The Trump campaign made chinless deadbeat thumb Jason Miller the face of media outreach all weekend, which is a good sign for those of us who want to see Trump defeated by a humiliating landslide. Miller is among the lowest quality of the low-quality hires. He got his ass pretty well chewed up by Ana Cabrera on CNN a short while ago, and during the appearance, he telegraphed the Trump campaign strategy for the remaining 29 days:
If Trump doesn’t leave Walter Reed today to great fanfare, I’ll be surprised. I think he knows he has to play strongman or he’ll definitely lose. He can leave the hospital in greater safety than any other elderly, obese COVID-19 patient since Trump has a publicly funded medical team and facilities at his public housing unit, so he’ll almost surely skip out.
Miller informed viewers more than once that he’d spoken to Trump twice and inserted the words “hiding in a basement” at least two or three times in reference to Biden, so that will be among the lines we’ll hear repeatedly, along with the absurd conceit that Trump defeated COVID personally and will now lead the country to defeat it across the land.
There’s a non-zero chance Trump will take a turn for the worse and end up back in the hospital, but he and the low-quality hires can see defeat looming and are gambling that he won’t. It’s really their last shot, and maybe they figure they can hide it if he does get sicker, just as they probably plotted to hide the original diagnosis until Jennifer Jacobs at Bloomberg got the leaked intelligence of Hope Hicks’ diagnosis, followed by Trump becoming symptomatic.
It’s stupid and reckless and irresponsible, just like the political stunt Trump pulled yesterday when he forced Secret Service agents to drive his contagious ass around in a hermetically sealed vehicle. But it’s not surprising. The Trumps are careless and they break things, including the country, and that’s what they’ll do until we kick them out. The end.
debbie
No better spokesman. Dude oozes sleeze.
Kay
This is my favorite House race:
PJ
I think you’re right, it’s not going to work for Trump, but he has to commit to the bit.
ETA: They haven’t had a plan to turn out more voters for Trump any more than they’ve had a plan to defeat or manage Covid. They do have a plan for voter suppression, though, and that will go ahead on schedule.
Geoboy
Remember Donald Trump’s “I only hire the best people”?
“I wanted to take a moment to have a look at Jason Miller, Trump’s current comms spokesperson, who was trotted out on Choke Tudd’s Press the Meat teevee program today.
“Miller, a Trump 2016 campaign staffer, was named Trump’s Communications Director on Dec. 22nd, 2016, after Trump won the election. He resigned that position two days later, because he had impregnated another Trump official, A.J. Delgado, while Miller’s own wife was pregnant.
“Miller wanted Delgado to abort the baby. He offered her money. Lots of money. He then allegedly made her a milkshake with abortion medication secretly added. That reporting got him fired from CNN, his post-WH gig. She had the child. Miller went to court to gain 50/50 custody, and was refused. Miller has fought paying child support. In fact, the Trump campaign is helping Miller not pay his share by paying him off the official books.
“None of this is behaviour outside the norm for Miller. He likes hookers. He visits massage parlours regularly. Oh, and while his wife was pregnant and he was knocking up Delgado, he was also having an affair with another Trump campaign official.
“Rehired as a “senior advisor” by the White House this June, Jason Miller is a perfect fit for the Trump administration. Just a real keeper.”
Real “Party of Personal Responsibility” “Pro-Life” stuff there.
Kay
I don’t think there’s a shred of evidence the “hiding in his basement” attack by the Trump campaign has worked, but I guess it’s all they have.
My husband thinks Trump himself is no longer about getting elected. Instead he thinks Trump is working on keeping his “fans” (as he calls them) so he can continue to bleed them dry for years with some post-presidential scam career.
germy
germy
Kayleigh McEnany has tested positive.
feebog
Your predictions are spot on Betty. He is desperate to project that strongman image as hospitalization makes him look weak and vulnerable, at least in his mind. If he relapses and has to be readmitted to Walter Reed he will no doubt blame his doctors, but that is not going to fly.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
have they noticed that Biden’s lead has only grown as they prattle about “hiding in a basement”? But… their real base is that infamous “audience of one”.
ETA: one point Mary Trump made, we should always remember that as The Beast makes everyone perform for him as the audience of one, he has his own audience of one he’s performing for: The ghost of his father.
MSNBC: Kayleigh Macanerny has tested positive.
Baud
@Kay:
Agree, but they got media buy in to the meme, so they think it worked.
JPL
McEneny is positive for the Covid
What Germy said.. I offer my prayers that she gains the same type of knowledge that trump has about the disease.
catclub
trump could not manage a national response to fight Covid19. he could not even manage a Whitehouse response to manage and fight it.
Barbara
Whether he is in the White House or at Walter Reed, he is still contagious. He cannot resume his normal schedule until he has several negative tests in a row, not quick tests, but real tests. What donors are going to sign up for a chance to get a special session with the president now?
Do they really not understand how offputting it is to older people in particular, the idea that they should be brave enough to risk death by going out and about and that trying to protect themselves by limiting activities is characterized as cowering in their basements?
Gin & Tonic
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
That elicited peals of laughter in the G&T household.
Calouste
I think that if the shitgibbon leaves the hospital today, the chance that he will be back there before the end of the week is a lot closer to 100% than it is to 0.
SiubhanDuinne
Just announced. Kayleigh McInaney has tested positive.
Tots and pears.
Baud
Does anyone know how to spell her last name?
I’m going with McEnemy.
cope
Wow, that’s what I have been thinking. I have been chewing on all this stuff…is he sick, is he NOT sick, will he leave Walter Reed AMA, will he stay, will he campaign if he leaves, will he hole up in the WH, so many variables. However, this morning after my unsettling breakfast of online news, I pretty much came to the same conclusion. To wit: he is sick, he doesn’t want to show weakness, it’s the bottom of the 9th and he feels he needs to save the day.
I suspect, though, that there is a reasonably high chance he will suffer either more serious health issues from the virus or the witch’s brew of drugs he is apparently taking. Gonna be an interesting last few last laps in this race.
PJ
@Barbara: If he leaves the hospital, and is able to stand for 10-15 minutes, I think Trump will have some rallies, because he craves the adulation. And people will show up, because they are his fans and they are idiots.
MisterForkbeard
Really, the Trump motto. Hopefully not the American motto.
cope
@Kay: I am intrigued by your husband’s take.
Gin & Tonic
@Baud: I don’t care, do u?
Amir Khalid
They were a fun band. Whatever happened to them after Pocketful of Kryptonite?
I never worked a political beat in my reporting days. I was fortunate that I didn’t have to encounter bullshit-spouting media spokespeople like this Jason Miller guy. But I did once encounter a Cabinet Minister who gave me some grief because that morning’s edition of my newspaper carried a story about him that he didn’t like. (I re-read the story later, but was none the wiser about his complaint.)
Crashman06
@Kay: My parents live in this district. My former Republican, Never-Trump father hates this guy and thinks he’s a gutless coward.
PJ
@MisterForkbeard: Gotta say, just add “proudly” to “stupid and reckless and irresponsible” and you have an apt description of a significant proportion of the American population.
Baud
@Kay: I hope the potential for profit lowers his incentive to try to steal the election.
MisterForkbeard
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Kayleigh’s positive? Interesting.
Someone earlier had made the point that since Trump got a (second) positive test and they had to disclose it, no one else in the Administration had admitted to a positive test. We do know that Trump was telling people to keep it secret.
In this case, I suppose they figured out that their lying Press Secretary couldn’t just not show up to work for 2+ weeks. But if she had it, I’m sure all sorts of people there have it.
Joe Falco
With all these announcements of Republicans testing positive, I’m secretly hoping for a Red Wedding situation for Trump and company. Will there be someone at Walter Reed that can play The Rains of Castamere loud enough for Trump to hear?
Amir Khalid
@Baud:
Sometimes I’m tempted to spell her name McNinny.
Kent
Why would any non-MAGA press go within 1/2 mile of any White House events at this point is beyond me. The whole place has become a Covid hot zone.
TS (the original)
@germy:
And yesterday there was a picture of her with her young babe. I’ll send my good thoughts to the babe.
cain
@catclub:
He couldn’t even prevent it from infecting white house personnel. Now the virus is spreading through the entire Republican caucus. I would say that attacks of Joe Biden in the basement is not going to land that well when everyone is seeking to do the same thing.
germy
cain
@Baud:
McEnema?
Wapiti
Given the rumors that Trump is going to bring his infection home, if I worked in the White House I’d claim a positive result just to avoid going back to work.,
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Baud:
Haw-Haw.
Wapiti
@cain: And since a good chunk of the voters have been stuck in their homes for the last 8 months, Biden sounds like one of us.
cain
He’s going to have the best care, so it is possible he will pull it out but he’s gonna be exhausted – and we don’t know if he will really recover. But for most older folks this is real death. If he dies the older crowd is definitely going to be staying home.
