Thursday’s Forum
Hangin' round.
Steven L. Taylor
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Thursday, May 7, 2020
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137 comments
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored
A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
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from the Guardian:
Coronavirus survivors banned from joining the military
Apparently, DoD believes that COVID-19 does sufficient damage that even after recovery, there is a disability.
To me, the implications can be far-reaching. We are at 1.3 million cases now with a lot more on the horizon. The recruiting pool just shrunk a whole lot.
7K+ active duty have been diagnosed. Will there be cases made for medical discharges?
I suspect this policy will change in the end but I found it astonishing that it came so soon.
Live and Let Die plays as Donald Trump visits mask factory without a mask – video
Live and Let Die… I want to shake the hand of the factory worker who put that on.
The Florida headline of the day-
Whoops: Florida man backs Cadillac into, and on top of two parked cars
Trump Taps Point Man to Remove Pentagon Officials Seen as Disloyal
Also known as Political Commissars, or political officers. Another feature we are bringing in from the old Soviet Union.
Maybe Trump got the idea from Putin:
In Soviet echo, Putin gives Russian army a political wing
So on point for Trump
@MarkedMan thanks for yesterday’s recommendation of Zero Effect — just what I needed, and I’m sure that I’ll be returning to it again at some point as it certainly merits a second viewing.
And thanks to everyone for their recommendations! I’ve got more than enough to get me through the next several weeks.
@Bill: Annnnnd, it’s a Cadillac.
Revealed: Amazon told workers paid sick leave law doesn’t cover warehouses
Trump Ignores Barr, Asks Supreme Court to Destroy Entire ACA
And from the White House.gov transcript:
30 million Americans have lost their jobs and with it millions lost access to their insurance plan, many can only get healthcare through the ACA, If they can even afford to do that,we’re in the middle of a pandemic that killed more Americans last month than Vietnam, and you’re going to go to the supreme court and say hey let’s take insurance away from tens of millions of people right now.
@Teve: trump lies and we die. But first we get to go bankrupt.
@OzarkHillbilly:
It’s the 20% unsure that caught my eye. And 11% of postgrads! Who are these people? Is there really someone wondering: well, if Trump can double the number of kids in cages then I’d just have to support him, but if he can’t then perhaps we were better off under Obama after all. Difficult to say.
@OzarkHillbilly:
It’s incredible that it isn’t higher. The question isn’t quite the same as Reagan’s “Are you better off?”–where a yes answer would be a reasonable response for many individuals. It asks whether the country is better off. That it isn’t is very close to being an objective fact. That’s the power of the Keyes constant in a nutshell.
According to the Associated Press, there are two reasons Trump won’t wear a mask. The first is that he believes it sends the wrong message. He wants to focus on the economy, not health, and wearing a mask would suggest he’s focusing on health.
The second reason is vanity. He fears he would look silly. He also fears an image of him masked would appear in negative ads.
Given how thoroughly unpleasant-looking Trump is–the orange skin, the porcine eyes, the flab, the ludicrously sculpted hair–why worry about a mask?
@CSK: All is vanity.
Asked and answered.
@Kylopod: As Kit pointed out above, making the right people suffer is all it takes for some.
@CSK:
Keep in mind that this is an actual portrait of Trump.
(In fairness, that portrait is from the ’80s when he did in fact look considerably better than he does now–but it was still, shall we say, a marked improvement on his actual appearance even back then.)
In a way this is a perfect microcosm of Trump’s delusional self-image. It raises the question of whether he really sees himself this way, or knows he’s ugly but thinks he can simply bullshit his way into making people think otherwise–though that assumption is in itself a profound delusion.
@Teve:
Trump once said that when he looked in the mirror, he saw a 35-year-old. He should have his sight checked.
@Kylopod:
I can’t decide if he actually believes he’s a handsome young stud or that he can bullshit other people into believing it.
@CSK: The fact that Trump thinks that that hair and the orange skin looks good (and has clearly thought so for years) should have been disqualifying as it shows such ridiculously poor judgment (and I am only semi-joking).
@Teve: It’s a purely political move, motivated by (1) continued hatred of anything Obama touched, and (2) the belief that flogging Obamacare will play well with his base. I don’t think it would be hard for Biden to turn around and explain exactly how the ACA is going to keep people alive during this pandemic. How much an impact that will have on Trump’s most dedicated supporters…?
