Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

The lights are all blinking red.

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

I’m more christian than these people and i’m an atheist.

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

The unpunished coup was a training exercise.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

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

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

People are complicated. Love is not.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

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

Fear or fury? The choice is ours.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 / Wednesday Evening Open Thread: Mike Pompeo, Latest Punchline

Wednesday Evening Open Thread: Mike Pompeo, Latest Punchline

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If anyone could be said to deserve this, it would be Mike ‘Don’t You Know Who I *Am*?’ Pompeo. Just yesterday…

… If it weren’t for all those State Department families, not to mention the hospitality and security workers, who didn’t have the choice not to show up — and who probably won’t, unlike Large Mike, have access to the best scarce limited treatments if they get sick…

… The decision caps a run of indoor holiday parties hosted by Pompeo, his wife, Susan, and his top aides that health experts and U.S. lawmakers warned could turn into superspreader events at a time when the novel coronavirus has killed more than 300,000 Americans.

The State Department has hosted hundreds of diplomats and dignitaries since last week for indoor gatherings with holiday music, drinks and photo lines that resulted in the type of close congregation and unmasking that facilitates the airborne transmission of the virus through respiratory droplets.

Pompeo, one of President Trump’s most loyal confidants, stood out among Cabinet officials for approving holiday events that disregarded Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines against large indoor gatherings, while other departments such as the Pentagon switched to hosting virtual holiday functions…

Reader Interactions

143Comments

  1. 1.

    sdhays

    The Republican Party has done more to destroy this country’s government than any foreign adversary since King George.

  5. 5.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    I was gonna say why don’t more of these people die?  By “these people” I mean evil ones like Pompeo.

    But noooooooooooo, access to that kind of health care…

    Just another manifestation of IGMFY.  As Betty C put it months ago, I’m no longer content voting these shit heads out of office.  I want them to flee the country and have to undergo plastic surgery to help hide there whereabouts.

    Or die of the plague, I’m not particular.

  7. 7.

    Elizabelle

    At least Santa’s wearing a mask.  Don’t see any others on the guests.  And who are the guests? Per the WaPost:

    The event was dedicated to the family members of diplomats serving overseas in dangerous postings that require them to leave their spouses and children behind, such as in Iraq or Afghanistan.

    Why have only the diplomat at risk?

    The event featured drinks, boxed meals and a masked Santa who walked around from table to table to chitchat with adults and children, according to the two officials and photographs taken during the event obtained by The Washington Post. … The State Department said masks would be required for attendance and it would enforce social distancing guidelines. But photos of the event showed attendees removing masks to eat food and drinks atop plaid tablecloths.

    Two invitees expressed disappointment about the event, saying it put at risk diplomats, their families and the staff involved in putting on the event. One spouse of a diplomat said she declined the invitation because her husband was serving abroad and if she had attended and gotten sick, no one would have been able to take care of their children.

    “It was a completely irresponsible party to throw,” said the woman.

    In past years, the event has drawn crowds of 200 to 300 people. The decision to hold the event came despite objections from some members of Congress, including the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee [Robert Menendez], who called on Pompeo to cancel the party and others the department held last week.

  12. 12.

    Mathguy

    @dmsilev: I really don’t think there is any way to point to someone being one of the worst. With maybe two exceptions, they were all horrific.

  14. 14.

    Leto

    @Elizabelle:

    “It was a completely irresponsible party to throw,” said the woman.

    Pretty much sums up the past four years. Nothing says I don’t give a shot about any of you like a super spreader event.

  19. 19.

    Mary G

    You know that photo was staged just right so that you can’t see the oceans of empty space for the no-shows. It still shows the kid ignoring Santa completely.

    Mike is third behind Stephen Miller and Bill Barr in my Twitler’s Hall of Shame.  For the “Swagger is Back” slogan designed to justify every foreigner that thinks all Americans are arrogant Ugly Americans and stupid.  Then because his wife was allowed her own office to abuse employees. And all the Jim Jones “Christianity.” And refusing to lift sanctions so Iran could import medical supplies needed to fight Covid. And on and on. I just loathe him and hope the Covid overcomes the rare meds we are wasting on his fat ass.

