The Washington Post offers tips on how to keep your EV battery running in frigid temperatures. The link at the end of this graf is supposed to be a "gift link" (from me, Marie Burns, the giftor!), meaning that non-subscribers can read the article. Hope it works: https://wapo.st/3u8Z705
Monday
May252020
The Commentariat -- May 26, 2020
Afternoon Update:
The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Tuesday are here. The Washington Post's live updates for Monday are here.
Brian Mann of NPR: "When President Trump took office in 2017, his team stopped work on new federal regulations that would have forced the healthcare industry to prepare for an airborne infectious disease pandemic like COVID-19. That decision is documented in federal records reviewed by NPR. 'If that rule had gone into effect, then every hospital, every nursing home would essentially have to have a plan where they made sure they had enough respirators and they were prepared for this sort of pandemic,' said David Michaels, who at the time served as head of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. There are still no specific federal regulations protecting healthcare workers from deadly airborne pathogens like influenza, tuberculosis or the coronavirus."
Maggie Astor & Davey Alba of the New York Times: "The widower of Lori Klausutis, whose death President Trump has used to smear the MSNBC host Joe Scarborough, is asking Twitter to remove the president's tweets on the subject. Twitter said on Tuesday that it would not. In a letter to Jack Dorsey, the chief executive of Twitter, last week, Timothy Klausutis said Mr. Trump had violated Twitter's terms of service by falsely suggesting that Mr. Scarborough murdered Ms. Klausutis in 2001 when he was a congressman and she was an intern in his office. Ms. Klausutis, 28, actually died as a result of a heart condition that caused her to collapse at work and hit her head on her desk. 'An ordinary user like me would be banished from the platform for such a tweet,' Mr. Klausutis wrote in the letter..., 'but I am only asking that these tweets be removed.' Mr. Trump has repeatedly promoted the conspiracy theory against Mr. Scarborough.... In a series of tweets over the past several weeks, Mr. Trump has urged law enforcement in Florida to 'open a cold case' and suggested falsely that Mr. Scarborough 'got away with murder.' He had tweeted about the same false conspiracy as far back as 2017.... Nick Pacilio, said in a statement in response to Mr. Klausutis's letter[,] 'We've been working to expand existing product features and policies so we can more effectively address things like this going forward....' Mr. Pacilio did not elaborate on what changes the company would make...." ~~~
~~~ Kara Swisher of the New York Times: "The real issue is the very serious collateral damage of this fight, which is the post-mortem libel of Ms. Klausutis and the ensuing suffering of her husband and family. They are the victims, of Mr. Trump and of Twitter's inability to manage its troubled relationship with him." ~~~
~~~ Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post: "The president of the United States has no decency. It is time for the social media platform he uses to spread vile conspiracy theories to show some -- or at the very least, to follow what it claims to be its policies and the rules that it enforces where others are concerned.... To Trump, suggesting that [Joe] Scarborough had something to do with [Lori Klausutis's] death is just another way of stoking his political base, which feasts on his lies. But the real pain has fallen on the late woman's family, and especially her widower, Timothy J. Klausutis.... Twitter ... is a private company that regularly blocks or bans users for abuses far less offensive than the ones Trump commits on a daily, sometimes hourly, basis.... By taking one small step in the interest of decency -- removing those tweets that soil the memory of Lori Klausutis -- Twitter has an opportunity to show that its supposed standards actually mean something." ~~~
~~~ (Right-wing) National Review Editors: "... Trump's series of tweets the last two weeks about MSNBC host Joe Scarborough has been grotesque even by his standards.... It's unworthy of a partisan blogger, let alone the president of the United States."
William Cummings of USA Today: "The Republican Party launched a legal battle to block California Gov. Gavin Newsom from sending all voters in his state mail-in ballots for the general election, arguing the move is unconstitutional and invites voter fraud. The Republican National Committee, National Republican Congressional Committee and California Republican Party filed a lawsuit Sunday against Newsom and Secretary of State Alex Padilla in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California."
Minnesota. Christine Hauser of the New York Times: "The F.B.I. and Minnesota law enforcement authorities are investigating the arrest of a black man who died after being handcuffed and pinned to the ground by an officer's knee, in an episode filmed by a bystander and denounced by the mayor on Tuesday. The arrest took place on Monday evening, the Minneapolis Police Department said in a statement, after officers responded to a call about a man suspected of forgery.... The bystander video that circulated widely on social media Monday night shows a white Minneapolis police officer pressing his knee into a black man's neck during an arrest, as the man repeatedly says 'I can't breathe' and 'please I can't breathe.'" An NBC News story is here.