@Kylopod:
I was thinking the same thing about the major difference in focus between “country” versus “you” in that question. I hope someone does the polling on that.
I expect the numbers could widely vary between the two questions (even controlling for C19). I believe the Country is worse off (and felt that pre C19). Despite that, personally, I’m lucky enough to be far better off than I was 4 years ago in a number of ways.
@Steven L. Taylor: As I said the other day, the whole Trump physical package — ridiculous comb-over, baggy suits, bizarre pseudo-tan, inability to tie a tie, duck-like posture, and of course, his diet — is not only the portrait of bad judgment, but of someone who won’t listen to anyone who might try to help him.
“although it is poor by Western standards, Guatemala is classified by the international monetary fund as a middle-income country, the average person is about 50% wealthier than in next door Honduras. In spite of this, the state has repeatedly proved incapable of meeting the most basic needs of the population. like Jose the teenage Hitman, many of the country’s children are slowly starving. Half of those under 5 suffer from chronic malnutrition, the fourth-highest rate in the world. Nowhere in Latin America comes close to this figure. In Haiti which is the region’s closest thing to a failed State, the rate is half as high. The reason the government has failed to fix this and other problems is that it collect pitifully small amounts of tax. Public spending amounts to only about 12% of gross domestic product, the lowest in Latin America, where the average is over 20%. Successive presidents have tried to raise taxes each time having their reforms blocked or diluted by a private sector that seems allergic to paying its fair share. Guatemala has turned into a do-it-yourself economy, in which public services have withered away and been replaced by private contractors. This applies even in public security. A cheerful man with gleaming gold tooth and an even shinier pump-action shotgun guards the hotel where I’m staying, hoisting his weapon up onto his shoulder to open the door for guests as they come and go. Down the road, a teenager brandishes a rifle that looks older than he is, as he stands guard outside of florist shop. Although the crime rate is sky-high, it is rare to see police patrols, even in the capital. What you do see absolutely everywhere are heavily armed private security guards. A few blocks from where I am staying, a gun shop, Armas, advertisers its wares on a billboard featuring a giant glock handgun, which points directly into the next door, a brightly-painted nursery for children aged between 2 and 6. across the country, private security guards outnumber the police by 5 to 1. Anyone with money can buy more than enough firepower to outgun the authorities.”
-Tom Wainwright
Very small government, low low taxes, guns everywhere… That place must be a paradise.
@Kingdaddy: An excellent point.
@OzarkHillbilly: In fairness, 17 is a lot of pages.
@CSK:
One of his spiritual predecessors said people will sooner believe a big lie than a small one.
@Kingdaddy:
But that would require Trump to admit that he needs help.
I have people in my Facebook feed, arguing that cloth masks cause a dangerous buildup of CO2, which could lead to people passing out. Which explains, I suppose, all of those doctors who collapse in the middle of surgery.
This pandemic is depressing.
I see a really big problem ahead.
Epidemics of new diseases are bound to continue, and perhaps become far more common. As we’ve seen, they will affect the whole world. Therefore there should exist an international framework and a task force to deal with future pandemics.
Something that can be easily, and quickly, mobilized anywhere in the world. Lots of medical supplies at hand, research labs, etc. this in addition to what each country can manage on their own (with aid from richer nations to poorer ones).
The big problem is that this would be difficult to enact at a time of wide global cooperation, such as existed at the close of the XX century. It will be impossible in today’s environment.
Yesterday my social media feed was absolutely filled with videos of “Plandemic.” If you haven’t heard of it yet, buckle up. This sh!t is just getting started: https://heavy.com/news/2020/05/plandemic-movie-video/
A new poll in Colorado has Hickenlooper leading Gardner 54-36. A recent poll in Arizona had Kelly up by 9 points, and one in Montana had Bullock up by 7. These are strange times to be a Democrat in the Mountain West.
Woman killed by alligator in SC was doing homeowner’s nails
These are the folks that want to open up the economy quickly. She couldn’t wait to open up her salon again.
@Jen:
Perhaps they have confused surgical masks with plastic bags.
