Trump is on his way to Ypsilanti as we speak.

Hilariously, the transcript crawl renders the question about wearing a mask as “You’re a mess today at the Ford plant”? No doubt it will be corrected any minute now.

Anyway Trump of course doesn’t say he will, and does instantly change the subject. “I wanna NORmalize,” he says idiotically. Well duh, Sherlock, don’t we all; we’re not doing this because we like it. We wanna normalize too, but we also wanna stay alive so that we can enjoy the normal when it comes back, and we also wanna not kill other people, so that they can enjoy the normal when it comes back. The reason things are not normal right now is because of a novel virus that is highly contagious (though not nearly as highly contagious as the 1918 flu) and all too often fatal. Wanting things to be normal again does precisely zero to disempower that virus.

Trump squawks on:

Wunna the other things I wanna do is get the churches open. The churches are not being treated with respect by a lot of the Democrat governors. I wanna get our churches open, an wur gunna take a very strong pozzisshun on that very soon.

So I guess his plan is to tell all the governors they have to exempt churches from the no large gatherings rules, in the hope that tens of thousands of church-goers will die in the next couple of months. Seems a bizarre plan, even for him.

Michigan’s Attorney General has asked Trump to follow the rules.

Ahead of President Trump’s planned trip Thursday to a Ford manufacturing plant in Michigan, the state’s attorney general implored him to wear a face mask on his tour, citing a “legal responsibility” — and said he would be asked not to return if he does not do so.

In an open letter addressed to Trump, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel (D) asked the president, who has consistently appeared barefaced in public and at the White House, to adhere to executive orders issued by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) and Ford’s policy mandating masks to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. Trump is scheduled to visit a factory southwest of Detroit that has been repurposed to manufacture ventilators.

The workers in the factory don’t necessarily want to get the virus from Trump. A normal person wouldn’t want to risk infecting other people.

“While my Department will not act to prevent you from touring Ford’s plant, I ask that while you are on tour you respect the great efforts of the men and women at Ford — and across this State — by wearing a facial covering,” Nessel wrote. “It is not just the policy of Ford, by virtue of the Governor’s Executive Orders. It is currently the law of this State.”

Asked during an appearance Thursday morning on CNN what she would do if Trump doesn’t comply, Nessel voiced some skepticism about whether he would.

“If we’ve learned nothing over the last several years of President Trump in the White House, it’s that he doesn’t have the same level of legal accountability as everybody else,” Nessel said. “Honestly, if he fails to wear a mask, he’s going to be asked not to return to any enclosed facilities inside our state.”

That is to say, if we’ve learned anything about Trump it’s that he considers himself exempt from any and all laws, rules, norms, and expectations that apply to everyone else, and that he sees himself that way because he cares about no one and nothing outside himself.

A Ford spokesperson told the Associated Press earlier this week that the company informed the White House that it requires everyone in factories to wear masks. But the spokesperson noted, “The White House has its own safety and testing policies in place and will make its own determination,” leaving unanswered the question of whether Trump will cover his face Thursday.

That’s not ok. The requirement exists to protect people, and the White House has no right to have “its own policies” such that Trump gets to endanger people. It’s that simple. Trump doesn’t get to visit a Ford factory with an assault rifle and shoot a bunch of people, and he doesn’t get to refuse to wear a mask.

Bad combination:

Floodwaters unleashed by a dam failure in central Michigan have reached a Dow Chemical facility and Superfund site, the company admitted Wednesday, raising the possibility that the flood could turn into a full-fledged environmental catastrophe.

Because the flood could contain toxic gunk, kind of like the Flint water supply.

The Times reports:

With much of Midland expected to be underwater by later on Wednesday, it was likely that the floodwaters would breach the levees designed to protect the Dow compound, said Allen Burton, a professor of earth and environmental sciences at the University of Michigan. This meant that, at the site itself, flooding could reach storage tanks, potentially releasing chemicals onto farmland and residential areas that line the river downstream, he said.

The Superfund cleanup sites are downriver from the century-old plant, which for decades had released chemicals into the nearby waterways. The concern downriver, Dr. Burton said, is that contaminated sediments on the river floor could be stirred up by the floodwaters, spreading pollution downstream and over the riverbanks.