That puts even places like Texas in bad shape because not many will venture.. and if they try to put say more ballot boxes in rural areas, it can easily be contested in court.
WaterGirl
@TS (the original):
Now that is distressing.
noncarborundum
All these different versions of Kayleigh’s last name. I’ve been informed the correct spelling is “MagaNinny”
BC in Illinois
Here is Kayleigh McInaney’s Tweet.
Full of “I was doing my job for the American people” and “who could have known . . .”
I wish her and President Trump and Mrs. Trump and all the others well.
And I say that sincerely. Not easily, but sincerely. My brother died of Covid in August. Reading about hospitals, oxygen levels, Remdesivir, antibody treatments, quarantines etc. brings back all the memories. His wife got to see him once.
To see Trump and his servants treat this as a public relations problem to be stage-managed with lies and PR spin is maddening. But I don’t want to see anyone go through this all the way to the end.
I just want them gone.
Elizabelle
I love that that wicked press secretary has tested positive.
Standing up there, lying her blonde ass off for the Antichrist. In Fox News garb and a crucifix at her neck. Give me a break.
As someone else mentioned, this is the month we learn to spell schadenfreude by heart.
Baud
@BC in Illinois: I’m sorry to hear about your brother.
Elizabelle
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: Haw-Haw. Perfect.
cain
She’s probably be spreading it to a lot of other people. At this rate, they are not going to be enough staffers at the white house to deal with anything and just 3 weeks till the election.
Their timing is impeccable.
McConnell must be besides himself – all his plans ruined thanks to hubris of his party.
Scout211
Speaking of spin, I wonder who these “sources” are that claim Don, Jr. is the sane one?
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/10/don-jr-thinks-trump-is-acting-crazy-presidents-covid-joyride-has-family-divided
Eural Joiner
Everyone
Everyone around here
Everyone is so near
It’s holding on
It’s holding on
Everyone
Everyone is so near
Everyone has got the fear
It’s holding on
It’s holding on
It’s holding on
It’s holding on
It’s holding on
“National Anthem” -Radiohead
On a related note: why does almost every Radiohead or Nine Inch Nails song from the past two decades seem to fit our moment so well?
R-Jud
@BC in Illinois: I’m so sorry for your loss.
Baud
If Trump is released, he’s going to demand that people stand close to him for photo ops. I wonder if his people are more afraid of crossing him or of the virus.
Dorothy A. Winsor
McEnany tested positive.
Baud
@Scout211: Sounds like Javanka are moving to get Jr. cut out of the will.
Gin & Tonic
@BC in Illinois: You are a far, far better person than I am.
Ken
Grammar checker says “avoid repetition”.
cain
@Scout211:
That’s too bad. Perhaps if he hopped himself on cocaine or heroin, he could confront him for all our sakes. In any case, at least one of them is thinking in the right direction. But I don’t know if that is because of the election or just personal concern.
Elizabelle
@Calouste: And back to Walter Reed in a wheelchair or via stretcher. Oxygen mask on.
The man and his “advisers” cannot think 2 days ahead.
I am not so sure he is going to depart. Maybe he will brag he’s doing it for his Secret Service agents’ health. Because we know he is all about that.
AWOL
@germy: Farts and Jeers.
matt
That dude is such a greasy turd of a human being.
zhena gogolia
@germy:
THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS
zhena gogolia
It’s almost like they’ve now decided that getting Covid is the hip thing to do.
MisterForkbeard
@cain: They could have gotten away with Barrett’s coronation if they’d just done it. But no, they had to throw a party and rub it in. They had to make everyone understand that they were doing it to us and they were really enjoying it.
Poetic that they’re paying for it. And I agree that PressSec has probably passed it to a lot of people in the meantime.
Kent
Who’s the poor soul who is going to have to work on his hair?
cain
@BC in Illinois:
It’s a great sentiment – but these folks are directly responsible for the poor management of this virus. Your brother, and 210k people were preventable deaths.
I hope that their personal experience with the virus will move them to action – but I suspect that if it does it will be about saving their own lives, and their own careers. :
ETA: I’m sorry for your loss.
TS (the original)
@BC in Illinois:
So sorry to hear your family news. And the saddest thing not to be able to be with loved ones as they leave us.
The tweet you quote from McEnany is weird
Another contact tracing fail from the White House
Steeplejack
@Kay:
But your husband’s take sort of ignores the whole “stay out of jail” side of things. Does he think that Trump thinks he can just do his usual “delay forever with lawyers” thing? (Which, admittedly, has worked pretty well for him so far.)
Ned F.
I guess Hope Hicks is returning also, being only 31 and much fitter. Melania also. How are they all responding anywho?
debbie
@Kay:
Wonder if (if your husband is right) that means Trump won’t dispute the results?
Just One More Canuck
@Gin & Tonic: Scadenfreude – it’s not just for breakfast anymore
Ken
Eric’s also available, since he’s taken the 5th and won’t be testifying about the family corporate finances.
Speaking of active investigations and lawsuits, did anyone take this opportunity to get a sample of Trump’s DNA for that rape/defamation case?
cain
That will definitely depress turn out, increase fears of the virus, and make Proud Boys said – so eagerly they await the President to follow through on his last missive. They still might – in revenge. But it wasn’t liberals who made him sick – nobody can gaslight that given all the mockery of us around the virus.
sdhays
@TS (the original): When I heard that she was still breezing around the Very White House without a mask even after people are coming down with it left and right there and that she has a baby, I was just furious. Fuck her. That poor baby.
And, similarly, those poor children with the terrible misfortune to have Kellyanne Conway their mother.
Dave
Prepare for “Weekend at Bernie’s”
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
Tomorrow’s NYT: Biden’s conundrum: How to campaign on COVID while remaining COVID free?
comrade scotts agenda of rage
As Dana Bash put it yesterday: “This presser was a medical briefing from Baghdad Bob.”
Combine that and her “shitshow” comment after the debate and you know something’s up. Bash has been deservedly criticized over the years for her standard, Villager Media Idiot Conventional Wisdom stenography. For example, after Bash said this in March after the Orange Fart Cloud made a coronavirus statement:
Betty Cracker said this in response:
When you’ve lost the godawful hacks like Bash, you’ve lost.
debbie
@Scout211:
DJ’s really starting to see himself as the next president. This could be fun!
Shalimar
Shave off all the hair, cut off the ears and nose, and you could bowl a strike with Jason Miller’s head.
cain
It’s the best schadenfreude. Their own plans in ruin and of course now the election is certainly upon on us but all the Trump followers are going to be busy trying to contain the virus within their ranks.
Some are already trying to spread conspiracy theories about the timing and why only Republicans are being affected. That ship won’t sail.
Ghost of Joe Liebling*s Dog
@Baud:
MAGAninny.
Dave
@Kay: we can all hope he’ll be directing the Trump Crime Syndicate from behind bars somewhere in the federal prison system.
Baud
I guess if everyone has COVID at the same time, there’s no need to wear masks or social distance.
p.a.
@cain: Maybe they start recruiting proud boys as WH staff. Even they might tell the tRumpies to eff off.
Shalimar
@debbie: He miscalculates badly. I have money down that the Republican nomination will never go to “the sane one.”
Steeplejack
@BC in Illinois:
Condolences on the loss of your brother. That must have been awful.
MattF
Now, the Trump campaign is saying Biden, unlike the genius of Mar-a-Lago, is unqualified because he hasn’t caught COVID. There is no bottom to their crazy.
sdhays
@Steeplejack: How much do you think Dump actually fears going to jail? Personally, I think he’s as delusional about that as he is about COVID-19. He’s been able to bluster and buy his way out of legal jeopardy before, and he’s going to self-pardon on his way out no matter what (and I doubt he has gotten into the details of whether that would actually be legal or not – for someone like him, all that matters is that it gets tied up in the courts for years).
Peale
So now Trump is that asshole who shows up sick to the office and hacks it up in his cubicle. That asshole became an actual villain around April for most of the country.
JPL
Geoduck
I’d bet $100 that if you played that song for him he’d have absolutely no idea what it meant. (In fairness, neither would I, while I get the reference, I’ve never watched the series..)
Baud
@MattF:
Despite Trump’s best efforts.
Kay
It is nice for Americans that so many of the liars are out of commission. The volume of lies will decline.
They should rest. I would suggest stopping talking completely and just focusing on wellness. We will pay them to stop working. Please.
SiubhanDuinne
@Baud:
That works too. But I like a spelling that includes “Inane.”
Citizen Alan
@Elizabelle: The only problem with calling her Haw-Haw is that the Republicans are too stupid and historically ignorant to get the reference. Might I suggest “Axis Kayleigh”?
Kent
Yeah. I’ve been somewhat surprised by how shrill some of these press hacks have gotten lately. It’s one thing to just report honestly on the orange monster, for once. But it’s like they have months or years of pent-up rage that is just flying out.
