;)
The Commentariat -- May 16, 2020
The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Friday are here. The Washington Post's live updates for Friday are here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
David Lim & Zachary Brennan of Politico: "... Donald Trump formally announced the former head of vaccines at GlaxoSmithKline and a general in charge of Army readiness will lead the government's effort to speed the development of potential coronavirus vaccines. Moncef Slaoui, who left GlaxoSmithKline in 2017, will be chief scientist of what the administration has deemed Operation Warp Speed. "That means big and it means fast," Trump said, comparing the operation to the Manhattan Project, a program to develop an atomic bomb that employed more than 100,000 people. Army Gen. Gustave Perna will be the chief operating officer for the project." Mrs. McC: I watched a few minutes of Trump's self-congratulatory press event (yes, I know that's redundant). I don't know if he needs glasses or has dyslexia or what. He reads like a second-grader. A child stumbling over new words is not at all remarkable; an adult stumbling again & again is disconcerting. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Carolyn Johnson, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump formally unveiled an initiative Friday afternoon aimed at making hundreds of millions of doses of a coronavirus vaccine broadly available by year's end — a goal that many scientists say is unrealistic and could even backfire by shortchanging safety and undermining faith in vaccines more broadly. The Rose Garden news conference added to a week of confusing and contradictory remarks about the prospects and timeline for a vaccine, which is seen as the key to returning to normal life. A day earlier, a former top U.S. vaccine official testified before Congress that he was doubtful about the 12-to-18-month time frame frequently touted as a goal. The head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases testified Tuesday that 12 to 18 months was possible but there was no guarantee a vaccine would work at all.... Outside scientists said it was dangerous to set public expectations that a vaccine could be available by any deadline, given the many scientific unknowns and the fact that the first candidates are just now being injected into humans." The article is free to nonsubscribers.
M-Beep Beep. Daniel Dale & Holmes Lybrand of CNN: "When blaring truck horns intruded on ... Donald Trump's Friday speech in the White House Rose Garden about the search for a coronavirus vaccine, Trump [falsely] claimed that this was the sound of a pro-Trump protest. 'And you hear that outside, that beautiful sound -- those are truckers that are with us all the way. They are protesting in favor of President Trump, as opposed to against,' Trump said. 'There's hundreds of trucks out there, and that's the sign of love. Not the sign of your typical protest. So I want to thank our great truckers. They like me and I like them.' At another Rose Garden speech later in the day, Trump said, 'Those are friendly truckers. They're on our side. It's almost a celebration, in a way.' Trump had made a similar claim about the protesters in an interview he taped Wednesday with Fox Business's Maria Bartiromo.... 'Well, they're not protesters. They're supporters of me.'... All three of Trump's claims were false. The truckers who have lined streets near the White House since May 1 are indeed protesters, not people holding any kind of celebration -- and they are protesting a variety of issues affecting their jobs, not protesting in favor of Trump.... 'This is a protest,' [trucker Greg] Anderson said. 'Mr. Trump elaborated that we were here to support him. Our message to him would be this is a protest against bad regulation, broker transparency, truck insurance, so on and so forth. This is not here to support Trump. We're here to get resolution and bring awareness to our problem and fix our problems.'" ~~~
~~~ A Few Other Odd and/or Untrue Things Donald Trump Said During the Briefing.
We think we're going to have a vaccine in the pretty near future. And if we do, we're going to really be a big step ahead. And if we don't, we're going to be like so many other cases where you had a problem come in, it'll go away.
The vast majority, many people don't even know they have it [Covid-19]. They have it or they have sniffles or they have a very minor sign and they recover. Not only recover, they probably have immunity, whether it's short term, long term, but they have probably immunity. And I think people have to understand that. That's why I think the schools should be back in the fall.
Scientists at the NIH began developing the first vaccine candidate on January 11th, think of that, within hours of the virus's genetic code being posted online. So January 11th, most people never even heard what was going on January 11th. And we were out there trying to develop a vaccine, not even knowing what we were up against.
We have a great plan to prevent the spread, but that doesn't mean we're going to close our country for five years.
