Corbyn booster. I don’t have a problem if you were, just wondering
Immanentize
@Mike in DC:
I prefer the Mel Brooks version:
“We mock the things we are to become.”
Barbara
@Ivan X: If your friend lived in a swing state it might be worth considering, because one less vote for Trump in a swing state might be more meaningful than one additional vote for Biden in NY, but that’s not true if you both live in the same state. Presumably, he is conflicted by his vote for Trump, whereas, you are not similarly conflicted by your vote for Biden. So the basic premise here is that he is trying to use you to salve his conscience. In other words, there is no upside to this deal for you. He should be brave enough to follow his own conscience, especially since there are literally no consequences to him one way or the other and no one except him has to know how he voted. I would tell him to grow up. That’s probably why I don’t have more friends.
p.a.
https://youtu.be/S_y0YfT2I_s
Lige
@PST: Children of the Revolution is one of my favorites – F Murray Abraham as Stalin is great.
Roger Moore
@trollhattan:
DeSantis seems like an odd choice. I can imagine DeWine praying, but it’s hard to imagine DeSantis thinking.
Geoduck
@Goku (Amerikan Baka): As I said, if it’s an imitator, they’re doing a really good job with the Randomly Capitalized word!!Salad. But then, maybe someone else has been doing them for him all along.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Goku (Amerikan Baka): If you read his comments during the last British election, you’d know the answer.
Barbara
@Mai Naem mobile: You are right. He probably went because they really needed the money.
Goku (Amerikan Baka)
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I don’t always remember 100% of everything I read. I had a feeling he was, but I wasn’t completely certain
So much shit happens every day it’s hard to keep track and remember
Ivan X
@Barbara: I made the best arguments I could. He’ll never grow up.
different-church-lady
@Another Scott: I’m not going to feel comfortable until he gets to 600.
TriassicSands
People may or may not want to wish Trump dead, but, in the end, there is one, I think, undeniable fact: the world would be better off with Trump gone.
different-church-lady
@Lapassionara:
If he had what I had, the only rebounding will be his head off the pillows when he goes into coughing fits every time he tries to lay flat for a couple of weeks.
I’m sure the globs of blood in his sputum will add a spring to his step too. Those lasted a good month after I was able to go home.
Goku (Amerikan Baka)
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I meant no offense
mad citizen
@FelonyGovt: I read it somewhere else, but if you think about it, he only has two looks/outfits: the suit/tie, and the khaki/golf polo shirt. That’s it. Then on any natural disaster tour the oversize black jacket goes on over the golf outfit.
I’ll be happy to pray Sunday, but not for the outcome DeWine wishes
I read the two latest tweets (assuming all replies will be part of some presidential record/electronic library someday–that makes me happy). I’d give it 20-30% chance it’s from trump himself. Someone should ask him the score of one of the college football games right now.
FlyingToaster
@Tony Jay:
I believe Swear_Trek speaks for you.
joel hanes
Our Blogfather, who art in West By God Virginia, quoth
Galatians 6:7
I’d have gone with Proverbs, 16:18 myself
LuciaMia
Hah, from the same folks who insisted it was all a hoax or over-blown. So now its this super lethal Soviet-like biological weapon; guaranteed to take him out!
You cant have it both ways.
Janut
@TriassicSands: Only Democrats
Haroldo
Any word on Hope Hicks condition?
Immanentize
Barr Barr barr
Barr-‘rona-man!
Barr Barr barr
Barr-‘rona-man!
Barr-‘rona-man,
don’t shake my hand!
‘Rona-man
You’ll be coughin’ and a sneezin’
Hackin’ and wheezin’
‘Rona man!
(Barr Barr Barr
Barr-rona-man)
Sister Golden Bear
@SiubhanDuinne: Trump is a narcissist who see illness as a sign of weakness—reportedly in the 90s he went to the hospital to fire a Trump Org exec who’d just had a heart attack because he was too weak to work—and a narcissist cannot admit any sign of weakness.
