;)
The Commentariat -- October 4, 2020
Afternoon Update:
Brett Samuels of the Hill: "President Trump on Sunday greeted supporters outside Walter Reed& Medical Center from his motorcade, leaving his hospital suite for a 'surprise' visit as he undergoes treatment for COVID-19. The president tweeted a video in which he said he planned to go say hello to the dozens of supporters who had gathered across the street, waving Trump flags as the president was hospitalized. Moments later, video emerged of the president's motorcade passing by, with a masked Trump visible waving in the backseat. The decision raised immediate safety concerns, as the president is infected with a highly contagious virus...." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Of course Trump got up out of his sickbed, risking his own health as well as the health of a couple of Secret Service agents & the driver. According to reporters, some of the well-wishers were chanting QAnon conspiracy memes & holding QAnon signs. (Guardian @ 16:44 Sunday) ~~~
~~~ Update. A doctor who is an expert on the matter has harsher words for Trump than I ~~~
~~~ Brooke Seipel of the Hill: "An attending physician at Walter Reed Medical Center swiped at President Trump for leaving his hospital room and waving to supporters gathered outside from his motorcade, saying it puts those in the vehicle at risk. 'That Presidential SUV is not only bulletproof, but hermetically sealed against chemical attack. The risk of COVID19 transmission inside is as high as it gets outside of medical procedures. The irresponsibility is astounding. My thoughts are with the Secret Service forced to play,' Dr. James P. Phillips, who is also the Chief of Disaster Medicine at George Washington University Emergency Medicine. 'Every single person in the vehicle during that completely unnecessary Presidential "drive-by" just now has to be quarantined for 14 days. They might get sick. They may die. For political theater. Commanded by Trump to put their lives at risk for theater. This is insanity,' he continued."
From a Guardian elections liveblog Sunday: @17:24: “The White House did not disclose that Donald Trump received a positive test result from a Covid-19 rapid test on Thursday, opting to carry on business-as-usual until the more thorough Covid-19 screening confirmed the president has Covid-19. The Wall Street Journal is reporting this afternoon from anonymous sources familiar with the matter that the president attempted to keep the positive test result from the rapid test mum, saying on Fox News Thursday night that he was awaiting test results when the president already knew about his positive rapid test result. Trump tweeted at 1 am that morning that he tested positive for Covid-19." Also, according to Political Wire, The WSJ reported that "As the virus spread among the people closest to him, Mr. Trump also asked one adviser not to disclose results of their own positive test:'Don't tell anyone.'" ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: It appears, according to the WSJ report, that Trump was trying to keep his own positive results secret until (a) he was feeling too sick to fake it, or (b) he wasn't feeling too bad & thought he could show how strong he was by easily beating the virus. That is, Trump would either hide his illness, thus infecting more people, or -- if that failed -- follow a "Cat on the Roof" strategy.
Mark Murray of NBC News: "Joe Biden's national lead over ... Donald Trump nearly doubled after Tuesday's presidential debate, with voters saying by a 2-to-1 margin that Biden has the better temperament to be president, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. The poll was conducted in the two days after the unruly and insult-filled Sept. 29 debate, but before Trump tested positive for Covid-19 and was hospitalized Friday at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. The Democratic nominee is now ahead of Trump by 14 points among registered voters, 53 percent to 39 percent -- up from his 8-point lead in the previous poll before the debate." Mrs. McC: Other polls have Biden up, but not by as much as 14 points.