I think people everywhere around the country are just running out of fucks en mass. I’ve been watching politics since Carter and I’ve never seen anything like this before. People are just done.
Peale
Even their stupid “Its just the flu, except 20 times more people end up in the hospital”. Like his 3 day stint in a hospital wouldn’t be a huge financial setback even to those of us working stiffs with supposedly gold-plated insurance plans through work.
Like everything else with them, they are stuck in 1960 when they used to let people stay in hospitals for less than $45,000 per day.
Elizabelle
@MisterForkbeard: Michael D. Shear of the NY Times is one of the three journalists suffering from Covid. Might have contacted it straight from the top:
”
and
WaPost: “One reporter who covered the [ACB bragging] ceremony said journalists were confined to a penlike enclosure behind the seated guests, with little space between them. Almost none of the invited guests wore masks, said the reporter, who was not authorized to publicly discuss the situation.”
Probably more journalists and staffers and acquaintances with COVID now.
Calouste
@Elizabelle:
Most likely if he goes back he won’t be walking. Because he doesn’t want to go back because “it looks weak” so either the doctors will have to tell him he’s going to die if he doesn’t, or he’ll be unconscious.
Anyway, it’s noon in DC, should have been enough time to evaluate how the patient did overnight, what’s holding them?
Baud
@Kay:
The quality, however, will not increase.
Kay
@JPL:
The Trumps are the white supremacy brand. Say it’s 10 million loyal fans. That’s a lot of marks to bleed!
JPL
@Baud: omg If asked I hope Biden uses that line. They’ll probably say, since Biden listens to the scientists, he knows how to protect himself. (boring)
Betty Cracker
@MisterForkbeard: I’m resigned to us being stuck with that kook on the SCOTUS regardless. They’ll find a way to ram her through, if not prior to the election, in the lame-duck session. We’ll have to court-pack her into irrelevance or suffer her theocratic edicts from the bench. But it is gratifying that they paid for their arrogance.
sdhays
Since we’re already doing it for the Republican Senate, I suppose we can extend that to the Very White House staff.
jonas
That’s my bet as well. Conley will issue some opaque, mushy statement about how the doctors’ opinions were “divided” about whether he should go back to the WH, but they ultimately supported the president’s wishes to be back with his family. (Translation: Trump threw an epic tantrum and threatened all the WR personnel with courts martial or whatever unless they let him leave.)
My bet is also that if he does this, he’s back in the hospital within a week in far worse shape than when he left. If he’s already been given oxygen and dexamethazone over the past several days he’s not just “riding this out” with few or no symptoms. This could go south real quick.
Kay
@Baud:
It already seems quieter. Some of the din has subsided.
schrodingers_cat
Is there a running list of all those infected at the Orange Corona’s coming out party for Amy Covid Bringer?
MattF
@Kay: Until they start promoting the idea that getting infected is everyone’s patriotic duty. It’s the ‘little Hitler’ syndrome. Trumpites must emulate the Leader.
SixStringFanatic
@Amir Khalid: They had exactly one album’s worth of good songs is what happened to them.
Signed, someone who bought their second album.
SiubhanDuinne
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism:
Very nice.
germy
The perfect is the McEnany of the good.
Elizabelle
@SiubhanDuinne: Yeah, McInane is my favorite for her. Although Kayleigh McALiar is OK as well.
She is possibly the worst of the four press secretaries. We don’t know about the last one (the habitual drunk driver and plagiarist) since we never saw her. I don’t even remember that jackhole’s name. Stephanie something? Who cares. Sean Spicer comes off the best (thanks, Melissa McCarthy!)
International Mikey
@BC in Illinois: Sorry to hear about your brother. We’ve had losses in our family as well and the pain and grief is only worsened by watching the daily shitshow coming out of the White House. God bless you and the rest of your family.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@BC in Illinois: I hadn’t heard about your brother before. I’m so sorry.
Citizen Alan
@MattF:
I am totally down with Trump Trash deciding that it’s “patriotic” to deliberately expose themselves to Covid19. It’s like the 21st Century equivalent of red kool-aid.
Sloane Ranger
I loved all that stuff. The way Miller talked Trump took a brief car ride to show the virus he’s not afraid of it. Presumably, the virus will now think “Wow, that guy’s one tough dude, he frightens me. I think I’ll just slink away.”
Alternatively, all that talk about fighting and war, as if the virus can be bombed into submission or even beaten with 2 falls or a submission.
It’s all Alpha male cosplay isn’t it?
Elizabelle
@schrodingers_cat: You know the WaPost reporters are enjoying compiling this list. The longer article includes: “This post will be updated frequently.” LOL.
Who has tested positive for coronavirus among Trump’s advisers, allies and others in his orbit?
By Aaron Blake and Marisa Iati
Nearly a dozen of Trump’s allies and other people connected to him have tested positive for the novel coronavirus since last week, and many others may have been exposed.
“Given the nature of the interactions, there are a potentially large number of people who are going to meet the exposure definition,” said Lisa Maragakis, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University.
Here are the people known to have the coronavirus so far:
Trump: Announced around 1 a.m. Friday that he had tested positive.
First lady Melania Trump: Announced by the president when he revealed his diagnosis.
White House adviser Hope Hicks: Tested positive Thursday morning.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany: McEnany said in a statement she tested positive Monday morning.
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah): Tested positive Thursday.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.): Announced diagnosis Friday night.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.): Announced Saturday morning that he had tested positive.
Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel: Tested positive on Wednesday, but it was revealed Friday.
The Rev. John I. Jenkins, University of Notre Dame president: Tested positive last week.
Former counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway: Said she tested positive Friday evening.
Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien: Tested positive late Friday.
Trump debate adviser Chris Christie: Announced his diagnosis Saturday morning.
Trump’s personal assistant Nick Luna: A White House official confirmed his positive test Saturday night.
Ghost of Joe Liebling*s Dog
@BC in Illinois:
A stranger’s words can’t mean much, but I’m so sorry.
JPL
@Scout211:
Well doh… Thanks for telling us now.
gene108
@Scout211:
Hahahaha….Ivanka and Jared are going to cut Don, Jr. out of Daddy’s will…
Don, Jr. will never get his daddy’s approval
gene108
@BC in Illinois:
Condolences on your brother’s passing
Kent
You KNOW that the pardons are already written. For him and every one of his spawn. They are just waiting until after November 3 to sign them. But every other Trump lackey is going to be SOL if they aren’t family. Because that’s the way he rocks.
I honestly think various Trump tax investigations and such will linger on in the back burner for a couple of years and then just fade away. I don’t see him sitting in Federal court as a defendant. The NY state tax stuff? It will linger on and then come to some eventual settlement where the state gets its pound of flesh.
Where he and his spawn are in real trouble is with their “business empire”. He has completely destroyed his brand. He will be bankrupt and forced to live on his $400,000/year presidential pension. His problem is that his political fan base, the MAGA faithful with the pickup trucks and flags are not the target market for his upscale properties. And he’s got nothing to sell them.
I expect what we will end up with is some new Trump family reality show on TV. They don’t know any other way of cashing in. It will be a cringeworthy combination of Keeping up with the Kardashians and some southern televangelist/infomercial with a little Honey Boo Boo and Duck Dynasty mixed in . It will be the most horrible thing on TV and people will watch.
Betty Cracker
I wonder who Trump will blame for infecting McEnany? He blamed soldiers and first responders for infecting Hicks — seriously. It was probably Trump all along. He’s exactly the type of person to rant and scream in people’s faces at top volume. A perfect COVID-spreading machine.
germy
@Elizabelle: I wonder how George Conway is doing.
JPL
@Elizabelle: It seems like just yesterday that Kayleigh wasn’t going to announce whether or not anyone else had tested positive because of privacy concerns.
SiubhanDuinne
@BC in Illinois:
I’m so sorry about your brother. What a terrible loss.
Citizen Alan
@MattF:
I am totally fine with Trump Trash deciding that deliberately contracting Covid19 is a patriotic duty. I’ll be the 21st century answer to “drinking the red kool-aidf.”
Ken
And some of them haven’t even been put at risk because the WH concealed the outbreak. It suggests they may still have the capacity for empathy, if only in the weak “my god that could have been me” form.
Kay
They refuse to wear masks because they are vain and silly people who never should have been given any responsibility at all.
It’s vanity. It’s the flip side of strutting around with an assault rifle. It’s about their image.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Our ballots have still not been mailed out to us in PA. I’m starting to get anxious.
Betty Cracker
Regarding that Vanity Fair story:
History is repeating itself…
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Trump says it’s just a little flue, time for Trump to man up, tell his elitist doctors to shut up and and order his cabinet and aids to join him walk out side for meet and greet with fans out the hospital .
germy
Elizabelle
@germy: Dunno. Hope he can cook and shop for his personal Plague House. Very sorry the teenaged daughter contracted it, although maybe it strengthens her next pleading for emancipation.
