The DOJ is dropping charges against Mike Flynn, who already pled guilty. For reasons.
Trump Crime Cartel
Deaths for the Death God!: The Trump White House Has A Cunning Plan
The entire idea of Warhammer 40K was to create a universe so incredibly filled with authoritarianism and horrible ways to die that you won't have to think about which character is the good guy and just get lost in its aesthetics, and it's getting lapped by the American presidency
— Gorilla Warfare (@MenshevikM) May 4, 2020
Let’s just tell them the virus is cancelled!
Look, it’s mostly the darkies and ‘essential workers’ who’ll die — those guys weren’t voting for us anyway. Our own base will believe whatever we tell them, as long as it means they can have their unlimited Chik-Fil-A iced tea refills and Applebee’s salad bar again. And the lamestream Fake News, including the NYTimes and Politico‘s Chris Cillizza, will be only too happy to applaud our ‘savvy’ and pretend the Dems would’ve done the same or worse…
The thing about the virus is that it cannot be mindfucked by political trickery because it does not even possess a brain. https://t.co/CKrN048B8y
— Starfish Who Had Fun For An Hour (@IRHotTakes) May 4, 2020
… The document predicts a sharp increase in both cases and deaths beginning about May 14, according to a copy shared with The Washington Post. The forecast stops at June 1, but shows both daily cases and deaths on an upward trajectory at that point.
The White House and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention disavowed the report, although the slides carry the CDC’s logo. The creator of the model said the numbers are unfinished projections shown to the CDC as a work in progress…
One federal official said the data was presented at a recent briefing for the National Response Coordination Center, a part of FEMA, which coordinates federal support during major incidents and emergencies. The official, who was not authorized to discuss internal government briefings, spoke on the condition of anonymity.
It was not immediately clear whether the projections, which also carry the logos of the departments of Health and Human Services and Homeland Security, are based on ramped- up testing, the attempt to reopen some states, the time lag between a rise in cases and deaths or some combination of those factors…
The forecast is at odds with remarks made Sunday evening by Trump, who said the United States could eventually suffer as many as 100,000 deaths. At 3,000 deaths per day and rising, the national total would quickly outstrip that number if the new report is correct.
A senior White House official said the document would not change the White House planning on reopening.
White House officials have been relying on other models to make decisions on reopening, including the IHME model and a “cubic model” prepared by Trump adviser and economist Kevin Hassett and the Council of Economic Advisers.
On Monday, however, the IHME model — widely used by states and heavily relied upon in the past by the White House — also revised its deaths significantly upward to reflect the reopenings in several states.
The IHME model — created by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington — is now estimating that the United States will reach nearly 135,000 deaths by August 1. That number is significantly higher than its mid-April estimate of 60,308 deaths…
We knew it was gonna be a crucial six months, even if we could never have predicted quite *how* crucial.
We really came to this point. I thought Hurricane Maria and Puerto Rico was appalling, but this is a scale of evil and incompetence that is difficult to process.
— T.K. of AAK! (@AskAKorean) May 4, 2020
<em>Deaths for the Death God!</em>: The Trump White House Has A Cunning PlanPost + Comments (80)
Biden-Warren Opinion Piece in the KC Star
Former VP Biden and Senator Warren jointly wrote an opinion piece published in The Kansas City Star today. It’s about the lack of coronavirus relief oversight under the current embezzler in the Oval Office.
The piece lays out the glaring issues with disbursement of federal funds now and recommends ways to clean up current and future relief efforts, including addressing conflicts of interest (e.g., profiteering by crooks like Sens. Loeffler and Burr), stopping lobbyists from influencing the direction of the money hose and ending Trump’s outrageous and intolerable refusal to submit relief package disbursement to oversight.
I highly recommend reading the whole thing. I found the conclusion especially compelling because it makes clear to Trump and potential partners in corruption that there will be no “look forward, not backward” bullshit when Trump loses the election:
If Congress and the Trump administration are unwilling to act now, then we will ensure that these changes are made in January 2021, both through new legislation and immediate executive commitments made by the Biden administration.
The Biden administration will appoint an inspector general to review every coronavirus relief transaction currently evading serious scrutiny. Wasteful, corrupt deals and giveaways will be rooted out and undone. Suspicious transactions will be referred to the Justice Department for investigation and prosecution. Every Trump administration official and business executive contemplating such deals should hear us loud and clear. Trump may wink and nod at this corruption. We will not.
Real unemployment in America is soaring. But for many Americans, our economy wasn’t working even before the devastation of the COVID-19 crisis. As we recover, we have the opportunity to create an economy that truly works for everyone. That begins with a government that is accountable to the people — and that is what we will deliver.
Even before the pandemic, Trump and his inept, greedy cronies were running the most openly corrupt administration in history, and now they are flagrantly taking advantage of the worst public health crisis in a century to line their pockets. Rooting the crooks out and restoring faith in good governance should be central to the 2020 campaign, and this signals it will be. Bravo, VP Biden and Senator Warren!
Biden-Warren Opinion Piece in the KC StarPost + Comments (301)
I’m At My Wit’s End
I am still a relatively young man, but in my time I have witnessed a large amount of stupidity (much of it my own). But I am really at the end of being able to tolerate it. This virus has been the last straw for me, and I culling a lot of people I have known forever from my life. I just can’t take any more of it.
The proximate cause of my losing it has been the “Yeah but Sweden” shit coming from my barely literate friends on facebook who have spent their entire lives setting out to prove that half an education is more dangerous than no education. “Sweden did nothing and look they are approaching her immunity.”