New York. Amir Vera & Laura Ly of CNN: "A white woman has apologized for calling police on a black man bird-watching in Central Park on Monday morning after the two argued about her unleashed dog. Amy Cooper told CNN she wanted to 'publicly apologize to everyone.'... She was walking her dog Monday while Christian Cooper (no relation) was bird-watching at a wooded area of Central Park called the Ramble. They both told CNN the dispute began because her dog was not on a leash, contrary to the Ramble's rules, according to the park's website. Christian Cooper recorded video of part of their encounter and posted it on Facebook, where it has since been shared thousands of times and became a trending topic on Twitter. 'I'm taking a picture and calling the cops,' Amy Cooper is heard saying in the video. 'I'm going to tell them there's an African American man threatening my life.'"
~~~~~~~~~~
The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Monday are here. The Washington Post's live updates for Monday are here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Today's he great vampire squid is the Trump administration, & the giant sucking sound you hear is the vampire squid hosing up your money & tossing it with all eight arms to the rich. ~~~
~~~ ** Jesse Drucker, et al., of the New York Times: "The Department of Health and Human Services has disbursed $72 billion in grants since April to hospitals and other health care providers through the bailout program, which was part of the CARES Act economic stimulus package. The department plans to eventually distribute more than $100 billion more. So far, the riches are flowing in large part to hospitals that had already built up deep financial reserves to help them withstand an economic storm. Smaller, poorer hospitals are receiving tiny amounts of federal aid by comparison. Twenty large recipients ... have received a total of more than $5 billion in recent weeks, according to an analysis of federal data by Good Jobs First, a research group. Those hospital chains were already sitting on more than $108 billion in cash, according to regulatory filings and the bond-rating firms S&P Global and Fitch.... After the CARES Act was passed in March, hospital industry lobbyists reached out to senior Health and Human Services officials to discuss how the money would be distributed.... The department then devised formulas to quickly dispense tens of billions of dollars to thousands of hospitals -- and those formulas favored large, wealthy institutions.... Hospitals that serve a greater proportion of wealthier, privately insured patients got twice as much relief as those focused on low-income patients with Medicaid or no coverage at all...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Michael Corkery, et al., of the New York Times: "Along with nursing homes and prisons, meatpacking facilities have proven to be places where the [corona]virus spreads rapidly. But as dozens of plants that closed because of outbreaks begin reopening, meat companies' reluctance to disclose detailed case counts makes it difficult to tell whether the contagion is contained or new cases are emerging even with new safety measures in place. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said there were nearly 5,000 meatpacking workers infected with the virus as of the end of last month. But the nonprofit group Food & Environment Reporting Network estimated last week that the number has climbed to more than 17,000. There have been 66 meatpacking deaths, the group said.... The meat companies are not legally required to disclose how many workers are sick. But legal experts say privacy [-- which the companies often invoke --] is not a valid reason for keeping the numbers from the public. The lack of full disclosure also demonstrates the industry's sway as a major employer in the Midwest and the South." ~~~
~~~ Taylor Telford of the Washington Post: "Tyson Foods, the largest meat processor in the United States, has transformed its facilities across the country since legions of its workers started getting sick from the novel coronavirus. It has set up on-site medical clinics, screened employees for fevers at the beginning of their shifts, required the use of facial coverings, installed plastic dividers between stations and taken a host of other steps to slow the spread. Despite those efforts, the number of Tyson employees with covid-19 has exploded from under 1,600 a month ago to more than 7,000 today, according to a Washington Post analysis of news reports and public records. What has happened at Tyson -- and the meat industry overall -- shows how difficult getting the nation back to normal is, even in essential fields such as food processing."
Axios: "The World Health Organization is temporarily pausing tests of the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine as a coronavirus treatment in order to review safety concerns, the agency's director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesu said Monday.... The decision comes after a retrospective review published in The Lancet found that coronavirus patients who took hydroxychloroquine or its related drug chloroquine were more likely to die or develop an irregular heart rhythm that can lead to sudden cardiac death, compared to those who did nothing.... President Trump has touted the drug as a 'game-changer' and revealed last week that he had been taking it as a preventative against the coronavirus after consulting with the White House doctor." (Also linked yesterday.)