Captain C
@Amir Khalid:
They released another album of similar quality, which bombed for several reasons (lack of record company support once the first single wasn’t a huge hit, the fact that the ’90s, and MTV* in particular, had a very short attention span when it came to bands, and suchlike). They then went through a period of personnel instability for a few years, and since then seem to be on the summer nostalgia circuit most years. I think some of the various members have some side projects as well.
*A channel that once showed music videos, and had some cultural importance, and is now known mostly for showing reruns of a third-rate video clips show called Ridiculousness.
(edited to add the MTV bits)
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
germy
@Kay:
I get the impression that administration spokespeople confuse “I get tested regularly” with “they take my temperature sometimes.”
Suzanne
@Baud: McBasic?
Gin & Tonic
@jonas: Dexamethasone as prescribed for respiratory distress is not something you administer once, it is a 10-day treatment regimen, and any doctor who approves its continuation outside a hospital setting should have his or her medical license revoked.
hueyplong
@Scout211: “Speaking of spin, I wonder who these “sources” are that claim Don, Jr. is the sane one?”
Probably too obvious for anyone else to bother, but I’ll go ahead and say John Barron, Jr.
cmorenc
Of course, the russians were always trying to inflict damaging influence, but now they will use their last 4 months to turn it up to 11 while they have the shitgibbon to assist them.
Boris Rasputin (the evil twin)
As I asked downstairs, anyone know what a respirator sounds like? I hear something strange behind the doctors when they brief the press.
gene108
@Kay:
There’s always another third rate lying hack willing to step in, because they figure this is their shot into the big leagues of being a first rate lying hack.
For example, Jason Miller getting subbed in to do Sunday shows in place of the usual starting lying White House hacks.
There’s a deep bench of lying political hacks on that team.
SiubhanDuinne
@Elizabelle:
Partly Melissa, I agree. But mostly, he became a sympathetic character to me when Trump, in his ineffable pettiness, denied Sean the opportunity to realise his lifelong dream of meeting the Pope. That was twist-the-knife-salt-in-the-would cruelty.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@germy: It’s as if they confuse being tested with being vaccinated. Hey, if you’ve been tested, you can’t have it!
Kay
Wow. I would have guessed they would hide the hard Right turn on the court until at least they rubberstamp Trump’s new justice. Aggressive!
Let the arrogant over-reach begin. Maybe we can keep them out of the Presidency and in a minority in Congress for a generation. It’ll be the elected branches on the Left and the unelected court on the Right.
I’ll take that deal.
Elizabelle
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: I would love to see Betty Cracker turn her artistic skills to depicting pigface (sorry, pigs) Trump with 3 neckties.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@gene108: How desperate do you have to be to decide that Jason Miller should speak for you?
WaterGirl
@Citizen Alan: All better!
MisterForkbeard
@Ken: Can you actually do this? Take the 5th to just not show up?
My impression was always that if subpoenaed you had to be there but you could take the 5th for any specific question.
Elizabelle
@SiubhanDuinne: Yes. That was shabby as … Trump.
FWIW, I still love that Pope Francis would not meet with Pompeo last week(??), saying it is too close to the US election.
WaterGirl
@BC in Illinois: I’m so sorry about your brother. To have had COVID or lost someone you love to COVID in an environment where there is such callous disregard for human life must be especially hurtful.
Kay
@germy:
Apparently none of the people in that White House and none of the people at the SCOTUS spike- the football parties grasped one thing about the covid information we have been inundated with for the last 9 months. They got none of it. No comprehension at all.
Punchy
If Trump leaves WR, where does he go? He’s required, by the CDC, to isolate for at least 6 more days. That means zero interaction with anyone not dressed head/toe in PPE. But he cannot be alone; he requires constant attention and suck-upage. So does he just skip the isolation? Does he campaign again on Wednesday?
Shorter: once out of the hospital, there’ll be no reins on this guy. He’ll be spewing COVID to anyone and everyone in GOP govt circles….does he think no one will notice this completely insane behavior?
MisterForkbeard
@Elizabelle: Wow. “Individual 1”, and now “Patient Zero”.
Maybe we can also get “Inmate” in his titles.
germy
jonas
@schrodingers_cat: All of them, Katie.
MattF
Yes, the Trumpites are saying this.
NotMax
Return to the manse on a palanquin borne by eight barechested Proud Boys?
//
Elizabelle
Re Sean Spicer and the Pope: per CNN story. Seems Spicer resigned as Press Secretary in late July 2017 (really short tenure) and had met the Pope personally by August 30.
Trump’s excluding Spicer is so mean and petty and on point for Trump.
Washington (CNN) Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer has finally crossed an important item off his personal bucket list: meeting Pope Francis.
While visiting Italy with a group of legislators and politicians this week, Spicer got an audience with the Pope and was seen snapping photos of His Holiness and shaking his hand, a source confirmed to CNN. The story was first reported by America Media, a Catholic publication.
A message left with Spicer was not immediately returned.
Spicer, a devout Catholic, was not part of a group of White House advisers who met the Pope earlier this year when they traveled with President Donald Trump in May to the Vatican — a move widely viewed as a snub toward the then-press secretary.
Jeffro
@Captain C:
I tried explaining MTV to my kids a few years ago – the novelty of it, anyway. Being able to watch video after video all day long used to be special-er than it is now. =P
Kent
Here’s a data point of one.
I have a MAGA cousin who lives in the Seattle suburbs. In 2016 he was the most flaming MAGA asshole you could possibly imagine. The kind of guy who actually hauled a big display of giant TRUMP signs down to Century Link field to set up a booth outside Seattle Sounders games in October 2016. Yep, he sought out the most liberal sports fan base in the most liberal city in the US to be a MAGA asshole. His FB feed was all MAGA 24/7 when he wasn’t posing and hanging out with Tim Eyman (for your WA folks). For real: Check it out. This was his FB profile pic in 2016: https://scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t31.0-8/14633565_10154674953417351_1394905358836887398_o.jpg?_nc_cat=110&_nc_sid=110474&_nc_ohc=a8IpUDX9vr8AX_0Vgxy&_nc_ht=scontent-sea1-1.xx&oh=03f5b2239b0350257efd9c267904a5b8&oe=5FA2A236
I checked in with him recently because our HS daughters hang out together. “I don’t have time for politics this year Kent, I’m just trying to keep my businesses afloat.” He owns a couple of laundromats that have been hit hard because they have lost a lot of their commercial restaurant business. I haven’t seen one political post from him since the pandemic has started.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Geoboy:
Women in Trump World don’t choose; they settle.
cain
Put them in as secret service – they would love that shit, they have no qualms dying for their leader.
JPL
@BC in Illinois: I remember when you spoke about him in August. How’s your sister-in-law doing?
Kay
No one on the Right got this- including the elite Right wing brain trust who were invited to SCOTUS parties. Random 6th graders can tell you this, but it never sunk in on the Right.
Ken
“Hmm, license revoked, or a general court-martial for disobeying an order from the Commander-in-Chief. Decisions, decisions….”
Possibly the use of military doctors needs to be rethought. Or we can add it to the very long list of “only a problem when the president is a delusional narcissistic would-be dictator” issues, and hope it doesn’t come up again any time soon.
Seanly
Trump’s October Surprise is “Surprise, I’m still an asshole!” I don’t think that’s what Nixon, Atwater & Rove envisioned but hey, who am I to judge.
SiubhanDuinne
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
And yet the only reason we have cases is that we test. Tests = cases. No testing = no cases.
‘Tis a puzzlement.
cain
Hey they wanted access – hows that access journalism workin out for them?
MattF
@Ken: Trump chooses physicians who do and say what he tells them to do and say.
Kent
Exactly. You gotta show up. He’s just daring them to try to enforce it.
Betty Cracker
Still laughing about Melania saying she won’t leave the White House to visit Trump because she doesn’t want to endanger others right after Trump took the joy ride. I’m sure she couldn’t give a shit less if she endangers her Secret Service detail — she just doesn’t want to visit her horrible husband. But how funny that she undermined his stunt like that, and probably deliberately because it was Ivanka’s idea or whatever.
MisterForkbeard
@Kent: I know Trump pioneered this for his administration – just don’t show up, dare the house (or the court) to come after you.
In this case, they should definitely just do it. He’s the President’s son, he’s not in the administration, and he just refused a lawful order. He should be held to a higher standard, not a lower one.
SiubhanDuinne
@SiubhanDuinne:
Fucking autoincorrect.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Herd Mentality!
J R in WV
@Baud:
McE’Ninny, right?
MattF
And here’s a Trumpite attacking Biden for not getting COVID.
Noncarborundum
@Ghost of Joe Liebling*s Dog:
Ahem: @noncarborundum
NotMax
@MattF
Munchausen, Phelegud & Kwak, a medical LLC.
