Seriously, tv news people. You do not have to book whatever mess the White House is offering up. Because that person uses your platform to spread lies. You can just report—accurately and based on fact—what we are learning. https://t.co/5Vs90A8CPf
— Soledad O'Brien (@soledadobrien) October 4, 2020
Mollie Hemingway on Fox News complaining that the media isn't asking tough questions about Joe Biden's health. Philippe Reines points out Joe Biden is not in the hospital.
— Aidan McLaughlin (@aidnmclaughlin) October 4, 2020
If you think about it those have effectively become ads for Biden. https://t.co/TJ0z95J9y4
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) October 4, 2020
Biden should put out a new ad with Trump saying Covid is no big deal, nobody will die, wearing masks is dumb, it will miraculously disappear by Easter, etc….and then enjoy the huge earned media debate over whether using Trump’s own words counts as a negative ad.
— Michael Grunwald (@MikeGrunwald) October 4, 2020
Climate Solutions: Recommended Documentaries
mrmoshpotato
Can someone put a bag over the Colts’ coach’s head for everyone’s safety?
TaMara (HFG)
I am livid.
Jeffro
Have to agree with Grunwald’s take.
The country is with us on this -80-85% are fine with wearing masks for as long as it takes to get the kids back in school and businesses re-opened.
So… I know we are bad at working the refs, but let’s work the refs
Baud
If Trump’s concession speech doesn’t end with “The Aristocrats!”, I’ll be disappointed.
mali muso
So did I understand correctly, or did the Orange One just go on a COVID joyride whilst trapping his Secret Service detail in an infectious sealed car just for a photo op? There truly is no bottom.
Baud
@TaMara (HFG):
What’s that referring to? Who’s getting punished for that?
Major Major Major Major
I don’t think there exists a negative ad that would be more effective than the news right now…
The Dangerman
Today’s parade stunt shows we can’t risk another 4 years of Trump; if the only way to prevent him being installed again through some sort of lawsuit or legerdemain is for him to get his ticket punched, oh well.
Bluegirlfromwyo
JFC. Every time I think they can go no lower, they sink to the occasion.
Suzanne
Claudia Conway just announced that she has COVID.
Baud
zhena gogolia
@mali muso:
You understood correctly.
Mary G
My Twitter is all outrage on behalf of his Secret Service unit.
Basically: We used to judge them on holiday travel, now it’s whether or not he’ll kill us.
Mary G
@Major Major Major Major: Biden doesn’t even need the negative ads he took down.
The Moar You Know
So, Walter Reed had to stick a giant squalling baby in the car and take him for a ride so he’d STFU and go to sleep?
I SEE HOW IT IS
germy
I saw this comment over at LGM:
mali muso
@zhena gogolia: Consider my gob smacked. Although I really should know by know…there is no bottom to be plumbed.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
mrmoshpotato
@The Dangerman: True. How’s your health today?
TaMara (HFG)
@Baud: Twitter was putting anyone who wished death on the orange one in a 72 hour timeout. Too tired/disgusted to go look for their press release.
Brachiator
Of course, the offensive conservatives stay on …the offensive, as though the Orange Beast never had his little hospital visit. The few Trump supporters with brains must be going “WTF?”
This also proves that the Biden team should not have pulled any of its ads and need to unleash Hell on these rascals.
Capri
Opposite of conventional belief, celebraties often get worse medical care than other people. Because the medical staff is star struck, or cowed, and lets the patient dictate treatment. Michael Jackson is exhibit A in that regard, but Trump seems to be a close second. If he’s sick enough to get dexamethasone he shouldn’t be riding around in a car. If he’s not that sick, no MD should let him get bullied into giving it to him. Dexamethasone has effects – they can’t be called side effects because they are the reason why many people take it – that harm the immune system. They also can cause euphoria and mask severe symptoms until it’s too late.
We won’t know his true medical condition until he’s dead.
Mike in NC
Now Mike Pence will be spending half his waking time for the next 3-4 weeks flying around the country to rally Fat Bastard’s cultists. Chances of him being exposed to Covid just increased about 1000%.
TaMara (HFG)
@Suzanne: Hope KellyAnne is happy. Worst parent ever.
germy
@Brachiator:
At the same time Obama was tweeting his well wishes for Trump’s speedy recovery, the Trump campaign was sending out tweets referring to “Lying Obama.”
The Thin Black Duke
Meanwhile, in the Real World, Regal just shut down their theaters across the country because nobody’s going to the movies, Disney is laying off 20, 000 employees, and the number of people infected by COVID-19 is skyrocketing. Trump ain’t got no lipstick that’s gonna make this pig look pretty.
debbie
@germy:
Yeah, his photo proves that. //
mrmoshpotato
@Mary G: Hell! Even CNN is tired of Dump’s bullshit, and they loved themselves some empty Dump podium.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Suzanne: Goddammit.
That poor kid.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@TaMara (HFG):
Surely Fred Trump and his appalling orange offspring are contenders for that title?
That’s a cage match I’d pay NOT to see.
Steeplejack (phone)
I wonder if by this time the Secret Service has built up a cadre of agents who tested positive after previous Trump events and might be considered immune, or possibly less at risk, and thus able to handle the close exposure to Trump now.
Mildly disgusting to even think this, but it is what it is.
The Dangerman
@mrmoshpotato: Still without obvious Covid symptoms, thanks. Only consistent symptom is kinda tired which I’m blaming on my heart medicine. I’m out of isolation Tuesday and badly need a shower. PU.
ETA: I have a roommate who gets the bath with a shower. I get the bath with only the essentials.
dexwood
@mali muso: president SuperSpreader rides again. Fear not, America. What a fucking asshole.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@mali muso:
Yes.
Mary G
Wag
I have very deep-seated concerns that the Trump administration is preventing the CDC from releasing information that I’ve gathered about trump rallies and super spreader events. I have no doubt that there has been significant outbreaks which could be traced back to trumps rallies, but I’m afraid that the CDC is being prevented from releasing the information.
Mary G
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: I feel bad for Claudia. She seems like a smart kid – it’s horrifying that we’re watching her, at best, collecting material for her someday book in real time.
Suzanne
@TaMara (HFG): Claudia posted yesterday that Kellyanne was walking around the house, coughing all over the place, AFTER testing positive.
My God. These people.
debbie
Wouldn’t there be a glass/plexiglass panel between the front and back seats?
Sebastian
@Jeffro:
This is very simple:
Antimaskers are drunk drivers.
Brachiator
@germy:
Trump Family Values. But it also shows how politics is amoral. There is no sin that cannot be overlooked as long as you can do what needs to be done.
Chetan Murthy
@debbie: I’d guess there is such a panel. But OTOH, this is the President: they’re gonna put a man in the same compartment if they can, b/c “duty to protect”. I don’t fault ’em for that, for sure.
It’s all so disgusting. Those poor agents.
Mary G
@Suzanne: and she lied to her daughter that she had tested negative, and didn’t admit it until it was on the news. That poor child.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Miss Bianca
@The Thin Black Duke:
I really, really, wanted to open up our little theater for at least one movie before the holidays – or during the holidays. Then I read stories like this and think, “are you fucking nuts?” It’s hard not to say something like that to people who ask when we’re going to open up again, as well. : (
Mary G
Jim, Foolish Literalist
mali muso
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Thank goddess. Will be holding my breath for the next two weeks.
RinaX
Bidens COVID test came back negative.
VeniceRiley
@Wag:
It would be good to share via a anon news tip. Pleanty of reporters tweeting dm will get a reply where to send anon encrypt
PPCLI
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Thank God! I was getting desperately worried about that.
Baud
Excellent news on Biden’s test.
Baud
@mali muso: Me too, but I think I read today was a critical day for some reason.
Baud
@Suzanne:
She needs to do an ad for Biden or LP or something like that.