Take a bow, Don.

Union of Concerned Scientists research scientist Jacob Carter told Common Dreams that President Donald Trump’s assault on environmental regulations bears some of the blame for the current catastrophe.

“This is another example of the Trump administration putting vulnerable communities in harms way by sidelining science” said Carter. “There was an Executive Order that called for Superfund sites to update their infrastructure to protect them from future extreme floods, but it was trashed by the Trump administration a week before Hurricane Harvey hit.”

Because why wouldn’t we want Superfund sites to be vulnerable to floods?

Mitch is all in an uproar because workers are being CODDLED. He’s not having it.

Mitch McConnell promised House Republicans Wednesday that the beefed up unemployment benefits enacted earlier this spring “will not be in the next bill.”

The Senate majority leader told the House GOP minority in an afternoon phone call that he is comfortable waiting to see how the nearly $3 trillion in coronavirus spending previously approved plays out before moving forward on the next relief legislation. And he told them that the ultimate end-product won’t look anything like House Democrats’ $3 trillion package passed last week, according to a person briefed on the call.

Well of course he’s comfortable. He’s been milking his job for $$$ for years. Nice to be Mitch but not everyone gets that kind of comfort.

McConnell warned against trial lawyer “vultures” ready to file lawsuits and said Republicans are “going to have to clean up the Democrats’ crazy policy that is paying people more to remain unemployed than they would earn if they went back to work,” McConnell said.

Starve the peasants!

Right, because the only possible reason to have a woman as a running mate is because he wants to fuck her. Good job of insulting your own sex, KC.

Michigan can’t catch a break.

As if things weren’t already bad enough in Michigan, on Tuesday, dams in Edenville and Sanford flooded. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer declared a state of emergency in Midland County and ordered all residents to evacuate the area immediately.

“If you have not evacuated the area, do so now and get somewhere safe,” Whitmer said in a statement. “This is unlike anything we’ve seen in Midland County.”

It may be unlike anything we’ve ever seen, but federal regulators saw this coming. As other outlets have reported, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has long warned the owners to increase capacity of the Edenville dam’s spillways to prevent a flood, going as far back as 1999. The agency issued another warning in 2004 when the ownership changed hands to a company called Boyce Hydro LLC, and another in 2017, when it declared the dam to be a “high hazard.” In 2018, the FERC revoked Boyce Hydro’s license, prompting years of litigation.

Meanwhile Trump is busy saving us from all this pesky government regulation.

The BBC reports:

A Toronto teenager has become the first Canadian ever charged with carrying out an “incel”-inspired terror attack.

The 17-year-old boy is accused of fatally stabbing a woman in February.

Incel, short for “involuntarily celibate,” is an online subculture focused on members’ perceived inability to find romantic or sexual partners.

Well, that’s a very forgiving way of putting it. It’s an online subculture focused on the evil of women who think they have a right to refuse demands for sex. It’s a male online subculture that rages at women’s sexual autonomy.

The suspect, who cannot be named because he is a minor, had already been charged with murder shortly after the incident, which took place at an erotic massage parlour…

When Toronto police learned the crime may have been motivated by an extremist ideology, they contacted Canada’s federal RCMP, which ultimately decided to press terrorism charges.

It’s not all that far-fetched to see rape as a form of terrorism against women. It’s not just a quick and convenient way to grab sex, at least not always. It’s also an expression of misogyny and a warning to The Others.

“Incel” is short for “involuntarily celibate”. It generally – though not exclusively – refers to online groups of men who feel they are unable to enter into sexual relationships. They blame women for their grievances, which they discuss in internet forums.

Again, it’s not so much that the men “feel they are unable to enter into sexual relationships” – it’s that they feel rage and hatred toward women who refuse to Put Out. Women are withholding bitches who have that thing between their legs but won’t share it.

In 2018, Alek Minassian allegedly drove a van into a busy Toronto commercial street killing 10 people and wounding 16.

He later told police the attack was retribution for years of rejection by women, and that he identified as a member of the incel movement. He was charged with 10 counts of first-degree murder and 16 counts of attempted murder, but he was not charged with terrorism.

…

Minassian was allegedly inspired by Elliot Rodger, who killed six people in a stabbing and shooting spree in Isla Vista, California, in May 2014.

