The Commentariat -- April 11, 2020

Afternoon Update:

The New York Times' live updates for coronavirus developments in the U.S. Saturday are here. ~~~

~~~ Washington Post live updates for Saturday are here. "The United States' covid-19 death tally is now the highest in the world, eclipsing Italy's toll on Saturday, despite experts calling the U.S. figure 'an underestimation.' The U.S. toll is now 19,424, with nearly half a million confirmed cases, surpassing Italy's total of 18,849. Italy has 147,577 infected with the virus. Despite the country's large elderly population, experts had previously forecast that Italy's staggering toll was not an outlier so much as a preview of what other countries could expect. The steady climb of cases has slowed, and the Mediterranean country is now preparing to reopen."

Calvin Woodward of the AP: "For several months..., Donald Trump and his officials have cast a fog of promises meant to reassure a country in the throes of the coronavirus pandemic. Trump and his team haven't delivered on critical ones. They talk numbers. Bewildering numbers about masks on the way. About tests being taken. About ships sailing to the rescue, breathing machines being built and shipped, field hospitals popping up, aircraft laden with supplies from abroad, dollars flowing to crippled businesses. Piercing that fog is the bottom-line reality that Americans are going without the medical supplies and much of the financial help they most need from the government at the very time they need it most -- and were told they would have it.... Bold promises and florid assurances were made, day after day, from the White House and a zigzagging president who minimized the danger for months and systematically exaggerates what Washington is doing about it. 'We're getting them tremendous amounts of supplies,' [Trump] said of health care workers. 'Incredible. It's a beautiful thing to watch.' This was when Americans were watching something else entirely -- doctors wearing garbage bags for makeshift protection."

Erica Werner of the Washington Post: "Top GOP leaders in Congress said Saturday they would not negotiate with Democrats and instead insisted lawmakers approve more money for a small business lending program for firms impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) released a joint statement Saturday morning saying they would not agree to any compromise with Democrats that changed their proposal to add $250 billion to the Paycheck Protection Program, which is being run by the Small Business Administration.... Democrats don't want to sign off on the $250 billion increase without also adding hundreds of billions for hospitals, cities, states and food stamp recipients. They also want ensure half the proposed $250 billion goes through community banks, emergency grants and other programs aimed at underserved communities." A Politico story is here.

This. Is. Nuts. Jay Hancock, et al., of Kaiser Health News in the Daily Beast: "... executives at ... beleaguered [hospital] systems are blasting the government's decision to take a one-size-fits-all approach to distributing the first $30 billion in emergency grants. HHS confirmed Friday it would give hospitals and doctors money according to their historical share of revenue from the Medicare program for seniors -- not according to their coronavirus burden.... States such as Minnesota, Nebraska and Montana, which the pandemic has touched relatively lightly, are getting more than $300,000 per reported COVID-19 case..., according to a Kaiser Health News analysis. On the other hand, New York, the worst-hit state, would receive only $12,000 per case.... HHS 'has failed to consider congressional intent' in distributing the $30 billion by not accounting for 'the number of COVID-19 cases hospitals are treating,' New Jersey Sens. Bob Menendez and Cory Booker and Rep. Bill Pascrell said in a Friday letter to [HHS Secretary Alex] Azar." Thanks to Akhilleus for the link.

