Leap Day 2020
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
Darlene Superville & Zeke Miller of the AP: "The U.S. is banning travel to Iran in response to the outbreak of the new coronavirus and elevating travel warnings to regions of Italy and South Korea. Vice President Mike Pence announced the new restrictions and warnings as ... Donald Trump said 22 people in the U.S. have been stricken by the new coronavirus, of whom one has died and four are deemed 'very ill' and that additional cases are 'likely.'... Trump spoke a day after he denounced criticism of his response to the threat as a 'hoax' cooked up by his political enemies. Speaking at a rally in South Carolina he accused Democrats of 'politicizing' the coronavirus threat.... 'They tried the impeachment hoax. ... This is their new hoax,' Trump said of Democratic denunciations of his administration's coronavirus response. Trump said Saturday he was not trying to minimize the threat of the virus. 'Again, the hoax was used in respect to Democrats and what they were saying,' he said'" ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: @1:45 pm ET, Trump is to speak momentarily, after the death of a coronoavirus victim in Washington state. Let's see if he can get serious now & quit spouting insane conspiracy theories.
American Oversight: "Senior members of the Trump administration, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Defense Secretary Mark Esper, and then-National Security Adviser John Bolton had agreed that U.S. security assistance funding to Ukraine should 'continue as planned,' according to a new email from August released by the Department of Defense on Friday to American Oversight. The August 26, 2019, email from a senior career Pentagon official states that there was 'no ongoing interagency review process with respect to USAI [Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative],' and states clearly: 'Final decision rests with POTUS.'... Critically, the email appears to contradict the White House budget office's stated rationale for withholding the aid. In emails and formal apportionment 'footnotes' beginning on July 25, 2019, Office of Management and Budget officials repeatedly told the Defense Department that the Ukraine aid freeze was necessary to allow for an 'interagency process to determine the best use of such funds.' Administration officials had also been instructed to tell Congress that this was the reason for the delay of funding."
"The Pied Pipers of the Dirtbag Left Want to Lead Everyone to Bernie Sanders." Nellie Bowles of the New York Times: "As Mr. Sanders rises in the polls and claims strong showings in early states, a new set of media stars is on the rise, too.... They are on their way to becoming the socialist's answer to right-wing shock jock radio. Their primary targets, in evidence at that show in Iowa, are not the Republican Party or even Mr. Trump but rather centrist liberals, whom they see as the major obstacle to a workers' revolution. In blurring occasionally violent humor, jovial community meetups and radical politics, they are the Tea Party reborn for progressives, and for their fans the appeal is in a bawdy offensive balance to cautious mainstream liberal politics."
Coming to a Neighborhood Near You. Benjamin Siegel & Armando Garcia of ABC News: "... Mike Bloomberg's campaign on Saturday will begin a massive voter outreach push, with plans to hold more than 2,400 events across 30 states ahead of Super Tuesday, ABC News has learned. The mobilization drive, beginning as the rest of the Democratic field remained focused on the South Carolina primary, is a show of force meant to highlight the scale of Bloomberg's nationwide operation." Mrs. McC: I see this as less of a "show of force" than of a project that will be a boon to all Democratic candidates. This is where Bloomberg's utility to Democrats always has been. His candidacy per se is, at best, superfluous, and at worst, harmful to candidates who could oust Trump.