@FelonyGovt: Wearing a suit to the hospital is hiding any sign of weakness. Plus this is a guy who forced his son to wear a suit to a sporting event. Also, he apparently doesn’t have any casual clothes besides his golf togs.
Baud
@Immanentize:
Has Barr tested positive?
Immanentize
@FlyingToaster: ❤️ that.
Chetan Murthy
@Goku (Amerikan Baka): Even at the time, it was clear that Corbyn would be a better choice than BoJo. Not merely b/c BoJo is a Tory, but b/c he’s a liar, a buffoon, and a narcissist. Maybe he’s not -quite- as much of a sociopath as Shitlord, but then, I don’t have to live with him in the same country, so I haven’t paid as much attention.
If I were a UK citizen, I’d be a
Corbyniterabid Labourite, too. Anybody But BoJo.zhena gogolia
@gene108:
If you turn on the TV and Swan Lake is playing, it’s all over.
Geoduck
Please. It’s only deadly if it gets jammed directly up your nose.
Immanentize
@Baud: no, not yet, that I know of.
but I am willing to entice the Gods with musical offerings.
greenergood
@The Moar You Know: You have no idea how many of us are praying (non-religously) for this non-nourishing vegetable BoJo to vacate the seat of Prime Minister – he is as embarassing as Trumplethinskin, and totally screwing us in terms of Brexit leaving. His hedge-fundie friends will make so much ££ when Brexit takes hold, and the rest of us are collateral damage …
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
I don’t want him to die before the election if only because we’re cruising to victory and anything that keeps that guy from being on the ballot can only be good for Republicans. Wouldn’t mind seeing him debilitated though. I’m convinced they all knew they were carrying it around on Tuesday which is unconscionable. They’re testing that Regeneron monoclonal antibody treatment as a prophylaxis and hope very much that they’ve offered it to the Biden campaign. Although if he and Jill still test negative for the next couple days they’re probably out of the woods.
Goku (Amerikan Baka)
@Baud:
He tested negative yesterday, apparently
@Chetan Murthy:
Of course he was. I would never argue otherwise
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Immanentize: That’s better than McCain’s version…Bomb, Bomb Iran.
Immanentize
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I hope so!
Ken
Downgraded to “uninteresting”, which is just one step above “nobody”. As in “it affects virtually nobody.”
LongHairedWeirdo
I sure won’t scold over your feelings of those responsible for 200k+ deaths reaping what they sowed; but I did see a point at Mahablog about how death is *literally* too good for many of them. We deserve to see them indicted and convicted.
Immanentize
@Ken: I am hoping her case continues on to “coffee girl.”
Tony Jay
@Brachiator:
Oppose, simple as that. What the Tories are doing is criminal on many, many levels, actually criminal, not just criminally incompetent. From the law-breaking over Brexit to the deliberate failure to prevent a 2nd wave of Covid infections and everything in between. Its the very definition of a target rich environment and with years to go until the next Election (probably) Her Majesties Opposition should be taking every opportunity to lay out exactly what Johnson’s bumblers are doing wrong and how they would do better. Instead it’s wall to wall “We support the Government’s policy on (fill in the blank) but will make concerned faces when it fails to achieve bugger all” and the occassional lawyerly flensing of Flobalob that hardly anyone watches on TV and even fewer people care about.
Perhaps I’m just sore over the destructive sabotage the Labour Right inflicted on the Party’s electoral chances with five years of non-stop bleating about how a ‘real’ leader should be 20 points ahead of the Tories and how the British public were just crying out for the decisive, clear leadership that only they could provide, so I’m entirely comfortable calling them out for doing a screeching 180 on all of that now that they’re in the hotseat and the country desperately needs someone to give people hope that things – can – get better. It’s not in them. They’re just bullshit machines who would rather send down diktats to local parties telling them what topics they can’t discuss than actually fight the far-Right extremism that is wrecking the UK.
tldr – Should the Democrats have just sat on their arses for four years waiting for the American electorate to reject a second Trump term? No, they fought back and opposed him. Labour should do the same.