~~~~~~~~~~

The New York Times' live updates for coronavirus developments Friday are here. The Washington Post's live updates for Friday are here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Brian Williams summarizes Trump's Friday briefing. Williams also notes that Trump began the day by "wishing all Americans a Happy Good Friday." (Good Friday, of course, is the more sorrowful day of the Christian calendar, a day in which Christians mourn Jesus' martyrdom on the cross: ~~~

~~~ Robert Costa & Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "As Americans ... struggle to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, Trump has placed himself at the center as their patron. The president has sought to portray himself as singularly in charge -- except for when things go wrong. In those instances, he has labored to blame others and avoid accountability. Day after day, in his self-constructed role of wartime president, the task Trump seems to relish most is spreading cash and supplies across a beleaguered and anxious nation. 'Honestly, people should respect, because nobody has ever seen anything like what we've done,' Trump said this week, a point he has been making regularly.... Trump often speaks of federal payments coming to many Americans as an act of his own benevolence, calling the bipartisan stimulus legislation 'a Trump administration initiative' and reportedly musing about printing his thick-and-jagged signature on the government checks. Trump touts the deployment of the USS Comfort to New York Harbor in personal terms, saying it was his choice to allow the hulking Navy hospital ship to be used to for coronavirus patients -- and even traveling to 'kiss it goodbye' before its trek north. And Trump talks about the Strategic National Stockpile of ventilators and medical equipment being shipped to hard-hit states as if it were his own storage unit...." ~~~

~~~ In the Absence of National Leadership.... Lena Sun, et al., of the Washington Post: "A national plan to fight the coronavirus pandemic in the United States and return Americans to jobs and classrooms is emerging -- but not from the White House. Instead, a collection of governors, former government officials, disease specialists and nonprofits are pursuing a strategy that relies on the three pillars of disease control: Ramp up testing to identify people who are infected. Find everyone they interact with by deploying contact tracing on a scale America has never attempted before. And focus restrictions more narrowly on the infected and their contacts so the rest of society doesn't have to stay in permanent lockdown. But there is no evidence yet the White House will pursue such a strategy.... [And] without substantial federal funding, states' efforts will only go so far.

Of the federal government's response to the crisis, "'It's mind-boggling, actually, the degree of disorganization,' said Tom Frieden, former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director. The federal government has already squandered February and March, he noted, committing 'epic failures' on testing kits, ventilator supply, protective equipment for health workers and contradictory public health communication. The next failure is already on its way, Frieden said, because 'we're not doing the things we need to be doing in April.'"

** Walter Einenkel of Daily Kos [April 8]: Wednesday Rep. Katie Porter [D-Calif.] "released a report showing that in spite of growing concerns and warnings about the potential oncoming pandemic threat of the COVID-19 virus from top officials and experts, Donald Trump not only did nothing about it, he allowed ramped up exportation of much-needed medical supplies.... Porter's team has analyzed 'previously unreported government trade data'.... According to the report, the United States was not simply ill-prepared for the coming pandemic -- they were actively making big money depleting our medical resources, making us even less prepared: 'The value of U.S. ventilator exports jumped 22.7% percent from January to February.' And it wasn't only ventilators. Porter says her team 'found that in February 2020, the value of U.S. mask exports to China was 1,094% higher than the 2019 monthly average.'... And to be clear, during this same time the U.S. imported fewer PPE and cleaning supplies, as well as fewer ventilators." --s

** Josh Marshall of TPM: "As we've reported on the seemingly ubiquitous seizures and reroutings of purchases of medical supplies, FEMA has always appeared to be at the heart of it, even though the targeted buyers are seldom given much information about who took their supplies. But now FEMA is denying that it is requisitioning or confiscating supplies anywhere within the United States, except in cases where they suspect criminal activity.... Something doesn't fit here. These seizures and reroutings have become commonplace around the country in recent weeks.... If it's really true that FEMA isn't doing this, who is? And is it really possible this is happening on a widespread basis around the country and FEMA doesn't know anything this? Something here does not fit or something isn't telling the truth." --s

