Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The arc of the moral universe does not bend itself. it is up to us to bend it.

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

I really should read my own blog.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

Do we throw up our hands or do we roll up our sleeves? (hint, door #2)

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

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Let there be snark.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Not rolling over. fuck you, make me.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

I would try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

The unpunished coup was a training exercise.

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

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

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 / Monday Evening Open Thread: The Covid Ate My Legal Brief

Monday Evening Open Thread: The Covid Ate My Legal Brief

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Rhinovirus (Covid / flu / RSV) infection exposure is certainly a possibility right now, but nothing in our corrupt reality can be separated from POLITICS…

The second week of Donald Trump’s trial to determine how much more he owes in damages to E. Jean Carroll was postponed on Monday, due to a juror’s possible COVID-19 exposure.

Some 25 minutes after the trial’s anticipated start time, senior U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan announced that a juror had fallen ill, reporting a fever and nausea. Kaplan instructed the juror to go home and take a COVID-19 test.

Trump’s lead attorney Alina Habba — who, along with her co-counsel Michael Madaio and the former president beside her at the defense table, was unmasked — also disclosed that she was possibly exposed to the virus through her parents. She said that she experienced a fever, but she tested negative.

After the judge proposed proceeding with one absent juror, Habba requested a break for the day, saying that she did not see a problem with a brief delay.

Over the objections of Carroll’s attorney, Judge Kaplan granted a daylong adjournment…

Hope y’all got your boosters, Granite State rally attendees!

Reader Interactions

92Comments

  1. 1.

    Chief Oshkosh

    Did I read that right? Trump’s team asked for the delay, but Stefanik says it’s election interference because the judge granted it?

    Can we just throw them all into a burn pit, followed by a coupla jerry cans of fuel and a lit match?

  2. 2.

    Yutsano

    So. Much. Plague.

    So. Many. Unvaccinated.

    Something tells me there will be a small blip in the death rate in New Hampshire soon.

  4. 4.

    Almost Retired

    As a matter of sanity retention, I limit the number of people that I obsessively hate and despise.  But with DeSantis newly- spayed by voters and about to be embraced by Irrelevancy, I’m expelling him as a member of my Most Loathsome club.  So there’s room for a new member.  Welcome Elise!

  5. 5.

    Splitting Image

    What gets me is how many of the Republicans repeatedly say things like “I am lying to you. And I have so little respect for you that I’m not even going to make my lies believable. You are just that stupid.” (See Stefanik’s remarks above.) The same Republicans turn around and say “The liberal media is lying to you. And the elitists look down their noses at you.”

    And the mouth-breathers don’t know who to believe. But the hard-core Republicans do know who to believe. And the bothsiderists duly report that both sides are the same… and proceed to book the Republican on their show to sort everything out. Blather, rinse and repeat.

  6. 6.

    Mai Naem mobile

    @SiubhanDuinne: I am wondering if TFG is going to have Stefanik as his Veep.  He either wants her as his Veep or as the Speaker if God forbid he wins and the GOP keeps the house. I sincerely hope the Dems run somebody strong against her. I think she’s beatable.

  7. 7.

    Other MJS

    Their entire rhetorical strategy is “I know you are but what am I?” Elise Stefanik sounds like a dollar store chatbot.

  13. 13.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Mai Naem mobile:

    If he’s smart*, I suspect he’d prefer her as Speaker. But I’m not sure he’s capable any more (if he ever was, which is doubtful) of working out that it would be to his advantage to have someone smart of his own party in the Speakership. Unless the Senate reverts to 50-50.

    But as we’re all going to do everything in our power to return Biden-Harris to the White House, hold the Senate, and flip the House, it’s a mere thought exercise.

    *Yeah, I know, I know.

  15. 15.

    Nukular Biskits

    @Chief Oshkosh:

    Can we just throw them all into a burn pit, followed by a coupla jerry cans of fuel and a lit match?

    That would be a start, but it would never be as great as what Betty Cracker once suggested for Newt Gingrich:

    If I were Queen of the World, I would order him lightly scored with rusty pitchforks, dipped in sulfuric acid, rolled in a bed of broken light bulbs, stuffed into a cannon and fired into a toxic waste dump.

  16. 16.

    Brachiator

    The judge granted a continuance until tomorrow, then Trump posted 44 attacks on Carroll in 20 minutes.