Anya
@Steeplejack (phone): I think it’s in some journalist’s contracts to praise her
Immanentize
@LongHairedWeirdo:
Potato potahto
MagdaInBlack
@Haroldo: Hope who? Barely knew her.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Brachiator:
COVID moved on him like a bitch…
dmsilev
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?: His name is on the ballot even if he drops dead tomorrow. Millions of ballots have been mailed out (mine arrived today), a whole bunch have been filled out and sent back.
If he croaks before the election, the RNC can designate a replacement (presumably Pence), and since technically you’re voting for a slate of electors rather than the candidate directly, there’s no huge legal issue.
rikyrah
@Immanentize:
BWA HA HA HA HA HA H AH AH AH AH HA
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
@dmsilev: I’m not worried about the legality. I’m worried about a bunch of disaffected Republicans coming home to the party because they don’t see Pence as a total scumbag. He’d be more a W than a Trump IMO. But that has to be weighed against the fact that a non trivial portion of Trump’s base will accept no substitute and might stay home if he’s 6 feet under.
NeenerNeener
@MagdaInBlack: Nah, if they both survive this she’s the future 4th Mrs DJT.
Roger Moore
@mad citizen:
I think there will be a lot of people who will have the 109th Psalm on their lips when they pray for Trump.
Tony Jay
@Goku (Amerikan Baka):
I was a Corbyn supporter, yes. For all his faults he was honest, cared deeply about the country, was dedicated to ousting the Tories and on the right side of (almost) every major policy issue over the last few decades.
Unfortunately he wanted to raise taxes slightly on the very rich to fund the rebuilding of the country and thought Palestinians were human beings, which meant he was History’s Greatest Monster who had to be utterly destroyed, and to hell with what that meant for the rest of the population.
People and their wacky opinions, eh?
dmsilev
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?: I think the disaffected cultist factor would probably be stronger, but that’s really just a guess.
HumboldtBlue
Hear him!
Tony Jay
@FlyingToaster:
It’s Bones’ hangdog features that sell the dialogue, and yes, he so speaks for me.
Rand Careaga
@Ohio Mom:
My wife’s family and their stepsiblings fought so bitterly over her father’s estate that by the end most of its value had gone, Jarndyce v. Jarndyce fashion, to the fees of two very satisfied Southern California law firms. Both sides would have come out at least half a million dollars ahead had they put aside the animosities, but as my sister-in-law fumed at one point (expressing a sentiment held by both warring clans), “I don’t care, as long as they get nothing!” The attorneys were cool with that. I’m cool as well with watching the Trump estate, such as it is, being sucked away in litigation.
jackmac
@Margaret Imber: Thanks for the tip on ‘Death of Stalin’. Just fired up the Netflix machine to watch.
mad citizen
@Roger Moore: Thank you for the help! 109th Psalm
patrick II
@UncleEbeneezer:
I think major public personas that I watched last night, Rachel, Colbert, Chris Hayes, all said that we should separate the private person from his politics and wish him a return to good health. Sometimes you can do that when someone follows policies that aren’t strictly personal such as Biden supporting abortion rights when his Catholic faith forbids them, and dozens of other times when a president acted in his role as president of us all. But I believe you shouldn’t do that for this extreme case. Donald Trump the private person is not separated at all from his policies of hate, separation, greed and destroyer of democracy. I view that whatever happens to him — death, illness, recovery after the election, in the context of what is good for the country, not at all for his personal well-being. I cannot separate his personal life for a different desired outcome because he can’t either.
Kent
i will give him credit for one thing. Every year he does open up Cowboy Stadium to dozens and dozens of HS football playoff games. It is an amazing place to go watch games with your HS. I probably did it a dozen times during the years I taught in TX. That’s something that, for example University of Texas, doesn’t do.