The headline of the day-
1 in 5 American workers has filed for unemployment benefits since mid-March
Those kind of numbers should spell Trump’s doom in November but you never know.
@CSK: At this point, literally anything is possible.
At least they are arguing about carbon dioxide. I have also seen discussions of carbon monoxide buildup.
@Neil Hudelson: yep, seeing more of that than I’d like to.
Critical thinking, math, and science–all out the window. They’d rather believe a charlatan caught stealing from her employer and falsifying data.
AP Exclusive: US shelves detailed guide to reopening country
Good news: The document that was not going to be released actually available at the linked page.
Sometimes, when corruption is SO ingrained to the system, those breaking the law are actually shocked that individuals will not bend to their will.
Those so used to corruption are even more surprised when reports get out on what they have been able to do far years!
Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you: the Colorado GOP!
Colorado GOP Chair Ken Buck pressured local official to submit incorrect election results
Fellow Republican says congressman tried to bully him into committing a crime
See, they just thought it would be better… nothing to see there, right?
Whaaaaaaat??? Noooooo…
But… isn’t that EXACTLY what the last three years has shown us via teh actions of teh Republican party?
The idea by the House leadership to conduct an investigation on the handling of the pandemic is a good one, if it doesn’t boil down into partisan bickering. But it doesn’t go far enough.
What we need is a global inquiry, which will look at everything that happened that led to this, including early actions and reports from China.
Again, the intent must be to learn what went wrong (as something obviously did), why, how, and most important how to prevent it in the future.
Suppose, for example, China had issued a strong warning, and the rest of the world had suspended travel to and from China (not trade, as trade goods are far less likely to carry disease, and are easier to disinfect), including citizens and permanent residents. We wouldn’t be in this mess if such a policy had been adopted by as late as early February.
We should also investigate what worked, and how well it worked. Did New Zealand need to effect such a strict lock down for that long, or were there alternatives like massive testing, tracing, and isolation as South Korea did?
@Scott:
Oh, it’s going to get worse when we start seeing what physical damage “asymptotic” individuals have from COVID-19. Remember, right now we are defining “symptoms” almost purely in respiratory illness terms because that’s what it’s visibly manifesting as. You don’t see blood clots or kidney damage, after all. What were going to see in a few years is all those young, “healthy” people who though COVID-19 was NBD because they didn’t end up on a ventilator are going to have or be prone to heart attacks, strokes, PEs , etc.
An entire generation of draft-eligible youth have been infected with an unknown virus that causes damage we haven’t fully cataloged yet. “Pulmonary or systemic embolization” is a disqualifying medical condition; I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a COVID-19 addendum added as it would be a pre-existing condition that would cause it.
Traffic Jam
James Taylor
Now I almost had a heart attack
Looking in my rear view mirror
I saw myself the next car back
Looking in the rear view mirror
About to have a heart attack
One of Trump’s personal valets has tested positive for coronavirus
Excuse me while I go pray for forgiveness for the first thought that went through my head.
@Jen: carbon dioxide can build up slightly, enough to cause people a headache sometimes. Carbon monoxide is not happening.
@Scott:
Absolution granted, my son. Say 3 Hail Mary’s and go deep on a corner pattern.
Tiny is so germ phobic that I’d love to hear his private reaction.
@KM:
Clots dissolve over time. You will either get a PE/stroke or you won’t, relatively quickly. There is nothing that suggests covid causes a permanent increase in clotting.
There may be other long-term effects of a covid infection, but clots waiting to strike for decades is not one of them.
@Scott:
Watch this become the basis for another conspiracy theory, possibly involving heavy speculation that the valet was a Deep State plant.
@Liberal Capitalist: If you go read the transcription of the recording, it is clear that Ken Buck remembers his law school training. He never tells the official to do anything. He only asks if the official is aware of what the state party’s leadership committee has asked, and if the official intends to comply. Repeatedly. Granted a sane person would say, “But he’s a sitting member of the US House; of course he was pressuring the official to act.” The law is often insane, or at least seems so.
@CSK: Perhaps the Navy valet has ties to the USS Theodore Roosevelt?