Because those sorority bitches wouldn’t spread for him.

Trump is getting excited about the G7 summit and toying with the idea that maybe just maybe it should be in person after all (so that he can insult people to their faces, dammit, like a real American).

“Now that our Country is ‘Transitioning back to Greatness’, I am considering rescheduling the G-7, on the same or similar date, in Washington, D.C., at the legendary Camp David,” Trump wrote in a tweet. “The other members are also beginning their COMEBACK. It would be a great sign to all – normalization!”

Yeah! Never mind that the curve isn’t flattening! Let’s do this thing!

Trump is clearly eager to look ahead to the next stage of reopening the country, but the number of US coronavirus cases and deaths continues to climb. The country’s death toll is expected to hit 100,000 in the coming days.

With that in mind, it’s hard to imagine that world leaders will feel comfortable traveling to the US as it continues to grapple with the crisis.

Wimps! Sissies! Weenies! They need to get over here and round up some cattle in a thunderstorm, that’d show them.

Aw, now the Trumpies are ruining a perfectly good misogynist nickname by appropriating it from all those right-on lefty dudes. No fair!

It’s SO KAREN to tell Twitter to do something just because the president of the United States called some guy a murderer. Who does she think she is??

Don Junior is using it??? Aw, no, that’s got to ruin it.

Did god make a clerical error?

35 of the 92 people (38%) who attended services at a rural Arkansas church March 6–11 tested positive for the coronavirus, ultimately killing three, according to a case study released Tuesday by the CDC.

…

Contact tracing found that an additional 26 people were infected after interacting with attendees of the church, and one person from that group died.

The CDC has mostly left it to the states to decide whether churches should close or not. It’s not hard to figure out why – who needs the hassle?

In Arkansas, the state banned indoor gatherings of more than 10 people, but exempted religious services.

Why? Because the state doesn’t want to tangle with godbotherers, or because the state actually thinks god will wipe out all contagion inside the church and also as far as the parking lot?

Kentucky and Kansas both had federal court rulings against their governors’ orders to temporarily ban mass gatherings at religious services.

Getting the virus at the supermarket would be silly, but getting it at church would be ad majorem dei gloriam.

Oh look, more filth.

In yet another assault on checks and balances, President Trump abruptly removed the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) independent watchdog late Friday – the same night he announced plans to fire the State Department Inspector General (IG). At DOT, the acting IG was overseeing a high profile investigation of Secretary Chao’s alleged favoritism benefiting her husband Senator Mitch McConnell’s political prospects, but has now been replaced with a political appointee from within the agency. The acting IG’s ouster calls into question the future of the Chao-McConnell investigation, other critical oversight, and whether the watchdog was dismissed for unearthing damaging information. 

This move is the latest salvo of Trump’s assault on oversight. And it looks like the President made sure to cover all his bases to block accountability, not only nominating an IG to succeed the experienced watchdog who held the post, but also demoting the acting IG who was investigating Chao, and installing a political appointee to serve in his place while the Senate considers a permanent replacement. To make matters worse, Trump’s pick to be the new acting IG, Howard “Skip” Elliott, already has a job overseeing the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), an office he will now also be in charge of policing. 

Trump’s decision to sideline DOT acting IG Mitch Behm (who has 17 years of experience with OIG) was lost in the shuffle of outrage following the announcement that Trump planned to fire the State Department IG, but potential conflicts of interest abound. The most high profile is the DOT OIG’s review of allegations that Secretary Chao gave Senator McConnell’s constituents special treatment and helped steer millions of federal dollars to Kentucky as he is facing low approval ratings and a tough reelection bid. 

Are we drowned yet?

He had a reason.

There was a specific reason for President Trump’s sudden announcement on Monday that he was taking the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine. His goal was to undermine a whistleblower who had raised questions about the administration’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, a whistleblower who claimed that it was his skepticism about the utility of the drug that led to his firing. How could hydroxychloroquine be as dangerous as former top vaccine official Rick Bright suggested, Trump offered, given that he himself was using it?

Ah. So by the same token, if Trump gets some disinfectant inside his body, that will show it’s safe. Somebody point that out to him.