You could have massive civil unrest if these systems cannot get checks out the door. We're talking about 20 percent unemployment, maybe even more. The application process is a nightmare. The state systems are failing.... But I don't see any action being taken. -- Liberal firebrand sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), on Eugene Scalia's response to the crisis ~~~

~~~ Screw American Workers. Jeff Stein, et al., of the Washington Post: Labor Secretary Eugene "Scalia..., the son of the late Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia, has emerged as a critical player in the government's economic response to the pandemic.... In recent days..., Scalia, who has expressed concerns about unemployment insurance being too generous, has used his department's authority over new laws enacted by Congress to limit who qualifies for joblessness assistance and to make it easier for small businesses not to pay family leave benefits. The new rules make it more difficult for gig workers such as Uber and Lyft drivers to get benefits, while making it easier for some companies to avoid paying their workers coronavirus-related sick and family leave.... At the same time, frustrations have built among career staff at the Labor Department that the agency hasn't ordered employers to follow safeguards, including the wearing of masks.... Writing on Fox Business Network's website on Monday, [Scalia] warned that he does not want unemployed people to become addicted to government aid." Mrs. McC: Ah, the old "hammock of complacency & dependence." As citizen625 -- who gave us the link to this story -- wrote, "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree." ~~~

~~~ Annalyn Kurtz of CNN remembers another Labor Secretary: "... Frances Perkins: the first female member of a presidential cabinet, and the chief architect behind many New Deal programs that live on 85 years later.... Perkins' legacy includes Social Security to support workers with disabilities and in old age, the 40-hour work week, the minimum wage and the end of child labor. And if that wasn't enough, she also built the nation's unemployment benefits system.... Perkins created the national unemployment insurance system in 1935 as part of the Social Security Act." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I wonder if any wingers would behave differently if they understood that history would treat them as villains.

Since the day that President Trump pulled down the flights from China to the US, he has been actively leading the situation in terms of this crisis with the task force. Nothing to worry about for the American people. -- Peter Navarro, press gaggle February 24, nearly 4 weeks after his January 29 internal memo warning "'increasing probability of a full-blown COVID-19 pandemic' could infect as many as 100 million Americans and kill 'as many as 1-2 million souls'" ~~~

~~~ Em Steck & Andrew Kaczynski of CNN: "White House trade adviser Peter Navarro publicly said Americans had 'nothing to worry about' while he privately warned the White House that the coronavirus pandemic could cost trillions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of American lives. Navarro circulated two memos at the White House in late January and February warning that a full-blown coronavirus outbreak would leave American lives and the economy vulnerable. But Navarro, a frequent surrogate for ... Donald Trump and his administration on television, continued to present a far more optimistic message in public, CNN's KFile found after reviewing Navarro's interviews, statements and writings."

Suzy Khimm, et al., of NBC News: "Nearly 2,500 long-term care facilities in 36 states are battling coronavirus cases, according to data gathered by NBC News from state agencies, an explosive increase of 522 percent compared to a federal tally just 10 days ago.... The full scale of the virus' impact is even greater than NBC News' tally, as key states including Florida did not provide data, and nursing homes across the United States are still struggling for access to testing.... NBC News tallied 2,246 deaths associated with long-term car facilities, based on responses from 24 states. This, too, is an undercount; about half of all states said they could not provide data on nursing home deaths, or declined to do so. Some states said they do not track these deaths at all.... The federal government does not keep a formal tally of the number of coronavirus deaths in nursing homes or the number of facilities with infections, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. Experts say more comprehensive data is critical to battling the virus and understanding why it is spreading faster in some nursing homes than others."

Florida. Jeffrey Solochek of the Tampa Bay Times: "Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday would not rule out sending Florida's schoolchildren back to their classrooms in May, if the conditions are right. 'We're going to look at the evidence and make a decision,' DeSantis said, when asked if he intended to keep schools closed for the remainder of the current academic year. 'If it's safe, we want kids to be in school. .... Even if it's for a couple of weeks, we think there would be value in that.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Wisconsin. Molly Beck of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "The state health department is tracking new cases of the coronavirus to determine whether it was spread among voters during Tuesday's spring election. The state Department of Health Services and local public health officials are 'monitoring' the relationship between new cases in the coming weeks and voting in person, agency officials said Thursday." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ The Wisconsin Election Debacle, Ctd. Laura Schulte & Patrick Marley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "Hundreds of absentee ballots mailed back to the City of Madison for Tuesday's election may not be counted, thanks to a missing postmark. The problem is one that is emerging in communities across Wisconsin as election officials prepare to tally the results of an election conducted during the coronavirus pandemic. Results for the state Supreme Court and other races are to be released Monday.... Madison City Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl said that so far her office has received more than 8,000 absentee ballots. Of those, 682 have no postmark, meaning that it's likely they won't be counted. She said seeing the ballots come in without the postmark has been frustrating, especially since the ballots that came in on Wednesday were likely mailed before Tuesday.... Witzel-Behl said ... she's seeking legal guidance and clarification.... In many cases, postmarks are not used, such as for metered mail.... On Wednesday, attention was drawn to three tubs of undelivered ballots in a mail processing center that were meant for voters in Appleton and Oshkosh. Separately, the Milwaukee Elections Commission called for an investigation into other ballots that never made it to voters. And in Fox Point, hundreds of undelivered ballots were sent back to the village, unopened and unmarked. No explanation was given as to what was wrong with the ballots, or why they couldn't be delivered." ~~~