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New York Times: ";Stocks tumbled for a seventh consecutive day on Friday, with the S&P 500 index falling about 0.8 percent, bringing its loss for the week to more than 11 percent. It was the worst weekly decline for stocks since the 2008 financial crisis. In early October that year, the S&P 500 fell about 18 percent. The Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 1 percent on Friday. The sell-off was fueled mostly by worry that measures to contain the virus would hamper corporate profits and economic growth, and fears that the outbreak could get worse. The selling has in a matter of days dragged stock benchmarks around the world into a correction -- a drop of 10 percent or more that is taken as a measure of extreme pessimism.... The Federal Reserve chair, Jerome H. Powell, moved to soothe investors on Friday, issuing a statement reaffirming that the central bank will use its tools and 'act as appropriate to support the economy.'" An updated CNBC report, an earlier version of which was linked yesterday afternoon, is here. ~~~
~~~ "The Party of Ideas" (TM Lemieux). Jeff Stein & Ashley Parker of the Washington Post: "Trump administration officials are holding preliminary conversations about economic responses to the coronavirus, as the stock market fell sharply again on Friday amid international fears about the outbreak, according to five people with knowledge of the planning. Among the options being considered are pursuing a targeted tax cut package, these people said. They have also discussed whether the White House should lean even harder on the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates, though the central bank on Friday afternoon said it would step in if necessary. No decisions at the White House have been reached on these options, and officials stressed conversations remained preliminary and extremely fluid." Mrs. McC: Huh. Not much about maybe fighting the virus itself. ~~~
~~~ Scott Lemieux in LG&$: "... people getting sick and dying is something that can't be easily propagandized away, and markets are not going to be reassured unless the Trump administration demonstrates some actual ability to address the pandemic. Needless to say, this is impossible because the administration is not merely devoid of but actively opposed to administrative competence and expertise, so here we are."
Nancy Cook & Matthew Choi of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Friday night tried to cast the global outbreak of the coronavirus as a liberal conspiracy intended to undermine his first term, lumping it alongside impeachment and the Mueller investigation. He blamed the press for acting hysterically about the virus, which has now spread to China, Japan, South Korea, Iran, Italy and the U.S, and he downplayed its dangers, saying against expert opinion it was on par with the flu. 'The Democrats are politicizing the coronavirus. They're politicizing it,' he said. 'They don't have any clue. They can't even count their votes in Iowa. No, they can't. They can't count their votes. One of my people came up to me and said, "Mr. President, they tried to beat you on Russia, Russia, Russia." That did not work out too well. They could not do it. They tried the impeachment hoax.' Then Trump called the coronavirus 'their new hoax.'... By undermining the news reporting on the virus and by trying to hold liberals responsible for a potential public health crisis that has little to do with politics, Trump did what he often does best: He sought to deflect blame at a time when many Americans sought leadership and scientific facts. After Trump had downplayed the risks of coronavirus, he reassured supporters that the White House was 'magnificently organized' in fighting it. In fact, Trump's administration spent the week jockeying among themselves to lead the response, while the stock market tumbled with losses not seen since the global financial crisis in 2008." ~~~
~~~ Will Steakin of ABC News: "... Donald Trump attacked Democrats at a rally in North Charleston, South Carolina, on the eve of the state's crucial primary -- all while his administration works to tackle the growing fear surrounding the novel coronavirus. The president defended his administration's response to the coronavirus threat, blasting Democrats for 'politicizing' the issue and calling it 'their new hoax' -- adding that 'they can't even count the votes in Iowa.' The president also compared annual flu deaths to the coronavirus, saying 'the press is in hysteria mode.'" Mrs. McC: This would be just another round of Trump lies if it weren't for the fact that his disinformation campaign poses an epic health hazard. Some of those people laughing at the "hoax" will die. And they might kill you and me, too.
Annie Karni of the New York Times: Speaking at CPAC, "Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, on Friday blamed the media for exaggerating the seriousness of coronavirus because 'they think this will bring down the president, that's what this is all about.'... The news media has [have!] been covering the global spread of coronavirus for months. But Mr. Mulvaney claimed that the news media was too preoccupied covering impeachment, he said, 'because they thought it would bring down the president.'" Mulvaney also complained that the press wasn't covering Trump's great relationship with his youngest son, even those Melania Trump has jealously guarded the child's privacy. Here's a Hill story. (Also linked yesterday.)