  21. 21.

    Aleta

    When the photographer asked what she meant by that, the bridesmaid said the groom had tested positive for the coronavirus the day before. “She was  (…  ) like I was going to agree with her that it was fine,” the photographer recalls. “So I was like, ‘What are you talking about?’ And she was like, ‘Oh no no no, don’t freak out. He doesn’t have symptoms. He’s fine.’”

    The photographer, who has asthma and three kids, left with her assistant before the night was over. Her exit was tense. The wedding planner said it was the most unprofessional thing she’d ever seen. Bridesmaids accused her of heartlessly ruining an innocent woman’s wedding day. She recalls one bridesmaid telling her, “I’m a teacher, I have fourteen students. If I’m willing to risk it, why aren’t you?” Another said everyone was going to get COVID eventually, so what was the big deal? The friend of the bride who’d spilled the beans cried about being the “worst bridesmaid ever.”

    After the photographer left, she canceled her Thanksgiving plans with family, sent her kids to relatives’ houses so they wouldn’t get sick, and informed the brides of her upcoming weddings that she’d be subcontracting to other shooters. A few days later she started to feel sick, and sure enough, tested positive for the coronavirus. She informed the couple. “But they didn’t care,” she says. They didn’t offer to compensate her for the test, nor did they apologize for getting her sick.

     

    “I would say about fifty percent of the weddings I’ve shot, there’s been no masks at all. It’s like we’re living in the pre-COVID parallel universe,” one photographer told me. “I’ve been in hotel ballrooms inside and it’s been packed like sardines and everyone’s having a great time. No one’s wearing masks. I’m there as the photographer documenting the reception and there’s sweat flying, and it’s hot, and the music’s blaring and the fan’s on, and I’m just like, ‘Well, the odds are that one of every ten people here have COVID and don’t realize it.’”

    One now disillusioned photographer shot a wedding in South Texas with roughly a hundred guests, including one who told one of her co-shooters, “Oh, you don’t have to wear a mask. You don’t have to worry. None of us have the ’rona.” During the reception, hundreds of guests lined up for a non-COVID-compliant group dance. The guests, old and young, arranged themselves for a traditional grand march, and the photographer was horrified to see “tunnels of people running through with each other, high-fiving, and yelling at each other and touching.” The photographers and catering staff, she says, were the only attendees who seemed to be taking precautions. “Not even the bartenders were masked,” she told me.

    Another photographer, also sounding a bit incredulous, described a wedding where at least six out of the fourteen or so people in the bridal party ended up testing positive. “I’m pretty certain there were people in the wedding party who just didn’t get tested because they didn’t feel any symptoms,” he said.

     

    The photographer who got sick after shooting the COVID-positive groom said her experiences throughout the pandemic have left her a little depressed. She recalled one conversation from that wedding, before she left the reception. “I have children,” she told a bridesmaid, “What if my children die?” The bridesmaid responded, “I understand, but this is her wedding day.”

    https://www.texasmonthly.com/being-texan/texas-wedding-photographers-have-seen-some/

  22. 22.

    germy

    Can’t believe how badly @FoxNews is doing in the ratings. They played right into the hands of the Radical Left Democrats, & now are floating in limboland. Hiring fired @donnabraziIe, and far worse, allowing endless negative and unedited commercials. @FoxNews is dead. Really Sad!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 16, 2020

    I never imagined the leopard would eat Fox News’ face…

  23. 23.

    Kent

    @dmsilev:Pompeo is one of Trump’s worst Cabinet appointees. That’s an impressive feat in its own way.

    Bill Barr, Nancy DeVos, Louis DeJoy, David Bernhardt, Wilber Ross, Chad Wolf, Andrew Wheeler, Steve Mnuchin, Scott Pruit, Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, and Elaine Chao would like a word with you.