@Teve:
Well, not globally, and not in a persistent form. Front Range Colorado is in trouble — again — for its air quality. This time the biggie is ozone. Carbon monoxide plus sunshine is, IIRC, our largest single source of ozone.
Right now, I wish I could close my eyes, curl up in bed under a blanket, go to sleep, and wake up months from now when the pandemic and the Trump regime have passed.
As that’s not going to happen, what I intend to do Saturday and Sunday is cook something quick and simple, and take the rest of the time to finish writing “Ours.”
I’ve been putting it off til I have some uninterrupted time, but that just isn’t happening. I hope to survive the pandemic, the odds look very plausible, but I don’t want to go without leaving something behind.
@Scott:
The Daily Beast reports that Trump was “distraught” to learn this and had himself immediately tested. Negative.
@Teve: Exactly. A headache. The current argument I’ve managed to enmesh myself in is on a NYPost article reporting that two Chinese boys died in PE class while wearing face masks. Ergo, face masks cause a dangerous deadly buildup of carbon dioxide that can kill.
@Jen:
Does carbon monoxide even form in human breath?
Carbon dioxide surely does, in all animals. As I recall, exhalation contains about 4% CO2. consider this mix is good enough for mouth-to mouth resuscitation. the case with a plastic bag over the head, which really is deadly, is that there is a finite air supply. Though you’d exhale more oxygen and nitrogen than CO2, there would be less oxygen in each breath, until there’s just too little inside the bag to breathe. CO2 and nitrogen are harmless, but no use for breathing.
@Kathy: To my knowledge and understanding, carbon monoxide is produced through the combustion of carbon fuel (wood, gasoline, etc.). That’s why I’m ignoring people who suggest carbon monoxide buildup.
Carbon dioxide is exhaled, but a cloth or surgical mask isn’t fitted tightly enough to cause a buildup that would lead to death. A headache, maybe. But not death–which is the argument I’ve managed to find myself in…which I really, really should know better by now than to engage.
I spoke with my brother yesterday. He is a pulmonologist and is employed by a company that has about 750 doctors under their umbrella. This company, along with a few companies of similar size, has a consulting firm that they use to come up with projections of Covid-19 cases so they can understand what to expect in terms of workload for their staffs. He gets briefed whenever new projections are in. The latest projections have gone up significantly, they are getting information that the death toll is expected to exceed 200k by end of summer. They are expecting resurgence in many smaller cities. Most of the increase is due to the re-opening of states, and some is specifically attributed to the increasing movements promoting no wearing of masks and less attention to social distancing. One thing he mentioned that I kind of missed was that when a country like Germany relaxes their guidelines, it means they are now closer to what the US had when we were supposedly in lockdown.
@Michael Cain: He meant carbon monoxide as buildup in cloth face masks, which I’ve seen argued. I am thinking/hoping that people are just confusing their di- and mon- oxides.
When David Bowie passed, I was deeply struck by the loss. Now, with the passing of Florian Schneider, we lose another pioneer.
Kraftwerk Co-Founder Florian Schneider Dead at 73
Kraftwork was the soundtrack in my head.
Todays marks the second anniversary of “Be Best,” an initiative created to celebrate Melania Trump’s disdain for the definite article, I gather.
Anand Giridharadas (born in Cleveland,
OH) went on TV the other day and said that one of the problems we’re having right now is a lot of Americans are drunk on the freedom aspect and not considering the responsibility aspect of the equation.
Holy shit. So he’s now he’s re-tweeting, uncensored and attributed, the emails and tweets and DM’s that he’s getting about how he should take his monkey ass back to India etc. They are a sight to see.
@Jen: Carbon monoxide is a normal product of certain metabolic processes in humans (so’s formaldehyde). In tiny quantities. There’s been some work on using elevated levels of produced CO as an indicator for certain metabolic disorders. The notion that exhaled CO will build up inside a mask to a level high enough to be a health hazard is silly. Sucking on a lit cigarette will expose you to enormously higher levels of CO, but that’s not what kills you.
@Gustopher:
Nothing yet. We were a couple months in before the clotting issue was noticed and we’re still not sure entirely why it’s happening. While true there’s no current evidence it causes permanent issues, we can only know that with time and follow up studies. Forgive my pessimism but better to err on the side of caution and suspect potential permanent issues since we’re seeing it cause other kinds of permanent damage to vital organs. I hope to be proven wrong but my inner cynic is screaming we’re not going to be that lucky.