But for [Democrats] to try to take a pandemic and seemingly hope that it comes here, and kills millions of people so that they could end Donald Trump's streak of winning, is a new level of sickness. You know, I don't know if this is coronavirus or Trump derangement syndrome, but these people are infected badly. -- Donald Trump, Jr., on "Fox & Friends," Friday
I don't have to tell you that there is no Democratic official anywhere who has expressed the hope that a pandemic kills millions of people. Junior should be held to account. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie
Peter Sullivan of the Hill: "Democratic lawmakers expressed frustration Friday with the Trump administration's response to the coronavirus, saying they left a closed-door briefing by top health officials with many unanswered questions." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Adam Cancryn & David Liu of Politico: "Several House Republicans walked out of a closed-door coronavirus briefing Friday with Trump health officials in protest after a senior Democrat blasted the Trump administration's handling of the response effort. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) kicked off the briefing sharply criticizing the administration as disorganized and lacking urgency in combating the coronavirus, lawmakers said. Her speech frustrated Republicans and some Democrats assembled to hear from the slate of officials from the CDC, NIH and State Department.... [Dr. Tony] Fauci emphatically denied reports that the White House is preventing him from speaking publicly about the virus. Vice President Mike Pence's office had asked him to delay pre-scheduled television hits and seek renewed clearance to do the appearances in the wake of Pence's appointment as response leader, he said." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ A Muzzle by Any Other Name.... Joe Concha of the Hill: "Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.) on Friday said the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases was told to 'stand down' and not appear on five Sunday morning talk shows to discuss the coronavirus. Garamendi told MSNBC's Hallie Jackson that Anthony Fauci was scheduled to do all five major Sunday talk shows, but says Fauci canceled the appearances after Vice President Pence took over the administration's response to the disease. Trump on Wednesday named Pence as the official overseeing the government's response. 'I can repeat what he said, he said, "I was not muzzled. However, I was to go on the Sunday talk shows five of them. The vice president's office then took over the control of this situation, and told me to stand down, not to do those shows,'" Garamendi said, quoting Fauci. 'Now, you can draw your own conclusions whether he was muzzled or not, but clearly he was scheduled to do Sunday talk shows and he was not to proceed with that,' the congressman added." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Rep. Ted Lieu, speaking on CNN, said he asked mike pence if pence thought the virus was a "hoax," and pence refused to answer. pence is so afraid of angering his lord & master that every federal professional must get pence's approval before saying "coronavirus," yet pence also is so petrified that he can't say one definitive thing about the virus. There's your government's "response." ~~~
~~~ In case you're wondering what-all mike has been doing since he took a break from overseeing the coronavirus crisis to headline a Florida Republican fundraiser: ~~~
~~~ Eric Kleefeld of Media Matters: "Vice President Mike Pence, who ... Donald Trump has placed in charge of overseeing the government's response to the coronavirus outbreak, appeared Friday afternoon on The Rush Limbaugh Show -- which has been the source of a mixture of conspiracy theories, denialism, and other misinformation about the virus.... Kicking off the week on Monday, Limbaugh falsely claimed that the novel coronavirus strain known as COVID-19 is actually just' the common cold,' but added that it 'probably is a [Chinese Communist] laboratory experiment that is in the process of being weaponized' as part of 'an effort to bring down Trump' through negative media coverage. Limbaugh then only dug in further on Tuesday, downplaying the potential impact of coronavirus in the U.S.... He later went on to claim that the ... media was only hoping for [the virus] to sufficiently evolve to become [a major threat]: '... They would love for the coronavirus to be this deadly strain that wipes everybody out, so they could blame Trump for it.' Limbaugh did not repeat or even acknowledge any of these conspiracy theories during the interview with Pence -- nor did Pence mention that Limbaugh had been spreading them." ~~~
~~~ But Wait! mike has a great new helper: ~~~
~~~ Travis Gettys of the Raw Story: "Vice President Mike Pence's press secretary Katie Miller was placed in charge of all government communications regarding coronavirus. Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney sent out a government-wide email ordering all official communications to go through Miller, who recently married White House senior adviser Stephen Miller, reported CNN.... Jessica Ditto, [Pence's] deputy director of communications, had initially been handling government messaging." Mrs. McC: Waldman Miller is 28 years old; her professional experience is as a flack. In her new job, she will be telling experts on the virus what they can share with the public (maybe her undergrad degree in ag econ will help, I don't know). I'm sure when mike appointed her to scrub their public reports & statements, he was being true to his prom'se "to let the health care experts lead" uppermost in his mind, as he told Rushbo.