  25. 25.

    Kent

    @Mathguy:@dmsilev: I really don’t think there is any way to point to someone being one of the worst. With maybe two exceptions, they were all horrific.

    Barr

    Not even a close second.

  26. 26.

    MazeDancer

    Big week for helping save the nation by electing two Dem Senators in GA.

    Send PostCards.

    Try 5 or 25.

    It’s fun, easy, and will help give Mr. Biden the Senate he needs.

    Get addresses: PostCardPatriots.com (or just click my nym)

  29. 29.

    germy

    In his moments of deepest denial, Trump has told some advisers that he will refuse to leave the White House on Inauguration Day, only to be walked down from that ledge. The possibility has alarmed some aides, but few believe Trump will actually follow through.
    “He’s throwing a f***ing temper tantrum,” an adviser said. “He’s going to leave. He’s just lashing out.”
    The White House declined to comment for this report.

    https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/16/politics/donald-trump-pardons-lame-duck/index.html

  30. 30.

    MomSense

    @Aleta:

    The lack of empathy is astounding.

    My son’s ‘Rona test came back negative today.  He still has to quarantine, but for now it is ok.  One of his coworkers tested positive and had onset of symptoms today.  This was all completely avoidable.

  35. 35.

    Another Scott

    Meanwhile, … STATNews:

    Labeling confusion led to wasted doses of Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine in first days of rollout
    By OLIVIA GOLDHILL @OliviaGoldhill
    DECEMBER 16, 2020

    With the Covid-19 vaccine in short supply, hospital pharmacists found themselves in the unexpected position of throwing away one in every six doses of the first Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines distributed this week in the United States.

    The confusion came over labeling: The vaccine comes in vials labeled as containing enough for five doses. But pharmacists discovered that, after thawing and mixing the contents with a dilutent, each vial contained enough vaccine for six doses. Without explicit approval from the manufacturer, that final dose had to be discarded.

    “It was overtly clear early on there’s some extra volume,” said Russell Findlay, pharmacy manager at University of Utah Health. His colleagues called Pfizer on Tuesday to ask if they could use the extra dose, said Findlay, but the company wouldn’t give a definitive answer.

    Pharmacists and executives at several health care systems said they didn’t feel they could risk using the extra dose, especially as Pfizer’s vaccine requires two doses, 21 days apart, to be effective. “We’re not fully confident of our future supply. Let’s say we use the six but we get fewer doses in the future, we might not have enough for the second dose,” said Findlay. “We need to be very cautious in managing that supply.”

    […]

    It’s hard to believe, from the outside, that confusion like this exists. But it’s a huge human endeavor and that’s what always happens. Every step must be carefully documented. Donnie just telling General Whatshisname to take care of it was never going to be enough.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  37. 37.

    Calouste

    @Aleta: Sounds like par for the course. I’ve some remote relative who gave up a $10K+ per gig wedding photographer business in SoCal because the customers could be such assholes. And that was in the Before Times.

    I noticed when planning our wedding a number of years back that a wedding photographer in Europe charged about 1/3 of what they charged in the US, presumably because they actually like the job over there.

  40. 40.

    LuciaMia

    has told some advisers that he will refuse to leave the White House on Inauguration Day

    I think that would be absolutely hilarious! Turn out the lights, cut off the heat.

  43. 43.

    Leto

    @Gravenstone: part of me wants to see that on live TV. The other part of me will def pay to see him hog tied and carried to Marine 1 to be flown… someplace else. Don’t really care where else, as long as it’s “away”.

  45. 45.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Kent:

    Pompeo is one of Trump’s worst Cabinet appointees. That’s an impressive feat in its own way.

    Bill Barr, Nancy DeVos, Louis DeJoy, David Bernhardt, Wilber Ross, Chad Wolf, Andrew Wheeler, Steve Mnuchin, Scott Pruit, Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, and Elaine Chao would like a word with you.