Mary G
Maybe there is a god:
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Sebastian: Yup, good analogy.
Suzanne
@Baud: I just watched the video of Joe and Jill talking about the day that Obama gave Biden the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Onions. So many fucken onions.
Jeffro
@Sebastian: truth
LuciaMia
No holds barred. I hope he fucking kills himself from the strain of this little stunt.
Cacti
I think everyone should refer to the presidential ventilator at Walter Reed as Forced Air One.
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
She’s just a kid.
The Thin Black Duke
@Miss Bianca: As a crazed, doomed-beyond-all-hope-of-redemption lover of cinema, I feel your pain, Miss Bianca. The last film my wife and I saw in a theater was Knives Out, and I’m glad we enjoyed it because it might be the last one in a damned long time.
Mary G
WaPo:
I know yard signs mean nothing, but it’s good to hear this.
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
She’s already outspoken. And it’s her choice. I’m not going to get made at her if she doesn’t.
dmsilev
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: A (partial) sigh of relief. Partial because it still might be there, just not at detectable levels. As I understand it, by the time you reach a week or so post exposure, the tests are pretty sensitive even if you’re still another week away from showing symptoms. Another few days, and I’m sure we’ll all feel a lot more relieved.
Splitting Image
@Mary G:
He’s asking for $8 million or the Devil will call him home.
Ohio Mom
I have to admit, I wish he was sicker.
I guess the half-full view is, doctors sure have made progress in developing effective treatments.
Hoping the Secret Service agents were suited up in heavy duty PPE.
Brachiator
@The Thin Black Duke:
Since I live in Southern California (and love going to the movies and Disneyland) this hits home for me. Dealing with the pandemic and getting the economy going again must be a priority for a new administration.
There are about 90 movies that have been moved from a 2020 to a 2021 release date. But even if dumbass Republican governors opened up all their states, how many people would actually return to movie theaters?
And right now the studios don’t think that they can recoup the costs of all these films if they released them via streaming.
And this doesn’t begin to take into account the job loss.
And of course, all of this has been made worse by Trump’s bungled response to the pandemic.
Ohio Mom
(duplicate deleted)
dmsilev
@Mary G: I searched that article for quotes from Ed Rendell explaining how Biden was doing it all wrong, and didn’t find any. Did someone duct-tape his mouth shut and lock him in a broom closet? If so, well done anonymous someone, well done.
Geoduck
Assuming he’s still alive, no way he gives a concession speech, or attends Biden’s inaugural.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@dmsilev: I don’t know exactly how far apart Biden and The Beast were Tuesday night, but even the lunatic bellowing and braying, wasn’t distance a mitigating factor?
mali muso
@Mary G: I’m writing postcards to voters in Ohio this weekend to encourage them to vote for John O’Donnell and Jennifer Brunner for Ohio Supreme Court. Here’s hoping the blue wave can crash over that state and bring along a lot of good candidates.
Calouste
@Ohio Mom: He might still be pretty sick, it’s just that all the drugs they have given him make him feel reasonably ok. I think the most likely scenario is that he checks himself out tomorrow, stops taking any medication he doesn’t like, and is stretchered back to Walter Reed within 48 hours, 72 tops.
Miss Bianca
@The Thin Black Duke: I did have a wild notion to get a plan approved for a Halloween movie showing – house at half capacity, everyone masked (of course – prizes for “best face mask”). I have a plan worked out for how to block out seats and sell tickets online – with the requisite “I promise to follow all the rules” waiver box checked off – staff dressed up as old-fashioned ushers to show people to their seats and enforce *some* notion of social distancing – and the movie? Well, Phantom of the Opera, of course, the original Lon Cheney talkie. It would be fun.
I don’t think my boss will approve it, tho. Can’t say I’d blame her, either.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
A little less than 13 feet. Would have preferred 20 with a shield between them.
dmsilev
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I saw some estimates of around 12 or so feet between them. Stage venues tend to have pretty good ventilation as well, because the bright stage lights get really hot. So, that’s hopeful.
Mary G
Not all the doctors at Walter Reed are drinking the Kool-aid:
prostratedragon
Stuck without a shower, need to help someone, or just feeling very tired? Products like this from Aloe Vesta work very well with a damp cloth. No rinse needed. Unfortunately, I’ve never seen them in a drug store.
Anya
I am back to thinking this is a stunt. I am just not sure.
jeffreyw
@The Thin Black Duke:
Mrs J is telling me that one of the local malls was sold, finally. It’s been closed for a while now. One of the things they are doing is opening a drive in movie theater in one of the big parking lots.
Mary G
@Baud: Kamala should have Doug bring out a plexiglass box for her to sit in.
Ken
And think that “being offensive” is the same as “being on the offensive”.
mrmoshpotato
I’d be surprised if these shitstains weren’t. Even surprised if they did something halfway decent and just remained silent.
piratedan
this is the part that not anyone is talking about (probably because who knows this shit and is being asked?) is that you’re taking a patient (Trump) who is likely been in isolation because of COVID, everyone who treats him is masked up and covered with PPE because you don’t normally give the drugs he’s been given if you aren’t one sick, infectious SOB. People just don’t “leave” these rooms, if they’re being moved up or down the critical care food chain, there are protocols, people have to get masked up, plan the move to reduce the risk of infection from happening inside the damn hospital itself. So, not only is Trump risking the Secret Service agents in the car, everyone using any of the corridors from his “special suite” to his SUV is now potentially at risk and all that shit has to be cleaned after he’s used it because who knows how he got there… ambulatory? wheelchair? gurney? who else handled him? dressed him? and then unloaded his ass and retrograded the process… all of this extra work and extra care so he could have his happy time in the car and make his minions happy.
We STILL have only just started to relax some of the visiting protocols here in WA state to only one family member and they have to run thru the disinfection gamut and be gowned up before seeing them and that’s a tremendous PITA when this shit is so easily transmitted and this asshat simply does as he pleases with no thought to who is providing his care and safety.
just…. fuck him.
Chris T.
Just so. (All corticosteroids share this immunusuppressive behavior, which in many cases is how they make things better: the immune system is overreacting in the first place.)
Other things, in no particular order:
Things that make one go “hmm”.
On the bright (?) side, Covid interferes with oxygen intake, but not so much with CO2 exchange. The breathing reflex is driven by CO2 levels. So as your O2-sat drops, you still feel fine, even while your body is losing critical oxygen needed to keep the touchier cells (like neurons) working properly.
(This—the oxygen thing—is also why, if a plane cabin depressurizes at high altitude, everyone simply falls asleep and dies, without realizing what’s going on. This is why there’s an alarm for that.)
Mike in NC
@The Thin Black Duke: That was the last movie we saw, in Tampa, around Thanksgiving. 20,000 years ago.
CliosFanBoy
@germy: I am dumbfounded he found not 1, not 2, but 3 women who wanted to have sex with him. I mean, have you SEEN him????
The Thin Black Duke
@jeffreyw: Good. I’m glad to hear that some folks are thinking outside the box. Susan Werner, a folk musician my wife and I enjoy, is doing a drive-in concert in New Bedford, MA later this month.
Benw
I can’t Trump anymore.
It’s basketball time. First quarter is half sloppy, half dogfight. It’s working for Miami so far
The Moar You Know
I don’t know exactly how far apart Biden and The Beast were Tuesday night, but even the lunatic bellowing and braying, wasn’t distance a mitigating factor?
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: most countries have between a 1.5-2 meter distance specified for “social distancing” not because that is what is safe, but because it’s as distant as you can get without serious inconvenience. If COVID is an aerosol-dispersed disease as most of the infectious disease people think, a real “safe” distance is 6 meters. 20 feet.
Far as I’m concerned Trump deliberately tried to kill Biden.
Morzer
I am wondering how long it will be before Evangelical Churches feature God’s Orange Son being crucified by the wicked doctors, media and Democrats.