~~~ ** The GOP's 50-State Solution: Fight Free & Fair Elections. Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: "The voting debacle in Wisconsin on Tuesday was further evidence of an incontrovertible reality in American politics: The Republican Party does not believe in free and fair elections, where free means equal access to the ballot and fair means equitable rules and neutral procedures.... Wisconsin voters who went to the polls had to pay what amounted to a poll tax in the form of fear, anxiety and possible sickness, imposed by conservative Republicans on the courts and in the State Legislature. There's no theory of democracy that renders this acceptable, but then this wasn't about democracy. It was about power.... The most prominent Republican voice against free and fair elections is, of course, President Trump's."

Christopher Rowland of the Washington Post: "A majority of a small group of patients showed improvements after being treated with an experimental coronavirus drug made by Gilead Sciences, bolstering hopes for finding a treatment for the disease, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Friday. The group of patients received the antiviral drug remdesivir as part of a 'compassionate use' trial, not a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial that would offer more definitive evidence. Also, the cohort of patients was small, only 53 patients in the United States and around the world. Those limiting factors prevent scientists from declaring that the drug works. Still, the improvements offered positive news about a drug seen by global health authorities as offering the best shot at becoming a treatment for the disease."

Italy. Lorenzo Tando of the Guardian: "As Italy struggles to pull its economy through the coronavirus crisis, the Mafia is gaining local support by distributing free food to poor families in quarantine who have run out of cash, authorities have warned. In recent weeks, videos have surfaced of known Mafia gangs delivering essential goods to Italians hit hard by the coronavirus emergency across the poorest southern regions of Campania, Calabria, Sicily and Puglia, as tensions rise across the country." --s

** The Trump Family Moochers. Walker Davis & Linnaea Honl-Stuenkel of CREW: "Last fiscal year, the Trump family took more trips that required Secret Service protection than the Obama family took in seven, according to a budget document released by the Treasury Department. On average, Obama's family took 133.3 protected trips per year, while the Trump family has taken an average of 1,625 annually. Much of the Trump family's known travel has been to promote Trump Organization businesses, which President Trump still owns and profits from. Every President and his family deserve Secret Service protection. But the President's private business should reimburse taxpayers for money spent at Trump's businesses or in support of them.... Despite running up a high tab, the Trump Organization has not paid the American people back for the security taxpayers have subsidized when Trump family members travel to support a business that regularly cashes in on the presidency.

