"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross."
-- Sinclair Lewis
Saturday, October 17, 2020
Midnight Meme Of The Day!
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by Noah
2 measures of a true psychopath.
And, of course just for starters, you can add every single member of Congress, the Supreme Court, and various state legislatures who supported racist and demographic voter suppression legislation in any way, shape, or form. Plus, never forget those in Washington who turned their backs on America and the Constitution when they had the opportunity to remove Trump from office earlier this year and at any time since. Not at all surprisingly, they chose their nazi beliefs and their wallets over this country. They are all psychopaths at worst and seriously morally bankrupt sociopaths at best. Nothing was too bad or too deadly for The United States Of America to them as long as the Korporate dollars and the Russian rubles were flowing into their pockets. Then there are the people who vote for them and the media goons who cheer them on.
And don't ever talk to me about toothless, dog & pony show "Truth and Reconciliation Commissions" that some fools, suckers, and champions of the status quo are now presenting as a solution to our ills. I'm all for the details and horrid truth of what has been going on for decades and has reached explosive new highs under the vicious and sadistice guidance of Trump and the current Republican Death Cult Party being loudly broadcast to the world. But reconciliation? I think not. Reconciliation amounts to posthumous appeasement and an open invitation for a repeat. These commissions are staffed by the very classes of people who so eagerly brought on the problems they are tasked with "examining" in the first place. A properly staffed Truth And Serious Consequences Commission with a mission brief that isn't a joke, however, might be more like something I could support. Go ahead world, surprise me!
Donald J. Biohazard just had to hold another one of his patented Super-Spreader events to proudly present the latest Republican manifestation of their anti-health care, anti-women, and anti-voting rights stances. He couldn't help himself. He couldn't miss an opportunity to expose people, even those who support him, to a life threatening virus. Since then, the number of attendees who are testing positive for COVID-19 is growing by the day. but, that was nowhere near enough for the Dear Leader of the Republican Death Cult! He did his little joyride. He did his pathetic and defiant Evita impersonation from the White House balcony (See Thursday's Midnight Meme) and he demanded that Congress halt all discussions about any COVID-19 aid bills that would save families, jobs, businesses, and lives. No, instead, while he and his Death Cult Party are pushing an effort before the Supreme Court that is meant to end Obamacare and remove health care from at least 25 million Americans, he wants the $enate to work on nothing but confirming his Back Alley Amy so she can vote against Obamacare, overturn Roe Vs. Wade, and steal the election and make his dream of being "President For Life" come true. No, he doesn't see any irony in that title.
The Coathanger Lady's Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings are still scheduled to begin on Monday, even with Death Cult committee members Thom Tillis (North Carolina) and Mike Lee (Utah) having tested positive, As of this writing, they expect to be out of quarantine in time; maybe in time to infect some of the over 80 years old $enators on the committee like Chuck Grassley (Iowa), Diane Feinstein (California), and Patrick Leahy (Vermont).
Can the sale of blood red MAGA coathangers on the Trump and Republican merch sites be far behind? It's who they are.
by Noah By the time you read this post, the total number will actually be 177,000 American corpses that didn't have to be corpses but that's because nobody took the gun out of Herr Trump's tiny hands. In fact, Herr Trump's $enators voted to reload his gun and threw in a crate of ammo to use against America. At the current rate of 1000+ deaths per day, 180,000 Americans will dead from COVID-19 by the end of this week's 2020 Republican Death Cult celebration and plea for 4 more years of human suffering, planet suffering, and death-dealing mayhem.
No, Not "Both Parties" Fault-- The Blame From The Entire Financial Crisis Millions Of Americans are Facing is Only The Republicans' Fault-- 100%
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In his interview with Stuart Stevens published yesterday by the New Yorker-- on the occasion of the release of his new book, It Was All a Lie: How the Republican Party Became Donald Trump-- Isaac Chotiner asked the former GOP political operative (and now, Lincoln Project #NeverTrumpers), how he came to see that the Republican Party wasn't polluted by Trump but that the Republican Party was polluted by itself. Stevens now understands that Trump didn't hijack the GOP but that what we have is what the GOP turned itself into. He pointed out that Trump "says he has ninety-five per cent Republican approval, and that’s probably an exaggeration, but let’s say it is eighty-nine per cent or so. You look at what Trump is saying, and the degree to which the Party is comfortable with it, and I don’t know what conclusion to come to other than that Trump very well suits the Republican Party... What appealed to me was a party that believed in personal responsibility, that character counts, and that was strong on Russia and free trade, and strongly pro legal immigration. It’s not just that the Party has drifted away from those principles, like parties do. As far as I can tell, the Party is actively against every one of them. We’re the “character doesn’t count” party. We’re the anti-personal-responsibility party. We’re the pro-Putin party. I think the only conclusion is that a party that said it believed in these things didn’t really believe in them." Just before that was published published, the Washington Post put out an ominous piece by Erica Werner and Seung Min Kim, Congress flails as coronavirus ravages the nation and the economy stalls. Their point-- everything is a disaster and the Republican-controlled Senate, at Trump's direction, "is doing what it does best: nothing at all."