WaterGirl
@Wag: You have gathered information about Trump rallies, and the CDC has it?
Jay C
According to (I think) the WaPo, Joe and Jill Biden have tested negative for *three* tests (presumably “three in a row”) – so ISTM they are probably doing daily tests just to be sure.
If they’re smart (which they are)
Morzer
@CliosFanBoy: There are lots of needy, insecure people in this world and that’s how predators and conmen get laid.
Barbara
@Benw: Making same choice.
WaterGirl
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Well, this would be Day 5 for Biden since he was exposed on Tuesday night, and getting past Day 5 is a big deal.
50% of people show symptoms by Day 5. Come on Joe, we are all rooting for you.
mrmoshpotato
What if the money goes to help those affected by COVID-19 (including those out of work, etc), and you can pay what you can afford?
Jeffro
I just want the orange clown and his die-hard supporters gone, period. He and they have no respect for lives other than their own, no ability to restrain themselves, no conscience, and they are just surplus to requirements for the U.S. and civilized society as whole.
We knew this five years ago, and they’ve spent the whole five years reaffirming that we were right.
Covid your brains out, morans…the rest of us would like to get on with our lives and with normal, sensible governance, schools, businesses, etc. Just gobble up all that virus and then jump into the nearest volcano or something.
patrick II
@Suzanne:
Claudia has a twin brother and two younger sisters.
Kattails
Saw a quick Twitter post by Elizabeth Landers who said she’d just sent this video (the one of Trump’s little trip) to a Secret Service source who responded: “So reckless and careless and heartless”.
“Heartless.” By a Secret Service source.
Jeffro
@WaterGirl: I’m knocking furiously on wood here (the desk, my head) trying to make sure that last bit of luck carries him far far away from the orange super-spreader.
CliosFanBoy
@Morzer: I was going to guess “rightwing women have LOUSY taste in partners.”
CliosFanBoy
@Kattails: and, unless I am mistaken, he was waving at the TV cameras, NOT his supporters.
Morzer
@CliosFanBoy: That’s also a … comorbidity… to take into consideration, although I do think the insecurity and neediness are the major factors.
Chetan Murthy
@mali muso: You ain’t alone in that. Thank goodness for small things. I know why they don’t release info on Dr. Jill, but I trust and hope that she also is uninfected.
Morzer
@CliosFanBoy:
“Hello, Mr. Vladimir. This is Donald waving at you. One life, one love, one debt rescheduling conversation!”
Ken
Wait, what? (Check IMDB) I think you mean silent. For a moment there I thought I’d missed something great all my life. Which, I now note (somewhat depressingly), started closer to the year Phantom was filmed than to the present day.
I’m trying to think of other candidates for a mask-themed movie night. Plenty of horror films of course, Zorro and Batman, superhero films, crime capers, westerns. I think AMC could do an entire month of masks.
trnc
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch: Is there any possibility WE’RE the ones being taken for a ride? It makes no sense that he’s been administered the drugs that are reserved for the critical cases and can then be out of the hospital for anything, even riding around waving to people.
I know he’s the CIC and the doctors are members of the military, but I find it hard to believe the doctors can’t restrict his activities if he’s at risk.
MisterForkbeard
@Mary G: No. Kamala should have Doug bring out a plexiglass box for PENCE.
Ken
Glad to hear about Biden’s negative tests. Anyone want to bet some on the right wing will float something like “Our guy is strong enough to get COVID”?
mrmoshpotato
@Miss Bianca: I hope your theater is able to hold on.
Salty Sam
They weren’t looking at him, they we’re eyeing that fat roll of twenties he was flashing…
patrick II
Trump wants to get back to the White House. It’s tough to have a private conversation with Vladimir from the hospital.
What should I do now?
Bill Arnold
@Brachiator:
I hope that virus samples from Trump were saved and sequenced. If Biden ends up having been infected by Trump at the first debate, this will help establish a causal relationship. I also hope Regeneron offered Biden their antibodies treatment.
The list of things he’s on is interesting. All of them have possible or theoretical anti-SARS-CoV-2 properties, but few (maybe just remdesivir) of them have been through clinical trials.
MisterForkbeard
@CliosFanBoy: The girls I knew in Computer Science used to tell me “The odds are good, but the goods are odd.” I think the same principle applies here.
A beautiful woman who’s a conservative or working in a conservative institution is going to have a lot of choices, but they’re all terrible.
Morzer
Hell of an ad from the Lincoln Project crew:
https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1312879194376941568
Kattails
@The Moar You Know: I hesitated & then floated that idea past a couple of people as it being my rock bottom idea of how evil Trump is, and they thought I was exaggerating. But it’s shown up here on a few occasions in the last day. Dirty minds etc.
@Morzer: No doubt some guy is feverishly slapping away at a large canvas right now; big guy, tears running down his cheeks. I’ve already seen one, w/ Trump being tortured by Pelosi et al. In my professional opinion the painting was garbage, although a sincere attempt by an amateur. In my spiritual opinion or what remains of it, it was fucking blasphemous. And if I’d done one of Hillary, say, carrying the cross, they’d be incandescent with outrage.
zhena gogolia
@WaterGirl:
I think that was probably a typo for “they’ve.”
Morzer
@Kattails: I really don’t want to know what the poor loser is slapping away at the canvas with!
A Ghost to Most
@Cacti: Do you have a newsletter I can subscribe to?
Sab
@mali muso: Thank you.
Baud
@Kattails:
gotta link? I’d make it my wallpaper.
WaterGirl
@zhena gogolia: That did not occur to me.
cain
@germy:
This man doesn’t look like a GQ model – he must have some serious game when it comes to the lady – confidence, charisma, and sociopathy.
jonas
@Mary G: Sigh. Can you imagine the response if the USSS were dumping on a Democratic president like this? It would be the main headline on Fox for a week! I remember when Trump moved into the WH in 2016, I forget which outlet — probably Politico or the Hill — was running stories about how the Secret Service were all excited to be guarding tough-guy Trump rather than those snooty, elitist Obamas. I guess that’s worked well for them…
Wyatt Salamanca
@Brachiator:
In the past few days at least two dopes, Kaitlan Collins and Jeff Greenfield, speculated about whether or not Biden should suspend his campaign.
If Trump’s low rent thugs like Jason Miller and Steve Cortes are going to keep trashing Biden, he needs to pull out all the stops to beat this lunatic.
emrys
@Miss Bianca: I know it is getting colder, but is there an outside venue you could use? Or even a drive in type showing?
Chetan Murthy
@dmsilev:
Oh. Oh. Oh. Wow. Thank you for this. It lightens the load of worry.
Amir Khalid
@mali muso:
I just saw the video in the BBC story. I am aghast. Did Trump pull rank on the military medical officers treating him to arrange this crazy stunt? I cannot imagine a responsible physician allowing anything like it.
Bill Arnold
@VeniceRiley:
List of secure drops here. https://securedrop.org/directory/
Follow instructions (including install Tor Browser) to actually do a leak, else be caught.
(Signal works too (pretty sure), if you trust the reporter and their phone, and your phone and yourself.)
DAVID ANDERSON
@dmsilev: I will feel comfortable by Wednesday
Jay C
@Kattails:
Probably Jon McNaughton: busily thumbing through his art books for some Old Master he can knock off to portray St. Donald The Martyr – and then put up on his website for all to point, laugh and mock….
Ms. Deranged in AZ
@zhena gogolia: The minute she turns 18 she should write a tell all, collect a million dollars and tell her loser parents to eff off forever. I’d cheer her on for sure.
cain
@jeffreyw:
I think drive-ins are going to be a thing again. I bet we could find some folks who decide to do digital projectors and find some park and play the movies there.
dmsilev
Everything is Fine ™:
(yes, that really is the Post’s headline)
Chetan Murthy
@prostratedragon: Uh, this isn’t meant to address covid, is it? I mean, perhaps it’s got soap compounds that can disrupt the virus particles, but a large part of the action of a shower is to physically remove the particles on your skin, too. And this won’t do that, right? Also, it says “effective at killing germs” without specifying whether that’s bacterial or viruses, and what sorts of viruses. Antibacterials are useless against viruses, a priori.