Jill Colvin, et al., of the AP: "Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said Friday the White House still has confidence in a rapid COVID-19 test it has been using despite new data suggesting the test may return false negatives. The head of the Food and Drug Administration [Steve Hahn] said Friday his agency has provided new guidance to the White House after data suggested that the test used by ... Donald Trump and others every day may be inaccurate and provide false negatives. The test by Abbott Laboratories is used daily at the White House to test Trump, key members of his staff as well as any visitor to the White House complex who comes in close proximity to the president or Vice President Mike Pence.... White House officials on Friday continued using the Abbot ID Now test.... FDA commissioner Steve Hahn said that if a person is suspected of having the disease caused by the coronavirus, 'it might be worth, if the test is negative, getting a second confirmatory test. That's what our guidance is about.' Hahn, asked on CBS on Friday whether he'd continue to recommend using the test at the White House, said, 'That will be a White House decision.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "Recently people on the right have started pushing a ludicrous pseudo-scandal they're calling Obamagate. It holds that investigations by Barack Obama's administration into Russia's attack on the 2016 U.S. presidential election were a form of illicit sabotage of Donald Trump and his team. The story doesn't really make sense, which is why, when asked about Obamagate, President Trump couldn't describe it.... But Obamagate is also a way to distract at least some segment of the country from a very real and very grave scandal: Trump's calamitous mishandling of the coronavirus crisis.... On Thursday, as Trump was on Twitter asking Senator Lindsey Graham to drag Obama before Congress, [Dr. Rick] Bright testified before a House subcommittee.... He described months of government lassitude early in the coronavirus outbreak, and an administration that has yet to even formulate -- never mind execute -- a plan for containing the pandemic....The real scandal of a looted government leaving citizens prey to death and destitution will fuel ever more histrionic fake ones." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Lenny Bernstein, et al., of the Washington Post: "The meager guidelines for safely reopening the country released this week are the latest sign of the Trump administration's efforts to sideline >the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the increasing tension between the White House and the world-renowned public health agency. With Americans waiting for expert advice on how to resume a semblance of normal life during the pandemic, the CDC released just six short 'decision trees' Thursday while the rest of its lengthy proposal remains under review at the White House, where it has been for weeks. Instead of assuming its traditional lead role in a public health crisis, the 73-year-old agency has become just one of many voices providing often contradictory instructions to a confuse and imperiled public.... Some in the White House, including coronavirus task force coordinator Deborah L. Birx and Trump's chief of staff, Mark Meadows, have begun to take aim at the leadership and communication skills of the CDC's director, Robert Redfield." ~~~
~~~ Perhaps this is the kind of "communication skill" that irks Birx & Meadows: ~~~
~~~ Susannah Luthi of Politico: "The United States is heading toward more than 100,000 coronavirus deaths by June 1, with leading mortality forecasts still trending upward, CDC Director Robert Redfield tweeted on Friday. His assessment cited 12 different models tracked by his agency and marked the first time Redfield has explicitly addressed the grim milestone of 100,000 deaths, even as the Trump administration turns its strategy toward reopening the economy.... 'As of May 11, all [12 models] forecast an increase in deaths in the coming weeks and a cumulative total exceeding 100,000 by June 1,' he tweeted.... The CDC director has been mostly sidelined in the government's public-facing response to the Covid-19 pandemic."
Tal Axelrod of the Hill: "The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) halted a coronavirus testing program promoted by billionaire Bill Gates and Seattle health officials pending reviews. The program sought to send test kits to the homes of people both healthy and sick to try to bring the country to the level of testing officials say is necessary before states can begin safely reopening. The program, which had already gone through thousands of tests, found dozens of cases that had been previously undiagnosed. The Seattle Coronavirus Assessment Network (SCAN) said on its website that the FDA had asked it to pause testing while it receives additional authorizations, but maintained its procedures are safe.... The pause is emblematic of the fractured national response to the coronavirus, with federal officials proposing guidelines but leaving much of the implementation and administering of tests to states and localities.... An FDA spokesperson told The New York Times, which was the first to report on the pause, that the home testing kits raised concerns over safety and accuracy of the results." ~~~
~~~ Mike Baker of the New York Times: "... the Seattle program ... has wide backing, including from public health leaders, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and Mr. Gates, whose foundation has been deeply involved in fighting the pandemic. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also provided an in-person technical adviser to the project.... The Seattle partnership that is conducting the testing, the Seattle Coronavirus Assessment Network, said in a statement that it had been in conversation with the Food and Drug Administration about its program for about 10 weeks and submitted data a month ago."