The New York Times' live Covid-19 updates Sunday are here: "President Trump's medical team acknowledged delivering an overly rosy description of the president's illness on Saturday. 'I didn't want to give any information that might steer the course of illness in another direction, and in doing so, you know, it came off that we were trying to hide something, which wasn't necessarily true, Dr. Sean P. Conley, the White House physician, said in a briefing with reporters Sunday. The doctors said [Mrs. McC: admitted] that Mr. Trump had a 'high fever' on Friday, and that there had been two incidents when his oxygen levels dropped -- one on Friday and one on Saturday. They said Mr. Trump received oxygen at the White House on Friday; they were not clear about whether it was administered again on Saturday.... Dr. Conley said that the president had been given the steroid dexamethasone on Saturday. The drug has been shown to help patients who are severely ill with Covid-19, but it is typically not used in mild or moderate cases of the disease, and in fact could be harmful early in the course of the illness...." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Conley's excuse for dissembling is a wonder to behold: "I admit I lied & covered up the truth about the status of Patient No. 1's health, but if I had not lied & covered up, the patient might have turned purple with rage & died because he can't handle the truth & he sure as hell doesn't want voters to know it." ~~~
~~~ Also from the Times Covid-19 updates: "Two members of the White House residence staff tested positive for the coronavirus roughly three weeks ago, according to two people familiar with the diagnoses. The people who tested positive were not employees who come in direct contact with the president and the first lady, one of the people familiar with the diagnoses said. But the positive results again raise questions about how and when President Trump may have been exposed to the virus."
None of Your Beeswax, Nosy Nancy. Axios: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said on Sunday she is receiving health updates on President Trump, who is in the hospital with the coronavirus, through the media and not through official briefings or contact with the White House.... Pelosi is second in the line of succession behind Vice President Mike Pence."
Philip Bump of the Washington Post shows how the Trump campaign faked some video footage of Trump which they falsely claimed was "all one take" & staged some photos of Trump, a Sharpie & some papers a few minutes apart to give the impression Trump was working all day Saturday. (Mrs. McC: Looks like the same set of folders & binder in both photos.)
South Carolina Senate Race. Sarah Rumpf of Mediaite: "Jaime Harrison, the former South Carolina Democratic Party Chairman who is challenging incumbent Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), brought his own plexiglass barrier to Saturday's debate to separate him from his Republican opponent.... 'We shouldn't blame the president for the inception of this disease. We shouldn't blame anybody for the inception of this disease, but where blame should come is how we handle this disease, whether or not we take it seriously.... You know, tonight, I am taking it seriously.... That's why I put this plexiglass up.'... Polls have shown the race to be a virtual tie for several months...." Mrs. McC: When Lindsey gets sick next week from palling around with Covid carriers, Harrison will be doubly thankful for that plexiglass.
~~~~~~~~~~
The Trumpidemic, Ctd.
SN.AFU. Peter Baker & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "The White House offered a barrage of conflicting messages and contradictory accounts about President Trump's health on Saturday as he remained hospitalized with the coronavirus for a second night and the outbreak spread to a wider swath of his aides and allies. Just minutes after the president's doctors painted a rosy picture of his condition on television, Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, gave reporters outside Walter Reed National Military Medical Center a far more sober assessment off camera, calling Mr. Trump's vital signs worrisome and warning that the next two days would be pivotal to the outcome of the illness.... The comments infuriated the president, according to people close to the situation, and he intervened directly to counter the perception that he was sicker than the White House had admitted. Within hours, he posted a message on Twitter saying, 'I am feeling well!' and called his friend and personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani to have him convey a message to the outside world. 'I'm going to beat this,' Mr. Trump told him. By evening, the president released a four-minute video meant to reassure the nation, showing him sitting at a conference table at the hospital and wearing a suit jacket but no tie. He looked wan and sounded less energetic than usual in a rambling message that included campaign talk and boasts about his record.... At one point, he offered a muddled explanation for his behavior.... Mr. Meadows later tried to walk back his earlier comments.... The inconsistencies and confusion may presage an unsettling period for the president and the country. As the doctors indicated, it may be a week to 10 days before the course of Mr. Trump's illness becomes clear, leaving America, as well as its allies and adversaries, guessing about the [country's] leadership..."