Will Weissert of the AP: “Joe Biden made his first in-person appearance in more than two months on Monday as he marked Memorial Day by laying a wreath at a veterans park near his Delaware home.... Biden and his wife, Jill, laid a wreath of white flowers tied with a white bow, and bowed their heads in silence at the park. He saluted. 'Never forget the sacrifices that these men and women made,' he said after.... 'I feel great to be out here.' Biden told reporters, his words muffled through his black cloth mask. His visit to the park was unannounced and there was no crowd waiting for him. But Biden briefly greeted a county official and another man, both wearing face masks and standing a few feet away. Biden also yelled to another, larger group standing nearby, 'Thank you for your service.' His campaign says Biden has gone to the park for Memorial Day often in the past, though services were canceled Monday in the pandemic." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Via AZ Spot on Tumbler.
To your right: the Legacy of Donald J. Trump, the Worst President* in U.S. History. Thanks to RAS for the find. (See Sunday's Commentariat for context). ~~~
~~~ ** Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post: "The long Memorial Day weekend gave the pandemic an indelible visual image: President Trump, wearing a ball cap but no mask, enjoying himself on his Northern Virginia golf course. Last week, you will recall, Trump declared it was 'essential' that Americans be able to spend Sunday at church services. He chose to head for the links instead. Primary blame for those 100,000 deaths must go to the killer itself -- the novel coronavirus.... But not all of covid-19' victims had to die. Some responsibility must be laid at the feet of a president who ignored the threat until it was too late, who failed to mount an adequate response and who still, after so many lonely deaths and socially distanced funerals, insists that the enemy will somehow just magically disappear."
Darlene Superville of the AP: "... Donald Trump honored America's fallen service members on Monday as he commemorated Memoria Day in back-to-back appearances in the midst of the pandemic. 'Together we will vanquish the virus and America will rise from this crisis to new and even greater heights,' Trump said during a ceremony at Baltimore's historic Fort McHenry.... [At Arlington National Cemetery,] Trump, maskless as always in public, gave no remarks. He approached a wreath already in place, touching it and giving a salute. Trump then traveled to Baltimore, to the chagrin of the city's mayor, and noted that tens of thousands of service members and national guard personnel are currently 'on the front lines of our war against this terrible virus.... No obstacle, no challenge and no threat is a match for the sheer determination of the American people.'" Mrs. McC: Trump accidentally forgot to remember any of the 100,000 Americans who have died from Covid-19. Not even medical personnel & others who contracted the virus & died performing their essential jobs during the pandemic. On Memorial Day. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Tom Porter of Business Insider: "... Donald Trump shared a tweet mocking ... Joe Biden for wearing a protective face mask when he attended a Memorial Day ceremony. 'This might help explain why Trump doesn't like to wear a mask in public. Biden today,' read the message by Brit Hume, a Fox News political commentator, alongside a message of Biden wearing a black mask and sunglasses. Biden wore the mask when he appeared in public for the first time in more than two months to lay a wreath at a military memorial in Delaware. His decision contrasted with Trump's ongoing refusal to wear one, despite the US recording the most coronavirus infections in the world." ~~~
~~~ Golf War, Ctd. John Bowden of the Hill: "President Trump on Monday resumed his attacks aimed at former Vice President Joe Biden and former President Obama, a day after Biden slammed him on Twitter for golfing as the coronavirus pandemic rages across America. Trump tweeted Monday morning that the mainstream news media covered his Virginia golf club trip this weekend like it was a 'mortal sin' while ignoring what he said were his opponent's shortcomings: 'Sleepy Joe's poor work ethic, or all of the time Obama spent on the golf course.'" (See also the video Biden released Saturday, embedded under Presidential Race below.) ~~~