“The only negative I’ve heard was the study where they gave it — was it VA?” Trump said, referring to the Department of Veterans Affairs. “With, you know, people that aren’t big Trump fans gave it.” He then went on to express surprise at this perceived disloyalty from VA, given the legislation he had signed to support it. (The legislation he mentioned was in fact first signed by President Barack Obama.)

It’s funny that he’s such a belligerent insulting mean shithead yet he’s surprised when some people don’t like him. I wonder if anyone actually likes him.

Speaking to reporters Tuesday afternoon after a meeting with Republican senators, he again disparaged the study.

“If you look at the one survey, the only bad survey, they were giving it to people that were in very bad shape. They were very old. Almost dead,” Trump said. He described the study as “a Trump-enemy statement.”

A few hours later, again pressed on his use of the drug for an unproven purpose, Trump again suggested that opposition to it was simply political.

“There was a false study done where they gave it to very sick people, extremely sick people, people that were ready to die,” he said. “It was given by obviously not friends of the administration.” He later added that it “was a phony study and it’s very dangerous to do it.”

Unlike getting disinfectant inside the body.

The Trump Show resumed after all the burgers and ice cream were gone.

But wait! It turns out he does respond to her!

Just minutes after saying he would not respond to Nancy Pelosi calling him “morbidly obsese,” Trump unexpectedly unleashed an attack against the House speaker.

“Pelosi is a sick woman,” Trump said while answering a reporter’s question about his former national security adviser, Michael Flynn. “She’s got a lot of problems, a lot of mental problems.”

But he doesn’t respond to her. Make a note of it.

He says a lotttttttt of stupid shit in that one clip. The question is “Why is it ok for you to promote the use of this drug [Trump interjects “K”] when you’re not a doctor?” Trump starts with “Welll I’ve worked with doctors an if you look at the one survey, the only bad survey, they were giving it to people who were in very bad shape, they were very old, almost dead…”

Trump went to Capitol Hill to have lunch with the Republicans, and guess what he didn’t wear.

But his long run of not-mask wearing may be about to hit a wall.

Trump is scheduled to tour a Ford Motors plant in Michigan tomorrow, and the company has said it will require him to wear a mask for the visit.

That should be interesting.

Pence says he’s not taking hydroxychloroquine – but also that he totally would.

According to the Fox News reporter who interviewed the vice president, Mike Pence said he was not taking hydroxychloroquine because his doctor had not recommended it.

But Pence added that he “wouldn’t hesitate” to use hydroxychloroquine, even though there has been little evidence that the anti-malaria drug is an effective treatment against coronavirus.

More to the point, even though people with medical knowledge say it would be dangerous to take it. Pence is too cowardly and self-serving to warn against taking it even though, unlike Trump, he probably has some clue about why it’s not a good plan.

In a memo last night, Trump’s physician, Dr Sean Conley, said of the president’s use of the drug, “After numerous discussions he and I had regarding the evidence for and against the use of hydroxychloroquine, we concluded the potential benefit from treatment outweighed the relative risks.”

That makes no sense. Trump is taking it as a prophylactic rather than treatment, and anyway how did “we” arrive at that conclusion? What would that even mean? Trump knows nothing about medication or biology or any other relevant body of knowledge, so what relevance could his “conclusion” have? That physician is a lousy rotten example of a physician.

Why does Trump want people to take hydroxychloroquine?

Why obsess about this one drug? Why not remdesivir, for which studies are showing consistent positive results and about which experts are actually excited? Or two new possibilities that show promise, both already approved by the FDA to treat worms and asthma? Or any of the 47 other FDA-approved drugs that a team of researchers screened and found to have strong action against the coronavirus (the results of which were published in Nature on April 30)? Granted, these screenings were done against the virus in petri dishes. But the only solid evidence that hydroxychloroquine works against the virus is from similar in vitro studies. On the other hand, none of these other studies are getting attention on Fox News and right-wing Twitter, which seems to be where Trump gets his medical information.

It’s the fallacy of name recognition combined with the extreme smallness of the space for new information in Trump’s brain. He fixated on the name at some point and the rest is froth – there is no rational explanation, there’s only Trump’s desolate wasteland of a mind.

One thing that is indisputable, based on information dating to World War II, is that these chloroquine-derived drugs are treacherous because they have a narrow therapeutic index — which means the dose needed for treatment is close to the toxic dose. This is why doctors use them so carefully.