Barr Threatens FBI Investigators. Kevin Jackson of USA Today: "Attorney General William Barr signaled that federal officials involved in launching the investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 election and its links to the Trump campaign could face criminal prosecution. As part of a wide-ranging interview with Fox News, the attorney general said a federal prosecutor appointed to review the origins of the inquiry, later headed by Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller, has so far found 'troubling' evidence of possible abuses. 'My own view is that the evidence shows that we're not dealing with just the mistakes or sloppiness,' Barr said Thursday. 'There was something far more troubling here. We're going to get to the bottom of it. And if people broke the law and we can establish that with the evidence, they will be prosecuted.' The attorney general's remarks represent the most extensive public assessment yet of Connecticut U.S. Attorney John Durham's work since his appointment last year."

Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "... in making the case that [in intelligence community's inspector general Michael] Atkinson committed a firing offense in his handling of a whistle-blower complaint last year that led to the impeachment battle, [Attorney General William] Barr made several claims that are subject to scrutiny." Savage dissects all of the claims Barr made against Atkinson, & demonstrates they are misrepresentations.

AP: "A watchdog has found that the Treasury Department appropriately handled Congress' request for ... Donald Trump's tax returns, which Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has refused to provide. But the acting inspector general for Treasury, Rich Delmar, also said he had no opinion on whether the advice Mnuchin followed -- which came from Justice Department attorneys -- was itself well-founded. In refusing to hand over the returns, Mnuchin decided he was legally bound to comply with that advice, Delmar noted in a letter Wednesday to senior House lawmakers. The Justice Department legal opinion backed Mnuchin's refusal, saying that [Rep. Richard] Neal's [D-Mass.] request lacked a legitimate legislative purpose and was an 'unprecedented' use of congressional authority. The argument is the same one Trump has used in refusing other demands from Democrats in Congress for financial records from banks an accountants that have had business with Trump and his family. Lawsuits over those records were filed in federal courts in Washington and New York."

Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Twenty House committee chairs are asking the nation's top federal agency watchdogs for advice on how to protect them from potential retaliation by ... Donald Trump for uncovering mismanagement or wrongdoing inside his administration. The Democratic committee leaders, who include Oversight Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney, Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff and Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, say they're seeking legislative proposals that could restrict Trump's ability to remove or demote inspectors general for political reasons." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Presidential Race

Trump's 2020 Campaign Starts Out Racist. John Wagner of the Washington Post: "A new attack ad by President Trump's campaign that portrays former vice president Joe Biden as too cozy with China to confront the country ... includes an image of Gary Locke, a former governor of Washington state, that appears to falsely suggest he is a Chinese official. Locke, who is Chinese American and was serving as U.S. ambassador to China at the time, is briefly depicted onstage at a 2013 event in Beijing with Biden...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: "... the ad shows Biden bowing to an Asian man with Chinese flags in the background. The man turns out to be American [-- Gary Locke, then the U.S. ambassador to China]. But there's something more fundamentally absurd about this ad that is eluding notice. It's that a look at the timeline shows that, early on, Trump was praising China's handling of coronavirus at precisely the same time that Biden was insisting we must show skepticism toward China's handling of it.... The ad clips Biden's words out of context to misleadingly imply tha Biden criticized Trump's decision to restrict travel from China, when that's not what Biden did.... We now know who was right about [China's handling of Covid-19], and his name isn't Donald J. Trump. So, plainly, the core argument in this ad is laughable.... Once again, the truth is the direct opposite of what Trump claims it is -- in a way that holds a mirror up to his ongoing failures, as his debunked lies so often do."

Beyond the Beltway

Virginia. Veronica Stracqualursi of CNN: "Democratic Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam on Friday signed five gun measures into law, including a background checks bill and an 'extreme risk protective order.' The slate of bills prompted a large gun-rights rally in January, with about 22,000 gathering in protest at Virginia's state capitol. The legislation has also fueled a pro-gun movement across the state known as 'Second Amendment sanctuaries,' or localities that vow not to enforce what some officials in those regions have called 'unconstitutional' gun laws. The gun measures had been a priority for Northam since he first introduced them in the 2019 legislative session -- and he made them an even more urgent priority in the wake of mass shooting at a Virginia Beach municipal building last year that left 12 people dead. Northam called for a special session at that time to debate gun control, but it was adjourned by Republican lawmakers without action after just 90 minutes."