:)
Ken
I think you’re confusing the post-hack #ProudBoys hashtag pictures with the real Proud Boys, who should not be parading around barechested.
Salty Sam
Yup. The dam is crumbling.
cain
barechested and likely obese proud boys.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@Gin & Tonic: it would make me laugh if she had not been up there unmasked, late last week after Hope Hicks tested positive and after Kayleigh had been in close contact with Hicks and Trump. Exposing the entire press room. She and Bill Barr can be considered to have knowingly, wantonly exposed many people to COVID-19 (well them a many others in Trump’s circle because they all suck)
dmsilev
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Today’s word of the day is “hubris”.
BR
I’m glad finally some are realizing this:
gbbalto
@BC in Illinois: My condolences. You are gracious to an extent I’m not sure I could be.
Mike in NC
I suspect guys like Jason Miller and Steve Bannon and Corey Lewandowski spend most of their free time hanging around shitty strip clubs. Sad losers drawn to Fat Bastard just like our elderly racist neighbors. After November 4th I want to tell them to never speak to me again.
NotMax
@cain
“Do these bandoliers come in XXXL?”
:)
dmsilev
@MattF: I know “attack your enemy’s strong suit” is standard Republican doctrine, but this is just absurd.
Kent
That’s where the White House went wrong! Too much testing! Now everyone is getting covid.
SiubhanDuinne
@Elizabelle:
Yes, that was well played by the Pontiff.
Redshift
@Betty Cracker: I caught a bit of an interview with Mary Trump over the weekend (Fresh Air, I think), and she was saying that in the whole Trump family (started by Fred, or maybe even his father), being sick was considered a sign of weakness. So it’s not just Trump doing his strongman act, it’s also his twisted family.
germy
“We’re family”
A common thread among many Trump press staffers: They’re related to other Trump staffers
Ken
Actually the Greek word describing this would be πρωκτός.
Or do you mean the Merriam-Webster folk are trolling again?
Kent
Or watching porn on their laptops to learn how to relate to women. Seriously.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Betty Cracker:
Like any wife with a philandering husband, she grabs any opportunity she can to stick a shiv in her rival for his affections.
Salty Sam
Similar to “The Osborne’s”, but re-titled “The Aristocrats!”
SiubhanDuinne
@Elizabelle:
Oh, I’m glad. I don’t recall ever seeing that story, but I’m happy he got to meet Pope Francis at last.
MattF
@dmsilev: I expect that future editions of the OED will be citing these videos in their definition of ‘gobsmack’.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Jeffro: Meh. I remember when it was new and they had the ad campaign for people to urge their cable company to include MTV in the lineup. I never saw the appeal.
/curmudgeon
Suzanne
Now seeing that two of McNeenerNeener’s staffers have tested positive.
Miss Bianca
@jonas:
Christ, I hope so. If that makes me a bad person, so be it – I’ve been my worst self since Election Night 2016.
A Ghost to Most
@Betty Cracker: First Lady concerned by President’s premature discharge.
James E Powell
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Hacks are never really lost. All Trump would have to do is not be total a-hole for fifteen minutes and Dana Bash would declare a pivot to a new tone and praise his great leadership. She would not be alone.
Miss Bianca
@BC in Illinois: I may have missed the news about your brother’s passing – things have been kind of a blur for me since March. So sorry to hear it, my condolences.
Baud
@Kent:
I’ve learned women really enjoy pizza deliveries.
Benw
Any news on Pence?
I hope Kamala’s team doesn’t let her anywhere near that ambulatory tube of low-fat mayo without multiple separately verified negative tests!
p.a.
Now wait a minute, let’s get some perspective here. A learning moment. Maybe he’s gonna set himself on fire to understand what’s going on in California.?
divF
@Ken: I’m dubious about the court-martial stuff. More likely is that failure to follow that particular order would result in revoking their commissions, with substantial financial penalties if the military paid for their medical education.
geg6
@Kent:
Lots of truth in that. People who I have never known to talk politics bring up how much they are sick of him and people I have never known to vote are registered and eager to vote him out. I just hope they all actually do it and that their votes are counted.
PPCLI
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: It’s a good time to repost Maganinny’s classic “The Coronavirus won’t come here [not like with] that awful President Obama” clip.
Its schadenfreudelicious
ETA: oops. I see you beat me to it. Still, no harm in an encore performance.
Miss Bianca
@p.a.: LOL!
Tim Wayne
“chinless deadbeat thumb”
I prefer goateed chinless moonface.
germy
@PPCLI:
She said some really nasty stuff about Obama when he was president. She’s just a horrible person and I really have no sympathy for her.
MattF
WaPo names three new columnists. The bios look plausible, but we shall see.
geg6
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
Mine came late last week. Check with your county elections office. We are dropping ours off there tomorrow here in Beaver County.
frosty
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: I just got an email from DePasquale that they’re being sent for Dauphin and York counties. We should be receiving them “in the next weeks. “
bemused
The massive narcissism of trump won’t let him stay in hospital. He has to play big strong man to keep is idolizing fans voting. Ironic that the people he needs the most are the people he personally has the most contempt for.
MisterForkbeard
@James E Powell: Right. In fact, that’s exactly what happened to spur this comment by Bash – she even straight up admitted it:
She literally says he’s been sort of appropriate for TWO WHOLE DAYS and therefore needs to congratulate him on being a new man.
Patricia Kayden
Way too late for that.
germy
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/10/05/chris-wallace-trump-masks-debate/
I thought this was old news. Chris Wallace is still pissed that the Trump gang didn’t wear masks at the debate.
germy
At Walter Reed, a loud vigil has the cultish fervor and masklessness of Trump’s rallies
Outside Walter Reed, a vigil for Trump becomes an ongoing rally.
MattF
@Patricia Kayden: And this, from the guy who is partnered with Kimberly Guilfoyle.
Ruckus
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
This is a vital component in his life. He disappointed his KKKracist dad, his every waking moment. And probably every sleeping one as well. Effectively he’s made the world an even worse place than his dad did, but he’s also drawn the world’s attention to how badly he’s played the be dad card. And he still fits in absolutely no where. Disappointing dads, moms, adults, kids, pets and absolute strangers everywhere, hey he is his dad’s prodigy.
schrodingers_cat
@Elizabelle: Thanks!
MattF
[DELETED]
Sloane Ranger
One bit of good news in all of this is I’ve just been watching CNN and they are spitting fire about Kayleigh McNinny’s positive test, especially as she apparently briefed a gaggle of reporters while maskless yesterday.
I think coverage of the Biden campaign will likely be sympathetic on all the mainstream networks.
Who would believe that universal mask-wearing, concern for social distancing and care in placing the media in little circles 6 feet apart would be this year’s barbecue and tyre swings!
Aleta
If only these people were merely characters in a reality show, trying to make us believe they’re real people, but not, and if only their acts were without consequences beyond TV world. Instead I’m nearly forced to be engaged in thinking about why and what next and it’s not entertainment.
ballerat
@catclub: I hope Biden’s campaign hammers on this. It’s easy for anyone to understand, and it’s true.
Ken
@MattF: At least they aren’t John Barron, John Miller, and David Dennison. Not that any of the three of them could put together a WaPo opinion column, or for that matter a coherent two-sentence paragraph.
catclub
@Shalimar: I just realized there is a jason Miller and a Stephen Miller ’employed’ at the WH. Apparently it was jason Miller who was trying to force a ‘girlfriend’ to get an abortion, and then fought for visitation rights, but stiffed her on child support.
BC in Illinois
I want to thank all of you who have sent your comments about my brother’s death in August. I didn’t say much about it at the time; I was 800 miles away and it really wasn’t my story to tell.
My sister-in-law is doing well. Her sons and her community are a great support. But the thing with Trump is bringing all the old words back – hospital, Remdesivir,
oxygen levels, etc. I remember the good news when things went well, the “into the ICU,” “out of the ICU,” “into the ICU” roller coaster. Seeing how Trump is still trying to use this for PR just reinforces how removed he is from real life. (Even his own real life.)
One thing that does come out of this is her conviction, which shows up on her FB page and in her tweets. She has one thing to say: “Wear the damn mask!” I had occasion to say the same thing yesterday – somewhat strongly, but without the adjective modifying “mask” [we were in church, so, you know . . .] – and I apologized to the guy for being so snappy.
You add political feelings to personal feelings and this has been a miserable couple of days, part of a miserable four more weeks, in a miserable four years.
We’ll get through. Thanks for your comments.
James E Powell
I think some insight into what’s going on right now with Trump, his family, and their retainers might be gained by watching the first season of Succession.
geg6
@MattF:
I’ve seen two of these people on MSNBC. Paul Butler, especially, has been on a lot. He’s very good. The election law guy I saw on Ari Melber’s show once and he seemed very knowledgeable.
catclub
Also Trump’s taxes, the melania tapes, the debate, Brad parscale and stolen campaign funds.