~~~ Daniel Dale & Holmes Lybrand of CNN: "Trump denounced the media, which he called 'sick with hatred and dishonesty,' for supposedly failing to mention that Saturday was his first time golfing in three months. (CNN, among other outlets, did note that it was his first golf outing since March 8.) Trump also accused the media of failing to talk about 'all of the time Obama spent on the golf course, often flying to Hawaii in a big, fully loaded 747, to play. What did that do to the so-called Carbon Footprint?' Trump has spent much more time playing golf than Obama did through this point of the term -- after repeatedly attacking Obama's golfing and claiming he would not play if he got elected himself. Just Trump's airplane trips to his Mar-a-Lago Club and residence in Florida, from which he has often taken a motorcade ride to a nearby golf course he owns, have required far more air travel than Obama's once-a-year Hawaii vacations did through this point in the term." ~~~
~~~ More Projection. Trump did take time out on Memorial Day "to call a sitting congressman and Marine Corps veteran 'an American fraud.' In the Monday afternoon tweet, Trump also misspelled Democratic congressman Conor Lamb's name, calling him 'Connor Lamm.'..." ~~~
~~~ AND that's how Donald Trump spent his Memorial Day. Plus this: ~~
~~~ Alex Isenstadt & David Cohen of Politico: In a series of four tweets, "Donald Trump on Monday morning threatened to move August's Republican National Convention out of [Charlotte,] North Carolina unless there are guarantees the state will let everyone attend.... The tweet[s] amounted to a threat. The GOP convention is expected to draw tens of millions of dollars to North Carolina's economy, which has been devastated by the coronavirus. [Gov. Roy] Cooper [D] is facing reelection this fall, and his handling of the pandemic -- and his ability to bolster the state's economy -- is likely to be a key issue. Monday morning's tweets fit with the president's trend of attacking states governed by Democrats via Twitter over restrictions in those states and requests for federal assistance.... Mecklenberg County, which encompasses Charlotte, has emerged as a hot spot for the virus and the area has been reporting a growing number of cases." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump wrote that "@RoyCooperNC is still in Shutdown mood." Either he can't spell "mode" or he was thinking "MOOM."
"Much Very Good Information." Valerie Strauss of the Washington Post: "After a morning of golf, President Trump was up late Sunday night tweeting, this time about the reopening of America's schools.... At 10:41 p.m., Trump tweeted: 'Schools in our country should be opened ASAP. Much very good information now available. @SteveHiltonx @FoxNews'... Shortly before Trump tweeted, Steve Hilton of Fox News [was] urging schools to reopen 'schools now before you do even more needless damage.' He said wearing masks was 'fine' but compulsory temperature checks were 'unscientific nonsense' and 'totally pointless,' and social distancing rules were 'over-prescriptive' and 'arbitrary.'" A Daily Beast item is here. Mrs. McC: As far as I can tell from the Googles Hilton is not an epidemiologist or an educator or anything but a former British political hack. But much very good information. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Paul Waldman of the Washington Post "... review[s] what our president has been up to in the past few days [all of which we've covered on Reality Chex].... The truth is that Trump is not much more despicable of a human being than he has always been; it's just that standard Trumpian behavior becomes more horrifying when it occurs during an ongoing national crisis. It is reality that changed around him, and he was incapable of responding to it.... In the future, when we look back on this dark period, we should resist the temptation to focus solely on Trump himself. To do so would be to excuse [Republicans] who know exactly what he is but pretend they can work to keep him in office and remain unsullied. They cannot, and their moral culpability becomes clearer every day."
Akhilleus has a very good post in yesterday's Comments section linking the Trumpocalypse to the infamous 1971 Powell Memo.
Tom Nichols of the Atlantic: "... since his first day as a presidential candidate, I have been baffled by one mystery in particular: Why do working-class white men -- the most reliable component of Donald Trump's base -- support someone who is, by their own standards, the least masculine man ever to hold the modern presidency?... Courage, honesty, respect, an economy of words, a bit of modesty, and a willingness to take responsibility are all virtues prized by the self-identified class of hard-working men, the stand-up guys, among whom I was raised. And yet, many of these same men expect none of those characteristics from Trump, who is a vain, cowardly, lying, vulgar, jabbering blowhard.... Trump ... is not manly because he is not a man. He is a boy. It should not be a surprise then, that Trump is a hero to a culture in which so many men are already trapped in perpetual adolescence.... I think that working men, the kind raised as I was, know what kind of 'man' Trump is. And still, the gratification they get from seeing Trump enrage the rest of the country is enough to earn their indulgence."