Calling Dr. Trump. Toluse Olorunnipa, et al., of the Washington Post: "For two months, President Trump repeatedly pitched hydroxychloroquine as a safe and effective treatment for coronavirus, asking would-be patients 'What the hell do you have to lose?' Growing evidence shows that, for many, the answer is their lives. Clinical trials, academic research and scientific analysis indicate that the danger of the Trump-backed drug is a significantly increased risk of death for certain patients. Evidence showing the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine in treating covid-19 has been scant. Those two developments pushed the Food and Drug Administration to warn against the use of hydroxychloroquine outside of a hospital setting last month, just weeks after it approved an emergency use authorization for the drug. Alarmed by a growing cache of data linking the anti-malaria drug to serious cardiac problems, some drug safety experts are now calling for even more forceful action by the government to discourage its use. Several have called for the FDA to revoke its emergency use authorization, given hydroxychloroquine's documented risks."
Erica Green of the New York Times: "Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is using the $2 trillion coronavirus stabilization law to throw a lifeline to education sectors she has long championed, directing millions of federal dollars intended primarily for public schools and colleges to private and religious schools.... She has directed school districts to share millions of dollars designated for low-income students with wealthy private schools. And she has nearly depleted the 2.5 percent of higher education funding, about $350 million, set aside for struggling colleges to bolster small colleges -- many of them private, religious or on the margins of higher education -- regardless of need.... On the Senate floor this week, Senator Chuck Schumer ... accused Ms. DeVos of 'exploiting congressional relief efforts.' He said she had been 'using a portion of that funding not to help state or localities cope with the crisis, but to augment her push for voucherlike programs, a prior initiative that has nothing to do with Covid-19.'" (Also linked yesterday.)
** Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "The House on Friday approved the most radical change to its rules in generations, allowing its members to cast committee and floor votes from afar -- the culmination of a months-long struggle to adapt the 231-year-old institution to the coronavirus pandemic. Despite bipartisan frustrations with the virus's effect on the legislative process, the changes, which include temporarily authorizing remote committee work and proxy voting on the House floor, were adopted along party lines. The vote was 217 to 189. Democratic leaders pushed forward with the changes this week after failing to come to terms in two weeks of negotiations with Republicans, who firmly opposed several key measures in the proposal. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and top Democrats said the changes were temporary and tailored to the current crisis...." A Hill story is here.
Erica Werner of the Washington Post: "House Democrats on Friday passed a $3 trillion tax cut and spending bill aimed at addressing the devastating economic fallout from the coronavirus outbreak by directing huge sums of money into all corners of the economy. But the White House and Senate Republicans have decried the measure's design and said they will cast it aside, leaving uncertain what steps policymakers might take as the economy continues to face severe strains. The sweeping legislation ... passed 208-199. Fourteen Democrats defected and opposed the bill, reflecting concerns voiced both by moderates and liberals in the House Democratic caucus about the bill's content and the leadership-driven process that brought it to the floor. The bill won support from just one Republican: Rep. Pete King of New York." A Politico story is here. Update: the New York Times story is here. ~~~
~~~ Juliegrace Brufke of the Hill: "The House on Friday evening defeated a Republican effort to prevent undocumented immigrants from retroactively receiving stimulus payments amid the coronavirus pandemic. Thirteen Democrats broke party lines and voted in favor of the GOP effort to strip language about the payments from Democrats' $3 trillion coronavirus relief bill. The effort to amend Democrats' broader HEROES Act at the eleventh hour failed in a 198-209 vote."