    This is an incredibly small nit to pick, but Louis DeJoy is not a Trump appointee. He was selected by the USPS Board of Governors. (It is true that the Board is largely Republican.)

  46. 46.

    Mary G

    @Leto: Gitmo. The whole Cabinet and senior WH staff. Plus Melania, Susan Pompeo, and Moscow Mitch.

    @geg6: You are much better at expressing anger than I am, I would love that, plus you cook so divinely.

  47. 47.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @germy:

    So, Trump is acting exactly like everyone who knows toxic narcissists expected.  He won’t admit he lost, period, and throws fits or hides when people try to talk about it.  He’s depressed and completely ignoring the job.  He’s lashing out at his ‘disloyal’ friends.  The only things he’s paying any attention to are whining, further attempts to cheat even though it’s too late, and this one thing with the pardons that makes him feel powerful because people are crawling to him begging for his mercy.

    One thing I seem to have been personally wrong about:  Trump is so much in denial and I guess his cabinet are so fucking stupid that they’ve forgotten to destroy evidence.

  48. 48.

    geg6

    @Mary G:

    Why thank you.  But know that some would say I’m a bit too much in person sometimes.  Especially when I’m wound up.  Or have too much wine.  Or both. ?

  49. 49.

    Bill Arnold

    @germy:

    Does anyone carry himself with more unearned swagger than Pompeo?

    Pompeo’s unjustified arrogance is his most loathsome trait, IMO.
    (I occasionally see arrogance justified by actual superiority; it’s unbecoming, but not loathsome.)

  51. 51.

    Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)

    @LuciaMia: Or just stop serving him food and beverages. He’ll be gone in a few hours to the nearest McDs.

  54. 54.

    Frankensteinbeck

    I just realized:  Trump is going to throw the holy mother of all his shit fits when Pence confirms Biden won the vote.  It will be an act of absolute personal betrayal, in his eyes.  He takes it for granted, as undeniably obvious, that it is Pence’s duty to go up there and say Trump won.  His anger towards Pence may eclipse anything we have seen until now.

  55. 55.

    dmsilev

    @germy: There’s a large part of me that want to see him dragged, kicking and screaming, out of the White House. But the long-term damage it would do is pretty severe, so maybe not the optimal scenario.

    It would be must-see-TV though.

  57. 57.

    mali muso

    @Yutsano: Watched that earlier today and got a little chuckle over the reference to “infrastructure week”. Oh and Pete’s story of proposing to his husband in an airport. Lol

  64. 64.

    Mary G

    The White House just named Andrew Giuliani, son of Rudy, to the Holocaust Memorial Council "in part because Trump has known him since infancy and also the president is said to enjoy golfing with the former New York mayor’s son." https://t.co/Aqk2JCuXOM— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) December 16, 2020

  65. 65.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Cameron:

    That seems to be Barr’s push.  They’re all a bunch of vile, sadistic assholes.  I would not be surprised to find out he liked to hear about the executions or approved when asked, but I haven’t seen anything to suggest he’s putting any effort into it.

  68. 68.

    Dr. Glidwrith

    @Another Scott: When manufacturing reagents, you never put in the exact amount because there is always loss from the process of putting stuff in and taking stuff out (adhesion to surfaces, microdroplets, etc). A good rule of thumb is 10% more than required, for small volumes like a vaccine, that needs to increase.
    Imagine what would happen if the 5th dose of vaccine was actually short on volume!

  70. 70.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @geg6:

    some would say I’m a bit too much in person sometimes. Especially when I’m wound up. Or have too much wine. Or both

    I, for one, can’t wait to meet you, once this shit is over and done.

  74. 74.

    Elie

    @germy:

    ohhhhh I just wish that he would have a melt down and refuse to leave!  Oh please could I see him dragged out by the secret service!

  75. 75.