    Could Carroll file a perpetual lawsuit that is activated whenever Trump posts something inflammatory about her?

    Trump is a strange and tiresome man child who can’t control his impulses.

  17. 17.

    Jackie

    The heir to the MAGA throne… Matt Gaetz? I’m just posting a snippet – it’s a long Politico Magazine article.

    …At his [TIFG] events, attendees say they view Gaetz not so much as a surrogate for the campaign but as an heir to the Trump movement. He has begun, to a degree, to physically resemble a Trump, with slicked back hair in the style of Trump’s actual sons. But most people who have flocked to his events say it is his political approach that reminds them of the former president. It’s precisely because he gets heckled that they love him.

    Lot’s more here: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/01/22/maga-movement-heir-matt-gaetz-00136968

  18. 18.

    JaySinWA

    @WaterGirl: I suspect some of the base buys the lies as shibboleths – marks of faith rather than true beliefs. Some just like to BS to enrage the opposition, verbal shit posters. Some are true believers. Way too many just want to strike out against people or groups they don’t like and think Trumpism is the way to do that.

  19. 19.

    Almost Retired

    @Brachiator: Right?!!!  All you need is a defamation complaint template and leave one paragraph open to insert the latest defamatory statement and file, file, and file again!!

  23. 23.

    dmsilev

    I assume Elise is auditioning for the running-mate slot, operating on the (reasonable) assumption that it will go to the most obsequious toady.

  28. 28.

    dmsilev

    @different-church-lady: And this time without the benefit of a huge dedicated team of doctors and nurses and assorted support staff and his own dedicated suite at Walter Reed.

    Do we think he’s vaccinated? I’m guessing he got the first round of shots, because that was when he was still trying to take credit for their development, but hasn’t gotten any of the boosters since then…

  29. 29.

    Elizabelle

    @dmsilev:  I would guess Trump is fully vaccinated.

    Still toxic as all get out, but vaccinated.  Although:  we know that these latest variants can slip through the vaccine protection.

  30. 30.

    WaterGirl

    Trump will wait for the latest possible moment before announcing a VP.  He wants to keep every possible person on a string, slobbering over him.

    If he chose a VP too soon, Trump wouldn’t have much control over them – I don’t think you even can boot the VP off the ticket while you’re running, can you?  Plus if the VP candidate did something Trump didn’t like, he couldn’t punish them.

    He is definitely not a well person.  He’s like the grown-up version of the boy who kills cats and tortures small creatures.

  31. 31.

    Hoodie

    @dmsilev: I loved how Trump repeatedly mispronounced her name just after she made that ridiculous defense of his dementia moment regarding Nikki Haley being responsible for capitol security.  I doubt he’ll pick her, he’ll think she’s not photogenic enough.  He’ll pick some guy or someone more photogenic like Noem.

  32. 32.

    ColoradoGuy

    @dmsilev: You know, that’s a good question. It seems doubtful he’s kept up with the latest boosters, and he’s more likely to use Ivermectin (to little or no effect) than Paxlovid. And he’s beginning to show signs of dementia.

  33. 33.

    Starfish

    So now we can create AI generated voices, there is some website selling rations to the doomsday preppers that has a YouTube ad using a fake Trump voice talking about how the end is near and you should buy more prepper rations. That link goes to the Mastodon instance where I saw the add. It is kinda terrifying, but you know it is not real because there is no intonation, no natural pauses, and no fluctuations in speech rate.

  37. 37.

    Jackie

    @WaterGirl: He’ll hold a prime time Event making sure the Media has to cover it.

    VP Sweepstakes, with the finalists all lined up to be publicly humiliated on national tv – except the one who is crowned and handed a dozen MAGA red roses.

  38. 38.

    dmsilev

    @WaterGirl: The ticket doesn’t become official until he’s declared the nominee at the Republican Convention (August, probably) and then nomination papers sent to the states. Up until then, he could change his mind. And it’d be just like him to do a whole “Apprentice” public audition/humiliation ritual for the job. And the great thing is that every single person who would consider auditioning for the role by definition would deserve the humiliation.

  39. 39.

    Elizabelle

    I think there is a real chance that TIFG aces the nomination, but does not make it to Election Day.  For whatever reason.  Must be weird for Team Biden to game that one out.

  41. 41.