AND Corona beer takes a hit.
Michael Crowley of the New York Times: "President Trump announced on Friday that he intended to nominate Representative John Ratcliffe, Republican of Texas, as his director of national intelligence, choosing someone he considered last summer before senior Republicans in Congress deemed him unqualified for the job. Mr. Ratcliffe is a vocal supporter of the president who serves on the House Intelligence Committee. If confirmed, he would replace Richard Grenell, whom Mr. Trump put in charge of American intelligence agencies this month on an acting basis. The job has been vacant since Dan Coats stepped down on Aug. 15.... It is unclear whether Mr. Ratcliffe could be confirmed by the Senate. When Mr. Trump floated his name last summer, some Republicans, including Senator Richard M. Burr of North Carolina, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told White House officials that Mr. Ratcliffe was too partisan for the position, according to people familiar with the discussions." em> Politico's story is here. ~~~
~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: So maybe Trump tapped Grenell -- a totally inappropriate choice -- to inoculate Ratcliffe, a completely inappropriate choice. What's the difference between "totally" and "completely"? Nothing.
** Maria Sachetti & Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "A federal appeals court in California halted the Trump administration's 'Remain in Mexico' immigration policy on Friday, a blow to the president's restrictive immigration agenda that cripples one of the government's approaches to curbing migration across the U.S. southern border. The program -- officially known as the Migrant Protection Protocols, or MPP -- called for pushing asylum seekers back into Mexico to await their U.S. asylum hearings, part of an effort to limit migrant access to U.S. soil and to lessen a record migration surge among Central American families. More than 470,000 parents and children crossed into the United States last fiscal year, and most were quickly freed into the country to await U.S. immigration court hearings after they claimed asylum.... The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 to uphold a lower-court's injunction on MPP, saying that the policy 'is invalid in its entirety due to its inconsistency with' federal law, and 'should be enjoined in its entirety.'" An NBC News story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)
Josh Gerstein of Politico: "A federal appeals court has turned down a lawsuit claiming that ... Donald Trump's luxury hotel in Washington, D.C., is unfairly undermining the business of other venues in the city. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday against a lawsuit a D.C. wine bar filed in 2017, claiming it was losing business to the Trump International Hotel because some were seeking to use their dollars to win favor with the president." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ CREW: "President Trump's unprecedented decision to retain his business interests while serving in the White House set the stage for a deluge of conflicts of interests between the government and the Trump Organization. From the beginning of President Trump's administration, CREW has endeavored to track these conflicts, which pit President Trump's personal and financial interests against those of the nation as a whole, and this week, President Trump reached a new, disgraceful milestone: He has racked up 3,000 conflicts of interest during his time in office." --s
Jessica Gresko & Eric Tucker of the AP: "In a setback for Democrats in Congress, a federal appeals court ruled Friday that judges have no role to play in the subpoena fight between the House and ... Donald Trump over the testimony of high-ranking administration officials. The decision undoes a lower court ruling that would have forced former White House counsel Don McGahn to appear before Congress. It is likely to doom efforts to get other high-ranking officials to testify in House investigations of Trump. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued the 2-1 decision. Lawmakers could ask the full appeals court to weigh in or appeal to the Supreme Court." ~~~
~~~ Dahlia Lithwick of Slate: "If that ruling is allowed to stand, it will mean that going forward, disputes between Congress and the White House are to be resolved in favor of the White House.... Under the guise of staying out of it, the appeals court just blessed the White House's claim that it is beyond the reach of Congress -- not just for McGahn's subpoena, but for any future such attempts at oversight.... It bears mentioning that throughout the impeachment trial the president's attorneys insisted that subpoenas for executive branch witnesses should have been handled in court. And the court now claims the disputes are non-justiciable.