    Geminid

    @Jeffro: trump’s cabinet members are all bad both generally and in their own way. Mike Pompeo stands out, though, because he is the one who intends to use his cabinet position as a springboard for a presidential run. He broke into politics as Congressman from Wichita, Kansas, the home of Koch Industries, so I expect he’ll have money behind him. It’s easy to say that Pompeo is too big an asshole to win the 2024 nomination. But when I look at the other republicans who could pull it off, there’s not one who is not an asshole. So some asshole has got to win.              I’d like to believe that internal conflicts will hamstring the republicans nationally like they have in Virginia. But this past election leaves me thinking that we’ll have to fight like hell to win in 2024 no matter who is the Republican nominee. So Pompeo is no politician to underrate.

  76. 76.

    catclub

    @sdhays: The Republican Party has done more to destroy this country’s government than any foreign adversary since King George.

     

    Bob Lee and jeff Davis would like a word.

  77. 77.

    J R in WV

    @germy:

    In his moments of deepest denial, Trump has told some advisers that he will refuse to leave the White House on Inauguration Day

    I guarantee Trump will leave the White House on Jan 20th… his choices are voluntarily with a dash of dignity, or forcefully removed by the Secret Service, who will as of 12:01 report to President Biden.

    I am personally rooting for the less dignified route of in bondage strapped to a gurney. That would at least be amusing.

  79. 79.

    Barbara

    @Another Scott: I don’t know the volumes involved, but vials typically have some extra because it can be hard to get the full amount out, and small amounts can be wasted in the drawing process.  They err on the side of too much.  Sophisticated pharmacies can extract every bit of it, but it’s not something anyone wants to encourage because it will be administered under such differential conditions.

    @JaySinWA: This could be dangerous outside of sophisticated hospital pharmacy environments.

  80. 80.

    catclub

    @SiubhanDuinne: Wilber Ross, actually Wilbur

     

    I have been amazed that Ross has survived 4 years, under the radar.
    I certainly saw him as the most corrupt of the bunch.

  82. 82.

    Elie

    What he really hates is that the media will be on 24 hour watch from 1/18 through the 21st to make sure that they will record his leaving for all posterity. Whether in dark of night from front or back, it will be the final loss and humiliation. Will he do anything damaging as he leaves?

  85. 85.

    M31

    @scav: hahahah I hope the actual blowing up happens at noon on January 20, there could be a simulcast

    ”against all enemies, foreign and domestic” BLAMMMMM

     

    ok looked it up and the enemies part isnt in there but it should be

  87. 87.

    Roger Moore

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    One thing I seem to have been personally wrong about: Trump is so much in denial and I guess his cabinet are so fucking stupid that they’ve forgotten to destroy evidence.

    I would not count on this.  I expect the shredders are going full speed in the background.  I would not be surprised, though, if they fail to destroy evidence effectively because they don’t know all the places their records are duplicated and the civil service staff aren’t going to help them.

  89. 89.

    Elizabelle

    @Elie:

    it will be the final loss and humiliation.

    Trump wishes.  I think 2020 is going to look good to him, in the rear view mirror.

  90. 90.

    Jinchi

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage: I was gonna say why don’t more of these people die?

    Covid has a roughly 1% mortality rate. So if a hundred Trump officials catch it, you’d only expect one death, even without unfettered access to the best doctors and medicine. Unless this person was well-known (like Herman Cain), you’d probably never know about it.

    But people forget that death isn’t the only consequence of Corona. Trump’s security chief just had his leg amputated because of it. Absurdly, he’s had to set up a GoFundMe account to help pay the medical bills.

  92. 92.

    Jinchi

    @Roger Moore: I expect the shredders are going full speed in the background.

    That’s not the lesson of Michael Cohen, Stefanie Wolcoff or Omarosa Marginault. Trump has been caught on tape by his own allies repeatedly. This crew was always ready to back-stab one another and they were always collecting evidence to use when they fell out of favor. Do you think the Trump aides anonymously describing him as a toddler having a tantrum are shredding all the evidence for him?

  93. 93.