Two months ago, the House passed a bill that would have helped people get through these extraordinarily tough times. McConnell went on vacation and refused to allow even a debate on the merits. As the virus surged and the economy collapsed McConnell plotted how to make the Democrats look bad. Polling shows that that has backfired, making the GOP even more unpopular and putting more of his caucus in jeopardy for November defeats.
"Let's be clear about what's happening here," progressive Texas Democrat Julie Oliver told me this morning. "The House passed the Democratic relief bill, the HEROES Act, weeks ago-- it would have extended the $600 unemployment insurance that has served as a lifeline for so many of the Texas families we've heard from here in our district who are hurting right now. Roger Williams voted against it. He believes that Texans who are struggling should get 'zero' in relief. Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans refused to take the bill up for consideration. And that negligence-- while people are losing everything, going hungry, kids and families facing eviction-- is truly corrupt." You can help Julie replace Williams here.
“The Republicans are pushing the American economy into a depression because they are unwilling to do what is necessary to prevent it,” said Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI). “This is not the fault of ‘Congress’ generally-- this is happening to America because of the Republicans. We want to strike a compromise, but their ideology prevents them from meeting the moment.” ...“Congress has to rise to the crisis. It is too serious,” said Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), one of at least a half dozen endangered GOP senators whose political fortunes are in the balance. “If we can’t work together in a bipartisan, bicameral way in the midst of a persistent pandemic that is causing such harm to people’s health and their economic stability, then we will have failed the American people.” Democrats and many Republicans insist it is imperative to act soon to pass another big relief bill. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) called the virus “a freight train that is picking up steam and picking up speed” Friday as she called for Senate passage of the House Democrats’ $3 trillion bill. Talks are ongoing between congressional Democrats and top Trump administration officials, and many people involved think they will manage to produce some kind of agreement in the next couple weeks.
But Republicans are divided between those like Collins who support aggressive new action and a significant minority of GOP lawmakers who think Congress has done its job and should not spend any more money at all to pile on the deficit. President Trump’s weakening standing in the polls means there is less imperative for reluctant fiscal conservatives to rally around legislation that might help his political fortunes. The president himself has also reduced the sense of urgency for some in his party by embracing unlikely hopes that the economy can heal itself by reopening, or that the virus will disappear on its own. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) waited months over the late spring and summer to act, saying he wanted to see what impact the programs already approved were having before agreeing to anything more. During that time the virus itself frustrated widespread hopes that the situation might improve and began to surge in states that had reopened too aggressively. McConnell finally released a $1 trillion bill last Monday as the GOP’s answer to the much larger bill passed by House Democrats in May, but he struggled to get consensus within his party and with the Trump administration, including complaints from members of his own conference about everything from the price tag to a new round of stimulus checks. Facing a deadline Friday for $600 weekly emergency unemployment benefits to expire for nearly 30 million Americans, Republicans quickly started to pivot to talking about a short-term unemployment insurance fix, rendering their own bill all but irrelevant in a matter of days-- with Trump himself dismissing it as “sort of semi-irrelevant” the day after it was released. Democrats have consistently rejected the notion of a short-term fix, and in face of the GOP’s disunity they have shown little willingness to compromise on their push for the most generous relief bill possible, with an array of provisions that Republicans reject, such as $1 trillion in new aid for cities and states. Republicans say they do not think Democrats want to pass anything at all because they’d rather have a political issue; Democrats angrily reject that accusation. After 3-1/2 years of rancor under the Trump administration, there is little trust left between the two parties, and no direct communication at all between Trump and Pelosi. The result is stasis.
“In order to cut deals and find compromise in this hyperpartisan political environment you have to have at least a small amount of trust in each other,” said Jim Manley, who was a top aide to former Senate Democratic leader Harry M. Reid of Nevada. “The problem right now is that no one trusts their colleagues on the other side of the aisle.” Congress rarely acts except when up against a deadline, and stopgap spending bills and partial government shutdowns have become almost routine in recent years, as Congress repeatedly offers fresh proof of its own dysfunction. As economically harmful as a government shutdown is, however, it is nothing compared with the coronavirus, which has already killed more than 150,000 Americans while simultaneously clobbering the economy. Gross domestic product dropped 9.5 percent in the second quarter of the year, the Commerce Department said Thursday-- a decline that would have been even worse without the economic aid provided by Congress. Multiple lawmakers of both parties have said the only really comparable situation is a war. Yet with the two sides so far apart on multiple issues, the prospect of failing to get any deal at all is a real possibility. “I don’t even want to fathom that, it’s unimaginable that we wouldn’t, given the needs that the country has,” said Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL). “It would just be so bad if we didn’t that ultimately you would hope that... the fever would break.” ...McConnell coordinates closely with Mnuchin and Meadows, but his posture of remove puts the onus on the Trump administration to sell any deal made with Democrats to GOP members of Congress. Republicans have been unhappy with some of the deals Mnuchin struck with Democrats early on, including the unemployment insurance payments that have now expired. Most Republicans want to extend them, but at a greatly reduced level, while Democrats want to continue the $600 weekly payments at their present level. The two parties spent much of the past week blaming each other for allowing the payments to expire. In the first sign of progress after days of stalemate, a meeting at the Capitol Saturday between Pelosi, Schumer, Meadows and Mnuchin yielded guardedly positive comments from all involved-- although a deal did not appear imminent. Despite the current chaos and uncertainty, Congress may ultimately find its way through to making another deal to help revive the economy and help Americans. But even as the virus rages and the economy teeters, the rancor shows every sign of getting worse before it gets better. “Our politics is such that there must be significant political pain before hard things can get done,” said Brendan Buck, who was a top adviser to former Republican House speaker Paul D. Ryan. “That’s our forcing mechanism, and the political pain will be starting very soon.”