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Baker & Haberman explain how Meadows came to be named in news reports after he asked to be cited on background. Of course it was a typical Trump White House screw-up. ~~~
~~~ Sarah Ellison of the Washington Post has a full report on Meadows' "background" mess. And Jon Karl of ABC News has had enough:
It was maddening to see the White House doctor come out and refuse to answer basic questions and be clearly spinning. And then to see the background quote come out that effectively was diametrically opposed to what the doctor had just said on camera -- this is the frustration of covering this White House. You can really take almost nothing that is on the record at face value.... [Karl's New Rule:] If someone lies to you off the record, it is no longer off the record. -- Jonathan Karl of ABC News, Saturday
~~~ From Saturday's New York Times live coronavirus updates: "President Trump's vital signs were concerning over the last day and he was not out of danger, a person close to the situation said on Saturday, even as doctors mounted an aggressive effort to treat him and the coronavirus infected an ever widening swath of the president's aides and allies. While doctors maintained during a televised briefing that Mr. Trump was 'doing very well' after a night at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, they refused to provide critical details and left open the impression that the president was actually known to be sick a day earlier than previously reported.... Shortly after the upbeat briefing by the doctors, a person familiar with the president's health gave a far more sober assessment to reporters at Walter Reed on the condition of anonymity. 'The president's vitals over the last 24 hours were very concerning and the next 48 hours will be critical in terms of his care,' this person said. 'We're still not on a clear path to a full recovery.' Two people close to the White House said in separate interviews with The New York Times that the president had trouble breathing on Friday and that his oxygen level dropped, prompting his doctors to give him supplemental oxygen while at the White House.... During his televised briefing, Dr. Sean P. Conley, the White House physician, told reporters outside Walter Reed that the president was not currently on supplemental oxygen ... but repeatedly declined to say definitively whether he had ever been on oxygen." Read on. Somebody is lying here, Dr. Conley. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Update: The "person close to the situation" turns out to be Mark Meadows. Jonathan Lemire, et al., of the AP: "... Donald Trump went through a 'very concerning' period Friday and the next 48 hours 'will be critical' in his care as he battles the coronavirus at a hospital, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said Saturday. Meadows' comments contradicted the rosy assessment of Trump's condition offered by his staff and doctors, who took pains not to reveal the president had received supplemental oxygen at the White House before his hospital admission. 'We're still not on a clear path yet to a full recovery,' said a weary Meadows.... [Dr. Sean] Conley ... revealed that Trump began exhibiting 'clinical indications' of COVID-19 on Thursday afternoon, earlier than previously known." (Also linked yesterday.)
~~~ Maeve Reston of CNN: "An attempt by ... Donald Trump's doctor to reassure the public about Trump's condition following his infection with Covid-19 only created widespread confusion and concerns about transparency on Saturday, as a source familiar with the President's health told reporters that the next 48 hours will be critical in determining how he fares.... Moments earlier on Saturday morning, the President's physician, Navy Cmdr. Dr. Sean Conley, had offered an upbeat assessment of the President's condition stating that he was feeling well, that he had been 'fever-free' for 24 hours and that his symptoms -- which included an 'extremely mild cough,' nasal congestion and fatigue -- 'are resolving and improving.'... Conley offered scant and insufficient details about the President's vital signs. He acknowledged that the President had a fever at one point, but refused to say what it was.... Conley ... declined to say when Trump had his last negative Covid-19 test...." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ The Lyin' King May Go Down Fighting -- the Truth. Annie Karni of the New York Times: "When Dr. Sean P. Conley stepped in front of the cameras at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Saturday, he delivered a briefing that seemed intended less to inform the American public than to satisfy the public relations demands of a famous and famously demanding patient -- President Trump.... But moments later, the president's chief of staff, Mark Meadows, speaking off camera and on the assumption he would not be identified, offered a contradictory assessment.... The discordant statements were a revealing insight into the dynamics behind the Trump White House's frequent release of misleading information, particularly about the president's health. Dr. Conley is a Navy doctor and Mr. Trump is not only his patient but his commander in chief."