One theory relates back to COVID’s range of severity and your genetics. There was an interesting article noting several possible gene mutations related to SARS susceptibility and increased negative outcomes in the past. If so, it would mean the person has an inherent genetic predisposition and would be vulnerable to any future outbreak of this nature. In other words, should COVID become seasonal or just a permanent fixture in our lives, anyone enlisting should be checked for that. I’m not surprised the military’s already putting out qualifiers based on this simply because it’s their job to assess readiness for combat; if they even suspect it means you won’t be fighting fit, it’s a no-go unless we need all the bodies we can get. Better to just give a blanket “nope” then deal with all the medical fallout in the future.
@CSK: or possessive pronouns. 😀
This is the weirdest timeline.
Axl Rose and Mnuchin engage in not-so-civil pandemic Twitter war
Did anyone ever envision a time when the Treasury secretary would be arguing with the lead singer of Guns N’ Roses in a public setting?
@Teve:
I’m not following you. Clarify?
Federal business disaster loans now capped at $150,000 and limited to agriculture
And once again, the Red states want to suck money out of the more economically productive Blue states.
@CSK: it could be “Be your best”. 😀
In other news:
Jacob Wohl is going to get murdered one day, and I’m going to laugh when it happens.
@Teve: I would think the smart money on Wohl’s death would be on autoerotic asphyxiation.
@Liberal Capitalist: I have to admit that no matter how many times I’ve tried, I always find myself liking Kraftwerk more in theory than in practice. But I love so many of the musicians they influenced. Impossible to imagine, for one minor example, Tangerine Dream existing without them…
@Teve:
I didn’t think of that. Obviously. 😀
@Stormy Dragon:
I would have put it as shipping money from the more economically productive urban/suburban areas to rural areas. Lots of money will go to Texas — but not to the Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Austin or El Paso metro areas where most of the people (and small businesses) are. Probably even more money will go to California, with the largest ag output of any state, but mostly to the Central and Imperial Valleys and their relatively sparse populations. Here in Colorado, money will flow to the eastern plains and western slope ag areas, but not to the Front Range urban corridor where most of the taxes are paid.
This is not horribly surprising. Pundits have been talking for months about whether the Trump administration has done enough bad things to rural areas — the trade war with China specifically — to cost them a bunch of votes in November.
James Carville Warns Trump: Your ‘Grifter’ Campaign Aides Are Lying To You
My money is that Carville is baiting Tiny, knowing that he’ll learn about Carville’s attack and get paranoid.
@Sleeping Dog
This is guaranteed to make Trump insane. He already hates his internal pollsters for bringing him bad news, and Parscale is making a lot of money.
ETA: Beats me why the above is all red.
@Sleeping Dog: i agree. And i hope Trump fires the D Team and has to hire the E Team.
Any idea why there’s a resistance to wear masks?
Granted, they’re uncomfortable, they can even be painful, and the utility against the SARS-CoV2 is limited. Masks helps infected people spread a bit less virus around, which is not without merit, but it’s also not a game changer. It makes sense.
So what is it? because El PITO won’t wear one? Because those promoting them also contradict Trump when he says something wrong and dangerous and stupid?
At the office, I’d say most people wear some kind of mask (how effectively is another matter). In my department, everyone comes in to work with one, but most take them off shortly after (I wear mine almost all day long).
@Kit:
It’ll take more than that to keep me from making additional recommendations :-).
Tom Jones, 1963.
@Teve: Killing the ACA also kills expanded Medicaid. That’s 13.6 million adults who would lose insurance.
@CSK: Parscale tweeted out an image from Star Wars, referring to the campaign as the Death Star.
My immediate thought was, “wait, don’t they know what happened to that, in the first film?”
@Scott: The early version of the story was not quite accurate:
@Kingdaddy: speaking of which, several people have noted that Pence – who is himself actually a good-looking man – has started to imitate Trump by wearing baggy suits, long ties, and standing in that weird push-your-chest forward manner.
@Jen: And to the second Death Star in RTOJ, and Starkiller Base in TFA, and so forth.