Adam Christensen is running for Congress in north-central Florida, for the seat teabagger Ted Yoho is abandoning. He told me this morning that "The Florida GOP knew exactly what they were doing when they ok’d one of the largest corporate giveaways in history right before a pandemic. They knew what they were doing when they built one of the worst unemployment websites in the country after 2008. They knew what they were doing when they made sure that Florida had one of the lowest unemployment benefit payouts in the country. They knew what they were doing when they muddied the waters with the shut downs, masks, and basic public safety. And my representative, Ted Yoho, knew what he was doing when he voted for the biggest companies in the world 100% of the time he was in Congress. The response to this pandemic and
conditions that made it worse were not an accident. The response was purposeful. They had planned and implemented these policies for years. Now all of us are facing the consequences for their actions."
Tom Nichols is author of The Death Of Expertise and that video above was recorded before Trumpism really took hold in America as Trumpism. The Know Thing impulses were always around, but not focused and ascendant as they became once they were in the Oval Office. Yesterday, writing for USA Today, Nichols addressed the problem as it stands now: As America tops 4 million COVID cases, the cult of Donald Trump has become a death cult. "America," he wrote, "has now passed the milestone of 4 million COVID cases, and we’re still arguing with doctors and epidemiologists about masks and school closures. I expected some of this, because I literally wrote the book over three years ago on why so many Americans think they’re smarter than experts. What I did not expect is that this resolute and childish opposition to expertise would be hijacked by the president of the United States and an entire American political party, and then turned into a suicide cult.
It did not take a lot of foresight to know, even before the coronavirus arrived, that the United States was leaving itself vulnerable to a crisis that would require the public to trust experts. We long ago became a narcissistic nation whose citizens believe they can become competent in almost any subject by watching enough television and spending enough time on the internet. But I was certain that a true national crisis-- a war, a depression, or yes, a pandemic-- would snap people back to reality. I was wrong to be so optimistic. Endangering others as empowerment Some states (including Rhode Island, where I live) have had great success in asking their citizens to cooperate for the common good. Other communities, unfortunately, have had to endure shouting matches with bellowing ignoramuses who think it is intolerable that they be asked to wear a mask while shopping or ordering food-- two things people in other countries would gladly do wrapped in aluminum foil and with prayers of thanks on their lips if they got to do it in the United States of America.
There is no one more responsible for this particular moment than President Donald Trump, but all he has done is play to a gallery whose seats were already full by the time he ran for office. Trump appealed to a powerful sense of narcissistic grievance among millions of Americans, nurturing it and feeding it. An entire claque of enablers joined in, knowing there was plenty of money to be made feeding this self-centered, anti-social nihilism. When the pandemic arrived, these enablers in the conservative media and among the cowardly Republican political class took their cues-- masks, no masks, closing, opening-- from Trump, whose statements for months were a fusillade of nonsense that reflected only his own pouty anger that Mother Nature had the sheer brass to mess up his presidential grift. Not all of those who have been reckless and irresponsible are Trump supporters. There are, as always, young people who believe they are invincible. And some experts inflicted a huge wound on themselves right in the middle of this crisis by blessing the Black Lives Matter protests rather than repeating stern warnings they gave to other Americans that such events are dangerous. But the Americans who are now driving the pandemic are not sudden skeptics about masks or distancing or expert opinion because of street protests. Some of them reject expertise because of the previous “failures” of experts. This is always one of the reflexive explanations for the refusal to listen to the educated and experienced. Expert failures are real and happen every day, but the people who sullenly refuse to wear a mask during a pandemic are not doing so because the United States failed to find Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, or because the housing market crashed in 2008. Rather, they are doing so because they see endangering others as empowerment, a way of telling people whom they believe look down on them that no one, no matter how smart or accomplished, can tell them what to do. For these people, our national motto is not “In God We Trust” or “E Pluribus Unum,” but rather: “You’re Not the Boss of Me.” Reject expertise and trust Trump So committed are these Americans to assuaging their sore egos over their imagined lack of status that they are literally willing to die for it. Unfortunately, they seem all too willing to take many of us with them. This is not Jonestown or Heaven’s Gate, whose cult members fled society to go and die together. This is worse. This is an attempt to create a Jonestown in every American city and town and then invite the rest of us over for a cool drink. The irony here is that the same people who reject expertise because they believe they are smart and clued in to the mistakes of experts will accept the word of Donald Trump-- a man who has obliterated most of the projects he’s ever been involved with and who stands as the uncontested champion of American public liars-- as the gospel truth.