I’m sure it’s smells good, and probably neutralizes body effluents that would decay into smelly residues. But I’d be skeptical about its efficacy for actually -cleaning- in any medically relevant way.
RandomMonster
I’m a little late to the party, but has Dump been released? Is that why he’s in a motorcade?
Another Scott
Hmm…
(via NotLarrySabato)
Cheers,
Scott.
Kent
He is 80, so older, more obese, and sicklier looking than even Trump. And also a stain on humanity: https://www.texasobserver.org/trump-pastor-john-hagee-texas-jerusalem/
Kattails
@Baud: Hold on. I’ve got a screenshot. Let’s see if it’s still on the thread
Here you go.
cain
@Kent:
It seems the Lord is not amused and is collecting souls to take back.
Miss Bianca
@Ken: Oh,it *is* a silent, isn’t it? For some reason I thought it was a remake of an earlier version. I must be mixing it up with something else! To be fair to myself, I actually haven’t seen it in ages because unmasked Lon freaked me out so bad when I was a wee one. Almost as bad as seeing The Fly.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Kattails: OMG.
Baud
@Kattails:
Hahahaha. That’s awesome.
He lied for his sins.
Miss Bianca
@emrys: There is – I am working on plans for that, in fact. There were reasons we weren’t going to try it over the summer, but by next summer, yeah, definitely!
Morzer
@Kattails: Pelosi looks a lot better than Melania of the Sorrows, who seems to be hoping that some pennies will fall out of Donny’s loincloth.
Bill Arnold
@The Moar You Know:
Mr. Trump attempted political assassination, you mean. He has a record of political assassination, having ordered the killing of a member of the Iranian leadership. Not a stretch to believe that he would do it to an American.
Biden’s negative PCR test today (if correctly reported) is a good sign. (I idly wonder if Biden has secretly been given one of the vaccines already in phase 3 clinical trials. I would, if I were him.)
Baud
@Morzer:
The MAGA cap as a crown of thorns ties it all together.
Chetan Murthy
@The Moar You Know:
And even that *depends*, right? I would guess the distance from the index case to some of the infected was greater than 20ft, since they talked about social distancing and all at the time. By which I mean that it depends on ventilation, the activity (shouty old man screaming for 90min might not be the best) and duration.
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6919e6.htm
Salty Sam
My step-dad has a shelf full of Regnery Press books. During the 2016 campaign, I had one conversation with him about the election (normally we don’t discuss politics- he lives in the Fox News bubble, so what’s the point?)- I was begging him not to vote for Trump. He went over to his bookshelf, pulled one down that was supposedly written by one of Hillary’s Secret Svc agents, detailing what a horrible person she was. Did you know she uses the F word liberally when the cameras are off!?! (That was his deal breaker, he HATES the use of the F word). He said “Read this, maybe you’ll understand.”
I told him, “Keep it. I’m not reading that fucking thing.”
Benw
How is JR Smith still hitting 3’s in the finals!?
Jimmy Butler’s the player of the game so far
58-54 Heat at the half!
MazeDancer
@The Moar You Know:
Absolutely.
Trump is exhibiting far more symptoms that someone only 3-4 days after diagnosis. Getting steroids for lung damage already.
And the refusal to give times of his last negative test.
He has known for a while.
Also, that last video was the most Green Screen of Green Screens ever. They’ve been making these vids – and even planning this insane drive by – for days.
WaterGirl
@DAVID ANDERSON: What makes Wednesday the magic day?
I thought 5 days was important because 50% of cases show up by then.
The next magic date I was aware of was 11 days, because after that you’re almost home free.
What is special about 8 days?
Baud
@Kattails:
Tell me the title of that art is “The StigMAGA”
trnc
Someone wrote that RBG has successfully argued her first case before the almighty.
Another Scott
@Miss Bianca: It was a remake.
Wikiville:
Cheers,
Scott.
Falling Diphthong
@Major Major Major Major:
I think even The Lincoln Project would be hard-pressed to do better than just reporting, agog, that the president is forcing the Secret Service to accompany him on joy rides and claims to be wandering around Walter Reed visiting any injured veterans and first responders that he can find.
Ken
@Miss Bianca: Ooh, The Fly (1958) would be a good one for a mask movie festival.
WaterGirl
We haven’t heard boo about Ivanka or Jared. Have they tested positive? Keeping it on the down low?
trnc
@Bill Arnold: I’m with Moar on this. Even if he hadn’t actually tested positive by debate night, he knew he had been exposed and likely arrived late enough to know he wouldn’t be tested. It was a malicious act.
phdesmond
@Baud: did you see where Jamie Harrison brought his own plexiglass shield to a senatorial campaign debate with Lindsey Graham? it must have taken two people to carry it in: it had i think five panels, like a folding Japanese screen.
Ken
You have I hope sent him the Melania Christmas recordings? Strictly in the spirit of twisting the knife and putting lemon juice and salt in the wound.
Baud
@phdesmond: Yes. Good move.
Another Scott
@WaterGirl: I suspect we’ll hear more about these various monsters on Monday.
It’s a cult.
Grrr…
Cheers,
Scott.
Chetan Murthy
@trnc:
As DocAmazing over at LG&M explained, for patients with wealth and power, they have far more control over their treatment than we might imagine. Fr this jagoff? Hell, he can insist on only the first, most *compliant* docs, and I’m sure he gets it. I imagine that WRMC doc who tweeted about the insanity of that little limo ride is looking for a job, for instance, whereas KKKoprophage Sean Conley is lookin’ at a fat bonus right about now.
Bill Arnold
@MazeDancer:
There’s a chance that heart/lung/brain damage was done prior to getting that Regeneron cocktail (four times normal dose), even if that cocktail knocked down the viral load.
Are there any reports that he lost his sense of smell?
Uncle Cosmo
In a nutshell. At some point the public will find out that (1) he knew he was positive by the morning of the debate, (2) deliberately arrived too late to be tested onsite, and (3) screamed and shouted in Biden’s direction while his entire retinue sat without masks in a deliberate attempt to infect Joe.
And when they’re caught they will justify it, saying, If the President was gonna be sick, we were gonna make sure his Demonrat challenger was too!
Traitors, one and all.
Salty Sam
@Kattails:
AAAUUGG! MY EYES!
mrmoshpotato
@Miss Bianca: Spongebob Squarepants
Ken
@trnc: Also, there were reports of the Trump party hanging around the hotel (maskless naturally) for hours before the debate. Since “caught in traffic” doesn’t apply when you’re president, the late arrival pretty much has to be deliberate.
debbie
@Kent:
I hate-watched him a few times years ago. What an abomination he is.
Kattails
@Baud: Nice!
Mary G
Finally, instructions to the WH peons:
Boils down to “get out immediately and call your own doctor, don’t bother the WH Medical unit.”
lgerard
If trump was so insistent on “reviewing his troops” today why didn’t they put him in a boat and tow it around the streets.
It would have alleviated the threat to the Secret Service personnel and been more on brand as well
Ken
Apparently he’s ordering horrible food – fast-food burgers, well-done steaks with ketchup, no veggies at all. Could that be a warning sign?
debbie
@Morzer:
Fast turn around! One of the shots toward the end is from WR.
Mai Naem mobile
@Suzanne: maybe CPS will be making a visit to the Conway household now. Seriously WTF?
minachica
@The Thin Black Duke: Wow, my then girlfriend and I back in Lawrence KS in the early 90’s loved Susan. We saw her the first time at a potluck and living room concert back then and she was incredible. And she would regularly play cafes and small bars in Lawrence. I remember one time she performed the famous Habanera from Carmen right next to my table while making eye contact with me, and I was smitten. Thanks for the memories, and I happy to know she’s still at it.