Anne Kim of the Washington Monthly: "Trump is unlikely to get the kind of robust [economic] rebound he's hoping for -- in large part due to sabotage inflicted by his own policies.... As a consequence [of the Trump/Republican massive tax break for corporations & the super-rich], America entered the Covid-19 pandemic already financially crippled. Now, in the face of the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression, it is ill-positioned to aid its citizens, let alone rebuild for the future.... The only thing the [2017 tax bill] really accomplished was to blow a crater-sized hole in the federal budget, which until then had seen six straight years of declining deficits under President Barack Obama. By 2019, the federal budget deficit had ballooned to nearly $1 trillion, double the level in 2015.... Now, the nation is plunging into an even vaster chasm of debt to finance its recovery. Since the passage of the first tranche of coronavirus relief bills..., the federal budget deficit is projected to reach a whopping 17.9 percent of GDP this year, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), a level unmatched since World War II. Public debt, meanwhile, will exceed the size of the entire economy, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB)."
Rishika Dugyala of Politico (May 24): "The Trump administration on Sunday announced that it was restricting entry for travelers from Brazil, which ranks only behind the United States in the number of coronavirus cases, according to a Johns Hopkins University database. In a White House proclamation..., Donald Trump said he was restricting nearly all non-U.S. citizens from coming to the U.S. if they were physically present in Brazil during the 14-day period prior to travel. Green card holders, close relatives of U.S. citizens and flight crew members are exempt.... Vox recently reported that [Brazil's president Jair] Bolsonaro mishandled the outbreak by downplaying the seriousness, vocally opposing state governors' decisions to impose lockdown measures, pushing for businesses to reopen and personally attending anti-lockdown protests. The Brazilian president also touted the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, which has potentially lethal side effects. Many of his positions align with what Trump himself has championed in the U.S." Mrs. McC: The last time Brazil sent a rep to meet with Trump, the envoy was a coronavirus carrier. ~~~
~~~ Pedro Fonseca of Reuters: "Brazil daily coronavirus deaths were higher than fatalities in the United States for the first time over the last 24 hours, according to the country's Health Ministry. Brazil registered 807 deaths over the last 24 hours, whereas 620 died in the United States."
North Carolina. Dave Jamieson of the Huffington Post: "The hair salon SmartCuts reopened its doors in Wilkesboro, North Carolina, on Memorial Day weekend after a long closure due to the coronavirus. But ...a sign posted on the shop window [read]: 'Due to the number of Tyson employees who have tested positive for Covid19, and given the close contact experienced during our services, we are unable to serve Tyson employees....' The local Tyson poultry processing plant is one of the largest employers in the area. Like other poultry, beef and pork facilities around the country, it has become a hotbed for the coronavirus ― with 570 workers recently testing positive out of around 2,200... Amy McGinty, a ... 13-year Tyson employee said people look at her and her colleagues 'like a disease.... They're getting our food, but they won't service us,' McGinty told HuffPost." Mrs. McC: It's probably worth noting that hair salons are also coronavirus hot spots.
Presidential Race
Paul Krugman of the New York Times: "Last week Joe Biden made an off-the-cuff joke that could be interpreted as taking African-American votes for granted. It wasn't a big deal -- Biden, who loyally served Barack Obama, has long had a strong affinity with black voters, and he has made a point of issuing policy proposals aimed at narrowing racial health and wealth gaps. Still, Biden apologized. And in so doing he made a powerful case for choosing him over Donald Trump in November. You see, Biden, unlike Trump, is capable of admitting error.... In some ways Trump is a pitiful figure -- or would be, if his character flaws weren't leading to so many deaths.... In some ways Trump is a pitiful figure -- or would be, if his character flaws weren't leading to so many deaths."
This Twitter ad, released Saturday, is one of the many things that irritated Donald Trump this past weekend:
Nearly 100,000 lives have been lost, and tens of millions are out of work.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) May 24, 2020
Meanwhile, the president spent his day golfing. pic.twitter.com/H1BVNtgVjA
Congressional Race, California. Kevin McCarthy Pretends to Have Some Principles. Ally Mutnick of Politico: "House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is rescinding his endorsement of GOP congressional candidate Ted Howze after Politico uncovered dozens of derogatory social media posts from his accounts. 'In light of Mr. Howze's disappointing comments, Leader McCarthy has withdrawn his endorsement. As the Leader has previously stated, hateful rhetoric has no place within the Republican Party,' Drew Florio, a McCarthy spokesperson, said in a statement Monday."