Two Unbelievable "Corrections." Lawrence Gostin of the Daily Beast: “At the press conference Saturday, the president's doctors implied Mr. Trump has been symptomatic for 72 hours -- or at least diagnosed that long ago.... That would have been on Wednesday, well before the public was notified early Friday morning.... [Dr. Sean Conley] has since sought to correct [his original statement] to indicate he simply meant this is the third day of the president facing a COVID-19 case.... Dr. Conley did also say there was 'repeated testing' on Thursday afternoon due to exposure to a close contact.... Dr. Brian Garabaldi, another Trump physician, suggested the president received [an antibody cocktail REGN-COV2] 48 hours ago -- that is Thursday morning, a day before the White House informed the public that he had been given REGN-COV2. That timeline, too, was subsequently walked-back -- though not by Garabaldi himself -- in an attempt to suggest what was meant was in fact that this is the second day since the president received the treatment." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: So far, no one has been willing to tell us the last time Trump received a negative test result. Since he went galavanting around the country to campaign events Wednesday & Thursday, we know for certain he traveled when he was contagious. The question is, did he know he know he had the virus? I would guess yes. If Conley's walkback is not believable, the walkback of Garabaldi's timeline is even less credible. No one would say, "He had a shot 48 hours ago" when he meant, "He had a shot yesterday."
White House Conducts No Contact Tracing. Josh Dawsey, et al., of the Washington Post: "Hours before President Trump tested positive for the novel coronavirus and just one day before he was admitted to the hospital, he mingled with more than 200 people at his New Jersey golf club for a campaign fundraiser. Less than a week before that, he welcomed 150 political allies and religious leaders -- including several who are now infected -- to the White House to meet the jurist he has nominated to the Supreme Court. In between, the president met with dozens of aides without wearing a mask -- even in close quarters and after top aide Hope Hicks had tested positive. He appeared before thousands at a rally in Minnesota. And he held a nationally televised debate with former vice president Joe Biden after holing up with debate preppers. But there was little evidence on Saturday that the White House or the campaign had reached out to these potentially exposed people, or even circulated guidance to the rattled staffers within the White House complex. It was the latest evidence of the administration's casual and chaotic approach to the viral threat that has already claimed more than 200,000 lives in the United States."
White House Misuses Covid-19 Testing Device. Apoorva Mandavilli of the New York Times: "For months, the White House's strategy for keeping President Trump and his inner circle safe has been to screen all White House visitors with a rapid test. But one product they use, Abbott's ID Now, was never intended for that purpose and is known to deliver incorrect results. In issuing an emergency use authorization, the Food and Drug Administration said the test was only to be used by a health care provider 'within the first seven days of symptoms.' The ID Now has several qualities in its favor: It's portable, doesn't need skilled technicians to operate and delivers results in 15 minutes. Used to evaluate someone with symptoms, the test can quickly and easily diagnose Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. But in people who are infected but not yet showing symptoms, the test is much less accurate, missing as many as one in three cases.... Still, the Trump administration has routinely used the test to screen people without symptoms, allowing anyone who tested negative to go without a mask during meetings and official proceedings." (Also linked yesterday.)
Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: "... in the end, the con man in the Oval Office could not con the virus.... He seemed oddly intent on tempting fate. Certainly, he put a lot of his fans, especially older ones in the most vulnerable demographic (like Herman Cain, who died of Covid after attending a Trump rally in Tulsa, Okla.), at risk with his dismissiveness about the virus, laxity on testing and tracing, and his insistence on continuing rallies.... Democrats tried to be nice. On Friday, the Biden campaign paused their negative ads, and Barack Obama said at a virtual fund-raiser that despite being in a fight 'with issues that have a lot at stake,' we're still Americans and 'we want to make sure everybody is healthy." (At the same moment, the Trump campaign issued an attack on 'lyin' Obama.')" (Also linked yesterday.)
