The last line

Apr 17th, 2020 12:26 pm | By

Time for the 25th.

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Pandemic’s lib

Apr 17th, 2020 11:50 am | By

Aaron Rupar on the eruption:

President Donald Trump can’t help but sow division, even at a time when Americans are largely united in supporting stay-at-home orders and social distancing to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

It’s not that he can’t help it, it’s that he loves doing it. He can’t help being the person he is, I guess, but the person he is loves doing malevolent cruel destructive things to people who are more vulnerable than he is, and to people who are not Donald Trump.

Just after 11:21 am Eastern time on Friday, President Donald Trump posted a trio of tweets endorsing the so-called liberation of a trio of states with Democratic governors from measures they’ve

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Liberate Minnesota?

Apr 17th, 2020 11:39 am | By

Trump is erupting again.

Liberate them from…measures to slow the spread of the virus? Liberate them to get sick and die or survive with reduced lung capacity or damaged kidneys or both? Funny kind of liberation.

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In this chaotic effort

Apr 17th, 2020 6:57 am | By

Got a shortage of N95 masks? Then the thing to do is give a huge packet of money to a bankrupt company with no employees that has never made masks. Problem solved!

In this chaotic effort to obtain supplies, the Trump administration awarded a $55 million contract to Panthera Worldwide LLC, a company with no expertise in the world of medical equipment, for N95 masks, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday.

Panthera’s parent company filed for bankruptcy protection last fall, and one of its owners last year said it had had no employees since May 2018, The Post reported, citing sworn testimony. It’s no longer listed as an LLC in Virginia, where its main office is, after fees

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Capture

Apr 16th, 2020 3:59 pm | By

The ACLU doesn’t already have enough to do, it seems.

Trans girls are girls, they tell us, superimposed on images of…two women. Not trans, not girls, just women. They’re actors: Blake Lively and Leighton Meester. Why is the ACLU telling us “trans girls are girls” with photos of two women?

Maybe the idea is that when we hear or read the phrase “trans girls” (or women? or have we officially reverted to calling women “girls” now, as if it were 1955 again?) we are supposed to visualize… Blake Lively and Leighton Meester. We’re supposed to visualize women, and not just women but young pretty … Read the rest



Isolated

Apr 16th, 2020 12:09 pm | By

The other G7 countries don’t want Trump at their lunch table right now.

Donald Trump found himself isolated among western leaders at a virtual G7 summit, as they expressed strong support for the World Health Organization after the US’s suspension of its funding.

Health officials around the world have condemned the US president’s decision to stop his country’s funding for the UN agency, amid a crisis that has left more than 2 million people infected and almost 140,000 dead.

Yes but the infections and deaths don’t matter, all that matters is Trump.

Immediately after the hour-long conference call, a spokesman for Angela Merkel said that the German chancellor had argued that “the pandemic can only be overcome with a

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A very appetizing opportunity

Apr 16th, 2020 11:50 am | By

This is startling.

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1250807416872189952… Read the rest


Another 24 billion for Jeff

Apr 16th, 2020 11:40 am | By

The pandemic has been good to Jeff Bezos.

The Amazon CEO and entrepreneur, Jeff Bezos, has grown his vast fortune by a further $24bn so far during the coronavirus pandemic, a roughly 20% increase over the last four months to $138b.

Amazon is getting a lot of business of course because real world shopping is either closed down or restricted.

But the increased demand comes amid growing controversy over the retailer’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak.

Workers have reported severe strains on warehouse teams. Many are on the frontlines packing and shipping items at warehouses where Covid-19 can easily spread.

Meanwhile Amazon is running tv ads showing the workers grinning broadly as they skip and dance around the warehouse … Read the rest



Return of “Lock her up”

Apr 16th, 2020 7:42 am | By

There are protests and then there are protests.

Thousands of demonstrators descended on the state Capitol in Lansing, Michigan, on Wednesday to protest Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s restrictive stay-at-home order, clogging the streets with their cars while scores ignored organizers’ pleas to stay inside their vehicles.

Not staying inside their anything is the whole point. Mommy can’t tell ME what to do.