Snarki, child of Loki
Preznit Trumpov is feeling healthy and energetic!
In fact, he’s playing on the roof, and doesn’t want to come down.
Captain C
@trollhattan:
With this level of judgement on Jerry’s part, it’s no wonder the Cowboys haven’t sniffed a Super Bowl in a quarter century.
White & Gold Purgatorian
@Eunicecycle: Good for him! Thanks for sharing that. My Mom is 92 also. She is in good health but you hear so much about the danger of COVID at that age. It is nice to hear of a good outcome.
MagdaInBlack
@Ohio Mom: I’ve seen people fight over costume jewelry. My in-laws fought me over whom I should give some of my late husbands “stuff” to….because I gave his favorite nephew his 4-10 shotgun.
Vultures.
patrick II
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
“Themselves as protected” being the key phrase. Protecting others, even family, friends and political allies, not so much. And certainly not the hoi poloi occupying the rest of the country. Just ask those donors who met Donald Wednesday after he knew Hope had tested positive. They were good for money, but other than that their lives matter not at all.
mad citizen
The Guardian has a color coded virus map of the Rose Garden event. The Pences were adjacent to the ones with the virus: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2020/oct/03/donald-trump-covid-19-coronavirus-hospital-white-house-live-latest-news-updates
I can’t imagine how SNL is going to handle all of this tonight.
MagdaInBlack
@NeenerNeener: I do not see his children allowing that old man to get married again, and split the estate, such as it is, further.
J R in WV
@elm:
A truly gifted thinker and writer. Erudite and well read, also too
Thanks for this !!!
Librarian
@Tony Jay: What did you think of Corbyn’s position on Brexit? I got the impression that it was not clear. He didn’t come out against it during the referendum. I’m still not sure if he’s for it or against it.
zhena gogolia
@Roger Moore:
Wow, good stuff.
WaterGirl
@Ivan X: Do not do it. Why would you believe or trust someone who wants to vote for Trump?
J R in WV
@Poe Larity:
Now, let’s not get carried away ! ;~)
Wyatt Salamanca
@Wapiti:
I hear you. I don’t want COVID-19 to deprive me of the opportunity of seeing Trump sitting a courtroom and hearing the words guilty, guilty, and guilty!
This rabble-rousing bastard needs to survive the Coronavirus so that he can die in disgrace in a prison cell after he loses in November.
Brachiator
@Tony Jay:
Thanks for the reply. Since BREXIT I have been trying to understand how the British system works.
The Democrats made gains in the mid-term elections and control the House (even though this is not always enough to stop Trump).
To my eyes, even though Parliament is supposed to be sovereign and a majority rejected a no deal BREXIT, the government can pretty much ignore Parliament as long as it has a majority and (as in the US) as long as MPs insist on voting along party lines.
And as far as I can see, there is nothing that the Opposition can actually do about anything. But if a more active opposition might have any impact, then yeah, Labour should be doing more.
trnc
@dmsilev:
It would absolutely be Pence because his name is already on the ballot, too, and votes have already been cast. Theoretically, the party could choose another candidate if needed before ballots go out, but if it’s too close to the printing deadline for ballots, their only option would be to try to convince voters to write in a specified candidate. Trying to pick any other candidate after votes are cast for the one on the ballot would essentially be running a 3rd party candidate against their own.
Rand Careaga
@Ivan X:
Absolutely not. The point is to bulk up Biden’s total.
Lie to your friend. WWTD?
J R in WV
@Ivan X:
Don’t do it. He won’t do as he proposed at all.
Or accept the proposal, and vote for Joe anyway, either is ethical in this situation.
germy
This All Feels So Soviet
(It’s felt Soviet since 2016)
KenK
@Ivan X: In NY, it probably won’t matter for President. The good action is in the down-ballot voting.