Kevin Bohn of CNN: "One of the White House aides who works closest to ... Donald Trump has tested positive for coronavirus, a White House official confirmed to CNN. Nicholas Luna, an assistant to the President, acts as one of his 'body men,' whose job is to accompany the President throughout the day and night, putting him in close proximity to Trump...."
Chris Christie has tweeted that he has tested positive for Covid-19. Christie was part of the team that prepped Trump for the presidential debate. He has previously said that no one in the small room wore a mask. A CNN story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Emma Newberger of CNBC: "Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has tested positive for the coronavirus and checked into Morristown Medical Center as a precautionary measure on Saturday afternoon."
Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) has tested positive for the coronavirus, becoming the third senator to announce in the past two days that they had contracted the virus. Johnson's office said in a statement on Saturday that he was exposed to an individual on Sept. 29 who has since tested positive for the virus." (Also linked yesterday.)
"Monomaniacal Mitch.” Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: "Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, said on Saturday that the Senate would not meet as planned next week after three senators tested positive for the coronavirus, even as he pledged to press ahead to confirm Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.... A spokesman for the Senate Judiciary Committee said on Saturday that the panel would begin four days of confirmation hearings on Oct. 12 as planned. Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, condemned Mr. McConnell's decision to press ahead with the proceedings, calling the effort 'monomaniacal.... If it's too dangerous to have the Senate in session, it is also too dangerous for committee hearings to continue.'"
Tarpley Hitt of the Daily Beast: "As the president was treated in the hospital, the Trump campaign held indoor events and top officials said they wouldn't quarantine despite their exposure." Hitt runs down many of the events featuring maskless Trumpbots squeezed together in indoor settings & describing officials like Bill Barr & Ron Johnson flouting CDC guidelines.
The Trumpidemic Is Not All About Trump. Jay Cannon of USA Today: "The news of ... Donald Trump and members of his inner circle testing positive for COVID-19 has sent shock waves across the country, but it's not just the White House dealing with an onslaught of cases: Friday's nationwide case count was the highest daily total in nearly two months. There were 54,441 positive cases of the coronavirus reported on Friday, the highest single-day case count since Aug. 14, when the country recorded just over 64,000 cases, per Johns Hopkins University data. The country's daily cases peaked on July 16, when 77,362 positive tests were reported."
Jeanna Smialek, et al., of the New York Times: "The United States economy is facing a tidal wave of long-term unemployment as millions of people who lost jobs early in the pandemic remain out of work six months later and job losses increasingly turn permanent. The Labor Department said on Friday that 2.4 million people had been out of work for 27 weeks or more, the threshold it uses to define long-term joblessness. An even bigger surge is on the way: Nearly five million people are approaching long-term joblessness over the next two months. The same report showed that even as temporary layoffs were on the decline, permanent job losses were rising sharply. Those two problems -- rising long-term unemployment and permanent job losses -- ... could foreshadow a period of prolonged economic damage and financial pain for American families."
Nicole Perlroth of the New York Times: "A Philadelphia company that sells software used in hundreds of clinical trials, including the crash effort to develop tests, treatments and a vaccine for the coronavirus, was hit by a ransomware attack that has slowed some of those trials over the past two weeks. The attack on eResearchTechnology, which has not previously been reported, began two weeks ago when employees discovered that they were locked out of their data by ransomware, an attack that holds victims' data hostage until they pay to unlock it. ERT said clinical trial patients were never at risk, but customers said the attack forced trial researchers to track their patients with pen and paper."
Michigan. Dave Alsup & Susannah Cullinane of CNN: "The Michigan Supreme Court ruled Friday that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer had no authority to issue or renew executive orders relating to Covid-19 beyond April 30. The Democratic governor extended the state's coronavirus emergency declaration by executive order April 30 after the Republican-controlled Legislature advanced a bill that would not have renewed the original declaration.... Whitmer noted that the court's ruling would not take effect for at least 21 days and that her emergency declaration and orders would remain in place until then. She stressed that the coronavirus pandemic remains a clear danger...." (Also linked yesterday.)