News Ledes

New York Times: Ruth "Mandel..., [who fled] the Nazis on the doomed 'Voyage of the Damned' underpinned her faith in democracy as head of the Eagleton Institute of Politics [at Rutgers University,] died at 81 on Saturday at her home in Princeton, N.J."

The Real Deal: "Stanley I. Chera, who parlayed his father's Brooklyn department store business into one of New York real estate's biggest retail empires, reaped huge rewards from the city's emergence as a global shopping destination and used his wealth and connections to play kingmaker for Donald Trump, has died from complications of the coronavirus, making him the most high-profile industry casualty of the global pandemic.... According to Vanity Fair, word in late March of the gravity of Chera's condition contributed to Trump taking the coronavirus more seriously and abandoning his call to get the country back to work by Easter."

Comments

[Akhilleus]

Moral Horror Show

I guess he just can’t help demonstrating, as if on command, like a dog ordered to roll over, what a truly horrible creature he is.

Fatty’s latest conundrum: rescind public safety regulations in place to prevent infection, illness, and death, forcing millions back to work in the middle of the worst worldwide pandemic in living memory, thus allowing him to crow that he “saved the economy”, OR keep people safe at home.

Dunno ‘bout youse kids but that wouldn’t come within several hundred parsecs of the “worst decision I ever had to make”.

He’s about as pure a specimen of an immoral asshole as you’re ever likely to see. And if you know of a worse one, keep it to yourself. I’m full up on immoral assholes lately. And they all work for Trump.

[Akhilleus]

Playing politics with American lives or just criminally incompetent? You make the call.

So congress sets aside trillions to help offset the multitude of problems caused by the current pandemic (including making sure that Fatty and little Jared get their millions). Part of that money is earmarked for medical institutions treating coronavirus patients. Sounds okay so far? Think again. This is TRUMP we’re talking about.

In allocating $30 billion to hospitals and medical units trying to cope with the overwhelming need for assistance, one would assume that the places hardest hit would get the most money, right? Again, TRUMP.

Red states with comparatively few cases are getting the lion’s share. Blue states where people are dropping right and left, a pittance. So Nebraska is getting $300,000 per coronavirus case. New York? Less than Melanie would spend on a pair of shoes.

Politics or idiocy?

https://www.thedailybeast.com/nebraska-getting-dollar300000-in-federal-money-for-each-coronavirus-case-while-ny-gets-dollar12g

[PD Pepe]

"Despite running up a high tab, the Trump Organization has not paid the American people back for the security taxpayers have subsidized when Trump family members travel to support a business that regularly cashes in on the presidency."

And I have been waiting for more info into the money the Trump campaign owes to states for their rallies; the last I heard was quite a few states were complaining they had not gotten paid.

Could it possibly be that once again Fatty and his family of ferrets fucked us royally once again? she asked with eyebrows raised in wide surprise.

Dreams in the Time of Confinement

I had a dream last night that isn't leaving me. I was back in my childhood home putting on what seemed like a dress made from paper. I step outside onto the lawn that is expansive and very green. Joe is standing way in the distance watching me as I start to dance; suddenly I take off and literally fly–-I feel free and light and think this must be like having those wings of a dove –-to soothe my sore pained heart.

and in Italy the Mafia is feeding the poor; there is something almost romantic in that and since the Christians are celebrating a resurrection after a crucifixion it stands to reason love is in the air.