    Mary G

    Elder male Democrats are shocked:

    SCOOP: Some advisers close to Biden are frustrated over a Glamour magazine interview in which incoming White House deputy chief of staff Jen O'Malley Dillon referred to Republicans on Capitol Hill as "f*ckers."https://t.co/wBS7lhT53w— Axios (@axios) December 16, 2020

    Expect more of this.

  94. 94.

    Dr. Glidwrith

    @WaterGirl: Yes. Like so many others, unless in a professional setting, I seldom point it out. That pig of a professor changed my mind for at least ‘nym purposes and I found I’ve got serious issues to be referred to as ‘Mrs’.

  95. 95.

    Kathleen

    @Mary G: Poor Stephen Miller. He was really looking forward to the live Nativity scene so he could wrench the Baby Jesus out of the manger, lock him in a cage and deport Mary and Joseph. Sad.

  97. 97.

    Elie

    @WaterGirl:

    whenever he leaves he’ll have his tail tucked between his legs. No big exit.
    Everyday he shrinks more and more. I have no idea why McCarthy and the others hang on. Don’t they feel it going away?  By the 6th it’s gonna be so done.  He can do his pardons but even those will have an aura of futility

  98. 98.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @Jinchi:

    Absurdly, he’s had to set up a GoFundMe account to help pay the medical bills.

    This I don’t understand. Don’t these people have primo government health insurance?

  100. 100.

    Another Scott

    @Barbara: Later on in the STATNews piece:

    Across the country in Boston, Paul Biddinger, medical director for emergency preparedness at Mass General Brigham, said he’d heard of the extra doses from the British vaccine rollout earlier this month. Despite being prepared, his team still had to throw out the additional doses on the first day of distribution.

    In Texas, the extra doses were discarded on the first day of distribution but, by Wednesday morning, Houston Methodist Hospital chief executive Roberta Schwartz said her team heard from Pfizer that it was okay to use what’s in the vial.

    Finally, on Wednesday afternoon, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration updated its guidance, saying health care providers should feel free to use all the full doses within each vial. “At this time, given the public health emergency, FDA is advising that it is acceptable to use every full dose obtainable (the sixth, or possibly even a seventh) from each vial, pending resolution of the issue,” spokesperson Abigail Capobianco wrote in an email to STAT. But any spare half doses should not be combined with half doses from other vials to create a whole one, she added.

    But Pfizer was less definitive. Each vial contains enough vaccine for at least five doses, spokesperson Sharon Castillo said in an email to STAT, and each dose must contain 0.3ml. “The amount of vaccine remaining in the multidose vial after removal of 5 doses can vary, depending on the type of needles and syringes used,” she wrote. ”At this time, we cannot provide a recommendation on the use of the remaining amount of vaccine from each vial. Vaccinators need to consult their institution’s policies for the use of multidose vials.”

    If the dosing confusion was raised in the U.K., the FDA and Pfizer ideally should have issued clearer instructions about using the extra dose before distribution began this week in the U.S., said John Grabenstein, adviser to the American Pharmacists Association. “In a situation of limited supply, any waste is unfortunate.”

    To be clear, my issue was with the confusion caused, and by the FDA and Pfizer taking a couple of days (or more) to address that confusion even after it came up earlier in the UK. The US protocols should have spelled out what to do if there was enough remaining for an additional dose (and why) and not left it to the thousands of people/institutions who are administering the shots to figure it out.

    I’m glad that they’re addressing things relatively quickly after they come up, but it would be nice if things like these relatively simple questions didn’t come up in the first place.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  102. 102.

    Elie

    @Steeplejack (phone):

    My thought exactly and the answer is Yes they do. And disability insurance also. Something smells. Yes I believe he is injured and recovering slowly but I do not believe his state of funding

  103. 103.

    Jinchi

    @WaterGirl: That’s why he will go home for Christmas, or leave to play golf, and then not return to the White House.