Maggie Severn of Politico: "The insider trading investigation stemming from Sen. Richard Burr's sale of stocks ahead of the coronavirus pandemic highlights the North Carolina Republican's long record of investing in companies with business before his committees, according to a Politico review of eight years of his trades. While Burr sat on committees focused on health care, taxes and trade, he and his wife bought and sold hundreds of thousands of dollars of stock in an array of health care companies, banks and corporations with business overseas. At times, Burr owned stock in companies whose specific industries he advanced through legislation. Those trades are entirely legal, as long as he can prove that he didn't act on private information. But the co-mingling of legislative responsibilities and personal financial dealings has long worried ethics specialists, who insist that such trading amounts to a serious conflict of interest, even if it doesn't reach the level of insider trading."
Sapna Maheshwari & Michael Corkery of the New York Times: "J.C. Penney, with its budget-friendly clothing for families and reliable home furnishings, was for years a cornerstone of American malls and an undeniable success story. What started as a humble dry goods store in Wyoming in 1902 was a century later a national chain with a household name and more than 1,000 locations. But on Friday, the company filed for bankruptcy protection after a prolonged decline over the past 20 years, becoming the latest and largest retailer to fall during the coronavirus pandemic, which has devastated the industry. The chain has more than 800 stores and nearly 85,000 employees."
Covid-19 Is a Message from God. Elana Schor & Hannah Fingerhut of the AP: "The coronavirus has prompted almost two-thirds of American believers of all faiths to feel that God is telling humanity to change how it lives, a new poll finds." Mrs. McC: But will there be pilgrimages to Wuhan? (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Your Friday Night News Dump. Trumpists Euthanize Another Watchdog. Meredith McGraw & Nahal Toosi of Politico: "State Department Inspector General Steve Linick has been fired, according to a senior administration official and a congressional aide. Linick, a Justice Department veteran appointed to the role in 2013 by then President Barack Obama, is the latest of a slew of inspectors general to be ousted in recent months.... A State Department spokesperson said that Amb. Stephen Akard, a former career Foreign Service officer, 'will now lead the Office of the Inspector General at the State Department,' noting that Akard was previously confirmed by the Senate as head of the department's Office of Foreign Missions." ~~~
~~~ Update. Michael Shear & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "President Trump continued his purge of inspectors general late Friday, moving to oust Steve A. Linick, who had served in that post at the State Department since 2013, and replacing him with an ambassador with close ties to Vice President Mike Pence.... The decision to remove Mr. Linick, first reported Friday night by Politico, is the latest in a purge of inspectors general whom Mr. Trump has deemed insufficiently loyal to his administration, upending the traditional independence of the internal watchdog agencies whose missions are to conduct oversight of the nation's sprawling bureaucracy.... The removals of the inspectors general -- and their replacements by allies of the president's -- are part of an aggressive move by Mr. Trump and his top aides against who he considers to be 'deep state' officials in many key agencies and who he believes are opposed to his agenda.... 'The late-night, weekend firing of State Department IG Steve Linick is an acceleration of the President's dangerous pattern of retaliation against the patriotic public servants charged with conducting oversight on behalf of the American people,' [Speaker Nancy Pelosi] said in a statement on Twitter.... In his statement, [Rep. Eliot] Engel [(D-Mass.), chair of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs,] said that he had learned that Mr. Linick's office had opened an investigation into [Secretary of State Mike] Pompeo. Mr. Engel said that 'Mr. Linick's firing amid such a probe strongly suggests that this is an unlawful act of retaliation.'"
Evan Perez & David Shortell of CNN: "Before the Justice Department moved last week to drop the charges against Michael Flynn..., department officials and the FBI were in sharp disagreement over whether prosecutors and agents had improperly withheld documents relevant to the case. Behind the scenes, a set of documents produced late last month in a review of the case ordered by Attorney General William Barr, including notes handwritten by a senior FBI official and emails between investigators, divided the officials who handled them and argued over their importance, multiple US officials briefed on the matter said.... When the motion to dismiss was filed last week, the signatures of career prosecutors who had handled the case for months were conspicuously absent, and one prosecutor had withdrawn from the case entirely. Justice Department officials say the career prosecutors didn't support the legal theory ultimately cited to toss the case.... Now, some of the lawyers involved in the matter believe the department has left open the prospect that prosecutors and agents who oversaw the Flynn case could face disciplinary action."