Mafia Don Gets His Biden "Investigation". Bermet Talant of the Kyiv Post: "U.S. President Donald Trump failed to make Ukraine investigate his Democratic rival, former U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden. Now, a former Ukrainian prosecutor general [and usual idiot Viktor Shokin], whose allegations underpinned Trump's efforts, has succeeded: He managed to get two criminal probes opened against Biden. He did it through multiple appeals to a Ukrainian court. However, his victory is largely a legal technicality and is unlikely to lead to any serious investigation.... If that wasn't enough, the former prosecutor general claims that Biden could be linked to his alleged poisoning with mercury last year. In an interview with [Rudy] Giuliani, broadcast on the conservative One America News network, Shokin claimed he died twice from the poisoning and was resuscitated." --s ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Bear in mind that a guy who says Joe Biden may have tried to poison him is Rudy's main source for "evidence" that Joe was engaged in corrupt acts in Ukraine.
Mujib Mashal of the New York Times: "The United States is expected to sign a peace deal with the Taliban insurgency on Saturday that for the first time after two decades of grinding warfare would lay out the prospect of a final withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan. The signing in Doha, Qatar, is seen as a vital step toward negotiating a more sweeping peace deal that could end the insurgency altogether, after years of unrelenting violence that took the lives of more than 3,500 Americans and coalition troops and tens of thousands of Afghans since the U.S. invasion in 2001." ~~~
~~~ Update. New Lede: "The United States signed a deal with the Taliban on Saturday that sets the stage to end America's longest war -- the nearly two-decade-old conflict in Afghanistan that began after the Sept. 11 attacks, killed tens of thousands of people, vexed three White House administrations and left mistrust and uncertainty on all sides." CNN's story is here.
John Hudson of the Washington Post: "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo repeatedly clashed Friday with Democratic lawmakers who criticized him for taking weeks to appear before Congress following the killing of Iran's top military commander and then truncating his time on Capitol Hill to speak to a conservative political conference.... 'It is shameful' that 'you are going to talk to a special interest group,' while only giving two hours to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.).... Pompeo conceded Iran has 'enriched [uranium] to a higher level than they did when we took office.' But on the killing of Iranian Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, Pompeo insisted the decision has made Americans more safe, despite State Department warnings about traveling to Iraq, the addition of thousands of more troops in the Middle East and beefed up security for U.S. diplomats around the world."
AP: "The House judiciary committee is launching a wide-ranging inquiry into the attorney general, William Barr, and the justice department, demanding briefings, documents and interviews with 15 officials as it tries to determine whether there has been improper political interference in federal law enforcement. The committee chairman, Jerry Nadler, on Friday sent Barr a letter listing a series of matters that the committee finds 'deeply troubling', including Barr's involvement in the case of ... Roger Stone.... Nadler is also questioning Barr about his involvement in other cases related to friends and associates of Trump and about internal investigations into department employees who investigated Trump after the 2016 election."
Presidential Race
Reid Epstein & Adriana Ramic of the New York Times: "The fourth state on the Democratic presidential nominating calendar, South Carolina is the first opportunity for a critical mass of black voters to weigh in. For months, as he's struggled elsewhere, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. has been pointing to South Carolina as the place his fortunes would turn around."
The New York Times live-updated developments in the Democratic presidential race Friday. The Washington Post's live updates for Friday are here.
Sally Goldenberg & Erin Durkin of Politico: "Mike Bloomberg espoused a bit of revisionist history over his role in extending city term limits Friday morning. The former New York City mayor blamed the municipal rule-change, which he conceived in 2008 so he could run for a third term, on the City Council during a wide-ranging MSNBC interview.... It was a questionable description for those familiar with the term limits fight in New York. Instead, they recall a pitched battle in which Bloomberg lobbied fiercely for a chance to serve a third term, getting City Council members to back his plan to reverse the well-established two-term ceiling for elected officials, and wooing business and media leaders in the effort. 'It was one of the most profoundly undemocratic things I have ever seen in my many years involved in New York City government,' said Randy Mastro, who represented plaintiffs in a lawsuit that unsuccessfully tried to block the term limits change.... Bloomberg's immense wealth aided the effort, and he enlisted nonprofit groups that received his money to lend their support. One nonprofit had about 20 of its employees testify in favor of letting the mayor run again."
Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "Former Vice President Joe Biden admitted Friday that his recent claims of being arrested during a congressional delegation trip to South Africa in the 1970s were false. Biden has faced scrutiny over the claims, made repeatedly over the past few weeks, that he was arrested with former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Andrew Young 'on the streets of Soweto,' a township in Johannesburg, attempting to see imprisoned anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela." In the new version of the story, Biden says officials at a South African airport tried to force him to go through a door marked "whites only," and they detained him when he tried to pass through a different door with black members of the delegation.
Zach Montellaro & Holly Otterbein of Politico: "The Iowa state Democratic Party has completed its partial recount of the Feb. 3 presidential caucuses, and the result hasn't changed: Pete Buttigieg still has a very narrow advantage over Bernie Sanders in state delegate equivalents. The state party announced Thursday evening that it recounted results in 23 precincts that were requested by both campaigns, and Buttigieg leads Sanders by roughly one state delegate equivalent, a difference of about four hundredths of a percentage point." (Also linked yesterday.)
Svea Herbst-Bayliss of Reuters: "Hedge fund Elliott Management Corp has amassed a stake in Twitter Inc ... and is pushing for changes, including removal of the social media company's chief executive, Jack Dorsey, two people familiar with the matter said on Friday.... Elliott, founded by billionaire [rightwing GOP mega donor] Paul Singer, will be seeking to install its own nominees to Twitter's eight-member board when three of the company's directors stand for election at its upcoming annual shareholder meeting, the sources said." --safari: I'm guessing conservatives want Dorsey out because he recently banned political ads from the platform.
Donie O'Sullivan of CNN: "Andrew Walz calls himself a 'proven business leader' and a 'passionate advocate for students.' Walz, a Republican from Rhode Island, is running for Congress with the tagline, 'Let's make change in Washington together,' or so his Twitter account claimed. Earlier this month, Walz's account received a coveted blue checkmark from Twitter as part of the company's broader push to verify the authenticity of many Senate, House and gubernatorial candidates currently running for office. Twitter has framed this effort as key to helping Americans find reliable information about politicians in the leadup to the 2020 election. But there's just one problem: Walz does not exist. The candidate is the creation of a 17-year-old high school student from upstate New York...." --s
Beyond the Beltway
Oregon. Matthew Chapman of RawStory: "On Thursday, Democrats in the Oregon House of Representatives voted to subpoena 11 Senate Republican members who walked off their jobs and fled the state capitol in order to block consideration of a carbon pricing bill.... Republicans' absence is due to a quirk in the rules of the legislature. Democrats command majorities in both chambers, but Republicans have enough members that if they walk out, the legislature has no quorum and cannot move forward with debate on anything. Incredibly, this is the second straight term in which Oregon Republicans have employed this tactic to stop climate legislation." --s
News Ledes
Washington Post: "California reported its second case of community transmission of the coronavirus Friday, and Oregon and Washington announced others just hours later, providing fresh evidence that the deadly virus is circulating in the United States." ~~~
~~~ The New York Times' latest live updates on developments in the coronavirus epidemic are here.
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Reader Comments (18)
The eminently repulsive Mick Mulvaney whines that the media are indulging in exaggerated claims about the deadliness of the coronavirus. Good boy, Mick. Reminds me of one of those joke epitaphs: “Died of a cold. Nothing serious”. And speaking of jokes...here we have the Orange Menace truly living up to that moniker by downplaying, just like his chief of crap, the seriousness of this pathogen, crying that Democrats are “politicizing” the whole thing.
Seems to me that that particular course of action, telling people not to worry about the consequences of catching a deadly virus in order to win votes, is a textbook example of politicization. It’s like a bartender loading up customers with three or four for the road before they get in their cars to drive home, snockered. “C’mon, have a couple more doubles. What could happen?”