    Another Scott

    @Brachiator: I kinda expect his next legal strategy, if it looks like he’s actually going to suffer consequences soon, will be for him to have his lawyers claim “diminished capacity” in court, then he’ll go on his MySpace and claim it’s all a dirty lie while defaming and threatening everyone who tries to hold him to account.

    He’s trying to break the legal system, along with everything else.

    I hope the judges, prosecutors, etc., have dusted off the record of what LaRouche tried in his trials and are prepared.

    Grr…,
    Scott.

  43. 43.

    Anne Laurie

    @jayne: I’m pretty sure she’s auditioning to be Melania’s replacement at this point.

    I had to check back to your comment.  No, ‘she’ (Stefanik) is absolutely going for Trump’s VP slot (not least, I surmise, because she doesn’t expect him to survive for four more years).

    Habba — who demonstrably can’t ‘fake smart’ — is the one doing her best to take Melania’s position.  With, I suspect, Melania’s unspoken permission, in that only an idiot would want to jump into that family pit of vipers & morons.

    Stefanik’s not dumb, just evil.  Habba appears to be really, really dumb.  Like, Trump-kid level dumb!

  52. 52.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Starfish:

    So now we can create AI generated voices

    This is actually one of the few things AI is very good at.  It can’t replace a good actor, but if you have an even moderate amount of references (a mid-sized TV series worth, say) it can reproduce a character’s voice, including their speech rhythm and emotional tones.  Getting it to use the ones you want is kind of a crap shoot, so really you will never replace the actor, but you can get the effect of someone believably talking in that person’s voice.

  55. 55.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Brachiator:

    Could Carroll file a perpetual lawsuit that is activated whenever Trump posts something inflammatory about her?

    In all seriousness, I am wondering if she is going to keep suing him, over and over, getting bigger and bigger judgments, because he will.  Not.  Learn.  His.  Lesson.

  58. 58.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @Jackie:

    Butthead Gaetz leading MAGA…lol! Because the left picks on him?!

    As the real Butthead would say, “Wuss…  heh heh heh”

    Then he would call Getz a turdburglar.

  59. 59.

    Baud

    This showed up on my YouTube algorithm coming tomorrow

    Reproductive Rights Event with Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Jill Biden, and Doug Emhoff

    Jan 23, 2024

    As we mark the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, Kamala Harris, Jill Biden, Douglas Emhoff, and I are highlightingt the stakes of this election and the critical fight ahead against MAGA Republicans’ attacks on reproductive freedom.

  60. 60.

    Bill Arnold

    @Elizabelle:

    Must be weird for Team Biden to game that one out.

    I’m sure they stoically suffer through the weirdness.
    ( /snark )
    Seriously, gleeful ruthlessness v Trump’s GOP is acceptable this election.

  62. 62.

    Captain C

    @Anne Laurie: At this point I suspect that Melania doesn’t care who takes care of the conjugal duties as long as a) it’s not her and b) the prenup check clears at the appropriate time.

  69. 69.

    TBone

    I saw a post (maybe at CrooksandLiars) recently where someone gave Matty Gaetz a blowup sex doll at a political event.  Said something about cocaine too.  Guy was removed but Matty laughed and smiled all the way through it.  Like he was delighted, truly.

  70. 70.

    Spanky

    @Starfish:

    Both Stefanik and MTG look like they are running for VP.

    And the choice will go to whichever Trump wants to fuck more at that moment.

  71. 71.

    Starfish

    @Leto: I am not so much trying to prevent dumb people from being parted with their money as I am really worried about the way that this technology is being used. It is a (fake as in AI, not fake as in his hair) Presidential candidate telling you that you are doomed, like it was an actual President doing nothing to stop January 6.

  72. 72.

    Starfish

    @Spanky: MTG is a very good fundraiser, and you know if the Republican Party is not going to mind Trump stealing all their money and giving it to his friends, then I could see selecting her just to have more money to steal.

  73. 73.

    RevRick

    @WaterGirl: Cliff Schecter at Blue Amp Channel on YouTube recently had a podcast where they speculated that Trump won’t pick anyone to be VP, because what dictator needs a vice dictator?

  76. 76.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Spanky: ​
     

    And the choice will go to whichever Trump wants to fuck more at that moment.

    Putting the ‘mate’ in ‘running mate,’ huh?