Meet Bob & Doug. Christian Davenport of the Washington Post: "Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley are about to fly together in one of the most important launches NASA has attempted in years: a crewed test flight of SpaceX';s Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station, set for Wednesday, if the weather cooperates. On Monday, the Space Force's weather office at Cape Canaveral predicted a 60 percent chance weather would prevent a launch. The mission would be the first launch of NASA astronauts from U.S. soil since the space shuttle was retired in 2011, and the first by a private company of people to orbit." The Guardian has a related brief story here.
Forgotten Heroes. Katie Hafner of the New York Times: "They never met, but their early lives ran a strikingly similar course. They were both Chinese-American women who thwarted layers of prejudice and preconception to become World War II pilots. One died young, while transporting a fighter plane. The other lived to 89 and went on to become a scientist. Their names were Hazel Ying Lee and Maggie Gee, and they were WASPs, or Women Airforce Service Pilots. In 1942, as the Air Force faced a dearth of male pilots to sustain the war effort at home, the pilot Jacqueline Cochran persuaded the chief of the U.S. Army Air Force to recruit female pilots. More than 25,000 women applied. Only 1,830 were accepted into flight training. Of those, 1,074 completed the training."
Way Beyond the Beltway
U.K. Charlie Cooper of Politico: "A junior minister in Boris Johnson's government resigned on Tuesday over top aide Dominic Cummings' alleged breach of the U.K.'s lockdown guidelines, saying he could not 'in good faith' tell his constituents that the advisers' actions were justifiable. Douglas Ross, under secretary of state for Scotland, wrote to Johnson saying that the public reaction to reports of Cummings' 260-mile drive from London to Durham in late March demonstrated that the adviser's 'interpretation of the government guidance was not shared by the vast majority of people who have done what the government asked.'" ~~~
~~~ Simon Murphy of the Guardian: "Boris Johnson should sack Dominic Cummings over his 264-mile lockdown Durham trip, according to the chair of a leading doctors' association who has highlighted that medics are outraged at the actions of the prime minister's top aide. Dr Rinesh Parmar ... said Johnson's defence of his adviser risked undermining public trust and prompting people to use it as an excuse to break the rules themselves.... Downing Street is coming under increasing pressure over Cummings's behaviour, first revealed by a joint Guardian and Daily Mirror investigation, as the adviser now faces a possible police investigation.... One NHS doctor who works in a Covid-19 ward has pledged to resign by the end of the week if Cummings does not -- warning that others may follow suit." (Also linked yesterday.)
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Reader Comments (15)
Just so’s we’re clear, is it, or isn’t it okay for a president—or even a president*—to go golfing while bad shit is going on (especially if said president* is responsible for a huge pile of that bad shit)?
Just ask Fatty’s latest (fourth, fifth, sixth? I lost count...) Lie Secretary, the ever delightful Kayleigh whatshername.
According to the incredibly qualified and always truthful Ms. Whatshername, golfing while bad shit is going down is a terrible thing to be doing. She said so a while back when she brought up the horribly insensitive episode of that awful nee-groe, that President Obama person, who hit the links while his mooslim terr’ist pals were cutting off journalist Daniel Pearl’s head. In 2002.
Only problem, Obama wasn’t President then. Not even close. No one’s even sure he was golfing that day. But, hey, it makes a great story. That’s why Fatty hired her. That and her status as a brainless blond bimbo who would lie to Jesus on the cross for a half a buck.
https://mobile.twitter.com/yashar/status/846584836517179392?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E846584836517179392&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wonkette.com%2Fres%2Fcommunity%2Ftwitter_embed%2F%3Fiframe_id%3Dtwitter-embed-846584836517179392%26created_ts%3D1490676528.0%26screen_name%3Dyashar%26text%3DWATCH%253A%2BKayleigh%2BMcEnany%253A%2BObama%2Brushed%2Boff%2Bto%2Bgolf%2Bafter%2BDaniel%2BPearl%2Bwas%2Bbeheaded.%2B%250A%250APearl%2Bwas%2Bkilled%2Bin%2B2002.%2BObam%25E2%2580%25A6%2Bhttps%253A%252F%252Ft.co%252FCeD7OE9jBf%26id%3D846584836517179392%26name%3DYashar%2BAli%2B%25F0%259F%2590%2598
Definition: "Very good information": BS put out by anyone who agrees with my position
@Akhilleus: Since K-lee is a very serious person, she claims she merely mixed up Daniel Pearl & James Foley, even though their assassinations were in different places & were 12 years apart. (I'll bet you're always mixing up Lincoln & Garfield.) " Obama acknowledged weeks later in an NBC interview that he realised what a mistake it was to golf after talking to the families and 'listening to the pain that they were going through.'”