@Monala:
Trump has terrible posture. Slumping as he does only enhances his general look as an ill-dressed, grossly overweight sloven. I’ve heard that the reason his suits fit him so badly is that he’s too impatient to stand through fittings. He may also feel that the bagginess hides his extra weight.
The Justice Dept is dropping the criminal case against Trump’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, whose lies about his contacts with Russia prompted Trump to fire him 3 years ago & special counsel Robert Mueller to flip him to cooperate in the Russia probe.
As someone on Balloon Juice said, the fact that Mueller has remained silent about this the whole time does not reflect well on him. I don’t understand why my tax dollars go towards paying Barr when he is basically assumed the role of Trump’s personal lawyer.
@Monala: I’ve had a running theory for a while that those rumors about Pence being replaced by Nikki Haley were either started or encouraged by Trump’s people as a way of sending a signal to Pence to stay in line, or else.
Baghdad Barr has dropped the Flynn case.
Essentially Barr is doing Trump’s pardons for him.
Trumpistan, a banana republic that used to be called The United States.
An AI-based analysis concludes, among other things, that Trump is more comfortable when he lies than when he tells the truth.
Kylopod:
Trump has said on more than one occasion that chaos is his favored work environment. He likes to keep people on edge and uncertain. Probably he sees it as ensuring their loyalty to him. I wouldn’t be surprised if he were jerking Pence around this way.
@Sleeping Dog:
Carville is not too far off.
From Obscure Web Developer to Trump Campaign Manager: The Inside Story of Brad Parscale’s Unlikely Rise
Just a taste:
@DrDaveT: There’s always an update with these people, isn’t there?
In looking at Facebook posts from avid Trumpidians, I’ve mentally noted that there are two reference works for trying to understand their mindset: Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground and M. Scott Peck, People of the Lie.
@CSK:
If Pence were to ask me for advice about such a situation, I would honestly tell him, “Mike, relax. You’re VP until January 20-something, no matter what Trump does. You’re in the Constitution. He. Can’t. Fire. You. Irritate him with that; smile and tell him, ‘Don, you can’t fire me. Quit annoying me.’ Come that day in January, retire to Indiana on your multiple pensions and guaranteed lifetime healthcare. Write a book. Bicycle. Learn to program Python. Enjoy your grandkids when they start hatching.”
@CSK:
Out of college, I sold men’s suits as a part time gig. There are many men of Tiny’s physique who are in complete denial that they can no longer wear a “Regular” suit and are insulted if you suggest a “Portly”, which is what they need. What ends up happening is that you go up 3 or 4 suit sizes and the thing hangs like a dishrag on them. Supposedly Tiny favors the brand Brioni and I wonder if they even make an off-the-rack portly.
@Daryl and his brother Darryl:
I prefer to call it Dumbfu*kistan.
@Steven L. Taylor: I worked for a software company where the code names for new projects were natural disasters. No one saw a problem with it until 2004, when the name “Tsunami” became more than a little problem.
@Michael Cain:
Pence is probably gambling on Trump winning another four years, and then…He’ll be 64 in January 2024. The perfect age to ascend to the presidency.
He’s doubtless made his peace with having to eat Trump’s fecal matter between now and then.
@Monala:
It’s a commonplace that pets start to look like their masters.
We got our stimulus money finally. Just going to save it. Finances are ok for now.
I have a headline of the day for tomorrow and it is a doozy. Covid19 and Florida related too.
@Kingdaddy:
Fascinating link. I was initially skeptical on the basis that I don’t think true or not true is something that enters Trump’s mind. But I guess while that’s generally true there are enough times Trump has to know know he’s lying to provide data to the AI.
@Sleeping Dog:
I can’t imagine Brioni is particularly happy with Trump modeling their wares. They pride themselves on the perfection (off-the-rack or custom) of the fit of their suits. Trump makes a $5000 coat and pants look like a $49.95 ensemble from Robert Hall.
For those who haven’t seen it, go watch the Lincoln Project’s Mourning in America. Found this, equally as brutal, by one of the founders of the Lincoln Project at the Globe and since she’s a fellow Cow Hampshirite, I’m promoting it.