Opposition Research by Nancy Ohanian
But that is how cults work, and woe to anyone who crosses them. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for over 35 years, has endured attacks from the White House and some members of Congress because some Republicans believe that he is somehow trying to use the pandemic against the president. Worse, Fauci now has to travel with security, as Americans treat the rest of the world to the shameful sight of one of the most accomplished scientists in one of the most technologically advanced nations in the world having to be guarded against unhinged cultists in his own country. On the same day that America hit a grisly new record, President Trump went on television to explain both that he must cancel his cherished plans for a political convention while insisting that children be sent back to school in the coming weeks. Millions of Americans nodded along with him, secure in the knowledge that scientists are quacks and that no one understands viruses like Donald Trump. They will likely still believe that even as they lie in a hospital bed and are given last rites with a ventilator down their throats. If only the rest of us did not have to risk being in the bed next to them.
The concern goes beyond our borders. And, as Roger Cohen editorialized in the NY Times Friday, "No people has found the American lurch toward authoritarianism under President Trump more alarming than the Germans. For postwar Germany, the United States was savior, protector and liberal democratic model. Now, Germans, in shock, speak of the 'American catastrophe.' A recent cover of the weekly magazine Der Spiegel portrays Trump in the Oval Office holding a lighted match, with a country ablaze visible through his window. The headline: Der Feuerteufel, or, literally, the Fire Devil."
Sunday Thoughts from the apocryphal, heretofore undiscovered Book Of Some Other Noah: And it came to pass, that one day human kind's dark future had arrived. The avian descendants of the dinosaurs assumed their long-planned and long-awaited position at the top on planet Earth. They played it smartly. They acted with sense. Their patience had won the day as had their wisdom that the flightless and featherless bipeds would one day destroy themselves. There had been no asteroid this time. There was no need. And no humans were around anymore to deride the avians as bird brained either. The avians laughed last. The red-hatted had rejoiced and celebrated their deliverance from sanity. They had spat at the warnings. They had embraced the pestilence to spread it as their leader decreed. Humanity was done.
by Noah Well, here's a swell sample of the Trump 62,000,000. Here they are, taking time off from Future Pipe Bombers Club for one of their daily stormings of the Michigan state legislature in order to intimidate any legislators that might have thoughts of backing policies that could save their lives, the lives of their families if they have any, and the lives of the rest of the citizenry. It seems they want to be free to be infected with coronavirus and, more importantly, be free to spread it around as far and wide as possible. Their republican brethren lawmakers support that of course, but they just want to make sure none of them waver in their Death Cult commitments. What else do you expect from people who support having lead in the water supply. Apparently, they've all been drinking way too much of it. What would you do if you saw one of these armed republican goons getting out of his car and walking toward one of your local schools? What if you were at the flight check-in desk of an airport and one of these guys came in the door with no luggage other than his big bad penis compensator?
by Noah His mind is almost completely gone now. But, it will continue to get worse. I made the above meme over a year ago but I never used it because I knew this time was coming. Anyone who watched him speak during his campaign for as little as two minutes could see and hear the mind rotting from within. During the debates you could see it, too, when he crept up behind his opponent to menace her as she spoke. He needed his Adderall just to be there. The desire to lie and whine has always been there. The racism, the grifting and thievery, too. New Yorkers saw that long, long ago. It's all out in the open. He could have been removed a few months ago but Moscow Mitch took the rubles and followed orders. His whole party fell in line. The other party took a timid approach. Acquiescence. Now, we're at a point where he can only lie, whine, and build on his mayhem. There are no brakes whatsoever in his psyche. In the past, once in a while, something true would come out of that mouth. Not anymore. Now, he tells us to drink poisons from under the sink. Now, he pushes medications that can kill if used for the wrong purpose. He does it because he owns a stake in the company that makes the stuff. His donors stand to make more. He hopes for kickbacks in gratitude. He leads his newly named Death Cult Party and his Death Cult media and they follow worshipfully. Now, he sends his heavily armed brownshirt Death Cult supporters right into state legislatures as he did in Michigan a few days ago. The legislators felt compelled to wear bulletproof vests and they did. The rest of us just wear masks or PPE, for now. Work is different now. Many of us work at home. Many of us no longer even have jobs, because of a madman who wants to be a killer even more than a killer virus. He killed the CDC to kill all of us. He's killing the country. He sends butchers into meat processing plants without safety and health precautions that could be easily installed if the will was there. Why does he send them in unprotected? Because he can. It gets his jollies off, just as it does with his $enators and Representatives, the Jim Jordans of the world. The butchers will be butchered themselves. Maybe he dreams of mass graves in Iowa. Would it surprise you? I said it will get even worse. It will. The new instantly debunked lies, bigger and more blatant then ever lies, about Chinese labs, and a non-existent exoneration of Michael Flynn, the demand that whole class of U.S. Army cadets risk getting the life-threatening and career-jeopardizing coronavirus to return to West Point just so he can have an ego-gratifying photo op disguised as a graduation speech, the crisis management of the 2020 plague being a "stunning success" are just a start of a new accelerated phase of his insanity. Who knows who or what will be pardoned next. Who knows which loyal military officers he will be ordered fired, or worse. After that, there will be nothing from him but intense sweating, screaming complete gibberish and speaking in tongues. He's already screaming at his top aides and even his campaign manager, and they take it. They put up with it. Soon, he may even be rolling around on the floor. I expect he already is, at least in the oval office or his bathroom, but soon, it will all of a sudden happen on live TV during some absurdist briefing, and no one in authority will bat an eye.