[Forrest Morris]

The three stooges, pence, trump and kushner should take a page from
our governor's (also known as "that woman from Michigan")
playbook and follow her advice.
From now until further notice, no one will leave their residence to
visit another residence unless they are a caregiver to that residence.
Non essential businesses will remain closed until further notice.
Only grocery stores, pharmacies and gas stations may remain open.
All grocery stores shall set aside 2 hours per week for those over
60 and pregnant women.
There shall be no meetings or gatherings of more than 10 people,
even for funerals, weddings, etc.
Restaurants will only do take out (doesn't affect me at all.)
No rentals allowed to out of staters. We have about 30 bed and
breakfast inns in the area and hundreds of rental houses here.
This should be happening in every state in the union.
What's wrong with our so called leaders? Don't answer that.

[safari]

The gutting of the Inspector General community is not getting nearly enough attention. Rather, it got basically no attention besides a two-day secondary conversation.

It's a double team hatchet job:
(1) Stop anyone from coming forward with all the stupid/corrupt/illegal shit his administration has done so far, silencing the key figures as we enter into campaign season.
(2) A forward-thinking mop up job to set up loyalists to take over these key positions to request all material that might have been accumulating that hasn't come out yet, later moving to burn, shred and delete all the information as an In Case of Emergency Break Glass strategy for fear of losing the election in November.

If he does lose the election, you can guarantee that their will be a Javanka Task Force to destroy all evidence anyway. But the criminals in the White House have already started the process while no is looking.

[Akhilleus]

Bill (The Hack) Barr, the Orange Menace’s personal lawyer and attack dog, who pretends to be the nation’s Attorney General (and like all things Trumpy, he has proven to be one of the worst, if not THE worst AG in US history), becomes more and more like a modern day Robespierre, going after any who dare to question the criminality of the regime he serves. You’re an FBI agent who did your job investigating the Russian interference that brought Fatty to powers? You could be indicted, tried, and imprisoned for such temerity.

It would not surprise me in the least to hear that Barking Doggy Barr has instituted his own Law of Suspects, the horrific casuistry (Casuistry, as you know, is Barr’s middle name) that allowed Robespierre to arrest and jail thousands of French citizens he suspected of not being sufficiently “revolutionized”, at least according to his tastes.

We are perhaps seeing, in the midst of this crisis, a new reign of terror, implemented, not to attack suspected lovers of royalty, but to harass and impugn lovers of democracy against the little king of confederates.

Break out the guillotine, chubby.

[PD Pepe]

I retrieved this from the archives and am posting it again. I think you'll understand why:

June 14, 2019
Within Fintan O'Toole's review on "Vile Bodies"–a book on military metaphors re: sexual diseases he had this:

In May 1998 Trump and Howard Stern discussed on the radio the threat of sexually transmitted diseases to promiscuous heterosexual men. Trump agreed with Stern's suggestion that he might tell a woman, "Look, you've got to take a medical test before I do you."
(Neither man seemed to imagine the possibility that he would take a test himself plus the "before I do you" smacks of a hairdresser's plea for a cup of coffee before he cuts your hair) Here's the exchange:

Trump: The problem is that sometimes your own chemicals take over and you can't wait. [oh, those pesky chemicals–- like having to go wee wee when you are indisposed]

Stern: So you'll just have straight intercourse with a rubber with them, right?

T: Well, I don't know, you know there's lots of different ways of doing it. It's a very complicated subject. They say [and here we have the usual "they say" or "people tell me" or "many have said] that more people were killed by women in this act than killed in Vietnam, ok?

Later in the interview, he repeated the comparison :

T: It's Vietnam. It is very dangerous. So I'm very, very careful.

S: "You're braver than any Vietnam vet because you're out there screwing a lot of women.

T: Yeah–-getting the Medal of Honor, in actuality.

O'Toole says the exchange between these two self-regarding alpha males took the lid off a strange stew of preening and paranoia of terror and lust, of claims of both to exemplary courage and to hyper-vigilant caution. He later compares Trump to the cowardly Pistol (Shakespeare's character)––Trump never did any actual fighting in any war yet he claims to be braver than any real vet, for he has faced the dangers of the bordello and the bedroom. His imagery is, of course, totally misogynistic. Even Pistol lays claim to his part in infecting his poor Nell who dies. But for Trump infection is a one- way process–-it is women who do this to men. In this vein he is not alone as O'Toole points out in his piece about connecting women's bodies as the sole vectors of disease and how it got connected in wars.