And speaking of irresponsible, Junior, in many ways the most reprehensible reptile of the entire Trump Crime Family, going on TV to charge Democrats with fervently hoping for the death of millions purely to “bring down” his fat fuck of a father, is off the scale. These assholes epitomize solipsism in ways simply never seen seen outside of serial killers.
The idea that you and your dad are such immensely important figures in world history that opponents would plot to kill millions of innocent victims in order to cause you problems...well, what can you even say?
And I don’t care if he “knows better”. Just coming up with something so egregiously irresponsible then spreading it around bespeaks a shocking degeneracy. But the bots love him.
And you can bet that if this virus invaded DC, Fatty and his family of treasonous, lying moochers would happily step over bodies in the street to get the hell out of Dodge.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/28/coronavirus-truth-myths-flu-covid-19-face-masks
An answer to "It's no worse than a cold."
Trump calls C-19 "Democrats latest hoax" while Oregon reports it's first unknown source case and California it's second.
A couple thoughts this Saturday morning:
Re: The Party of Ideas
I'm guessing the "tax" scam is going to turn into a Dubya-inspired program sending everyone $150 checks right before the election in November.
Re: Coronavirus
I'm no Oracle, but I see that my years of following conservative media has provided a pretty accurate prediction of their playbook as to how this debacle would unfold. Or, maybe, Rush Limbaugh is an avid Reality Chex reader, because I see he picked up on my idea that the virus is actually a "Chinese op" to bring down Drumpf while Dear Leader declares it a Democrat "hoax". They haven't claimed any paid actors yet, but I didn't foresee that Freddo would go on Fox "News" and claim the Dems are rooting for "millions" to be killed.
Adumbrations of much worse election ratfucking to come.
As he’s already done several times, and will no doubt do again, because he’s got nothing better to do (pandemic on our doorstep, markets in the crapper...), Fatty dragged his rotund bulk to South Carolina in order to screw with a Democratic primary.
While there, he orders the MAGA droolers to giddyup down to the polls and vote for the Democrat he thinks he can most easily beat, because South Carolina has open primaries where anyone can vote (I guess vote suppression is only necessary when you want to make sure Democrats don’t vote).
No dirty tricks he won’t try. But this sort of garden variety ratfucking is nothing compared to what his pals Putin and Zuckerberg are up to. Plus, confederate have so many other dirty tricks to pull when it comes to election stealing and screwing the other side.
Democrats are like complete tyros, walking down the mean streets of Trump’s anti-democratic hell hole, surrounded by pickpockets, cutpurses, throat cutters, street walking media sirens, and MAGA monsters.
Welcome to the jungle.
Much worse to come.Je désespère.
When C-19 is confirmed down here I'll be very surprised if it is anywhere besides Orlando. One of the busiest international airports in the country and home of the most visited tourist attractions in the state.
@Bobby Lee: A safe bet. Nowhere else in the world is more packed with sniffly little kids coming from far and wide to wipe their noses with their adorable pudgy hands before they touch everything. The only hope: we all pray with mike that Donnie is correct and a miracle will make the virus disappear. In the Magic Kingdom maybe?
Truism: If a comment begins with the word "adumbrations," you don't have to scroll down to the end of the comment to know who wrote it. I hadda look up "adumbration."
Take a break: Have a Kit Kat and look at Barry Blitt's newest illustrations of what he calls "Looney Dems: Presidential Wannabes, cartooned."
https://www.newyorker.com/cartoons/blitts-kvetchbook/looney-dems-presidential-wannabes-cartoonified
Break over:
Evan Osnos gives us a thorough rundown on the Trump machinations re: this virus but he starts out by reminding us of the 1918 Spanish Flu––a virus that killed more people than all the military deaths of both World Wars combined and how false information and assurances from the government assured its spread.
"In 2017, approaching the hundredth anniversary of the Spanish-flu pandemic, John M. Barry wrote that “the most important lesson from 1918 is to tell the truth. Though that idea is incorporated into every preparedness plan I know of, its actual implementation will depend on the character and leadership of the people in charge when a crisis erupts.” By the end of February, as the virus reached farther into the United States, Trump was squaring off against an unfamiliar kind of problem, one that is largely immune to the willful disregard for the facts. A germ is insensitive to the powers of spin. It is a problem that can’t be fudged by scribbling with a Sharpie on a map. How the Administration performs is likely to be a historic test of not only its capacity to function but also of the government’s resilience after three years of Trump’s leadership. Regardless of political orientation, every American should be rooting for the Trump Administration to get this right."