Is It All Trump's Fault? Mostly-- But His Team Is Excruciatingly Incompetent As Well
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The Economist asked why America's death toll has been so high. Watch the 10 minute video above. Tuesday began with 1,010,356 confirmed cases in the U.S. (23,196 new cases from Sunday). There were 56,797 deaths (up 1,384 from Sunday). The U.S. was showing 3,052 cases per million in the population and 17,211 tests per million and 172 deaths per million. How does that compare with other countries? Let's look at testing first. These are the countries that have been testing most per million in their population. The higher up the chart, the better:
You might want to know which states are testing enough. Let's call 25,000 per million the minimum acceptable number. The U.S. is at 17,211, which is unacceptable. Only 10 states (+ DC) are doing an acceptable job at testing:
• Rhode Island- 56,941 • New York- 44,472 • Massachusetts- 37,261 • North Dakota- 33,948 • Utah- 33,638 • Louisiana- 33,572 • New Mexico- 29,509 • DC- 28,092 • New Jersey- 27,049 • Connecticut- 25,896 • Washington- 25,021
The 5 states doing the worst job at testing are all doing an inadequate job and are absolutely not ready to start thinking of opening up their economies yet. Other states that are nearly as bad-- like Georgia, Texas and Florida-- are opening up and will soon see big COVID-19 spikes.:
OK, and now let's look at those same countries with deaths per million. The number in parentheses is cases per million. Remember, all these numbers were as of Sunday night and the lower down the chart, the better:
Dan Balz and Scott Clement, writing for the Washington Post yesterday, reported that "Americans overwhelmingly support state-imposed restrictions on businesses and the size of public gatherings to slow the spread of the coronavirus... Americans continue to give their governors significantly higher ratings than they offer Trump, who still draws mostly negative reviews for how he has handled the crisis." The poll shows that 66% say they find that current restrictions on restaurants, stores and other businesses are appropriate, while 16% are smart enough to understand that the restrictions are NOT restrictive enough. 17% are the hard core Republican Party Death Cult who says the restrictions are too much and should be lifted. There are similar numbers for the appropriateness of public gatherings-- 64% are satisfied, 22% are smart enough to understand the restrictions don't go far enough to flatten the curve and 14% are the psycho Death Cult.
Balz and Clements note the partisan breakdown: "About 7 in 10 (72 percent) Democrats and 6 in 10 (62 percent) Republicans say their state’s current restrictions on businesses are appropriate. Republicans are more likely to say their state is too restrictive on businesses, though fewer than 3 in 10 say this (27 percent), compared with 17 percent of independents and 8 percent of Democrats. Even in the dozen states that have begun to loosen restrictions or that had less restrictive orders in place, a majority of residents support their state’s limitations, with 59 percent calling them appropriate, 18 percent saying they are too restrictive and 22 percent calling them not restrictive enough-- the last figure being eight points higher than in the states with more stringent orders in place. Support for limitations on the size of public gatherings, which many states set at no more than 10 people, is just as strong. The poll finds 64 percent calling those limits appropriate and another 22 percent saying they are not restrictive enough. A smaller 14 percent describe them as too restrictive. These findings suggest that even as states begin to reopen their economies on a gradual basis, many citizens could be cautious about resuming activity at the level that existed before the pandemic took hold and people were ordered or asked to stay at home as much as possible." We ran this chart yesterday, but its worth looking at again. Just 16% of the people in the country understand that the U.S.isn't doing enough to flatten the curve. That's going to mean a lot of trouble as states start removing social distancing restrictions again. Texas, Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, South Carolina are going to be tragic test cases. As Elena Moore and Philip Ewing reported for NPR yesterday, testing is the key to returning to a normal life. Trump, who has utterly failed in this area and, of course, takes no responsibility for anything but the good stuff, says it's up to the states. Moore and Ewing wrote that testing is "the doorway between the disaster response mode of the pandemic and confidence about returning to work, school and life. And it's also still apparently weeks or more away from scaling to a level that will make a big difference for most people in most places."