    Hope you’re right, but my guess is that Trump won’t surrender the trappings of power before he has to. He’ll continue flying Marine One between the White House and his golf course until at least Friday, January 15th and he’ll order the WH plumbing ripped out for renovations on the day he leaves for good.

  105. 105.

    Mike in NC

    Just set up a catapult in the Rose Garden and fire him off in any direction. Followed by Melania.

  106. 106.

    Elie

    @Jinchi:

    They won’t be listening to him. I also guess that Biden will have some people around to make sure things are going right.  I heard on CNN today that no one showed for his cabinet/staff meeting today

  107. 107.

    Dan B

    @Aleta: OMG!  Tere are too many people who can’t see the Darwin train hurtling down the tracks toward them.  Dog forbid if Ebola ever visits our shores.

  108. 108.

    Fair Economist

    @Jinchi: It looks like the antibody cocktail they get to use as members of the privileged class helps, so the death rate for White House might be lower than for the general population. Not certain, since the randomized trials have been disappointing, but possible.

  110. 110.

    Aleta

    @germy:  A typical bully, so desperate to control others that he comes apart in panic when he can’t.  He demanded compliance  (let me win!)  but was refused and exposed as weak .  For that discomfort he always becomes vindictive and punishing (even if it’s to a state that said No.)

    If someone stands up to him, he tells twitter they’re guilty of being bad, or he calls them a stupid name, cause he thinks he can recover control by mortifying them in public.   (He prefers threats but can’t make them in the open, unless it’s to another country as an ultimatum in front of a crowd.)  Escalating every conflict and keeping on with petty bickering is another way he protects himself from that powerless feeling.  So afraid of weakness he’d prefer madness.

  111. 111.

    Raoul Paste

    I’d like to see the demolition of the Trump casino incorporated into a movie

    Remember when the Joker demolished that hospital? .  Hollywood , where are you?

  113. 113.

    Anya

    @germy: He is so fucking pathetic. No other world leader obsesses over a cable news coverage or their ratings or anything to do with it, not even Boris. What must they think of us. We’ve elected this lunatic and then after we saw him in action, millions more voted for him.

  114. 114.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @jeffreyw:  A couple of years ago in the local ReStore facility I found the perfect holiday accessory: a red&white BAH HUMBUG mug. (And so reasonably priced!) Which I took out last week for its annual run of heavy use. It goes back on the back shelf after Twelfth Night, but for the nonce…

  117. 117.

    TS (the original)

    @Mary G:  Trump is determined to fill each and any position he can during the lame duck period to create havoc for the next President.

    I would assume this is another administration norm that he has shot into the nether world.

  119. 119.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Julia Ioffe @juliaioffe
    The White House just named Andrew Giuliani, son of Rudy, to the Holocaust Memorial Council “in part because Trump has known him since infancy and also the president is said to enjoy golfing with the former New York mayor’s son.”

    just today I was listening to the part of Obama’s memoir that discusses BiBi’s efforts to paint Obama as anti-semitic

  120. 120.

    Ruckus

    @sdhays:

    They have been trying to do just that since Nixon they just found help, in the form of an often fatal disease, and a killer virus.

    The often fatal disease is a combination of narcissism, ignorance, and an inheritance of over $5.00 given to an absolutely worse than totally fucking useless human being.

  121. 121.

    different-church-lady

    Please bookmark for all future references to one G. Greenwald:

    @DavisDoherty

    1h

    Replying to
    @drfarls

    In what meaningful respect is Glenn even “Left” these days?

    BearlyMadeIt

    @bearlymade_it

    44m

    None. And he *never* was. He has always been a right-libertarian, who became popular among some lefties because he attacked Bush in the aughts. He has always been our enemy.

    I wasn’t fooled by Greenwald in 2005. You should not be fooled by him in 2020.

  122. 122.

    Gin & Tonic

    My dear wife got dose #1 of the Pfizer at 10:00 am. She was tired when she came home and took a nap, but otherwise feels fine. Dose #2 is scheduled for Jan 5, I think.

  126. 126.