Burr's Revenge. Ken Dilanian of NBC News: "In a final act before stepping down as chairman, Sen. Richard Burr R-N.C., has asked the Trump administration to quickly declassify the last portion of the Senate Intelligence Committee's bipartisan report on Russian election interference, a 1,000-page volume on the committee's 'counterintelligence findings.'... The executive branch gets to decide what is and isn't classified, and some Democrats immediately expressed skepticism that the Senate volume report would be made public before November.... A joint announcement with ranking Democrat Mark Warner of Virginia ... said [the committee had] prepared what they have deemed to be an unclassified version of the report, which, in theory, they could release on the Senate floor whether or not the DNI [Trump lackey Richard Grenell] agrees. Under the Constitution's Speech and Debate Clause, lawmakers may not be prosecuted for things they say as part of the legislative process. In 1971, an Alaska senator entered 4,000 pages of the classified Pentagon Papers into the Congressional record."
Presidential Race
Mike Memoli of NBC News: "... Joe Biden said Thursday that he would not pardon ... Donald Trump if elected and insisted any prosecutorial decisions would be left to a more independent Justice Department. Answering questions in a virtual town hall-style event on MSNBC Thursday..., Biden, while not speaking to any specific potential charge, committed to ensuring that any prosecutorial decisions would be dictated by the law, in contrast to what he called the 'dereliction of duty' by Trump and his attorney general, William Barr. 'It's hands off completely. The attorney general is not the president's lawyer. It's the people's lawyer,' Biden said. 'We never saw anything like the prostitution of that office like we see it today.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Natasha Korecki of Politico: "Over the past decade, [Tara] Reade[, who has accused Joe Biden of sexually abusing her,] has left a trail of aggrieved acquaintances in California's Central Coast region who say they remember two things about her -- she spoke favorably about her time working for Biden, and she left them feeling duped. As part of an investigation into Reade's allegations against Biden -- charges that are already shaping the contours of his campaign against a president who has been accused of sexual assault and misconduct by multiple women -- Politico interviewed more than a dozen people, many of whom interacted with Reade through her involvement in the animal-rescue community.... A number of those in close contact with Reade over the past 12 years ... laid out a familiar pattern: Reade ingratiated herself, explained she was down on her luck and needed help, and eventually took advantage of their goodwill to extract money, skip rent payments or walk out on other bills. The people quoted in this article provided ... [documentation]. Politico also reviewed dozens of public records.... Many of those who knew her well in recent years said she frequently lied or sought to manipulate them...." ~~~
~~~ Daniel Bush & Lisa Desjardins of PBS NewsHour: "The PBS NewsHour spoke with 74 former Biden staffers, of whom 62 were women, in order to get a broader picture of his behavior toward women over the course of his career, how they see the new allegation, and whether there was evidence of a larger pattern. None of the people interviewed said that they had experienced sexual harassment, assault or misconduct by Biden. All said they never heard any rumors or allegations of Biden engaging in sexual misconduct, until the recent assault allegation made by Tara Reade.... Many said that her sexual assault allegation was at odds with their knowledge of Biden's behavior toward women. The interviews revealed previously unreported details about the Biden office when Reade worked there, such as an account that she lost her job because of her poor performance, not as retaliation for lodging complaints about sexual harassment, as Reade has said.... Overall, the people who spoke to the NewsHour described largely positive and gratifying experiences working for Biden, painting a portrait of someone who was ahead of his time in empowering women in the workplace.... Ben Savage, who said his desk was next to Reade's in the Biden mailroom, disputed her charge that she was forced out of her job in retaliation for a sexual harassment complaint she claims to have filed.... 'Of all the people who held that position, she's the only one during my time there who couldn't necessarily keep up or who found it frustrating,' said Savage, who worked in the office for three years, from 1993 to 1996."