I think Trump has finally met his Waterloo––as Evan says, "A germ is insensitive to the powers of spin" which is a polite way of describing the thousand and one lies this crook has showered us with. He's met his match and its flame burns bigly.
PD,
As I mentioned the other day, the science haters and deniers arrayed in the Trump camp against facts and reality will have a much rougher go of it if the coronavirus takes off. Unlike global warming, which they routinely scoff at, it's a lot harder to run that same con while people are dropping, whole cities are quarantined, surgical masks are tougher to come by than honesty at a Trump rally, and financial markets demonstrate investors’ faith in Fatty’s ability to work miracles by crashing like the surf at Waimea.
The timeline of a pathogen, unlike that of global warming can be seen in real time, advancing across the planet on an hourly basis. No doubt this 28 year old hired by the half-pence will be able to work spin magic for the Fatty administration. Hey, they fired most of the experts and muzzled the rest. Gotta try some new way to lie their way out of this.
I’m sure the virus will go along with this latest con.
Rest assured, whenever it’s over, Fatty will take full credit for saving those unaffected. The dead people he’ll blame on Democrats and the media. What he won’t be able to do is pretend it away.
Akhilleus,
Maybe time for my rough memory of some Stephen Crane pith :
"A man said to the Universe, Sir, I exist.
However, replied the Universe, that has not created in me a sense of obligation."
--from that rough memory of the serialized title of an old Harry Harrison sf novel.
Mike Huckabee offered a solution to the coronavirus problem on Laura Ingraham's show last night. "He [Trump] could personally suck the virus out of every one of the 60,000 people in the world and suck it out of their lungs, swim to the bottom of the ocean and spit it out, and he would be accused of pollution for messing up the ocean, if he did that."
If the presidunce is able to be rid of pence over his incompetence
regarding the coronavirus, I'm thinking he will want Stephen Miller
as his vice P. They'd make a great team.
And would it be naughty if I spread the word to trumpbots that face
masks won't work but I have a solution for them. A plastic bag over
the head and tied around the neck for at least 2 days. They'll believe
any stupid thing they hear. If only I knew someone on Fox News.
Lara Miller, Ex-ST Dept for Afghanistan / Pakistan, now Director of Asia programs @CrisisGroup (@LaurelMillerICG) has a very good thread on twitter analyzing the Taliban agreement.
The actual agreement is about 3 pages. As near as I can tell, it says little, has no actual plan other than "we're outta here", lotta we hope you all will play nice language and I suspect paves the way for the Taliban to control the "new" government. So there go any rights for women in Afghanistan.
https://www.state.gov/agreement-for-bringing-peace-to-afghanistan/#.XlqIqcHuTxA.twitter
Ken,
Good one. I’ve only read one Harrison novel, “Make Room”, which was tortured into the movie “Soylent Green”. It’s amazing how prescient certain sci-fi writers can be. I remembered that Harrison made some predictions about world populations in the book. I couldn’t recall the numbers so I looked it up. These numbers must have seemed outrageous back in the sixties (I read it in the seventies), but he was almost spot on. He predicted a world population of 7 billion (actual 2019 population, 7.7 billion). US population, in the book, 344 million (actual population, 2019, 329 million).
None but the most dystopian minded writers could have predicted Trump, but here we are. World population skyrocketing, global temperatures shooting up, and a science denying, fact averse moron in charge.
Anonymous,
Let's see now.
Human rights for women, for anyone, anywhere, or the Pretender's reelection and more attacks on minoritites, the poor and more tax cuts for the rich?
Not a tough choice for Republicans.
Another "win." They just keep coming.
Why would any sentient being expect anything else?
I wonder if the Oregon Republicans would vote for this climate change solution?