First off, the United States isn’t fucking Sweden. Sweden’s population density is on par with West Virginia’s, not NYC or Atlanta or virtual most of the urban and suburban areas of the United States. Second, there are far fewer at risk people in Sweden because THEY HAVE ACTUAL HEALTH CARE and are in general healthier. Third, in Sweden, if you get sick, you can stay home and not give it to everyone at fucking Ikea or whatever their equivalent of McDonalds is because they won’t get fired for staying home when sick because they are not imbeciles. Sweden also is a mature socially conscious country, and if asked or advised to maintain distancing, they don’t need fucking red x’s on the ground, and they’ll wear masks and wash their hands, and so forth.
So the United States isn’t Sweden. But even if we were, Sweden’s mortality rate has been fucking awful. WORSE THAN OURS. And there is no real reliable information about herd immunity in Sweden, and they’re not close to it, anyway. So please just fuck off with the “but Sweden” crap.
At any rate, I was at my boiling point, so called up a guildmate to chat, and we both agreed that it is the aggressive, in your face stupidity that is so maddening. Just the refusal to do little things, like wear masks, or stay home when sick, or throw marches to demand the country re-open, or mock others for doing what they think they should. It’s the deliberate, in-your-face assholishness that just drive me insane.
So we talked awhile, and I was tired of driving around checking things out, and I got home, came upstairs, loaded up the old web browser, and what do I find? As if on fucking cue, Vice President Jeebus Humper pulls this fucking stunt:
Vice President Mike Pence on Tuesday refused to wear a mask during his visit to Minnesota’s Mayo Clinic, which requires all staff, patients, and visitors to wear a face covering while at the medical center. In a since-deleted tweet, the Mayo Clinic called out the veep, saying it “had informed @VP of the masking policy prior to his arrival today.” But that apparently didn’t stop Pence from visiting with staff and even a patient in a crowded hospital room without wearing a mask. “Part of our protocol for ensuring your safety is to require all patients, visitors and staff to wear a face covering or mask while at Mayo Clinic to guard against transmission of COVID-19,” the hospital’s website reads.
I fucking hate these people and anyone who gets in the way of replacing them in November can fuck right the fuck off.
Pandemic Open Thread: Trump Just Likes Killing People
The governor of Alabama is smarter than the ‘governor’ of Georgia:
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey told the state that it's not safe to reopen — not without more testing and better numbers — and she kept her stay-at-home order in place. It's like Seinfeld's bizarro world. I don't know what to think anymore. https://t.co/UKBNIGgsmn
— Josh Moon (@Josh_Moon) April 21, 2020
Oval Office Occupant is… not:
If Trump weren't already terrible, removing Bill Barr as AG would be reason enough to vote for the Democratic nominee. https://t.co/uKWvxbzqKM
— Andy (@trtx84) April 21, 2020
This is it. This is all that it is. Get sick, die, what do I care as long as I win. He says it out loud. And he is right. Nobody cares. America is past caring that literally the worst person in it is its president. https://t.co/xrM3nu5VQy
— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) April 20, 2020
He can’t be a king, but at least he can have people killed for his whims!
I'm shocked, shocked that Trump killed people. https://t.co/Rk3nMfZzby
— Jeff Fecke (@jkfecke) April 21, 2020
Politico’s @owermohle and I first wrote a month ago about how Trump’s hunch on hydroxychloroquine was pulling health officials away from other, more promising drugs and raising concerns given lack of data. https://t.co/xxQzOqN6z8
— Dan Diamond (@ddiamond) April 21, 2020
And his party… is fine with that.
It’s not an exaggeration when I say that Republicans’ #1 priority is killing poor people. They literally say it out loud regularly. https://t.co/9f0wNNYaow
— Evan Robertson (@evanrobertsonDC) April 21, 2020
Pandemic Open Thread: Trump Just Likes Killing PeoplePost + Comments (63)
And Another Thing About Trump
Trump is looking like an insane person on tv, and most of you are probably thinking “so no different from normal.” And actually, no. He is looking more insane and more unhinged. And it is going to keep getting worse and worse. And there is a simple reason for that.
This is the first time in his life he simply can not bullshit his way through things. The last 75 years, every single time he has been in a pickle, he has been able to buy his way, bullshit his way, or make a deal out of the mess. He and daddy bought his way into schools and bought his way out of Nam. Daddy’s money got him a start in business. He was able to make deals with the mob and pay lawyers to shed liability on his failed real estate bids, he made deals with the Russians to funnel money to him through Deutsche Bank, he’s was able to bullshit his way through the election and bullshit his way through releasing his tax returns and pay off the women.
And finally, he has made it this far through his Presidency because he made a deal with evangelicals and the Republican base, that in return for some judges, shredding the environment, and throwing money at the rich while hating on minorities, they’d just sit quietly by and wear their MAGA hats.
But Trump can’t make a deal with coronavirus, and he has no control over it. No amount of bullshit or Russian money or ginned up racism is gonna keep people from dying. And he is finally starting to realize it.
It’s Not His Decision to Make
On top of what Betty said below, the other thing to keep in mind is that not only is it not his fucking decision to make, but it also doesn’t matter what he says because people are not going to “re-open” the country until they feel safe.
All this premature “re-opening” the country bullshit is about is blame shifting to the governors and telling his buddies in big business it’s ok to start firing people for not showing up, and signalling to everyone that there ain’t no more money coming. That is it.
Universities and colleges and public schools are still going to listen to actual medical experts and scientists, and the majority of people will continue to act like this thing can kill them, BECAUSE IT CAN AND WILL despite whatever Trump’s panel of dipshits decree.
Trump simply is not in control of the situation in any way, shape, or form, and that is both good and bad. It sucks that the power of the federal government can’t be harnessed and used to fight this. On the other hand, it is good that the public isn’t going to pay attention to this doofus because we’re not just talking about shitting on immigrants and making hand-signs anymore. This is life or death, and most people get that.