Miss Bianca
@Ken: Oh, it would, but man, that movie still gives me nightmares fifty years later! I don’t think I could hack it, LOL!
But a “mask movie theme” sounds awesome.
Salty Sam
@Ken: Well, to be honest, the “debate” finally did it. My brother reported to me (I avoid speaking with my step-dad, just for my own sanity) that after that shitshow, he (step-dad) said “That was bad. Really bad. We are done with him.”
My guess is he and my mom will just sit out the election. Their health is not great, and they are terrified (rightfully) of contracting covid. Works for me, two less votes for Trump.
Bill Arnold
@trnc:
Oh, to be clear, I agree. I am certain that somebody knew (or at least strongly suspected), and probably that he did. The “honor system” bullshit at the debate to avoid testing is a big tell, agreed.
Also, for doubters, remember that Chris Christie is test-positive. It is likely that Trump is personally one of the small minority of superspreaders, iMO. Loud, in peoples’ faces, no mask to block/filter the forward spray of his exhalations.
Oh, and Chris Christie is the one who advised him to talk while Biden was speaking, because paraphrases people who have worked around a stutter tend to get flustered if people talk while they are talking. So Christie told Trump to face Biden and talk even out of turn in violation of the debate rules.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Ken: No.
Gravenstone
@Baud: Twitter is cracking down on posts that can be construed to wish harm on Trump. As was correctly pointed out yesterday when they announced the policy, the members of “the Squad” are wondering where that policy was when they were being inundated with Twitter death threats?
Miss Bianca
@mrmoshpotato: Love it!
mali muso
I read that the other day and saw red. What an effing piece of…really, words fail.
mrmoshpotato
@Miss Bianca: Did you say mask?
:)
Ken
@Salty Sam: That fits with what someone posted earlier today about the latest round of polls. Trump’s support dropped by something like 5 percentage points, while Biden’s only went up by 2 points. The other 3 points are probably people who have just given up on Trump but can’t bring themselves to vote Biden.
Miss Bianca
@mrmoshpotato: OK, now *that* would be funny!
Chetan Murthy
@MisterForkbeard: That box needs to be sealed with a single intake and a single exit, driven by a strong fan at the exit, driving air thru a proper HVAC filter. Negative pressure in the box, to ensure that Fat Termite’s exhalations are all captured. Fuck. Fuck.
VP-to-be Harris needs to fucking insist on separate rooms if it’s gonna be in-fucking-person. We have the technology so that the live audience can see both people, after all.
Erstwhile Canadian
@PPCLI: Do those initials stand for Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry?
Bill Arnold
@mali muso:
Yeah. He’s another in my trolley problem formulation.
Various evil Republicans in one lane, and a convoy of mother wolf spiders with egg sacks in the other. Anonymous choice.
Life for the Spider Moms and their unborn babies!
Annie
@Calouste:
From your keyboard to God’s ear.
Mary G
And, of course, there’s always a tweet:
WaterGirl
@Salty Sam: Are you still planning to fly in to vote in person?
Mary G
Martin
BTW, Regal was in big trouble long before Covid. Just sped up the inevitable. The big chains were so overbuilt for their real demand. It’s hard to make rent on 100,000 square feet when you only have 100 customers at a time. They couldn’t accept they needed to scale back.
My guess is after a difficult period, we’ll get back to having maybe 1/10th as many screens, theaters becoming more of an experience, nicer, less gimmicky. Probably more independently owned. Not necessarily more expensive if they can fill their seats. Movies are more fun with a full theater anyway.
Probably half of the existing screen releases will just go straight to streaming instead.
Ken
@Miss Bianca: @mrmoshpotato: OK, here’s a comedy lineup: The Mask, Zorro the Gay Blade, and The Princess Bride (naturally).
Kattails
OMFG the White House Gift Shop is selling a “President Donald J. Trump Defeats COVID” coin. You can pre-order for $100. Ships Nov. 14. I think this is an actual real not-fake site.
That’s it. I need a stronger drink.
Brachiator
@Bill Arnold:
Interesting. I wondered whether this was a deliberate tactic. This revelation also contradicts the lie fed to the media that Trump did not prepare at all and was just winging it.
The debates are not really debates in any meaningful sense, and fools and pundits look for a “knockout” or other stupidly reductive way of judging the debates.
I would suggest that Biden say shit to get under Trump’s skin early, even on the level of a demeaning insult that undermines Trump’s “rich rags to richer rags” mythology. And add new stuff even as he answers the moderator’s questions.
I did not watch the debate, but some of the clips I saw showed that Biden had a good take on Trump. He did not take him seriously or defer to him in any way as being a president. He was giving off “you are a pretender” vibes and Trump did not like it.
phdesmond
@Kattails:
here’s the URL:
https://www.reddit.com/r/TheRightCantMeme/comments/iqbqda/the_right_cant_paint/
mrmoshpotato
@Miss Bianca: And we need funny these days.
phdesmond
@Baud:
MAGA replaces INRI .
Mike in NC
@Amir Khalid: Trump is exactly like a junkie desperate for a bit of heroin.
West of the Rockies
@Bill Arnold:
Lost his sense of smell? Well, he doesn’t smell good!
Salty Sam
@WaterGirl: We are. Nervously watching case counts rise, but made reservations to avoid peak travel times.
looking SO forward to a grandbaby visit! (Distanced of course. THATS gonna be hard!)
Bruuuuce
Some good news after a pretty rotten day (Trump, car not starting, developed trigger thumb…): Someone dressed as the Hulk smashed Trump’s Hollywood Walk of Fame star
Morzer
https://twitter.com/amyewalter/status/1312860441010462720
brantl
@Baud: Please quit linking to the behind-the-goddam-paywall Washington Post articles, without saying your doing it, it’s just irritating.
Calouste
So the doctors are saying that the shitgibbon “continues to improve”. Wasn’t the story on Friday that he was taken to the hospital “as a precaution”? What’s there to improve from a precaution?
WaterGirl
@Salty Sam: Stay safe.
dmsilev
@Mary G: Bored. The fucker is bored? He’s been there for two days. He should try two or three months of quarantine lockdown, and then I’ll be willing to at least consider listening to an “i’m bored” complaint. I won’t be sympathetic, but at least I’ll listen.
sanjeevs
@WaterGirl: According to Rick Wilson, Jared has been installing himself as leader at the Whitehouse and ordered Pence to keep travelling the country.
Benw
This is a helluva basketball game
Bruuuuce
@dmsilev: Two days? How about the folks who were on ventilators and awake for two or four weeks?
No sympathy for Oompa-Loompa toddlers.
trnc
That was awesome. I thought it was photoshopped when I saw the pic. I was phone banking and talked to someone who had just moved to SC, and he was pretty happy with Harrison’s debate performance.
Bill Arnold
@Brachiator:
Sadly, the source for that is twitter and I did not find a confirmation in a reputable venue in a brief search. So be wary of it, sorry.
Brachiator
@Martin:
Regal is just the tip of the iceberg. There are reports that AMC only has six months of cash. There are theaters open in some states, but attendance is down and obviously there is very little product to be shown.
Movie theaters cannot survive with the changes you suggest. Nor could you have many, if any, big budget movies, especially if more releases go straight to streaming. The math just does not work.
There are talks within the industry to try to go back to an old model, in which, for example, Disney, Amazon, Netflix and other companies own the theaters and only show films that they produce. They could make some premieres special events, and raise ticket prices. There are also discussions about making movie going a more “upscale experience,” with more comfortable seats, more food and wine service, etc., like the Alamo Draft House.
But the latest James Bond movie was supposed to open in April of 2020. It has been pushed back to April 2021. And the big question mark is whether the pandemic will still be around, even if a vaccine is available, and whether people will still be willing to go to the movies in big numbers.