Marypretzels
@Margaret Imber: I love that movie! So wonderfully made with such exceptional actors.
germy
Ken
Video: Washington DC landmarks superimposed on a waving flag.
Audio: Swan Lake.
Matt
@Ivan X:
Don’t.
He’s a Trump supporter: he’ll agree, then vote for Trump anyways.
They can’t help it, they’re just utterly incapable of telling the truth or behaving morally.
KenK
@trollhattan: It is also for “all those suffering from or impacted by coronavirus”, the Republican governor tweeted.
Sounds like DeWine is considering +200k lives and families an “oh, by the way…” inclusion. jfc.
germy
zhena gogolia
@Ivan X:
Why on earth would you do such a thing?
zhena gogolia
@germy:
This is what I can’t stop thinking about. It kept me up last night.
Wyatt Salamanca
Some alleged broadcast journalists say the dumbest fucking things:
h/t https://www.mediaite.com/news/journalists-and-others-dunk-on-fox-news-brit-hume-over-may-tweet-mocking-biden-for-wearing-covid-mask/
Marypretzels
@Margaret Imber: I love that movie! So wonderfully made with such exceptional actors.
trnc
@Ivan X: So let me understand this – you definitely won’t have moved the needle in Biden’s favor, and potentially don’t cancel out a vote for DT because anyone who could support for DT could justify lying to anyone about anything?
Guess what I think you should tell your buddy to do with his deal.
mrmoshpotato
Well, Dump is a Soviet shitpile mobster conman…
Ken
Oh, I don’t know. Standing there in full-body PPE, face all but entirely concealed, staring down at him and making Darth Vader breathing noises – there’s a certain appeal.
Brachiator
@trnc:
If he croaks before the election, the RNC can designate a replacement (presumably Pence),
In practical terms, I think Republicans will be voting for Trump/Pence or just Pence, depending on how events unfold. There can be complications if Trump is not around when the electors come together (December 16?) or when the electoral votes have to be certified (January 6?).
But what the heck. We could use a little more uncertainty on top of the chaos that the Orange Beast tried to create before he fell ill.
Goku (Amerikan Baka)
@Tony Jay:
Thank you for the reply. It’s too bad Corbyn and Labour were beaten. He definitely would’ve been an improvement over BoJo the Clown. Although, correct me if I’m wrong, but he was Eurosceptic, wasn’t he? Would he have stopped Brexit?
I tend to think that Corbyn was easy to demonize and be made a boogeyman by the Tories
otmar
We played a game of Kremlin with friends yesterday evening.
How fitting.
Villago Delenda Est
When Faux starts playing somber music continuously over a backdrop of American flags fluttering against a blue sky, we’ll know that deliverance is upon us.
Croaker
Ivan X
@trnc: Well, I do think it was a good faith offer, but as you say, no guarantees, and I am not going to fuck around with my vote.
Spanky
I’m sticking with the theory that he had it at the debate, knew it, and was deliberately trying to infect Biden. That would also mean that his symptoms did not present early. He himself may have been Patient Zero at Amy Covid Barret’s coming out party.
Look for Chris Wallace or, fsm forbid, Biden to come down with it.
Yutsano
@Another Scott: What the Hades is going on in Arkansas???
Tony Jay
@Librarian:
It’s old news, but I think the lack of clarity was entirely a construct of hostile media narrative.
He did oppose Brexit in the 2016 referendum, explaining that, while the EU had faults, he was 70/30 in favour of staying in. In the end he brought 7/10 Labour voters with him in voting Remain, but since he refused to repeat the mistake Labour had made in the Scottish Independence Referendum of campaigning side by side with the Conservatives (a mistake that killed Labour as the dominant Party in Scottish politics and lost it virtually all of its Scottish MPs) and the Tory leadership were unable to prevent a large majority of Tory voters going for Leave, when David Cameron and George Osborne scuttled out of the limelight the Media decided that somehow Corbyn was responsible for Remain’s defeat, for reasons that had everything to do with virulent hostility to his being Labour leader and zero to do with reality.