@CSK:
Quit insulting Robert Hall, next you’ll be attacking Men’s Wearhouse 😉
@CSK:
I’ve paid significantly more attention to clothing than the average American man, and in my opinion poorly-fitting clothes almost never improve one’s appearance.
@Teve:
Well, of course ill-fitting clothing doesn’t make anyone look good. But we’re talking about a guy who fancies tangerine facial make-up and sports a dead possum atop his pate.
@gVOR08:
My only concern is that there is no way to separate the effect of lying from the effect of saying things that will st(r)oke the base. The two are so highly correlated that you can’t distinguish them statistically. It might just be that saying things he thinks will make him more popular with his base is what turns him on, whether they are true or not.
@CSK: @Teve: Isn’t it mean spirited to mock people whose native language isn’t yours when their communication is not perfect, or does that standard only apply to people who are not our political enemies?
Trump much?
Wow.
link
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
As Melania herself might say: “I really don’t care; do u?”
@CSK: I recall reading an interview with the guy who makes Trump’s suits where he said that Trump and other of his clients decline to come in for second fittings to give the impression that they are too busy/successful to find the time for it. It seems to be part of a “dress [poorly] for success” image.
Every day it hurts more and more, watching the country I’ve defended in some capacity for my entire adult life devolving into a banana republic while so many people–including far too many of those with whom I have served–cheer its decline into corruption and cultism.
Nixon is looking up at Trump from hell and saying “damn, even I couldn’t get away with that kind of shit.”
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
That could well be true. But I think the fact that Trump has the attention span of a flea has a lot to do with it. I read somewhere that when he dyes his hair, he can’t sit still long enough for the product to take full effect.
@CSK: No, I don’t care about the image you present for yourself, now that you mention it. On the other hand, everybody needs a gig and a place to row it. Go in peace. Be best!
@Teve: From the link:
It just boggles the mind. And the saddest part is that his faithful will not only believe that, they will continue to believe it when presented with the truth, and will get angry at the truth-tellers for attacking Trump “just for politics”.
For the record… According to Worldometers the US has in fact tested more than any other single country: 7.8M tests, compared to 4.8M for the next-highest reported total (Russia). However, the US has not done more testing than “every other country combined”, or even than the next three countries combined.
I was going to criticize the US tests-per-capita, but on review I find that it is much better now than it used to be. Given the disadvantages of being a geographically huge and politically fragmented nation, our per capita testing rate compares favorably with (e.g.) the UK and France, though we still trail Germany by a fair margin. None of the other very populous nations have come close to the US rate of testing.
For today’s joke I thought I’d try a bad pun (are there any good ones?):
Three brothers get their capital together and buy a cattle ranch. they ask their father to name it.
“Call it ‘Focus’,” the father tells them.
“Why ‘Focus’?” asks one of the sons.
“Because that’s where the Sun’s rays meet.”
Spoiler
answer
follows
this
annoying,
awkward
spacing:
“Where the sons raise meat.”
@Guarneri:
Flynn.
Pleaded.
Guilty.
No one forced him. No one made him. I mean, how weak do you have to be to not be guilty of something and yet plead guilty?
@Kylopod: FWIW, I’d rather have Haley in there than Pence. Nothing to do with their politics. If Trump is re-elected whoever is VP will be plotting a (political) coop. If Pence we’re capable he would have done it by now. Haley might have a shot.
@Just nutha ignint cracker: This isn’t some random comment she made, in which her grammatical error could be attributed to speaking a language that is not her primary one. And you’re right, that shouldn’t be mocked, especially by Americans who often only speak one language.
In contrast, “Be Best” is supposed to be a major initiative she rolled out with the help of White House staff, most of whom probably do have a good grasp of English grammar. Someone should have corrected it before it was made public. The fact that they didn’t means either: 1) they didn’t care; 2) they tried, but Melania didn’t care (like her jacket said); or 3) they’re too afraid of Trump or Melania to say anything. And yeah, that’s mock-worthy.
ETA: it turns out number 2 is correct, if this entry in Wikipedia is accurate:
@Just nutha ignint cracker: This image of the logo shows she didn’t really care much about that, either.
@Monala: oh my god. That’s amazing.
Random observations from my weekly trip to town and actually having to talk to people…..