Presidential Race, Etc.
Marc Caputo of Politico: "Joe Biden is on the campaign trail. Donald Trump is in the hospital. In a role reversal, the president who mocked his rival for being weak and hiding 'in his basement' is stuck in isolation under doctors' supervision while Biden jets off to states like Michigan on Friday and Florida on Monday, with the battleground map all to himself.... Only a month remains until Election Day, and a record 3.2 million Americans already cast early ballots in 21 states, with Democrats out-voting Republicans so far. 'There is no reason not to show the country that, yes, you can go about your business -- if you do it safely, if you wear masks, if you socially distance,' Biden adviser Anita Dunn told Politico. 'The vice president has talked about this since March.' The Biden campaign, under strict orders from the candidate to not speak ill of Trump personally while he's in the hospital, announced it was pulling its negative ads out of respect to the president, though some still aired on stations that didn't take them down quickly enough."
Nate Cohn of the New York Times: "By overwhelming margins, voters in Pennsylvania and Florida were repelled by President Trump's conduct in the first general election debate, according to New York Times/Siena College surveys, as Joseph R. Biden Jr. maintained a lead in the two largest battleground states. Over all, Mr. Biden led by seven percentage points, 49 percent to 42 percent, among likely voters in Pennsylvania. He led by a similar margin, 47-42, among likely voters in Florida. The surveys began Wednesday, before the early Friday announcement that President Trump had contracted the coronavirus. There was modest evidence of a shift in favor of Mr. Biden in interviews on Friday...."
Missed this earlier this week: Cristina Marcos of the Hill (Sept. 29): "The House adopted a resolution on Tuesday to affirm the chamber's support for a peaceful transfer of power after President Trump last week declined to commit to it if he loses reelection. Lawmakers adopted the measure in a bipartisan 397-5 vote.... The five Republicans who voted against the resolution were Reps. Matt Gaetz (Fla.), Louie Gohmert (Texas), Clay Higgins (La.), Steve King (Iowa) and Thomas Massie (Ky.).... Tuesday's vote followed one last week on a virtually identical measure in the Senate, which lawmakers in that chamber passed unanimously." (Also linked yesterday.)
North Carolina Senate Race. Yes But No Dick Pix! Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: "Late Friday night, Cal Cunningham, the former Democratic state senator and Iraq war veteran who has been leading in his bid to oust Senator Thom Tillis, one of the Republican Party's most vulnerable incumbents, admitted to exchanging flirtatious texts with a woman who is not his wife. That news came nearly three hours after Mr. Tillis announced that he had tested positive for the coronavirus and would close his campaign headquarters, in a devastating blow to his already lagging re-election campaign.... Taken together, Mr. Cunningham's scandal and Mr. Tillis's diagnosis have upended the critical race just a month before Election Day, laying waste to both candidates' core messages just as they were preparing to make their final appeals to voters. For Mr. Cunningham, a married father of two, news of his romantic texts with a strategist based in California, reported earlier by The Raleigh News and Observer, was a blow to a carefully cultivated personal image that has been a centerpiece of his campaign."
Annals of "Journalism" to Make You Sick. Erik Wemple of the Washington Post has a report on the disgusting sexual harassment & abuse that still goes on at Fox "News" subsequent to the Roger Ailes scandal of 2016. Wemple's report centers on Kimberly Guilfoyle: what she did & what she did to cover it up. Mrs. McC: This stuff fits in with Fox's essential goal: to return to the good ole days when certain privileged white men ruled & everyone else was at their mercy.