If the answer is no, the studios have a problem. Disney, for example, had all kinds of plans for the next phase of the Marvel Universe movies. You simply cannot have these types of big budget films if movie going becomes a boutique experience supplemented by streaming.
Live theater, comedy clubs, concerts and sporting events all have to deal with a variation of this problem. Oddly enough, and maybe it’s not a surprise, some surveys suggest that sports fans are willing to jam themselves into stadia even if the virus is still around.
Another Scott
@Bill Arnold: Sounds like Christie is being underbused to me.
NJ.com
That was immediately afterwards, so presumably if he wanted to put a positive spin on it, like a common Miller, he would have done so.
Remember, it’s never Donnie’s fault.
Cheers,
Scott.
Amir Khalid
@Brachiator:
So there was an asshole telling another asshole to be the biggest asshole he could. Yep, sounds plausible.
phdesmond
@trnc: an unusual move. great theater!
Miss Bianca
@Ken: Ooh, now, The Princess Bride…that would be a fun one.
I’ve never seen Zorro the Gay Blade…is it really as funny as everyone says?
Gravenstone
@MisterForkbeard:
My preferred suggestion.
lgerard
Some real truth here
PPCLI
@Erstwhile Canadian:
Yes
...now I try to be amused
@sanjeevs:
Figures that Jared would be the Al Haig in this crowd.
Jeffro
@Uncle Cosmo: no wonder trumpov was so unhinged…I mean, the narcissism is one thing, but the murderous “I’m behind, I’m gonna try and pass Covid along to Joe, YOLO!” mentality is entirely believable. Likely, even.
Miss Bianca
@mrmoshpotato: You know, Carrey is a really good physical comedian – I get tired of his schtick pretty fast, but when he’s actually acting he’s funny!!
Ken
@Miss Bianca: I thought it was hilarious, but I’ve not seen it for years. It’s possible it wouldn’t play well today given changed attitudes toward the LGBT community. George Hamilton’s portrayal of Ramon, Zorro’s gay cousin, is very swish and stereotyped.
catclub
@Mary G: Not only did trump totally mismanage any national covid response, he also totally mismanaged any White house covid test, isolate and trace response.
catclub
@Miss Bianca: OTOH jerry Lewis was a good actor as a heavy on Law and Order episodes.
Jeffro
@Salty Sam: I think this scenario just has to be playing out all across the nation…if trumpov had shown up and acted even slightly presidential, he might have been able to stem the bleeding (voter-wise) but no one looked at that debate and said, “You know what? I was leaning Biden but now I’ve just got to have me some of that trumpov constant-yelling, tantrum-throwing thing for FOUR MORE YEARS!”
Ugh
Brachiator
@Bill Arnold:
No problem. My sister watched the debate and I asked her if Trump’s antics might be an attempt to dominate Biden. This could have been a deliberate tactic or Trump’s ego.
Trump is not a mastermind by any means, but his “strength” against opponents in debate is that he has no problem fighting dirty, and depends on his loyalists to always try to explain away his nastiness.
You could see his GOP opponents being caught off guard in 2016, and they had all been trained to stay within certain boundaries. Unsurprisingly, Trump ate them alive, and they looked mean and clumsy if they tried to get into the mud with Trump.
Pundits try to knock Biden, but he does well when he dismisses Trump’s attacks and leaves the implication that Trump is little more than an empty suit.
ETA: My sister thought that Trump looked like an angry fool.
catclub
@Ken: next thing you’ll tell me Rocky Horror Picture Show might not age well.
The Moar You Know
Are there any reports that he lost his sense of smell?
@Bill Arnold: I’ve stayed in a Trump hotel. He lost his sense of taste back in the seventies. Does that count?
(Gotta say the rooms weren’t done by the Trump design team and that is still the second nicest and easily the largest hotel room I’ve stayed in. And very cheap at the time.)
craigie
@Salty Sam:
Better than that, two fewer votes for any other Republican.
mrmoshpotato
@Miss Bianca: I remember hurting from laughter seeing Ace Ventura in theaters so many years ago.
Jay
@Chetan Murthy:
plexiglass box, bolted and sealed in place, no air holes, for Dense.
Goku (Amerikan Baka)
Today, while out getting lunch around 2 today, I drove by a Trump cult rally on a corner of a busy intersection in my town. A lot of spillover into a parking lot of a hotel and bank. Must’ve been a hundred people or so. Some wore masks, but most didn’t; all of them were screaming and shouting in jubilation
What disturbed me most was that there was a cacophony of horn honking in support of them. Many of the cars honking didn’t even have Trump merch on them
I know it doesn’t really mean anything; it was a Sunday afternoon and the intersection is in a busy part of town near a freeway entrance. I live in a red state, but a conservadem county. However, I was disturbed at how many passersby were honking for them. It was almost non-stop
Ken
@Jay: With a fact-checker, and each time he tells a lie the box gets an inch shorter?
Suzanne
@Brachiator: Mr. Suzanne is really missing moviegoing, but I am not. I do prefer Alamo Drafthouse and the fancier movie theater that we had in PHX, the Camelview…. but other than that, my house is better. My TV is nice, I have better food, and I can pause to pee.
Movie theaters were disgusting places even pre-COVID. Bedbugs everywhere.
I, for one, am sick AF of Marvel and Star Wars and the like. (It’s not that I think those movies are bad—though the last Star Wars was a snore—I’m just so burned out on them.) If the industry changes so that we can have different kinds of movies again, I am okay with that.
Jeffro
If only they would get LOUD and demand a science-based approach to the pandemic! Like, where is the national restaurant association or whatever? Where are the ads? Why isn’t the Chamber of Commerce up in arms – “trumpov, you dumb fuck, let’s GET GOING with the national testing program here!”
These mighty business moguls could, for just pennies, rile this country up and remind everyone exactly what’s keeping us from joining the rest of the world in flattening the F out of the blessed ‘curve’ and getting this pandemic under control in the U.S.A. But they don’t, because what…the Dems are going to socialize the movie theaters?? Make wing joints communist?
Nope. It’s all about the tax rates for the guys at the top.
Jeffro
@lgerard: Yes indeed. Once we’re past November, hopefully the Dems will find ways to ‘pass the torch’ to the next generation (or considering the age gap, perhaps two generations)
the GOP will have no choice…most of their elderly leaders are currently being exposed to Covid-19 on the regular.
Mike in NC
@Jay C: I just might commission McNaughton to paint me a picture of Fat Bastard returning from his failed Tulsa hate rally, looking like a whipped dog with his tie undone and a crushed red MAGA hat in his sweaty hand.
rivers
@catclub: Are you thinking of Jerry Orbach?
Kent
@Brachiator: Independent movie theaters make almost all of their revenue from selling popcorn and cokes. The movies are just the hook to get people in the door to spend money at the concession stands. The studios capture back almost all the ticket revenue.
Running theaters at 30% capacity or whatever will just force them to operate in the red. They need crowds to even beak even. It’s basically the same reason why restaurants can’t operate at 30% capacity. Except it’s worse for theaters because no one does take-out of $5 cokes and $10 boxes of popcorn.
Patricia Kayden
Yep
Gravenstone
@Brachiator:
To be fair, Trump’s “preparation” appears to have been on how best to gain the upper hand. Not preparing to be able to answer questions or actually impart information.
Gravenstone
@Bruuuuce: Given your user name, it was you wasn’t it? C’mon, fess up Dr. Banner.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@catclub:
I haven’t seen it in probably thirty years, but as I recall he was really good in The King of Comedy.
Jay
@Brachiator:
in YVR we have The Ridge. An Independent Arthouse/ Theme theatre. When audiences started dropping off because of changes, streaming, etc. They changed it up.