And in the last election the actual policy (devised by a certain little known non-entity by the name of Sir Kier Starmer) was perfectly clear. Labour had opposed Brexit but the Referendum and the ensuing Acts of Parliament gave it democratic legitimacy. If elected a Labour Govt would dump the Tory ‘red lines’, negotiate the ‘best’ withdrawal agreement possible, and then take that back to the electorate for a confirmatory referendum with the option of dumping the whole idea in the shitter and just staying in the EU.
Something there for everyone. If it had been proposed by anyone other than Corbyn it would have been hailed as great politics and a strong position to campaign from. Because it was proposed by Corbyn it was by definition a betrayal, weak, confusing, fence-sitting, etc etc. He simply couldn’t be allowed even the suggestion of the hint of a ‘win’, even if the alternative was a No-Deal Brexit and five years of Tory misrule.
You can clearly see how hypocritical and dishonest the disparaging of Corbyn’s Brexit policy was by noting how the very same people who were most virulent in demanding that Labour absolutely had to campaign wholeheartedly for Remain and vociferous in dismissing the danger of losing votes in Leave-voting Labour seats as a result are now the loudest cheerleaders for Starmer’s policy of completely rejecting even the idea of campaigning for rejoining the EU and are pushing hard for turning away from ‘identity politics’ in order to chase after the suddenly vitally important votes of those Brexit-supporting former Labour people who ‘Corbyn lost’.
If we had a functioning Media in this country this bare-faced ratfuckery would be a national scandal, but since the British media were as fully invested in destroying Corbyn as anyone on the Labour Right, that’s not the narrative they’re promoting.
If only Corbyn had campaigned more in Wisconsin, eh?
Ruckus
@UncleEbeneezer:
I can go either way. The end result is what counts and as they will extremely likely have no regrets for what they have done it really doesn’t matter.
In that vein does anyone think any conservative will feel in any way, any contrition, for their views and/or deeds? I don’t, they think that their hate/racism is patriotism of the highest order, that being a cornerstone of current day conservatism.
Tony Jay
@Brachiator:
Yup. There’s a long way to go (probably) until the next election, but there are local elections in the meantime that act as opinion polls. Opposition parties oppose, otherwise, why should anyone consider voting for them?
opiejeanne
@trollhattan: Why do all of these people refer to Trump as so hard-working? No one has ever seen him do a lick of work. Heck, he watches tv until about 11am most mornings before showing up in the Oval Office.
tony in san diego
@Connor: “It is what it is.” –Donald Trump
Ruckus
@SiubhanDuinne:
Well he’s the president, all of those docs work for him. It’s not that they all are his doctor, it’s that they actually work for him. Now I know that indirectly they all work for all of us, their boss is the patient. And he’s not just any patient. He’s the president. Sure he doesn’t deserve it, for all the reasons stated many times, but there it is, he is the president. He has certain rights and privileges that a normal patient doesn’t get. IOW they are respecting the office, even if he isn’t. But it’s also such a clusterfuck of a presidency that some are not going to respect the office as much as others. Now none of us work for him and I’d bet none of us here have any respect for him so that changes our perspectives. A lot.
Tony Jay
@Goku (Amerikan Baka):
It helped that a large chunk of the Parliamentary Party and the Party’s unelected bureaucracy supported, promoted and cheerled the demonisation.
They played the same role in British politics as the Berniebros and the Purity Left played in America, validating right-wing smears and undermining the Party’s chosen leader, with the same result
See 267 for the rest of my long winded reply about Corbyn’s views on the EU.
tony in san diego
@Tony Jay: that is the whole fraud about election fraud: there are thousands of jurisdictions, with thousands of different ballots. There is no single ballot that says TRUMP? BIDEN?. There is no way to print up enough fake ballots to make any difference.