    Miss Bianca

    @Mary G: More Democrats willing to call a f*cker a bloody f*cker, or more elderly males tut-tutting over the incivility of it all?

  127. 127.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @moonbat:

    Shrink-wrapped to a pallet and air-dropped from a C130 into the West Virginia wilderness with a pocketknife, an iPhone with a 15% charge, a box of matches and wearing his standard blue suit, white shirt and red tie, with lifts for footwear.

  129. 129.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    seeing it announced that Pence and Mother will be getting public vaccinations. Is the big dumb ape afraid he’ll look weak if he gets a shot on camera?

  132. 132.

    Kayla Rudbek

    I hope that he and all the rest of the Trumpsters wind up dead or long-haulers from this.

    I just got the news tonight that my aunt’s ex-husband died of pneumonia after being on a ventilator with COVID-19.  Apparently he was over the COVID enough that his son got to be with him as he went. Fuck Trump and Kushner and all their works.

    And fuck Putin and Wakefield sideways with a rusty manure-caked pitchfork as well, and everyone who voted for Trump in 2016.

  133. 133.

    Brachiator

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    seeing it announced that Pence and Mother will be getting public vaccinations. Is the big dumb ape afraid he’ll look weak if he gets a shot on camera?

    Trump would probably say that he is already immune, from testing positive. But I would not be surprised if he had a fear of germs, disease, illness and needles.

  139. 139.

    Brachiator

    @Steeplejack (phone):

    @Jinchi:

    Absurdly, he’s had to set up a GoFundMe account to help pay the medical bills.

    and

    This I don’t understand. Don’t these people have primo government health insurance?

    Crede Bailey, the director of White House security has been hospitalized since September.  This is before Trump came down with the virus. Bailey apparently is a career federal employee, and also very loyal to Trump. As a federal employee, I doubt that Bailey has access to the same level of care as the plutocrats.

    Trump could have seen to it that this guy got top-notch medical treatment.  And since the amputation, Trump could have donated money to his care or at least rounded up some of his rich buddies to help this guy.

    But right now it looks as though Bailey is another one of the little people that Trump uses and discards.  Not much reward for being loyal to the Orange Beast.

  140. 140.

    trnc

    @Geminid: Mike Pompeo stands out, though, because he is the one who intends to use his cabinet position as a springboard for a presidential run. He broke into politics as Congressman from Wichita, Kansas, the home of Koch Industries, so I expect he’ll have money behind him. It’s easy to say that Pompeo is too big an asshole to win the 2024 nomination. But when I look at the other republicans who could pull it off, there’s not one who is not an asshole.

    If DT hasn’t died by then and does run, it’s hard to imagine any of his sycophants directly challenging him and winning. There’s only one cult leader.

  141. 141.

    Geminid

    @trnc: If trump actually runs in 2024, he’ll be probably be tough to beat for the Republican nomination, and someone like Pompeo might not try. His decision will be a pragmatic one not grounded in loyalty. While trump’s cult may be blindly loyal to trump, I don’t count Pompeo, or Barr for that matter, as cult members. They’ve worked for trump because it furthers policy goals or personal ambitions that they had before trump popped up. trump is more their tool than they are trump’s.                But trump will certainly at least tease a run, both to raise money and to maintain his power over the party. I don’t think he will actually be a candidate when 2024 rolls around. But I wouldn’t bet a lot of money on that or the opposite proposition.

  142. 142.

    J R in WV

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    December 16, 2020 at 9:54 pm

    @moonbat:

    Shrink-wrapped to a pallet and air-dropped from a C130 into the West Virginia wilderness with a pocketknife, an iPhone with a 15% charge, a box of matches and wearing his standard blue suit, white shirt and red tie, with lifts for footwear.

    Now why would you want to punish West Virginians like that? What did we ever do to you? Shame on you!

    I think we should drop him somewhere with no people he can abuse! Less populated than West Virginia… like the middle of the Australian outback — more dangerous critters, also, too!

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