Beyond the Beltway
Texas. Bob Brigham of the Raw Story: "The Attorney General of Texas should be investigated by federal law enforcement for political corruption in office, according to his own aides. 'Top aides of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton [R] have asked federal law enforcement authorities to investigate allegations of improper influence, abuse of office, bribery and other potential crimes against the state's top lawyer,' the Austin American-Statesman reported on Saturday." ~~~
~~~ Tony Plohetski of KVUE News (Austin): "The letter -- signed by executives who include Paxton's first assistant and deputies overseeing divisions such as criminal investigations and litigation -- does not provide details of the conduct they allege Paxton committed. Paxton's first assistant, Jeff Mateer, resigned last week.... Paxton, a Republican, is already facing criminal charges alleging securities fraud in Collin County."
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Reader Comments (18)
If, over the next 10 days or so, the Orange Menace shuffles off his immoral coil, here’s what we’ll get:
Mark Meadows: the president was feeling much better last I spoke with him, and no, I have no further information.
Kellyanne Conway: Motherfucker gave this shit to me! I’m glad he’s dead...Aide: Kellyanne! Jesus, that mic is hot.
Kellyanne Conway: Um, yes, well, I meant President Trump gave me...a wonderful opportunity to work next to the greatest president in history and we all wish him a speedy recovery.
McAninny: President Trump is in good spirits and is working very hard today, as always.
mike pence: Mommaaaaa!!
A lot has been said about Drumpf being, at his core, a complete and total coward. He puts on his fake tan persona to mask his deep inner insecurities. I wonder to what extent this could cause deep self harm during his Covid Days? Knowing deep down that he's an old, unhealthy, obese man that puts him right in the middle of the worst percentile of getting through the disease, his weak mental state could further compound the deterioration of his physical state. Hopefully Ivanka remembered to pack his prosperity bible.
Safari,
I agree 100% that Fatty is a coward. But his psychology is so warped, so dysfunctional, I’m not sure how much he truly views himself as a sad, terrifically out of shape, fat man, one quick heart attack from an outrageously undeserved state funeral.
The same mechanism that allows him to claim that he heard no protesters when hundreds of people were shouting at him, the sort of busted up works that permit him to absolve himself of a single bloody drop of responsibility for the sickening of millions of Americans and demand acknowledgement for his miraculous efforts in staving off millions of deaths instead of a measly 200,000, help him avoid acceptance of any real world facts that threaten his image of himself as a stable genius superman.
He’s one fucked up asshole.
And he fucks up everyone around him, the entire country included. When I heard a report that fat fuck was making a lightning recovery and was “hard at work” (a sure fire knee slapper no matter how often that hoary fairy tale is dragged out), I knew someone, correction, a lot of someones were lying.
But as is often the case with little fat king liar and his court, they can never keep their lies straight, ergo sad sack douchebag Mark Meadows, the current inadvertent bean spiller.
If they weren’t so dangerous they’d just be sad clowns.
I thought the reason Trump didn't get the covfefe was that his genes were so good. Does this mean his genes aren't so good?
I think what we have here is that old case of "loyalty"–-perhaps the lowest of virtues–-something that is dear to our "dear Leader"–– honor among thieves, the operating code of every mafia. Cohen became a "rat" after he spilled the beans and recanted his testimony of devotion. Hundreds have been fired for not honoring that code.The many that work in this administration, the Republicans in congress, and even Billy Barr, are held by this code of loyalty. Early on Comey was asked for it–-he declined and was fired. Now we see the disconnect between health officials and Meadows giving us mixed messages––something we have learned is the status quo.
But–––there is a twist. Loyalty is supposed to go both ways. For Trump, it's a one way street: as many of his enablers have discovered. This, of course, creates unpredictability which in turn creates chaos which for Fatty means control. But now a virus has invaded this body and it is immune to any quid pro quo. Will this change Trump in any significant way if he beats this? And will those enablers perhaps decide that loyalty to him is a fool's errand and become Rats of the first order!
Bea,
Not only does the Pretender have good--the best--genes, but let us not forget, he is also the very stable genius who has met the challenges of the cornona virus exactly the way we would expect a very stable Republican genius with good genes would have:
By denying and ignoring and sometimes exacerbating them, just the way he has dealt with environmental concerns and the racial and economic divides that sunder the nation.