Republican Death Cult Wants You To Die Too-- Otherwise They Would All Just Drink Bleach Or Inject Lysol
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The Cure by Nancy Ohanian
What is Trump's consiglieri-like Attorney General, William Barr, doing to further mire the country in the pandemic? On Monday, one of the 3 or 4 worst AGs in American history ordered federal prosecutors to "be on the lookout" for Democratic governors who issue public health regulations that violate the constitutional rights of right-wing fanatics and extremists who are dedicated to steepening the curve or are too simple-minded to understand what a curve is. Barr sent a short memo to the 93 U.S. attorneys, warning that some state and local directives are infringing on protected religious, speech and "economic rights. If a state or local ordinance crosses the line from an appropriate exercise of authority to stop the spread of COVID-19 into an overbearing infringement of constitutional and statutory protections, the Department of Justice may have an obligation to address that overreach in federal court, he wrote, trying as best he could to sound like a sane person instead of a homicidal maniac and mad dog. He has assigned two DOJ prosecutors to "take action... Many policies that would be unthinkable in regular times have become commonplace in recent weeks, and we do not want to unduly interfere with the important efforts of state and local officials to protect the public. But the Constitution is not suspended in times of crisis. We must therefore be vigilant to ensure its protections are preserved, at the same time that the public is protected," he said, still trying his best to sound like a rational persona rather than a psychotic and sociopath like his boss. Barr has been warning state and local governments against restrictions that single out religious gatherings even though as many as a third of all cases can be traced back to religious services in many locales. A couple of weeks ago Barr issued a statement saying that "Even in times of emergency, when reasonable and temporary restrictions are placed on rights, the First Amendment and federal statutory law prohibit discrimination against religious institutions and religious believers."
"Too restrictive"-- that's the hard core Trump-Republican base
Most-- though not all-- Republican governors don't need to be reminded by Barr. They're way into his line of thinking. South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, for example-- who many people consider a worse governor than even Ron DeSantis (R-FL) or Brian Kemp (R-GA). Noem wouldn't be more guilty for the 2,245 cases in her state had she personally run around injecting people. South Dakota has an astonishing 2,598 cases per million and it has been spreading from South Dakota into North Dakota, western Minnesota, northwest Iowa, Nebraska and Wyoming. South Dakota is the Midwest's Typhoid Mary state and Kristi Noem is up for the grand Typhoid Mary Governor of 2020. But Texas fringe maniac Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has no intention of letting her walk away with the award without a fight. By the end of the week, Abbott will allow restaurants, movie theaters, churches, museums, libraries, retail stores and malls open. Texas has a very low case/million inhabitants rate-- 907. Watch what happens to that by mid-May, which will be when he expects to also open barber shops, bars, gyms and hair salons
Abbott made the announcement during a news conference at the Texas Capitol, which he began by saying he would let the stay-at-home order expire because it "has done its job to slow the growth of COVID-19." While the spread of the virus in Texas has slowed down throughout April, the number of cases is still increasing day to day, and it is unclear if the state has yet seen its peak. ...Abbott said his new order "supersedes all local orders" saying those businesses must remain closed. He also said his order overrules any local government that wants to impose a fine or penalty for not wearing a mask-- something the latest statewide rules encourage but do not mandate. Speaking shortly after Abbott in Houston, the city's mayor, Sylvester Turner, told reporters that Abbott's new order "pretty much will take these measures, the ability to [issue] stay-at-home orders and things of that nature, out of our hands locally." He said he hoped Abbott's plan works but offered a "cautionary note," pointing out that there is still no vaccine and statistics show the "virus is still here," even as local measures have slowed it down. Abbott's new order comes as questions continue to persist about Texas' low testing level and what is being done to increase capacity. State Rep. Chris Turner of Grand Prairie, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, said in a statement that Texas is "near last in the nation on per capita testing and Gov. Abbott didn’t present a clear plan how that’s going to change, even though experts agree that widespread testing is essential to any reopening plan." "We don't know the magnitude of the problem," U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, said during a Texas Democratic Party conference call after Abbott's news conference. "Without robust testing, then we continue to remain in the dark."
Raleigh, North Carolina's CBS affiliate reported yesterday evening that one of the leaders of the Re-Open North Carolina, Audrey Whitlock, posted on her Facebook page that she has tested positive for the coronavirus. She described herself as "an asymptomatic COVID19 positive patient."
Whitlock is one of the administrators of the ReOpen NC Facebook page-- which has helped organize two protests in downtown Raleigh calling for Gov. Roy Cooper to lift his stay-at-home order. In Whitlock’s post, she wrote about how the restrictions put in place amid the COVID-19 pandemic are violating her First Amendment rights as well as her 5th and 14th Amendment rights. She said she was “forced” to quarantine which violated her First Amendment rights. “The reality is that modern society has not been able to eradicate contagious viruses. A typical public health quarantine would occur in a medical facility. I have been told not to participate in public or private accommodations as requested by the government, and therefore denied my 1st amendment right of freedom of religion,” Whitlock wrote. She went on to say that “It has been insinuated by others that if I go out, I could be arrested for denying a quarantine order.” She says an arrest in that situation would violate the Americans with Disabilities Act. ReOpen NC said it would hold rallies in Raleigh every Tuesday until the governor’s restrictions are lifted. On Thursday, Cooper extended the stay-at-home order until May 8.