Strangely enough, Trump was able to pull himself together days after the Parkland shooting to go golfing nearby; (probably also) the day of the El Paso mass murder in August 2018 (he was "hanging out" at his golf club); on MLK Jr. Day 2018; hours after John McCain died AND during McCain's memorial service, which all living real presidents attended; on Good Friday 2017; when his Christian followers were in mourning; as Turkish-backed forces were executing Kurds thanks to Trump's "deal" with Erdogan; and while he was "monitoring" Hurricane Dorian so closely that he moved the storm to Alabama ("Sharpiegate").
Meat packers have had "covid-19 has exploded from under 1,600 a month ago to more than 7,000" cases that can be tracked by admission and public records. Nowhere in that article is the word "wage" mentioned; "conditions" is mentioned once. If Upton Sinclair walked into one of those places today, he'd recognize everything.
These assembly line factory require static and undynamic processing elements and staffing. https://www.vox.com/2020/5/4/21243636/meat-packing-plant-supply-chain-animals-killed. This article has some interesting tidbits about the processing cycle: gestation, farrowing, nurseries, and finishing barns are all used over a 292-311 day production cycle. There is no part of dynamic in this process. A pandemic, with its logarithmic growth and selection mechanisms, is the definition of a dynamic process. The best and the brightest who brought about no masks, no swabs, and no ventilators are the same MBA who brought about this system. All metrics, no art. The only variable that matters to these Sandbergs and Zuckerbergs of the food processing world is their annual salary. A dynamic and competitive environment is their Kryptonite.
And furthermore from another undynamic thinker Mitch Daniels (remember him from the Shrub admin?): https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-we-have-a-responsibility-to-open-purdue-university-this-fall/2020/05/25/da3b615c-9c62-11ea-ac72-3841fcc9b35f_story.html. Trust but verify. Old Mitch has forgotten the pertinent lessons of detente. His sinecure at Purdue is way past its expiration date.
The St. Louis Post Dispatch has an editorial with the headline:
"If the pandemic preparedness cupboard was bare, it was Trump's doing."
https://www.stltoday.com/opinion/editorial/editorial-if-the-pandemic-preparedness-cupboard-was-bare-it-was-trumps-doing/article_bd1bb8d6-7477-590d-af72-ae4e305de601.html
My favorite line: "Trump can lie; the numbers don't." and this editorial has those numbers in spades.
I was thinking, after reading Tom Nichols' piece (see above) how Trump has been taken apart, bit by bit, then put together again; analyzed, scrutinized, characterized ad infinitum. We certainly have, by this time, an accurate portrait of this sorry ass bastard. What, it appears, we are still trying to wrap our heads around is the many who herald him, who will vote for him once again, who will cheer him on.
When I was a child playing in the sand on the banks of Lake Michigan, a cousin taught me how to dig and dig and dig until I hit water and that, he said, came all the way from China. ( a ridiculous claim I knew not to be true, but I liked the story as much as I liked my cousin's attention).
There are those that recognize the lies, the deceptions, the bully tactics of this president* but they "like the story"––as one of his followers told a reporter, "I can relate to him–-he's one of us." A comrade in arms–-He says what They think, and the deeper He digs, who knows, They might just find that water–-all the way from China.
@ PD Pepe: Ah, yes, but the water will be contaminated with the Chinese virus.
P.S. Antipode. Of course I heard more or less the same story when I was a child. I wondered then exactly where in China I would come out. Of course, decades later I grew up to the Googles. And now I know. It turns out my answer (I grew up in the Miami, Florida area) is the Indian Ocean, west of Australia.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/whatever-the-crisis-republicans-want-another-tax-cut-for-the-rich/2020/05/25/96d0c6ac-9eb8-11ea-81bb-c2f70f01034b_story.html
I recall the payroll tax holiday proposed by the White House which went nowhere, but can't remember if this proposed cap gains heist has been covered here, so am linking it today.
Since cap gains affect less than 11% of what we used to call the middle class back when we had one and more that 50% of what we used to call the wealthy, who gains and who loses couldn't be more clear.