  77. 77.

    Jackie

    @RevRick: TIFG may not want a VP, but one of their official duties is presiding over the senate and providing the tiebreaker to votes when needed.

    Also, too, should TIFG keel over and croak, with no VP, that means House Speaker Hakeem Jeffries would become POTUS 😏😁👍🏻

  81. 81.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    My trivia team won tonight. I am proud to say I was able to name the satirical online newspaper that won lifetime achievement award from the Webbies. Of the rest of the team, only Mr DAW had heard of the Onion.

  82. 82.

    Jackie

    Members of Florida’s GQP want to create a tax payers fund to help TIFG with his legal bills.

    Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis offered a tepid endorsement of former President Donald Trump when he dropped out of the 2024 presidential race over the weekend. But he apparently draws the line at using his state’s taxpayer funds to bail out Trump from his legal expenses.

    That’s exactly what at least some Republican lawmakers in the Sunshine State are proposing. A new bill announced this month with the sponsorship of state Sen. Ileana Garcia and the backing of Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis would establish a “Florida Freedom Fighters Fund,” allowing up to $5 million in support for a presidential candidate running this state who faces a federal or state criminal trial. Patronis said the bill is vital to defending candidates from “legal, partisan, political attacks by the Department of Justice or State Attorneys.”
    But DeSantis apparently isn’t interested in bailing out his one-time ally turned bitter rival after months of primary competition.

    In response to Politico’s post on the social media site “X” that “some Florida Republicans want taxpayers to pay Trump’s legal bills,” DeSantis wrote, “But not the Florida Republican who wields the veto pen…”

    https://www.rawstory.com/floridas-trump-defense-fund/

    Maybe Gov Pudd’n Boots has half of a testis left after TIFG demasculated him?

  83. 83.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Jackie:

    “Florida Freedom Fighters Fund,” allowing up to $5 million in support for a presidential candidate running this state who faces a federal or state criminal trial. Patronis said the bill is vital to defending candidates from “legal, partisan, political attacks by the Department of Justice or State Attorneys.”

    Is there a clause in the bill that says, “Except if you’re a leftist Demonrat, then FOAD.”?

    But seriously, I just can’t believe this shit is happening. Why does this even need to exist? Why now? Why didn’t this need to exist decades ago?

    Answer: Because the cult leader is in trouble

  84. 84.

    Another Scott

    @Jackie: +1

    He’s going to pick someone.

    WaPo did a rundown of candidates in 2016:

    For instance, Trump could decide to go with a military figure such as David Petraeus. In May, The Fix’s Philip Bump made a surprisingly persusaive [sic!] case for Trump to choose his daughter Ivanka.

    He’d probably love to pick Mike Flynn. He wants the military to bend its knee to him and was furious with many of “his” generals. And he’d love to pick Ivanka – to thumb his nose at all the norms and conventions, start his dynasty, and to have a [white] woman to go against Harris.

    I don’t think it will be someone conventional like Pence this time. He wanted to back out of picking Pence almost as soon as he announced his name. I think it will be someone in the strongman, but subservient to him, mold, or someone totally cynical to check off boxes and try to one-up Harris. Or both!

    The Fix says …

    Here is the most recent ranking of Trump’s likely VP choices, as seen by Fix boss Chris Cillizza:

    #1
    Newt Gingrich

    Former speaker of the House from Georgia

    “Gingrich’s weaknesses are similar to Trump’s — he veers off message often, his personal life has been complicated and his ego is, well, massive — but Gingrich’s recent decision to change his position on trade — he helped pass NAFTA but now says he supports Trump’s more protectionist approach — suggests he knows he’s very much in the running and wants to make clear he very much wants the job.”

    Heh. Has Cillizza been right about anything in politics??

    (Newt is 80.)

    With any luck, TIFG’s choice will be irrelevant – if he even makes it that far.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  88. 88.

    Citizen Alan

    @Starfish: God does not love me enough for Shitgibbon to make MTG his running mate. A woman who makes Sarah Palin look like Eleanor Roosevelt.

  89. 89.

    Brachiator

    @Citizen Alan:

    God does not love me enough for Shitgibbon to make MTG his running mate. A woman who makes Sarah Palin look like Eleanor Roosevelt.

    Coming back late to the thread to note how much this comparison made me chuckle.

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