As of Monday evening North Carolina had reported 9,415 confirmed cases, and just 927 cases per million, which is very low and widely attributed to Gov. Cooper's relatively fast shelter-in-place orders, the ones ReOpen NC is complaining about. Yesterday, though, Politico noted that it isn't only Democratic governors who are coming under fire from the GOP Death Cult but Republican governors who have been acting responsibly as well.
Across Texas, Arizona, Missouri and Ohio, dozens of conservative and libertarian state leaders and business owners told POLITICO they are planning more demonstrations and agitating to open more businesses, even after President Donald Trump sideswiped Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp last week for including spas, barber shops and gyms in the initial stages of his recovery plan. Tea Party Patriots and other groups are rallying behind Kemp in Georgia, with some activists concerned that national backlash to Kemp’s orders-- which includes resuming dine-in service at restaurants-- could discourage Republicans in other red states from forging ahead. In Texas, where Gov. Greg Abbott announced plans for a phased restart weeks ago and followed up Monday with more details, Texas House Freedom Caucus members contend it’s ultimately the responsibility of individual Texans to keep themselves safe by wearing protective gear and following social distancing guidelines. Across other red states, conservative activists are pleading with governors not to extend or bolster stay-at-home orders set to expire in the coming weeks. Polls show widespread support for maintaining social distancing guidelines, but Republicans are more aggressive than Democrats about their hopes for the timing and scope of reopening. Local GOP officials in states where demonstrations are occurring said that their offices have been inundated with calls and letters from exasperated constituents who are urging swift action. And with Trump sending mixed messages, they’re turning more sharply to state leaders to press their case about the damages. Trump and political allies are torn over both the precise timing of reopening and the visuals of the demonstrations that swept the country. The president has broadly left it up to individual states to decide their procedures-- a stance that critics believe allows him to take any side of the coronavirus debate depending on how the circumstances turn. Before slapping down Kemp in successive news conferences last week, Trump positioned himself as a national leader for the “reopen” side. The president agitated early and has sent supportive tweets calling for the “liberation” of states. “They’ve got cabin fever. They want their lives back,” Trump said at one point, swatting away at a question about whether he was inciting violence. Trump met with retail executives and spoke with governors Monday about the virus response and “economic revival,” an approach that could put the president on firmer footing with his base. Some on the right are distancing themselves altogether from the public demonstrations: Americans for Prosperity-- the main political arm of the libertarian-leaning Koch network-- backed away from the protests in favor of engaging policymakers to focus on standards to safely reopen the economy. But Tea Party Patriots agreed to promote demonstrations to its members, provided they followed social distancing guidelines. Several events are also being showcased by the conservative group FreedomWorks, including rallies in Ohio and across Texas last weekend, and in Arizona and Nevada on Friday along with a big event outside the White House. “I think that for the first month, the reason we didn’t have protests like this is people were saying, ‘OK, this isn’t going to last forever, and we should be able to get through it,’” said Jenny Beth Martin, cofounder and national coordinator of the Tea Party Patriots. Martin credited business owners in her home state of Georgia with successfully pushing Kemp to act swiftly to get businesses up and running again, calling the governor’s order “measured” and a positive first step. She joined with scores of local leaders in imploring supporters to reach out to Kemp to show their appreciation. “Right now, if you don’t have the cell phone or email of your elected officials or their staff it is very difficult to get through with any sort of real, meaningful communication to them,” Martin said. “A lot of these people who have left their home to go make their voices heard are only doing that because they cannot get through to the government otherwise.” Hundreds of protesters have swarmed Ohio, where Republican Gov. Mike DeWine was an early proponent of strict state actions. They’re worried DeWine and Ohio Department of Health Director Dr. Amy Acton-- who is drawing considerable ire-- will move too slowly on May 1 when the stay-at-home order runs out. “Government has a role, but it should not be overreaching-- and that’s certainly what’s going on right now,” said Tom Hach, organizer for an “Open Ohio Now” rally in Columbus. He and several others believe there needs to be more focus on people who had the virus but didn’t show symptoms, which Hach said could ultimately show the state and country overreached. “Every decision comes with a price,” said Hach, a retiree from the Cleveland suburbs who serves on several local boards. “We may on the one hand be saving some lives with the stay-at-home order, but we’re going to cost lives and livelihood and diminish people’s lives in general if the economy tanks. It’s all got to be balanced. And I don’t think that it is. And that is something Gov. DeWine has to look at.” More than 965,900 1,010,300 people have been infected with Covid-19 in the U.S., which has led to nearly 55,000 57,000 deaths as of Monday. CDC guidelines for states lifting various orders as part of a multi-phase process call for downward trends of positive tests over two weeks along with robust testing programs for at-risk hospital workers. Protest organizers hold up Georgia, along with South Carolina, Florida and Tennessee as early Republicans models for states that have moved quickly to begin reopening. Several credited Colorado Democratic Gov. Jared Polis with moving away from a more aggressive stay-at-home order into a new phase with more businesses able to operate-- and they want every Republican to follow. Kemp, who held a prayer service as restaurants began reopening Monday, has stood by his decision despite not meeting the federal guidelines. Many Georgia business owners say they don’t plan to open right away and Kemp’s moves have already revived political feuds in the state. Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA) sided with Trump and accused his opponent in the November Senate special election, GOP Sen. Kelly Loeffler, of taking both Kemp’s and Trump’s side in the fight.