Now, here's an effective & honest way to report out Trump's fake Obamagate conspiracy theory:~~~
~~~ Josh Feldman of Mediaite: "Mediaite founder and ABC News chief legal analyst Dan Abrams went on a tear during his SiriusXM show Friday calling the idea of the 'Obamagate' scandal '100 percent bullshit.' 'Fox News and conservative media have been talking about it incessantly, and yet then you get the left media or the middle media sort of ignoring it because they don't think it's worthy of addressing...,' Abrams said. 'There's some coverage of it, but it doesn't allow you to really dig in and understand what's going on.... This is a really important thing to focus on because it now appears it's going to be a central part of President Trump's arguments going forward.'"
Alexander Burns, et al., of the New York Times: "Even by President Trump's standards, it was a rampage: He attacked a government whistle-blower who was telling Congress that the coronavirus pandemic had been mismanaged. He criticized the governor of Pennsylvania, who has resisted reopening businesses. He railed against former President Barack Obama, linking him to a conspiracy theory and demanding he answer questions before the Senate about the federal investigation of Michael T. Flynn. And Mr. Trump lashed out at Joseph R. Biden Jr., his Democratic challenger. In an interview with a supportive columnist, Mr. Trump smeared him as a doddering candidate who 'doesn't know he's alive.'... That was all on Thursday. Far from a one-day onslaught, it was a climactic moment in a weeklong lurch by Mr. Trump back to the darkest tactics that defined his rise to political power. Even those who have grown used to Mr. Trump's conduct in office may have found themselves newly alarmed by the grim spectacle of a sitting president deliberately stoking the country's divisions and pursuing personal vendettas in the midst of a crisis that has Americans fearing for their lives and livelihoods." The reporters go on to describe Trump's re-election "strategy," one he often steps on with his weird outbursts & off-message remarks.
Stephen Colbert interviews John Lithgow about his upcoming illustrated book of poems, Humpty Dumpty Wanted a Crown. Thanks to P.D. Pepe for the link:
Tom Sykes of the Daily Beast: "Hackers who broke into the networks of a celebrity law firm have doubled their ransom demand to $42 million and threatened to reveal 'dirty laundry' on Donald Trump in a week if they are not paid in full. On Thursday, the hackers of Grubman, Shire, Meiselas & Sacks posted a new message, saying 'The ransom is now $42,000,000.... The next person we'll be publishing is Donald Trump. There's an election going on, and we found a ton of dirty laundry.' They added, 'Mr. Trump, if you want to stay president, poke a sharp stick at the guys, otherwise you may forget this ambition forever.... Grubman, we will destroy your company down to the ground if we don't see the money.' It is not clear why the hackers connected Trump to the firm as he has never been a client, [the New York Post's] Page Six says."
News Lede
Hollywood Reporter: "Fred Willard, the clever comic actor who played clueless characters to perfection on Fernwood 2 Night, Everybody Loves Raymondand as a member of a great ensemble in several Christopher Guest mockumentaries, has died. He was 86. Willard died Friday night in Los Angeles of natural causes, his agent Michael Eisenstadt told The Hollywood Reporter." Willard's New York Times obituary is here.
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Reader Comments (14)
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/last-act-chair-burr-asks-final-volume-senate-intel-report-n1208061
Declassify--or else!
Take that, sucker.
Probably only my fantasy, but kinda like Burr's negotiation style.
@Ken Winkes: Thanks. I saw the headline last night on the NBC site & elsewhere, but I didn't see the "or else." And no wonder; in the NBC News story, it's buried (first typed "burried") in the 9th graf. But it's a winner.
AND the privilege is one Democratic MOCs should have been using to their advantage ever since Trump first claimed "Obama crossed my wires." If Biden names a sitting senator as his running mate, she should make wild accusations against Trump every day the Senate is in session. It should be a feature of the campaign, something that captivates the media: "What will Kamala say today?"