What did I miss from last week?
Geminid
@geg6: A certain national review writer says a sensible thing now and then. Around this time last year he argued that trump “derangement” syndrome” alone would not do him in. But, he said, trump exhaustion syndrome just might.
Aleta
Trump has always been sick and infectious.
JPL
@BC in Illinois: One of the best public service ads that I’ve seen is this is a mask, not a political statement.
Ken
You remind me of one of my favorite scenes in Red Dwarf, where the crew enters a parallel universe and finds female versions of themselves. The female Arlene Rimmer starts hitting on the male Arnold Rimmer. His line: “She wants us to watch porn. She thinks seeing two men together will get me in the mood.”
Ken
@germy: We’re OK until they start chanting “ay-VEEE-ta, ay-VEEE-ta.”
JPL
@catclub: Don’t forget about Don Jr.’s girl friend. That was juicy stuff.
Immanentize
@Aleta: I JUST WROTE to my FiL:
“It is all just so absurd. If it wasn’t real, it would all be the plot of a crazy sitcom.”
ballerat
@Baud: I hope magas adopt this in solidarity with Dear Leader and intentionally sicken themselves to own the libs. Not because I am vindictive and vengeful — although in this I am — but because I also know that this is the only way most trumpers will get it through their heads that this virus is dangerous, infectious and deadly. And it will be the only way they understand just how piss-poor healthcare is in America for average people.
“What do you mean I can’t be admitted until I have a 104 fever and my lips are blue? I’m really sick! I could die! Why can’t I have an eight million dollar experimental wonder drug injection like President Trump?”
Immanentize
@catclub: Jason Miller reportedly also slipped a stripper he got pregnant plan b. Yes — he had two gfs he made pregnant. So of course he is a fierce evangelical.
Ruckus
@SiubhanDuinne:
I’m for some reason having a difficult time even conjuring up tots and pears for anyone who’s worked for djshitforbrains.
And he does not want my thoughts and prayers, not in any way, shape or disgusting way.
On another note, so djshitforbrains is the super spreader.
The pivotable cause of the current damage of COVID-19.
He’s so good at it that he’s infected himself and it is looking like pretty much everyone within a miles of him. And this is not to mention all the racist fucks who think his shit doesn’t stink, so they are willing to wallow in it. Is this a great nation or what? Shitty not so rich boy makes horrible. How hard was it to just be slightly human so his dad would like him? But no, he can’t even manage that.
CindyH
@Baud: McEnema
WaterGirl
@germy: Wasn’t Chris Wallace in charge of the debate? Shouldn’t he have been the one to say the debate would not go un until everyone in the audience was masked?
He/they also made a big mistake in not testing Trump and family, regardless of how late they came in. The tests should have been run even if the results wouldn’t have been in before the debate started.
And if Biden was not informed that the Trumps were not tested, that’s another failure.
WaterGirl
@Sloane Ranger: The reporters have agency, right? Why can’t they walk out of any briefing where people are not wearing masks?
germy
@WaterGirl:
I remember Wallace turning and looking in exasperation at the audience behind him, but at the time I didn’t understand why.
Immanentize
@geg6: I can tell you, Paul Butler is a good guy, too. He became semi famous in law profs circles by writing an article explaining why jurors in communities of color should just find defendants not guilty when they were charged with drug possession offenses.
Ken
Or The Borgias. Or The Tudors. Or Shakespeare’s histories from Henry IV through Richard III.
Tenar Arha
“Interviews” like this are why I stopped watching most cable news. I truly can’t watch without trying to pop a blood vessel.
I’m very glad someone is willing to keep an eye on these networks and report back. I really don’t know whether to be glad for this place giving me fodder to get my daily cathartic primal screaming done, or beg to have more blood pressure warning labels on these particular kinds of videos.
But mostly I’m probably going to go to my grave wondering why all these truly expensive talking heads & their billion dollar networks have decided to humiliate themselves rather than cut the microphones of people like Miller. He essentially is only going on air to get lies out, and trying to create more “hur hur, I filibustered the media” clip content by getting the anchors to get confused about what they’re asking or say “no it isn’t,” like they’re kids on a playground. It was as good as you could expect from anyone normal going up against a bulldozer, but it feels to me like it still wasn’t enough.
Anyway, Betty, thank you for watching, so I don’t have to. And please, treat yourself to whatever you need to for finding & watching that.
WaterGirl
@catclub: You left out the part where he secretly put an abortion drug into a milkshake he made and gave to her.
Why the hell isn’t he in prison for something?
Kirk Spencer
@Kent: way late but have to reply to this one.
I agree the pardons are written. I disagree with the date. Not Nov 3, but Jan 19. Because as I understand, pardons cannot be made for crimes yet to happen or still in progress.
WaterGirl
@Immanentize: Oh, I thought there was just one pregnant girlfriend and he did that to her. What a shit pile.
Hey, did you get my email about tomatoes?
BC in Illinois
@BC in Illinois:
Let me add one other thing. In 1970, my brother was in Vietnam (Army, but not in combat) and I was a Hospital Corpsman at the National Naval Medical Center, now doing business as the “Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.” I used to run laps around the NNMC grounds. I am familiar with the bit of Wisconsin Avenue where Trump had his “wave to the crowd” outing. I remember the helicopter pad, where Nixon came in, in 1973. It seems surreal, seeing my old stomping grounds on the evening news.
It doesn’t make it any better
ETA: Oh, I left out the point. My SIL has no use for Trump and his bone spurs and his treatment of / disdain for the military. She figures he knows neither Duty nor Honor nor Country.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@germy: I would guess they had a set amount of network TV time and didn’t want to delay the start of the actual debate. But it would have been fun to have Wallace open by saying the Trump contingent arrived late is now being tested. The debate will start when their results are available. To accommodate their lateness, I have deleted the section of questions I had prepared about X. In t he meantime, I’ll chat with Chris Murphy, who is in the audience.
Immanentize
@Ken: forgetting Game of Thrones is unforgivable in that list.
PJ
@bemused: Insecurity and contempt make the world go round (at least in the right-wing world).
ballerat
@MisterForkbeard: Why would these people bother with quarantine? If they think it will politically benefit them not to, they won’t. Rules don’t apply to them.
Ruckus
@MisterForkbeard:
Well they all do take precautions – don’t they?
They have acted like it’s no big deal, as millions have had it and going on a 1/4 million have died. But that’s OK they are just thinning the weaker ones out of the herd. Looks like COVID is thinning out their herd just fine. Of course they will, like her wonderfulness Kellyanne, just infect everyone around them, like their own kids.
Immanentize
@WaterGirl: I replied this am!
bemused
@PJ:
The Arrested Development Club.
Spanky
@Kent:
“Hmmmm. Maybe we shouldn’t have used the same swabs for everyone in the WH.”
Ken
@Immanentize: I was leaning toward nominal histories. I almost added a line about “these would-be monarchs should study history”, possibly with further snark about beheading being considered a natural cause of death.
Martin
I don’t think Trump will be released today. The steroid is normally only given to people who are pretty sick, because it can make matters worse if the patient isn’t that sick. For the patients it was given to in the study, it improved mortality rate to 23%. And it has pretty serious cognitive side-effects, probably witnessed by Trump dancing in the motorcade yesterday.
Power should have been transferred on Fri before he left for Walter Reed.
Sloane Ranger
@WaterGirl: I suppose they’re scared they’ll miss something genuinely important (unlikely in this Administration, I know).
Also, they’d all have to agree to walk out, otherwise the other network might get the scoop. I don’t see Fox or OANN agreeing, can you?
Immanentize
@Ken: fair enough! Because of course, Dune.
Just Chuck
@Ken:
A Court Martial isn’t a Drumhead: these docs would get their day in a military court, and upholding their Hippocratic Oath seems rather like a strong defense.
But hell if I care, they can give him all the deadly medicine he wants.
brantl
Jason says “they’re going to be smart”; don’t let your mouth make promises your brain can’t keep.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
when Fredo’s the voice of reason….
germy
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
It’s difficult to stage an intervention when the rest of the family is telling him “You’re doing great! Keep up the good work!”
Maybe they want him dead, I don’t know.
Gin & Tonic
@Patricia Kayden: You’d think someone who professes to be a writer would know the difference between “rein” and “reign.”
Aleta
@BC in Illinois: I’m so sorry for the loss of your brother and what your family has been through. I wish you didn’t have to witness this dysfunction in DC. It’s good of you to give your perspective here; I feel similarly.
germy
@Gin & Tonic:
One good thing about autocorrect… it makes a great alibi.