They started serving cafe drinks, high end, good quality snacks, ( brownies, baked goods, good sandwiches, etc.) Then they got a liquor license. The audience came back.
Another Scott
@Jeffro: Hey, 8-10+% unemployment is great for business because it means that they can drive down wages, amirite??!
Grr…
Cheers,
Scott.
Bruuuuce
@Gravenstone: Not me! I was too busy cleaning up Gotham. :-)
West of the Rockies
@Goku (Amerikan Baka):
Well, you are in Ohio, yes? Aren’t parts of Ohio basically Northern Kentucky?
cain
@The Moar You Know:
We already know he lost his sense of taste.
zhena gogolia
@Miss Bianca:
Cecily Strong and Maya Rudolph stole the show.
Carrey was good. I preferred Woody Harrelson, though.
Jay
@PPCLI:
former Seaforth here, Pats rule.
cain
@lgerard:
It’s interesting how boomers continue to dominate the political landscape despite being in the 80s. I feel like Barack Obama is one of the few who managed to get to the upper echelons as still a young man. He’s 59 now, and about 8 years older than me. He was someone I could identify with. (eg culturally)
I keep thinking in 4 years – DiFi will decide to run for president despite her age.
Sebastian
Well I guess we know now what the Secret Service will do come January 20th 2021 lol
Gin & Tonic
Home from a long drive in the car. Dear wife, who was riding shotgun, likes to listen to CNN (I have Sirius/XM radio.) I, wanting to continue our decades-long marriage, let her. Now keep in mind she is a clinical pharmacist in a hospital setting, with experience as part of a treatment team for dozens of covid patients. As the drive progressed she was getting angrier and angrier at the obvious lies, until she finally said, ok, you can change the station. She was livid. The timeline does not make sense, the treatment modality does not match the described symptoms, she believes the photos/videos were not actually shot in the hospital. Long story short, she is completely convinced he was exhibiting symptoms the night of the debate.
cain
@Brachiator:
I wonder if this might be a good thing in the end. it’s a shake up of never before and the entertainment industry has been riding it for awhile.
I wonder though if drive-ins will make a huge come back – but they aren’t very space efficient. But I could see it happening. I remember when price of admission would let you watch two movies at drive-in.
ETA: The death of movie houses is going to cause issues for malls who I believe think of them as something that attracts people to the area.
It’s why I can’t for the life of me why these industries have no power over the political process at all.
Ksmiami
@mali muso: Even with the best care, Chris Christie will not survive Covid in one piece
The Moar You Know
@Brachiator: I had a second job; one to two gigs a week playing bars, clubs, restaurants, whoever would pay.
My last gig was March 6th. The next one? It’ll be in a couple of years at the soonest. For me, it’s a bummer. For a lot of my fellow musicians, they are truly fucked. A fair number of those guys have no other skills and nothing to tempt a potential employer to hire them.
Worse yet, IF we ever get this shitshow under control, and I do not take that as a given, the venues are going to be gone. I can’t think of a single bar that’s going to survive this, not in CA, because they have all been closed since March with no reopening in sight.
That the Chamber of Commerce, local and national, haven’t sued the shit out of the federal government is a dereliction of duty towards their members by their leadership. Unconscionable.
Another Scott
STATNews:
Kremlinology is supposed to be a dead field. We certainly shouldn’t have to have our own version – not in 2020.
They need to stop playing to Donnie’s vanity and narcissism and tell people the truth. Either he’s not very sick – in which case he shouldn’t be on The Evil Dex, or he’s sick and needs to stay in the hospital and not do these stupid, dangerous outings and practicing his signature at the dining table.
Cheers,
Scott.
Sebastian
@Brachiator:
It was deliberate, Trump wanted to get Biden to stumble so that people who aren’t familiar with stuttering think Biden is senile.
cain
Netflix is cleaning up I reckon as is Amazon Prime. I think Disney is going to have problems because they don’t have the kind of diversity that Prime and Netflix are doing – and their diversity is global – foreign language films, cooking shows, it’s all over the place. You generally get more bang for buck. Disney instead is giving you kids shows, star wars and marvel. Meh.
emrys
@…now I try to be amused: more like Mrs. Wilson
Chetan Murthy
@The Moar You Know: Everything you write, I knew and was angry about already. But the last para: I had forgotten that … *indeed* there is supposed to be a very powerful lobby group representing all these small businesses, and they did …*squat*. *squat
trollhattan
@Baud:
Can we make that “Trump’s concussion speech?”
sdhays
@mali muso: It’s so nasty and offensive, but also so breathtakingly simplistic and stupid. Biden’s been dealing with this shit for his entire life, and he’s been so good at it that most people didn’t even know he had a stutter until very recently. Still, in the hands of someone with some skill and a moderate amount of self-control, it might have been somewhat effective.
But in the hands of someone like Donald Dump, who is the opposite of subtle or clever, it was pretty much doomed to failure. It’s so bad you almost wonder if Christie sabotaged him.
cain
This is what happens when you blindly adhere to a political party and will do anything to support it. Literally placing gun at your own forehead. Damn cult. How much of a chamber is going to be left at this point?
The feds should be doing something. All the CoCs in the country should be hammering McConnell right now to get a bill out there to keep their members afloat.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
to paraphrase whichever Algonquin Round Tabler when told of Calvin Coolidge’s death, how will they tell?
phdesmond
@Ksmiami: that may be why Christie checked right into a hospital upon getting the positive diagnosis.
Punchy
@Another Scott: You dont fuck around with dex. Terribly potent steroid. No me gusta. If he’s on it, he is in some trouble.
Achrachno
@Uncle Cosmo: I tend to think they’re more stupid and irresponsible than anything. They’re not capable of planning anything, as they’ve shown repeatedly.
Doc Sardonic
@Goku (Amerikan Baka): Not all horn honkers are supportive. We have these periodically where I live, and I always honk the horn to get their attention before I shout obscenities and give them the bird.
Luciamia
@Ken: Don’t forget the ‘Elephant Man.’
Jeffro
They – their CEOs, their boards, their owners – just can’t seem to will themselves to take collective action to get the murderously incompetent “leadership” out of the WH. Whether it’s fear of being singled out on Twitter or riling the MAGAt base or whatever, it’s really something to behold.
If I owned even a single restaurant or movie theater, I’d be damn sure beating on my local, state, and national associations – to say nothing of local, state, and national media – to point out that we are now heading into Month Eight of National Paralysis on Covid-19. (“Paralysis” is probably too generous, it’s actually getting worse.)
Where is the testing? Where is the leadership here?
sdhays
@Achrachno: There was a picture from Monday posted on an earlier thread with Dump and Dense giving what looked like a press briefing with Dense at his own podium a very long way away from the President. Since these guys supposedly have been meeting in person inside periodically with no masks, it certainly looked like “tell” where they at least knew Dump might be contagious on Monday.
I think it’s possible that they didn’t know for certain that Dump had it until Wednesday or Thursday, but I’m starting to think that they knew enough on Monday to keep Dense far away and to go to the trouble of avoiding getting tested on Tuesday. At the very least, they didn’t want to risk Dump not being able to debate at all because of a positive test. And if Dump turned out to be contagious and he infected Biden, so much the better – it would even the playing field, from their (evil and very stupid) perspective.
Uncle Cosmo
I thought so. Convinced me that George Hamilton had a real talent for comedy – much more so than Love at First Bite, which I found lame.
Brachiator
@The Moar You Know:
This is the problem in a nutshell. No jobs now. Many venues will disappear in the future. Audiences may not return or be so restricted that new venues cannot be sustained.
I have some family members who are musicians. It’s tough. Some are trying to get some income from teaching via Zoom, etc.
Suing the federal government would be as useless as suing the virus.
However, I would like to see a new administration come up with some innovative small business tax policies to try to encourage recovery.
And obviously, it’s a global problem. BBC News has had some interesting articles about how comedians are dealing with the disappearance of their venues and comedy festivals. Some are trying to go online.