First time I ever wished I were a senator. I would love it every time Trump flew into a Twittertantrum (first typed "Twittertantrump"; I think "tantrump" should be a word) & urged IN ALL CAPS that I be thrown in jail & he'd swallow the key.
For your Saturday Pleasure:
John Lithgow, the brilliant actor, artist and poet has a new book that will come out on October called "Trumpty Dumpty Wanted a Crown." Here he is at home talking to Stephen Colbert.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/john-lithgow-donald-trump-rudy-giuliani-poems_n_5ebe731dc5b6947fa4cfca4a
Today being Armed Forces Day, I'm waiting breathlessly by the
phone for that call from the bestest and brightest (as he claims to be)
thanking me for my service but he must be busy thanking millions
of us former servicemen and women, being the compassionate soul
that he is, with his bone spurs and all.
If Wishes were Honkers...
Oh, please, fingers crossed, that some brave reporter will ask Fatty why he told us those honking horns from the truckers during the press briefing were the sounds of a pro-Trump protest and then quote him:
"And you hear that outside, that beautiful sound -- those are truckers that are with us all the way. They are protesting in favor of President Trump, [have always found it interesting that he refers to himself in the third person] as opposed to against. There's hundreds of trucks out there, and that's the sign of love. Not the sign of your typical protest. So I want to thank our great truckers. They like me and I like them."
It won't happen, of course, any reporter even suggesting the fabrication (LIE) wouldn't be able to get their first five words out before Fatty waves away any suggestion of "untruthiness."
Finally we uncover another scam artist–-Tara Reade–-I would have thought that first story posted here weeks ago would have sealed her fate, but no, more information was needed evidently. I wouldn't put it past someone in this administration to dig around and find just the little lady who could cry foul––maybe even pay her. Someone like Karl Rove who has just, as I mentioned yesterday, joined the rest of the "let's see how down and dirty we can get" group. Rove sowed his oats back in Texas slinging mud at John Hightower and Ann Richards in order to put his best of Bushes in the high seat of governor. We Democrats had better come up with some dynamite messaging that will denounce Trump but also include the Republican Party––the old GOP, stands for Godawful Operation Palavers––Always ready to serve and screw with a smile.
Let's hear a honk for that!
More oil from the snake...
Step right up folks, that’s it, plenty-a room fer everyone. Except that broad from CNN... go ‘way, lady, ya bother me. Now right here is what you call Dr. Trumpy’s cure-all. That’s right. Cures everything from ‘somnia to the clap. And when I say clap, hoo-wee, do I know what um talkin’ about.
So there’s this thing goin’ round, spread by the Chinee and a dark skinned fella with a funny name. None of this is my fault, understand. I’m here to fix everything. Dr. Trumpy’s cure-all. It’ll be ready in no time at all. And um gettin’ the army to deliver it straight to your front door. You red state voters’ll get it first, of course.
Yeah.
So, he has nothing to say, hasn’t done a thing to halt the spread of a deadly disease. In fact, his official policy is to see that it kills more people. But he desperately needs to look leaderly, or at least not loserly, his standard look. So what to do? Why, sell some more snake oil. Make a big announcement that any day now, HIS generals and HIS army will deliver Dr. Trumpy’s cure-all.
Sure. Then next week you can bring the kiddies by the White House for unicorn rides on the south lawn.
Back in the day, snake oil salesmen sold their bullshit from the back of a wagon. It might have been castor oil or some other inert, slimy stuff, but at least they had an actual bottle of something. Trump is standing on the back of his wagon holding up...nothing. But assuring everyone that it’ll be great when it gets here.
Even his snake oil is fake. Now that’s something.
But hey, those unicorns’ll be a blast to ride.
@Akhilleus: Yeah, I've been thinking that since the Electoral College doesn't work -- electors are dubbed "faithless" if they vote for someone other than the idiot the people voted for -- we need some other guarantee against unqualified crooks taking over the presidency & killing off large swaths of the population. Like maybe if the Senate & the House both refused to certify an elected person, the electors would have to go back & pick someone else.