I’ve seen professional journalists refer to a criminal being “hung” rather than “hanged” so I expect nothing at this point.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Barbara
@Spanky: The magical thinking that seems to be part of the White House Covid statement of faith — something Chris Wallace alluded to in his outburst — is that testing makes you safe and eliminates the need for any other protection. Certain types of testing are unlikely to be wrong — as in, a positive test really means you are positive — but any negative result could be “wrong” simply because the virus hasn’t increased to a level that is detectable level by the test, even as you are in fact spreading it around. And that’s not accounting for the high false negative rates for the rapid tests — a negative result that would have been positive with a PCR test.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: That was on Sept. 26 and outside. Any infection spread would have taken hold by now.
opiejeanne
@NotMax: Dr Kwak delivered my second child. I was not impressed.
randy khan
@Kay:
Kennedy leading Van Drew makes me very happy.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Baud:
there were two events inside the White House, and I think I heard something about the the Schlapps hosting another party at their home
and an excuse to bring up the late Simon Maloy’s “Matt Schlapp is the sound of two pork chops dropped on a linoleum floor”
Ken
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: OK, enough about the possible effects of Trump’s drug regimen. I need to know quickly – is it possible to overdose on schadenfreude?
Gin & Tonic
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I, for one, find it impossible to believe this. He can’t have friends, can he?
Just Chuck
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: “acting” unstable? Oh well, I’ll at least credit the faint glimmer of insight anyway.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Martin:
I agree, but the only way they’ll transfer power is via the 25th with Trump.
Peale
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: He’s not “acting”, Don. Jr. He actually IS unstable. Its not an act.
Kelly
I figured a Republican Super Spreader event had to happen eventually. My mind still shifts between boggled that it’s actually happening and well of course it is happening.
On a personal note today Mrs Kelly, other family and I are 2 weeks back into at home isolation after being flushed from cover by the Beachie Fire. No covid symptoms so we did not catch the bug in the evacuation chaos. Hooray!
divF
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Also a Don Martin (Mad Magazine) sound effect.
Barbara
@Gin & Tonic: Don Jr.’s girlfriend, Kim Guilfoyle, had Covid earlier in the summer. Maybe she is the source, as well as the reason he might be taking the disease more seriously. If she had it but he didn’t, that suggests she took it seriously.
MattF
I’m an omnivore, but this seems excessive.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud:
It was only partially outside.
catclub
@WaterGirl:
asked and answered. No.
BC in Illinois
The Lincoln Project has a new video. The Trump-Covid timeline.
sdhays
@Immanentize: Part of what makes sitcoms funny is that they’re enough outside of “reality” that you can just enjoy it. With this crew, all those “absurd” sitcoms become that much more real. I wonder how much this reality is ruining previously funny sitcoms because they’re now too real.
I mean, these incredibly stupid, unappealing, unsympathetic, nasty people have failed up and up and up to the highest heights our country can provide. What’s funny about that?
Ken
As Devin Nunes’ Mom’s Son Devin put it, “the COVID superspreader event that appears to have been the outdoor/indoor celebration of Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination.”
I find that phrasing amusing, since it can be read as saying this was primarily organized as a superspreader, and only appeared to be a celebration.
zhena gogolia
@BC in Illinois:
I am so sorry for what you’ve gone through.
I’m seething with rage and I don’t have your experience to make it even worse!
Peale
@Patricia Kayden: For all we know, his impending death has actually led to a come to jesus moment and he’s talking about cutting out all the unworthy children out of the will and donating his money to Ronald MacDonald houses. Everyone knows this is nuts because he doesn’t have any money and any charity that got his assets would be broke in a week. The kids just think its nuts because it never occurred to them that there are actually real charities that aren’t just vehicles to pilfer donations.
Ken
@MattF: Any idea what that’s about? I’m guessing, because the original is from “LeaveEUOfficial”, that they’re going to try to blame post-Brexit food shortages on vegans?
Or is LeaveEUOfficial one of those parody accounts that have become hard to distinguish from the ones they’re mocking?
sdhays
@BC in Illinois: I typically don’t care for the 2 minute commercials, but this one worked for me because I’ve been trying to set that timeline in my head, so it was informative.
It’s extremely damning.
Paraphrasing: “If Dump doesn’t give a shit about the people closest to him, what are the chances he gives a shit about us?”
Indeed.
opiejeanne
Lorenzo Sierra, D Representative from AZ is in the ICU with Covid-19. He was in DC visiting family when he came down with it and is being treated in the area. His wife, also positive, is recovering while quarantined with family.
Martin
@MattF: Actually, it’s not. In my security training, briefings, the Animal Liberation Front has always been sighted at the biggest local threat, with evidence.
ALF itself is non-violent but just as there’s overlap between antifa and various violent anarchist groups, the same is true with ALF. Locally it manifests as the same kind of intimidation tactics that anti-abortion doctors suffer from – personal death threats, exhibitions that they can reach targets (photos of people’s homes, their kids going to school, etc.), that kind of thing.
I wouldn’t say that militant animal rights groups or ecoterrorists present much of a threat to the public, but they do present a bit of a threat, and they do present a serious very localized threat, not unlike Operation Rescue – though they’re much smaller in numbers than than anti-abortion crusaders.
LuciaMia
BC, thats terrible about your brother. Im so sorry.
***********************************
Noticed that thru the past few weeks CNN has been increasingly out of fucks to give. But today they all sound really, deeply angry. Guess cause this has hit them personally… theyre all up in arms about Kayleigh McInaney meeting with reporters, maskless, when she already knew she had been exposed. “How could she do a thing like that?”
sdhays
@Barbara: I hadn’t realized that the test the Very White House was using has a 50% (!!) false negative rate. At that rate, it’s virtually useless.
dr. luba
Jason Miller: “The reporter was wearing a mask and he still got COVID”
Of course he did, you ninny. The mask does not protect the wearer, it protects those around him. That’s why EVERYONE needs to wear a mask.
MattF
@Ken: Don’t know, but the thread seems to think it’s not a joke. ‘Joke or not-joke’ is a real puzzle these days.
Kent
@Martin: I don’t know about the Animal Liberation Front, but the so-called “Earth Liberation Front” firebombed and burned down the Center for Urban Horticulture building at the UW when I was in grad school there, a building that I actually took a class in: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Washington_firebombing_incident
What were they “protesting”? Rumors of a professor who was working with genetically engineered trees. Which didn’t actually exist. Pure and absolute dumbfuckery.
Mike in NC
Well, technically Eric is his brother but he counts as one of his few friends. They like to travel the world and kill big game at taxpayer expense.
Anoniminous
comment deleted by poster
sdhays
@dr. luba: The most recent information is that it does protect the wearer, but much less effectively than the other way around. If you’re around an asshole with no mask, you’re still better off with a mask on yourself, just not as protected as if you were both wearing masks.
Peale
@Baud: I really resent that they’ve decided that there’s only two choices and that those of us who’ve been taking care of ourselves by masking, social distancing, and cancelling plans these past months are all hiding in fear. We’re actually trying to take control of a devastating situation and being responsible for ourselves. They are suck dicks and the fact that the press is criticizing Biden for modeling good behavior is appalling. We’re trying to make the best of a lousy situation and maintaining good spirits. Do they think my 78 year old mom likes that she can’t visit my 80 year old dad in the nursing home for six months? Do they think I don’t want to just go back to see a movie? The reason she can’t and I can’t is that too many maskless manly men don’t want to take care of myself. We’re just trying to make the best of this and keep our spirits up. They just wine because football is three weeks late. They are dead branches on this sick tree of a country and I can’t wait to toss them into the shredder.
Warblewarble
BOOM BOOM. Blonde Goebbels is on my bingo card.
LuciaMia
They all act like being tested is some kind of preventative.
Immanentize
@sdhays: It reminds me of what William Gibson said about turning from futuristic cyber-punk to contemporary science thrillers — “The world caught up with my vision”
mmolleur
@germy: Still tweeting
Ken
@mmolleur: So’s Herman Cain.
Martin
@Kent: Yeah, that’s of a similar vein. ALF is global, and in some ways unfairly characterized, and in some ways not. Mostly its a small group of individuals that are the real threat. I don’t think most ALF members are a threat, unlike say, Atomwaffen.
Barbara
@LuciaMia: Yep. They don’t seem to understand that testing negative just means you can defensibly avoid isolating until you get a negative test. It doesn’t protect you from others and it isn’t a guarantee that you are not positive.
Nora Lenderbee
@MattF: Egging a vegan is just mean.
JPL
JPL
Donald apparently is gonna kill his supporters. The timing is probably for the evening news
I can’t wait until Herman Cain tweets his concurrence.
Miss Bianca
@Martin: A friend of mine was targeted by a vengeful neighbor for keeping her foxhounds on her property. Part of his tactics was to gin up outrage on the Internet by spreading a bunch of bullshit about foxhunting that was a). exaggerated; b). historical to the UK but not the US; and c). flat-out lies. Got a petition going on Change.org and everything. She had death threats directed at her from animal rights nuts ALL OVER THE WORLD.