by Noah And lately he's been inciting his party to riot, even coupling his encouragement with sly mentions of the 2nd Amendment, a clear signal to create White House approved gun violence if there ever was one. For Trump, it's not enough to just call his fanatical followers "very fine people" He wants them to prove it all over again. Yep, Trump wants the Republican jihadists out in the streets, crowded together, 6 inches of separation, protesting their own well-being just as Republicans previously took the streets and airwaves to protest Obamacare. We don't need no stinkin' health! Trump is sending out his minions in red states and swing states alike, particularly Virginia, Minnesota, and, first of all, Michigan. It's all about "Death, Mayhem, and Re-election!" How's that for a campaign slogan? He's got "Education" Secretary Betsy DeVos coordinating funding from neo-nazi arms of the Republican Party such as her home state's Michigan Freedom Fund, the semi-deceptively named Michigan Conservative Coalition, and Operation Gridlock. Does she have some pipe bombers in vans lined up, too? This is the unfolding of a key element of the Trump 2020 re-election strategy being put forth by republican leaders. RNC Chaircretin Ronna Romney McDaniel is still insisting on a physical party convention to nominate the man they all want anyway. Think of all of those Republican delegates and their attendants and servants, crowded together, passing the virus back and forth. Go Ahead. Make my day! Jared The Twit has probably already bought a controlling interest in a casket company. Buy one now! And, for a little extra, each casket can be emblazoned with a bronze Trump logo and a numbered presidential seal! To Trump and his Republican Party, up to millions of American lives are expendable if their plague-ridden corpses get him re-elected so he can escape various statutes of limitation and do more looting of the United States Treasury of our taxpayer dollars for himself and his donors. Moscow Mitch applauds and you have to know that somewhere off in some damp dark corner ex-Speaker Paul Ryan is rubbing his fetid fecal-encrusted paws together with glee. And, isn't it strange and ironic that the Republicans are protesting state governments who they see as trying to tell them what they can and can't do with their bodies.
by Noah I wonder how many of the conned, the bigots, and the outright lunatics in the above picture will end up dying from the unnecessarily rampant spread of the coronavirus that endangers not just them but us. None of them will know though. Their dying wish will be to be buried in their little red hats of hate and delusion. Once a Trumpie, always a Trumpie. Putting any Republican on an episode of Intervention instead of Survivor would be pointless. I don't know of anyone who has ever been able to have a rational conversation with a Trump supporter. Their whole beings are way, way too emotionally over-invested in Dear Leader. As the country spirals down the drain, they just stare with their glassy eyes and pump their fists. They always remind me of those clips you see of the Heaven's Gate cultists who'd been convinced that they were going to live on the Hale-Bopp Comet as it swept towards the Sun. They all dressed up in black gowns and purple shrouds (instead of MAGA hats) as they videotaped statements about how happy they were to be leaving for their new heavenly home on the comet with their madman leader! Then they eagerly drank their cocktails of barbiturates and vodka. The difference, of course, is that the Heaven's Gate loons didn't drag the rest of us along with them.
Time for a quick reality check. Despite the hysteria from the political class and the media, smoking doesn't kill. -Trump's Vice President, Mick Pence
Ah, the Republican approach to reality! Reality check? What reality? Delusion check is much more like it. Kellyanne Conartist's "Alternative facts" and all that. In that one statement from Mike Pence above, you see the essence of being a Republican. You also see it in the meme's statement about Pence causing an uptick in HIV cases in his home state. When you cut out things like sterile syringes and money to prevent disease, disease happens. It did in Pence's Indiana, and it's happening now, nationwide, as a result of Trump and his Republican death cult cutting funding for longstanding Center For Disease Control prevention and research programs. Disease is opportunistic. Open the door and it comes rushing in. Find a Republican that cares about that and win a prize. You'll have better odds if you start buying lottery tickets. Global warming? I sit here writing this in New York on the night of March 3rd and we've had 4 inches of snow all winter. That's all. Plenty of rain and 50 degree days, though. This morning, I heard about a little girl that got a much hoped for sled for Christmas 2 years ago and has yet to be able to use it. Maybe if her family moves up to Ontario. Maybe. It's not just here. Ask the people in Australia. Ask the people in Mongolia. Just don't ask Mike Pence or any of his sicko kind. Mike Pence and his crew of Left Behind devotees in charge of protecting America from a potential plague or pandemic? We'd have a better chance if an asteroid was aimed dead at us. My god, from what madhouse do they get these people?