So Republican.
And on digging to China.
I was much older than I care to admit before I learned the word was not a three-syllable "an-ti-podes."
@Ken Winkes: I would have made it four syllables: an-ti-po-des, like the name of an ancient god who fought off (anti) an evil sea monster with his feet (pods) because the monster had bound his hands.
Oh wait, it turns out an-ti-po-des is right.
But I never heard the word antipode (which does have three syllables and sounds like a creepy-crawly critter to me) till today, so you're way smarter than I am.
Have to go dig in the "garden" (a/k/a "patch of rocky dirt, weeds & grasses"); maybe I'll get to the Indian Ocean. Hope I don't meet a creepy-crawly antipode or two along the way.
All the shenanigans we Americans have indulged in this long holiday weekend may see a bill coming due in a couple of weeks time, in early June. Wouldn't it be fitting to have "President" Trump deliver an eulogy on 14 June, Flag Day?
Bea,
Growing up as I did, only half-smart and with little cultural ballast to tie me to what educated people automatically knew, in their DNA as the current cliche has it, my flights of pronumciation fantasy were common.
I remember my embarrassment in my early teens when I learned the "b" in "subtle" was just there to trick me.
Still have trouble with 'synecdoche,' tho' Bernard De Voto beat me over the head with it fifty years ago.
@Ken Winkes: I think not knowing how to pronounce words you know & can use properly is cool.
My cousin grew up in Cuba. Her parents were American & British, and she was bilingual. After Castro took over Cuba, my aunt & uncle sent my cousin to live with us, and she went to school with me, where she was the resident know-it-all. But she couldn't properly pronounce many long or latinate words, & the other students (we were high school juniors & seniors) picked on her for mispronunciations of words most of us knew. Even tho I didn't much like her because she constantly competed with me & I wouldn't play that game, I defended her mispronunciations. She knew the meanings of the words she mispronounced because she read a lot, but in Spanish-speaking Cuba she never heard those words. I admired her for her reading. (Not so much maybe for her being smarter & prettier more worldly & generally more wonderful than I, on account of her repeated hints she was all those things.)
I think it was Akhilleus who forced me to double-check the meaning of "synecdoche." I definitely mispronounce it in my mind. I couldn't spell it if I didn't.
Bea,
Take your point about English spelling and its challenges.
When I was teaching our children here at home and professionally--as in where I took money for it, I made a game of mispronouncing words, that is, pronouncing them the way they were spelled, like sub-tle and k-nife. The kids liked it and it undoubtedly (with a "b") helped their spelling skills.
I also often supplied something more memorable--another game-- than the intended grammar or punctuation or even algebra lesson as a memory prompt to the lesson itself.
No surprise, the students frequently remembered the key, but not the lesson. The key was more fun.
Marie,
Thanks for setting me straight about that Kayleigh person. I just knew she was only kidding about which family that awful Obama had insulted. She, of course, like her fat, stupid, ignoramus of a boss is never wrong, never insulting, and never, like fatso, feels the need to apologize for anything, least of all a simple, politically expedient lie.
And there’s the rub, no? President Obama, acknowledging his faux pas in that instance, apologized to the family. As Professor Krugman points out, Biden apologized for his “you ain’t black” comment. Superior people like Trumpy and his bimbo Lie Secretary never apologize for anything. Why? They can’t. Apologies show weakness and lack of strongliness, or something. Don’t they?
I suppose they do. To the immature, insecure, nasty elapids slithering through the Trumpen dung heaps.
The ability to apologize when necessary signifies a serious and solid character. Inability to do so, well, welcome to the White House. Enjoy your short term of employment.
I see where the little king, with his characteristic Mussolini chin jut, has acknowledged that the Evil Keebler Elf is mentally disturbed, imbalanced, or otherwise unable to be trusted with important decisions.
Hmm...is that why he handed him the reins to the Justice Department? Also, and not to put too fine a point on it, wasn’t Beauregard B. Confederate the first to state what an immense piece of presidential timber was the Orange Menace? Perhaps he meant twig. In any event, Fatty now sez that Beauregard is something of an idiot whose thoughts must be given short shrift.
Thanks for clearing that up, Fatty. But what does it say about you that you hired a mental defective as the centerpiece of your cabinet and that that person thought you were such a catch?
Never mind. Sessions must have been rambling on about Obama. Right, Kayleigh?