Republican genius summarized: Let's pretend.
Even NPR is disgusted with the chaos exhibited around the Prez Puffhead's illness and the reportage of same. So disgusting that he probably infected, along with his staff, hundreds of people this week and they are in full CYA mode. Do I hope he is done, yes. One way or another and it won't matter to me how DONE he is. He keeps on fulfilling any promises made-- he IS and will always be the absolute-est worst person in the world
BTW,
Have been concerned for years about the arrival on the syntactical scene of "concerning" to mean "worrisome," and because there is so much concerning going on about conditions in the Whitey House, I was prompted to consult the experts on the matter.
I was disappointed to learn that the use of "concerning" as an adjective has been just fine for years, and for a while there didn't know how to react to the news.
Now I think I have it. I'll just don the Republican mantle on this one, small item.
I'll happily ignore the experts.
Experts aside, none of this "concerning" crap. It will remain "worrisome" for me.
So just to be clear, for those donors who forked over up to $250,000 to meet with the Oval Office Occupier in New Jersey, he had probably already taken the anti-viral shot and certainly knew he had been exposed to the virus. He was doing things to protect himself and fill his pockets, but he doesn’t give a rat’s ass whether you live or die, now that he has your money.
SNL does the debate.
Anyone here think that Trump or Meadows or Hicks or anyone in the Fatty Blight House ever read Edgar Allan Poe’s “Masque of the Red Death”? Big party for the well to do in a walled mansion. Populace outside being ravaged by a plague. Partygoers have a grand old time until an unexpected guest shows up: death, who kills them all.
@unwashed: I could only watch half of the SNL cold open. Carrey's carryacture of Biden was amplifying R talking points.
See my note on my earlier thoughts about the Pretender's illness didn't make it though yesterday's intermittently open RC windows yesterday.
No loss, but had another thought beyond yesgerday's hope that he survives long enough to spend the rest of his sorry life in jail.
But now that he's joined those who believe herd immunity is the country's the country's most intelligent course to follow, I'm wondering if Dr. Atlas' position in the administration has been elevated even further--or if second thoughts (assuming the Pretender ever had first) will have the good doctor sent back to the bowels of the Hoover Institution where he really belongs.
One more thing:
I like recent poll numbers better even than a Sunday Sermon.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/04/2020-election-news-biden-leads-trump-in-nbc-wsj-poll.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/10/04/remember-trumps-taxes-they-are-still-scandal/. It's a wonder how Orangey got sick when a story to sink him just comes out....
NiskyGuy: I am with you. Daughter and I stayed up to watch the cold open, and I was freaked out by Jim Carey-- it was like what Biden would look like as a skeleton face. Parts of it were apt, but like you, I thought that who needs the lies being amplified... daughter says that Jason Miller, who I thought was a felon, yapped about having done the video in "one take with no notes..." as if that was a plus, (he neither takes nor reads notes, ever...) and then said something about Sleepy Joe not being able to stage the "Suffering but Working" video, which was a lie as always.
If Prez Potbelly miraculously gets much better, as the lying docs assert, I will firmly believe this was all staged as a "brave prez" moment, with expectations of mercy votes to come. Nothing is too farfetched for these jamokes to ratf***.
As at the top of my YouTube feed: “President[*] Trump is a Warrior”.
Does that mean he’s a sucker and a loser?
Interesting to read that COVID Man has had a high temperature for several days. Earlier on Sunday morning, I heard a report quoting Trumpoid sources saying that Fatty’s temperature had been normal for 24 hours.
Believe anything these traitors say at your own peril. They would lie to their own mother on her deathbed after she begged for the truth.
One often hears that Secret Service agents are ready and willing to take a bullet for the president. But what if it’s the president firing that bullet? “Make me look good. Then you can fuck off and die. I’m the king!”