Or presidents & veeps, like doctors, lawyers & plumbers, would have to be licensed (and not self-licensed like Li'l Randy). They would have to meet some minimal standard of qualification above & beyond age & citizenship.
Say like previous service in government (Trump: nope, unless bribing local officials counts) or the military (fake bone spurs). Reading at an 8th-grade level (Trump: nope.) Satisfactory history of paying federal, state & local taxes (Trump: nope). Clean financial record (Trump: nope.) Willingness to put their financial interests in a blind trust (Trump: nope). No demonstrable history of dishonesty (Trump: hahaha). And so forth.
I'm not serious, of course. But a large minority of American voters chose Trump when it was clear it could not pass the minimal requirements to fill the job. There must be another way. Representative democracy is not working out.
Ah, Bea, but there's that Freeedumb thing..one of the country's founding principles. Kinda gets in the way.
I think it was an essay prompt in one of my high school textbooks (Warriner's composition?) that suggested that since we license drivers maybe we out to license parents, too,
Don't remember how I responded--would guess I landed on the radical side--but the question has always stuck in my frequently leaky mind, likely because of the years I spent with children of parents who should have licensed but weren't.
Forrest Morris -
This disembodied “voice” is thanking you for your service.
Hat
From the AP article above:
"... almost two-thirds of American believers of all faiths ... feel that God is telling humanity to change how it lives ..." (and is using the pandemic to tell them).
OK, that's a lot. And when she talks, they should listen.
For quite a while, increases in the frequency, severity and spread of pandemics has been forecast as one of the products of climate change.
Will those who believe she is telling them to change, change their belief in climate change and take steps?
News at 11.
(Spoiler: no)
I found this account of Birx's tensions with the CDC very confusing.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/16/politics/white-house-cdc-tension-birx-coronavirus-tracking/index.html
Whose side is she on? The Pretender's, who want to minimize reports of covid cases? The CDC's?
Does she want good data or not?
Of is the side she's chosen, hers?
“We were developing a vaccine on January 11th and we didn’t even know what we were up against!” Fatty McFuckface
Few 10 year olds with no more than a glancing acquaintance with science would say something this stupid. It’s like saying we sent a manned rocket ship into space but we had no idea where they were going or how they’d get home. Houston, we have a problem!
No shit.
This isn’t how medical research, never mind general science, works. In order to develop a vaccine for something (or a solution for any problem), you have to have a very good idea—an excellent idea—of what you’re up against. Otherwise it’s an enormous waste of effort and money (another description of the Trump administration*, minus the effort, of course). Such a “plan”, if you wanna call it that, means we’re in ancient times, reading tea leaves and trying to interpret animal entrails, putting leeches on your ass and bleeding people to release the evil humours.
But this is Trump demonstrating his stable genius.
“We’re working on a solution, but we don’t know what for.”
Fucking hell.
And here’s the other, even more stunning thing. He says this shit in public. As if people will think it’s a good thing.
Tara Reade: girl trumpie, admirer of Putin, desirer of attention-- she sounds like a nutcase. I wonder if she also has dreams of having slept with the devil...
There is so much disconcerting crap happening 24/7 I sorta forgot about her this week-- good thing there ARE people pursuing these sorts of flags.
Also, I am confused as to what Richard Burr has done, with having something published or not-- isn't he on the hot seat because of that report that came out (uh yeah, Russia DID interfere with the 2016 election--and why was this coming out NOW instead of months ago??) and was hardly mentioned a couple of weeks ago? I think it must be revenge for that report-- otherwise, why does anyone connected to this administration care whether he committed inside trading or not? As sleazy as it sounds, he seems to be low-hanging fruit-- Maybe one of you can clear it up for me...?
I think the "smaller" things are much more troubling: Cheeto getting rid of yet another inspector/whistleblower, PompousAss doing as much international damage as possible, and Betsy DeWorst using trumpvirus money from you and me to give to private and religious schools...
God-- it NEVER NEVER ends... His administration would have to rise 30,000 feet to hit bottom...
If this administration had been running NASA in 1970, Apollo 13 would have been a very short movie. “We tried, but it was hard. Oh well.”