Ruckus
@opiejeanne:
The people that refer to him as hardworking are either trying very hard not to be sorry for voting for him, or very hard not wanting anyone to know they voted for him and neither group wants to be shown to be complete fucking racists. The complete fucking racists are pissed that one of their own is dying of covid and they called that a hoax because racism is the most important thing to them.
taumaturgo
@Mai Naem mobile: Ménage à Trois? Spicy thinking.
Tony Jay
@tony in san diego:
Agreed. The whole ‘election fraud’ scam is just code for “Those People vote the wrong way”.
Plus, obviously, enough projection to shadow-puppet an entire production of War & Peace onto the Moon.
Ruckus
@FelonyGovt:
The guy who won’t let his own son wear a jersey to a ball game. After all who wears a suit to a ball game?
It’s part of his diseased mind, he has to appear at all times as a proper businessman – suit and tie. It can look like a $50 suit from Walmart, but it has to be a suit.
Citizen Alan
@RSA: Don’t even joke about that. I was raised SBC and read the Left Behind books through the fourth one before I gave up in disgust (my mother had them and I was bored at her house over Christmas holidays with no internet). It is actually a plot point that serious Rapture theorists believe that the Antichrist will seemingly die at the halfway point during the seven year Tribulation only to come back to life more powerful than before, at which point things get really bad before Jesus comes back to mass-exterminate most of the human race.
J R in WV
@Ruckus:
Walmart sells suits?? ;~)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Ruckus:
also, what he thinks is classy, like that sad and tacky family portrait with Whats-Her-Name and That Poor Kid
Martin
There have been some good observations that Schumer could use the opportunity of several GOP senators being in quarantine to force through a new vote for Majority Leader, take control of the Senate, change the rules to keep any exposed members of congress from the building, and get on with things.
That’s what McConnell would do if the situation was reversed.
Ruckus
@Mary G:
From the looks of him, he’s already experiencing most of them. He might not know though….
Sebastian
@Martin:
Isn’t that a chicken and egg problem? How would Schumer get the vote on the agenda? (Not sure how it’s called in Senate terms)
The majority determines what gets a vote and that’s McConnell. Or does the Senate regularly vote on quorum and majority?
Ruckus
@Matt:
Can I ask, what is moral about asking someone to change their vote in return for something not worth a damn?
You own that vote, not anyone else, they can ask you to vote for their candidate but that’s not what is really happening here. This is not a moral play here, this is quid pro quo, without any actual assurance that Ivan X gets his end of the bargain. It is, as many have pointed out, not an actual trade. It’s like having to vote by an electronic machine, how do you know that your vote even gets counted the way you think it should? There needs to be a paper trail so that votes can be recounted, and more than once if needed. Yes it’s a waste of paper a month after the election but it absolutely isn’t before then. And yes I voted twice on an electronic machine when I lived in OH. I didn’t trust the count then and I still don’t. Because it can be changed. And given the person in charge of that, Ken Blackwell, I will suspect that till 6 months after my dying day.
Ruckus
@J R in WV:
I have no idea. I don’t shop there. I lived in a county that wouldn’t approve a business license for them to move in for 6 yrs. That was nice. And they gave me a business license so that shows how bad wally world is. But if they sold suits, how good do you think they are? I said it could look like a $50 suit that Walmart would sell.
ballerat
@Amir Khalid: That would be every abuser’s last effort at abusing their victims: To control their victims until the very end and even beyond the abuser’s death by denying their victims any opportunity for justice by that death.
Unfortunately there is entirely possible Trump could be re-elected. I’d rather have him die now and lose the satisfaction of repudiation, vs the chance of him abusing us for another 4 years.
This country cannot take 4 more years of that abuse. And I can’t even begin to imagine how many more people will surely die from 4 more years of his malevolence.
It’s not fair or just to his past victims. But it’s even more unfair and unjust to give him a chance to kill and victimize hundreds of thousands of more people. And we know if he wins he will surely do that.
kindness
Oh John, it isn’t Biblical. It’s karmic.