Facebook and YouTube’s “take fake news down” isn’t working. 90% of the people think that BECAUSE it was taken down, it must be the truth. All fact-checker’s are part of the Deep State.
Smile and wave, people, smile and wave. Once I get my branding over this weekend, I am not going to town for weeks. I suspect Wyoming will open restaurants and bars the 15th, so I’ll double down on the “watching to see what happens”.
@Jen: He plead guilty twice, even.
Like that person said last year, the Trumps do things in public, that if somebody else did them in private, and it came out, it would be a scandal. But, as long as he keeps his white trash supporters happy, he’s still President for 258 days.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
Come on, it’s not like she just learned English yesterday. In fact, she’s been speaking English just fine for over 2 decades now – we have recordings to prove it! That kind of mistake is understandable for an ESL newbie but someone who’s been speaking a language daily for over 2 decades rarely does that. Goes double for a gold digger or nouveau riche wannabe who’s meal ticket is also trying desperately to fit in to high society. She doesn’t drop articles when she speaks or leaves out “ly” on adverbs – common ESL issues. Also, weren’t they bragging for a while on how she was a polyglot and really, really good with words?
It was a purely (stupid) stylistic choice that people tried to backtrack on; they lucked out with her not being a native-speaker as an excuse. As others have noted, even *if* it was a mistake on her part, it was a mistake that should have been corrected and she let it go out like that. ESL difficulties shouldn’t be mocked but being too damn lazy or ignorant to care to grammar check your brand name two decades later is fair game.
I love seeing the number of people who have no issues with extrajudicial killings of black joggers (and are just waiting to find a way to damn the victim) but cried out to high heaven about the injustices that were visited upon someone who pled guilty twice (not to mention was fired for lying to the Vice President) because they think he’s on their side.
Barr says the fascist part out loud:
@mattbernius:
Gregory McMichael and Travis McMichael have been arrested and charged with murder and aggravated assault.
Sarah Kendzior breaks down Trump’s strategy of scandal and incompetence.
“He covers up his crimes with scandal, and his malice with incompetence.”
How sad is it to be repeatedly disinvited from the discussion at a minor web site and yet feel the need to constantly attempt to crash the party?
It is a an odd thing.
@mattbernius: A stunning statement.
And I think we have a pretty good idea how history will view Barr and this administration.
@Steven L. Taylor: And not only that, he doesn’t even realize how messed up it is that he’s crowing about brazen corruption in the highest levels of government. He actually thinks he’s won something…..
@Steven L. Taylor: It’s incredible that Barr has the gall to reference,
@Jen:
Trump found an AG craven and corrupt enough in Barr.
At the start of the journey in 2017 I was worried about a lot of things, but the State Department seemed most stressed immediately. That was misplaced.
Of course it would be DOJ. Corrupt man wants toadies there. That was poor foresight on me. The biggest corrupting stress was going to be on Justice Dept.
77,000 dead and dude is fretting about a guy who got flat busted and plead guilty.
It is obscene. Barr is an historical disgrace.
That Flynn got promoted above 1st Lt. was grossly negligent unless his addled brained jackassery is a recent character development
This is banana republic bullshit.
We need competent, professional leaders dedicated to something greater than saving your boss’s bacon.
I am righteously pissed.
This seems shallow, but I cannot let it go.
Trump is obviously tanning. He has tanning goggle eyes that even make-up can’t hide.
There is lot to get worked up over about Trump especially lately, but seeing his reverse racoon eyes makes me intensely berserking angry.
@Steven L. Taylor: I’m sure he’ll change pseudonyms soon and pretend to be new.
@Teve: He was banned for being a rude jerk, and he persists in reinforcing that it was the right decision.
@CSK:
I saw.
I’m also going to wait to see if the trial happens and what the outcome is.
I’m also curious if they plan on charging their friend who recorded the entire incident and helped run him down will also be charged with Felony Murder under Georgia’s accessory laws (the same ones that have been used to convict getaway drivers in robberies gone wrong, for example, with Felony Murder).
@mattbernius:
Yes, that person is going to be investigated. G.B.I. director Vic Reynolds said. The guy’s name is William “Roddie” Bryan.
@Steven L. Taylor: @Teve:
Who are you discussing? As if I couldn’t guess.