Also the UK tried to provide some subsidies to theaters and museums, but that money is running out.
Sab
@West of the Rockies: Goku is in the part of Ohio that is western Pennsylvania.
jonas
@piratedan: The Secret Service are getting PISSED and leaking to various reporters about how they’ve had it with Trump continually putting them in danger to stroke his own ego. I don’t doubt they’re upset, but they have to realize that a Republican president can beat them like rented mules and no-one gives a shit. If they were to whine about a *Democrat,* on the other hand, the media would be falling over themselves to cover how a out-of-touch elitist liberal is mistreating the poor, salt-of-the-earth guys who protect them.
Sorry, guys. I don’t make the rules. The WH press corps does.
Sally
@Gin & Tonic: He was sweating profusely. We all noticed, commented on that during the debate.
Aleta
Has a poll ever asked people the circumstances under which they would a) stop supporting a president they had voted for; or b) support impeaching a president. List of at least 10 circumstances, Yes/No, for a) and for b). I’d like to see and compare results of such a poll after every presidential election. Would have liked to see the results in late 2016–2017.
TriassicSands
Prediction: Trump will learn nothing from being infected. If anything, his behavior will be worse.
Yes, his behavior is always getting worse, but in this case it will be worse than the worse it would have been had he not been infected.
cain
@Doc Sardonic:
This is the energy I love. It seems very Jersey for some reason.
cain
@Jeffro: I don’t get what power MAGAts have? The only thing I can think of is that they’d lose their access just like the journalists to these politicians and they won’t be friends anymore on facebook or some other dumb thing.
Kent
If he raised their taxes. That would do it.
Jeffro
@The Moar You Know:
@Brachiator: minor upside: the nation’s teaching corps is going to need rebuilding so badly that any out of work musician, waiter, cook, stage hand, or other unlikely-to-be-re-employed-soon worker with the ability and temperament to teach could jump into a steady job at good pay and great benefits.
cain
@jonas:
Well, they protected a kenyan usurper so they clearly are not truly patriotic.
jonas
@Another Scott: Trump may or may not be seriously ill at this point, but I’m pretty sure getting out of your hospital bed to take a ride around the block to wave at your fans from your limo is *not* on a list of recommended activities for people hospitalized with Covid-19.
My bet is that his insatiable urge to show how not sick he is and get up and run around and call into Fox and pwn the libs is what does him in — your body needs rest and focus to beat this thing and that appears to be the last thing Trump is willing to do for himself. The fact that his wife and kids appear to be indulging him in these stunts suggests some less than noble intentions on their part.
Luciamia
@Sally: The assumption was the hot lights, but Biden looked fine.
Another Scott
@Punchy: Thanks.
Post more often. You are missed.
Cheers,
Scott.
Sally
@Luciamia: Yes, my thoughts exact!
joel hanes
@Martin:
I so mourn the beautiful single-screen art-deco “Palace” downtown theater in my hometown, killed by the multi-screens.
jonas
There was a time when there was a pretty basic answer to that: “Sure, if they guy proves to be seriously corrupt, or completely bungles a major national crisis and/or tanks the economy.” But Trump’s supporters aren’t backing a political candidate; they’re in thrall to a cult leader. The Leader cannot fail; he can only be failed. Hence nothing — ever — will sway their support.
Brachiator
@cain:
The movie industry has seen massive shake-ups before. The decline of the studio system where studios practically owned stars, the law change that led to studios no longer being able to own movie theaters, and the inroads of television.
And there has been some basic stupid reporting about the industry. Despite annual reports of piles and piles of box office receipts, tickets old has been declining for years. More and more, people stay home. And streaming is the exclamation point.
Drive-ins suck. We went when I was a kid and the overall experience was not that hot. And as a teen I would go to the drive-in with a date to do everything but watch a movie.
And as you note, they are not space-efficient. But you wouldn’t have to worry about masks and social distancing. They may make a mild comeback, but not enough to change anything.
Good point. The continued absence of movie theaters may accelerate the deaths of some remaining malls.
Nobody has any power over the virus, except for the dopes who insist on defiance and ignoring health rules. And even in communities where movies are allowed to operate, attendance is down by as much as 70 percent. People love movies, but not enough to risk their health.
You have a similar problem with theme parks. Disney executives are angry that California governor Newsom has not relaxed the rules. But Disneyland is about families. Who is going to go to Disneyland if Aunt Mae and the grandparents can’t go, or have to isolate when the rest of the family comes back?
If a vaccine is not 100 percent effective (and it probably won’t be), we will have to rethink how we handle social spaces. Or we can just say “the hell with it, let’s risk some viral infection.”
Political connections don’t really help here.
Uncle Cosmo
@Jay: CMX CineBistro at the Rotunda in Baltimore: Went there with friends New Years Eve 2018 for supper & screening of “Vice.” Similar deal at the Alamo Drafthouse visiting friends in Austin years before. And there’s Brewvies in (of all places) Salt Lake City – I know it was around in 2005 (the friend I was headed out to see at the time mentioned it beforehand) but I don’t think we actually got there.
So not that unusual a concept.
After COVID – for that matter even now – there might be a market for food-&-flick if a theater architect could break the audience area up into self-contained “booths” seating 4-8 with minimal intrabooth sound leakage so parties could chatter amongst themselves during the dessert course. Be a little tricky right now to handle isolation & disinfection but I’ll bet there’s a way.
jonas
Theoretically yes. But state and local budgets are going to be so completely hammered for the next several years that unless the feds step up with some major aid, teachers and educators, too, are going be finding themselves in the bread lines with the bartenders and waiters.
Sally
@Sally: ly
Brachiator
@Jeffro:
Great point. Although I’m not sure about the pay and benefits, especially if more remote learning becomes a thing.
In the Before Times I had a conversation with a guy who was a cook and in-between jobs. He was not worried at all about finding new work, and had a lead that involved catering for Pasadena Rose Bowl events.
I wonder what he is up to now, but I kinda believe that he has found a way to adjust to the current situation.
A lot of Hollywood production people, though, are getting hit hard.
SFBayAreaGal
Someone posted in a previous thread, that Trump was also getting decadron.
My mom had ITP. ITP is when the body attacks the platelets. She used Decadron to bring her platlets back up to a decent level. One of the side effects was the emotional ups and downs. While taking the drug it would cause a high and lack of sleep. When she stopped taking the drug she would be depressed for a few days.
Chetan Murthy
@Jeffro:
*cough* not trying to be argumentative, and I’m not a teacher so I don’t know, but I’ve never, ever, ever heard teaching described as having good pay — quite the opposite. I *have* heard that the benefits are good, partially as a way of compensating for the shitty pay. And lately the GrOPers have been coming after those benefits with a fucking chainsaw.
evodevo
@jonas: He just started the steroids…when you first start, you feel GREAT! On top of the world! And in the case of someone who is already manic and hyper, makes you even more so. A few days later you crash, just like with meth…so we’ll see how he’s doing come Weds…
Ruckus
@zhena gogolia:
I believe she sued or was trying to for termination from parental control. Sounds like she’d be better off pretty much anywhere else.
...now I try to be amused
@cain:
Yeah, it really is striking. Fun fact: Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Donald Trump were all born in 1946, reckoned as the first year of the Baby Boom. Looking at past presidents by generation:
The Silent Generation was skipped. Biden would be the first Silent Generation president, and I expect he will be the last.
cain
Good point. We are definitely looking to see some changes in a lot of things going forward. It seems sad though movie houses do employ a decent amount of people and those will all die off.
We won’t be seeing a ton of entry level positions…
sdhays
As long as they’re not black and female. I’m still shocked and angry about the story of doctors ignoring Serena Fucking Williams after she gave birth. I don’t follow tennis or sports, but even I know she’s one of the top athletes the world has ever seen. And they nearly killed her.