That’s when I learned that Change.org does not vet petitions for accuracy, *or* take them down when it’s brought to their attention that they are inaccurate. That’s when I purged any connection to that grifting shitpile of a website, and why I strongly urge anyone and everyone else to boycott their actively useless and damaging asses, as they *only* exist to sell people’s emails.
Steeplejack (phone)
gene108
@dr. luba:
Conservative’s grasp of masks as safety equipment is another exercise in conservative absolutist thought. Something can either be 100% effective or 0% effective, and nothing in between.
It’s like these idiots never operated power tools.
hueyplong
@JPL: I bet all those staffers are relieved to hear that they’re about to feel a whole lot better now that they’ve tested positive.
Baud
@JPL:
@Steeplejack (phone):
He didn’t feel good enough to type that himself IMO.
Miss Bianca
@LuciaMia:
It’s almost like they hadn’t actually been paying attention…
LuciaMia
Guess the over 200,000 didnt get the memo. They would have given anything to not let it dominate their lives!
MattF
@Steeplejack (phone): Sounds manic.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Baud: apparently Morning Joseph said this morning that Covid has improved trump’s grammar and punctuation.
Martin
Survivors bias is real.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Steeplejack (phone): …and he’s learned NOTHING.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA: So he’s back to normal.
Hoodie
@JPL: Steroid euphoria is a thing.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I blame the meth.
catclub
wasn’t 20 years ago when his casinos were all going bankrupt.
hueyplong
@Baud: Either way, he’s now found something he likes even better than Adderall.
Sure to end well.
Martin
@MattF: That’s the steroid he’s on. Mood changes are one of the side-effects.
This is going to end in disaster. Either:
Plenty of doctors have reported that people have come into the hospital, looked fine, presented a wildly low blood ox, and then died within an hour.
Miss Bianca
@LuciaMia: Trump 2020: Don’t Fear the Reaper!
Immanentize
@LuciaMia:
Don’t fear the reaper!
Trump needs more cowbell!
ETA — Miss Bianca, great minds and all….
Gin & Tonic
@Martin: I want to know if he’s going out AMA.
MazeDancer
Barbara Bollier is up two points in the Kansas Senate race!
With luck, this will be a link to her BJ thermometer where you can donate:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/bjbb2020?refcode=thermometer
Ruckus
@AWOL:
Farts and jeers.
So it’s come to this. I’d say thanks for the laugh, but even something this good is difficult to appreciate in these times. Not impossible mind you, just difficult. Bravo ?
MisterForkbeard
The utter fucking gall of the man, who got to skip lines for experimental treatment, get his own 6-room suite at the hospital, gets free medical care and has a medical suite and full-time doctors at home telling people not to worry about COVID.
An extra-special fuck you to him, for implying that his administration is responsible for any of the medical treatments that’ve been discovered.
Mary G
File under “No shit, Sherlock”
(WaPo) CDC says airborne transmission plays a role in coronavirus spread in a long-awaited update after a website error last month
Miss Bianca
@Immanentize: Jinx!
MisterForkbeard
@Hoodie: That’s actually my guess. He feels great because he’s on steroids and insisting he’s fine now.
Still, gigantic fucking asshole.
Immanentize
@Miss Bianca: It was me typing the cowbell line that got you the win!
I may also put this up in any new thread:
“I’m coming home!”
Death’s Door by Depeche Mode
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: If you can call any other day normal, yeah.
LuciaMia
Theres been so much talk about mood changes from the steroid hes on, But dont you have to have been taking it for more than two days?
*******************
Im not holding my breath on his being discharged tonight. If he is, bet theres a relapse in his near future.
Hoodie
@MisterForkbeard: Just wait for the crash. He’ll be crawling out of his skin in a few days, if it’s anything like a prednisone taper.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
I’m remembering back when I had mono 35 years ago or so. Felt miserable and was hideously fatigued for weeks, lost about 25-30 pounds. Got diagnosed and got a steroid pack.
Felt like a million bucks, at least till the medication spun down.
I think I crashed for two solid days, and was down for weeks after.
Gin & Tonic
@Miss Bianca: Never a bad time for this, but now seems better than most.
Baud
Here’s the thing. He’s not going to be happy cooped up at the White House either.
germy
Baud
According to CNN, Trump’s doctor is going to update us right about now.
A Ghost to Most
So when do the Tranche Covidians get their “all hope is lost” signal, and what action do they take? I’m rooting for bleach.
catatonia
Staging an intervention for trump, the first thing I thought of was this:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=z_uuoaJh8SA
Baud
@germy:
Punchy
As I expected, it appears like he’s going to treat the hospital discharge as a green light to immediately start campaigning again. I hope AF1 has good virus filters and extra bunny suits.
If Trump is indeed on a dex regime and his doc is letting him run free after only 3 days, he should lose his medical license. That drug/steroid is f#cking dangerous….
hueyplong
Per Tim O’Brien, the H Cain timeline, which I had forgotten in its stream of false hope.
6/24: Attends Trump rally, maskless
7/2: Tests positive for Covid-19
7/10: Says he’s improving
7/15: Says his doctors seem happy
7/27: Says he’s really getting better
7/30: Dies
J R in WV
Well, the good news from the iDJT this afternoon is that he will continue to infect his admirers and employees… I would bet a substantial sum that he will be back at Walter Reed soon.
I very much doubt that he’s actually no longer infected.
People in the White House should call in sick for the next few days. All of them. The Third Lady should check into the local Trump hotel, but probably won’t; perhaps that is prohibited by the revised pre-nup…?
Very much like living in a Gibson novel at this point. Or perhaps the world where military intelligence is combating demons attracted by computers?
catclub
So the way the was during the debate.
cain
Except for the trauma of our emergency people of trying to save their lives. If they were living on their own little ecosystem where everyone is maga – I suppose yes. But we are putting first responders at risk and that is too high of a price.
Elizabelle
@Steeplejack (phone): Fuck that asshole.
If Trump does leave Walter Reed, and I have my doubts, can we have a betting pool for when he returns? First prize can be a BJ calendar or something.
Baud
@MisterForkbeard: Sanjay Gupta just said the same thing on CNN.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
Monty Python’s Black Knight says “don’t be afraid of sharp swords, it’s just a flesh wound”
Baud
Doctors live.
Kay
Good job:
ballerat
@Punchy:
He’s already ignored that with his little ride around the hospital.
Rules are for little people.
Felanius Kootea
@BC in Illinois: My condolences on your loss.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@catatonia:
One of my favorites.
WaterGirl
@Kelly: What a relief! And how awful for you guys and everyone who had to make choices – because of the fire – that they wouldn’t have made otherwise because of COVID.
Glad you are heaving a sigh of relief.
Gin & Tonic
@Baud: Doctors die, too.
cain
DC seems to be some kind of plague city – worse than any in Florida.
WaterGirl
@BC in Illinois: In the Lincoln Project ad, they are saying Trump’s treatment started on Wednesday. I didn’t think we knew that definitively, but it makes total sense. Which also means Trump was surely COVID positive on Tuesday for the debate.
Elizabelle
TaMara put up a fresh thread. On Patient One’s tweet that he’s leaving Walter Reed tonight. Uh huh.
cain
I feel better than I did 20
yearsminutes ago!Fixed.
germy
“He’s back… yeah.”
Doctor’s statement just now.
NotMax
@Warblewarble
Basil Brush, izzat you?
;)
Martin
@Gin & Tonic: He must be. The attending isn’t the idiot giving statements, he’s the one talking about how stupid that motorcade trip was.
Martin
@Kay: Easy rule – if you see someone with a gun, lacking proper law enforcement credentials, call 911.
If the police come and then leave, call again, or have someone else call. Gun = risk to public. Always. Harass the gun carrier, harass the police. Force it to be dealt with.
evodevo
@Gin & Tonic: PERFECT !!!
There go two miscreants
@Shalimar: you could bowl a strike with Jason Miller’s head.
Sorry, dodo balls are illegal in sanctioned bowling!
WaterGirl
@MazeDancer: yep.
Barbara Bollier, Kansas Senate
ballerat
@germy: So, it’s all about him.
What about the danger to everyone else he comes into contact with? What about the considerable effect of setting a dangerous example? No one bothered with that. That’s not part of their calculus either.
Fuck these cynical scumbags.
ballerat
@Kay: Thanks for passing this on.
Miss Bianca
@Gin & Tonic: Y’know, I used to find that sketch a *lot* funnier, back in the day…
ballerat
@WaterGirl: The right doesn’t have a problem with abortion if the man who gets his mistress pregnant tricks her into getting one. That makes him smart and besides, she’s the one who swallowed the pill. All he did was put it in her milkshake. She didn’t actually have to drink it.
I’m trying to be sarcastic but unfortunately that’s really how they roll. Abortion isn’t the issue with them; it’s control over women.
Ruckus
@cain:
Even if they learn it won’t matter because they will be dead, but not before infecting others. shitforbrains won’t learn even as he’s on his death bed, because he’s a moron.