Trump seems unable to grasp this basic concept. And he doesn’t seem interested in the dangers.

No; once again, it’s the tiny space for new information in his brain. He has room for ” hydroxywotsitsname good” and that’s it. Brain full up; next customer please.

What is the public to conclude now that Trump says he’s taking hydroxychloroquine? If the past is any indication, more people will decide to take it. But unlike Trump, most will do so without the benefit of an in-house doctor and 24-hour monitoring to check for side effects — such as blindness, kidney failure, suicidal thoughts and heart attacks. Trump never uses his bully pulpit to warn people about what they’re stepping into, should they take his medical advice. But he should. It’s the least he can do.

Yes but that would require understanding a little more about hydroxywhosis and as we know, understanding a little more about something is not in Trump’s skill set.

The Guardian is startled by Trump’s news.

Extraordinary news emerging from the White House – the president has mentioned that he has been taking hydroxychloroquine. This is the dubious treatment for coronavirus that Trump had fiercely touted in the past but which was found to have a very mixed effect on patients.

Mixed, perhaps, but also non-coronavirus-preventing. I think there’s no more reason to think hydroxychloroquine will prevent the virus than there is to think marshmallow fluff will, or varnish, or gypsum, or brine, or the urine of a rabid bat.

The US Food and Drug Administration cautions against use of hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine for Covid-19 outside of a hospital setting or a clinical trial due to risk of heart rhythm problems.

Yes but what have you got to lose? Can’t answer that, can you.

But the FDA can.

The FDA has warned against using hydroxychloroquine or a related compound, chloroquine, for treating or preventing Covid-19 without medical supervision in a hospital, or as part of a clinical trial.

“While clinical trials are ongoing to determine the safety and effectiveness of these drugs for Covid-19, there are known side effects of these medications that should be considered,” the FDA commissioner, Stephen M Hahn, said in a statement issued in late April. “The FDA will continue to monitor and investigate these potential risks and will communicate publicly when more information is available.”

Blah blah blah, but Trump knows better.

FOUR TIMES he says he has the right; two of those times he says “the absolute right.”

He also insists that it’s just normal to fire IGs hired by The Other Guy, just normal and good sense. That’s not the case.

He also thinks it’s perfectly fine for Pompeo to make his staffers do household chores for him.

“Here’s a man that is supposed to be negotiating war and peace with major, major countries with weaponry like the world has never seen before,” Trump told reporters. “And the Democrats and the fake news media, they are interested in a man who is walking their dog.”

Trump fired the State Department’s inspector general, Steve Linick, on Friday. According to NBC, Linick has been investigating whether Pompeo and his wide made a staffer walk their dog, pick up dry cleaning and make them dinner reservations, as well as the circumstances of Pompeo’s sale of US weapons to Saudi Araba despite a congressional ban.

“I would rather have [Pompeo] on the phone with some world leader than have him wash dishes because maybe his wife isn’t there or his kids aren’t,” Trump said.

Of course, a third option would have been for the Pompeo family to hire dogwalkers and other helpers, rather than relying on State Department employees to do their personal errands.

It’s not a binary choice. “Either you wash my dishes, or I have to go home and wash them myself, leaving the Saudi ambassador waiting in my office.” No. Federal employees are not the only people available to do household chores for Mike Pompeo.

Reaction is…intense.

I tried to listen to that whole clip but I got too bored. Seriously? Yes. Even now, even on this subject – he drones on and on like The Most Boring Man in the World and at “we had a rePORT” I just couldn’t take it any more. I can’t take it when it’s that guy on the bus and I can’t take it when it’s Donnie Dimwit. The fruity raspy juicy speeded-up voice of the town bore, who talks fast and loud so that no one can interrupt him – EVERYBODY KNOWS THAT VOICE.

Also, what do you have to lose? Well, life, health, function, stuff like that.

A doctor sent him a letter. A letter! Wudja liketa see it? He’ll have Molly make you a copy. A letter! The doctor didn’t want anything, he didn’t say can I come have dinner with you mister president. He just sent the letter! So naturally who wouldn’t take it, based on that? So far he’s still here, he tells us.