"Military metaphors have more and more come to infuse all aspects of the description of the medical situation. Disease is seen as an invasive of alien organisms to which the body responds by its own military [white cells depicted as "the army" in medical cartoon videos] operations such as the mobilizing of immunological defenses."
––––Susan Sontag

[Jeanne]

Well, all this info about the supposed AG and the presidunce does not come as a surprise, really. These people should all drown themselves. I can hardly stand one word out of any of their mouths. I ran especially fast to mute the auditory hypocrisy of the Slob reading a prayer specially written by the Thumb as a blessing. There is simply no longer a reason to presuppose anyone is a good person who is just wrongly influenced. Remember reading winger tales telling Dems to give the poor presidunce a chance? Yeah, why? And considering the wretched three and a half years we have spent under the auspices of this amoral moron, who can even think that religion has any place in any of this? What kind of god would permit the offenses against humanity that are happening every single minute of this regime? I have three presently unemployed young adult children. What kind of god allows this to happen to good people? I am so pessimistic today and I have never liked easter-- today I hate it, along with every single immoral creep in power.

[PD Pepe]

This is for Jeanne: Barbra Streisand's "Don't Lie to Me"––a political and heartwarming video she put together herself and because it's Streisand, you know it's good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNrj87Q-4Yk

[Ken Winkes]

Like the original, I thought this one a bit tedious but it may be tasty to some. Does have a few good lines...

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/the-covid-19-song-of-j-alfred-prufrock

[Akhilleus]

PD,

Thanks for that reminder of Orange misogyny and delirious narcissism. Also, my eyes zeroed in on your final quote from Susan Sontag. I’m guessing this is from her book length essay on “Illness as Metaphor”. Been a while since I read it so I can’t place the quote squarely, but that seems to be its provenance.

An exceptionally smart and fiercely independent thinker, Sontag’s finely wrought and well written opinions (as opposed to the bombastic blather of Fox navel gazers) has won her the enmity of the right-wing for not nodding her head and being a good little goosestepper for the Decider and his War of Choice. Seeking to better understand the multitude of cultural, psychological, and ideological elements at play in attacking the wrong people for 9/11 got her labeled as a traitor. However, not a one of those critics would have dared to take her on one on one. She’d have sliced and diced them.

With that in mind, as soon as I saw her name, all those associations being triggered, I wondered what kind of a spectacle it would make to watch Fatty try and debate her.

It would end, predictably, very quickly, with the Orange Monster descending into Bill (“Shut up, shut up, shut up”) O’Reilly territory with plenty of nasty misogynistic cracks as he skedaddled his fat ass out the nearest exit, declaring victory as he fled for his life.

She is missed.

[carlyle]

Filthy says that you can't test 325 million Americans. Some time in the 50's Dr. Jonas Salk's polio vaccine was given to the whole country as I remember. Someone should tell him.

[Bobby Lee]

The paragraph on Trump's travels requiring secret service escorts got me to wondering how far he'll stretch that line item after he leaves office. After all, the Carter's still get covered after 40 years. And do the adult children also qualify? With his worldwide properties and lifestyle I'm seeing a long and expensive experience.

[unwashed]

@Bobby Lee, hopefully he and his spawn won't be allowed to travel far from their cell blocks.

[Akhilleus]

Carlyle,

Good point about the polio vaccine. Between 1962 and 1965, 100 million Americans were successfully vaccinated against poliomyelitis, about 56% of the population. If you figure that they vaccinated 30% in one year, that would translate to about 100 million today. These numbers are possible, but not if the people running the show are frickin’ morons who care more about looking good and stuffing their pockets (aka the Trump Crime Family and their band of drooling boot lickers).