The protest — dubbed “Operation Gridlock” — was organized by the Michigan Conservative Coalition and the Michigan Freedom Fund, a DeVos family-linked conservative group. Protesters were encouraged to show up and cause traffic jams, honk and bring signs to display from their cars. Organizers wrote on Facebook: “Do not park and walk — stay in your

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COVID cèilidh

Apr 16th, 2020 7:22 am | By

Social distancing at the BBC:

https://twitter.com/OwainWynEvans/status/1250319769678409735 https://twitter.com/BBCRadio2/status/1250757339424198656… Read the rest


Disruption

Apr 15th, 2020 5:38 pm | By

Well this is a hell of a thing. It’s local news, but it’s one of those big hit to a major city items of local news. A bridge that connects West Seattle to Seattle has turned out to be cracking, and it’s closed at best until 2022 and at worst forever. A major chunk of the city that has been sprouting high rises like crazy over the past decade or so is suddenly cut off from the rest of the city. It’s a bit like Hurricane Sandy…a reminder that big cities are far from invulnerable.

The key points: The high-rise West Seattle Bridge, closed for safety concerns 23 days ago, may not be fixable – SDOT “does not yet

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A whole new level of crazy

Apr 15th, 2020 4:44 pm | By

Trump’s threat to adjourn Congress isn’t going down hugely well.

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Bartleby he isn’t

Apr 15th, 2020 4:22 pm | By

More coup-threatening:

Fact check: Trump says he will execute constitutional authority to adjourn both chambers of Congress so he can make recess appointments to fill vacancies.

“If the House will not agree to that adjournment, I will exercise my constitutional authority to adjourn both chambers of Congress,” Trump said.

No president has ever used that authority.

The Supreme Court ruled unanimously in NLRB v. Noel Canning that the president cannot use his or her authority under the Recess Appointment Clause of the Constitution to appoint public officials unless the Senate is in recess and not able to transact Senate business. The Senate is in recess until May 4.

Trump was asked for details, and responded with his usual clarity … Read the rest



How not to fix it

Apr 15th, 2020 12:54 pm | By

The BBC checks the evil pinhead’s assertions about the WHO:

US President Donald Trump has accused the World Health Organization (WHO) of mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus after it emerged in China.

Because that’s what he did, so he needs to accuse the WHO of doing it, because that’s what runaway narcissists do.

He added he would halt WHO funding while his administration reviewed its actions.

Because that’s what evil pinheads do.

People who are not evil pinheads are not impressed.

US President Donald Trump has been heavily criticised for halting funding for the World Health Organization (WHO) amid the global coronavirus pandemic.

Philanthropist Bill Gates, a major funder of the WHO, said it was

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Look at the roots!

Apr 15th, 2020 12:08 pm | By

A protest:

Hundreds of Michigan residents descended on the state capitol in Lansing on Wednesday in their cars and trucks for a vehicle demonstration labeled #OperationGridlock to protest Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s strict stay-at-home orders. 

Because what kind of totalitarian fiend wants to prevent mass deaths from a novel virus pandemic?

The order, one of the nation’s most stringent, included closing parts of big-box stores that sell gardening and home-improvement goods, limiting the use of motorboats, closing public golf courses, and curbing interstate travel, barring residents from fleeing the most heavily afflicted parts of the state to their cabins in rural Michigan.

I think maybe public golf courses should remain open for walking and exercise (not for golf), provided … Read the rest



Ok but put my name on it

Apr 15th, 2020 9:26 am | By

The Post reports:

The Treasury Department has ordered President Trump’s name printed on stimulus checks the Internal Revenue Service is rushing to send to tens of millions of Americans, a process that could slow their delivery by a few days, senior IRS officials said.

Also a process that coddles and encourages Trump’s disgusting vanity and egomania.

It will be the first time a president’s name appears on an IRS disbursement, whether a routine refund or one of the handful of checks the government has issued to taxpayers in recent decades either to stimulate a down economy or share the dividends of a strong one.

Because normal presidents, even the very empty-headed ones like Bush and Reagan, understand that they … Read the rest



545 cases via one meatpacking plant

Apr 15th, 2020 9:17 am | By

News from South Dakota:

Gov. Kristi Noem reiterated Tuesday that she won’t be ordering South Dakota residents to stay home amid the coronavirus pandemic, as another 121 confirmed cases were reported in the state. The majority of South Dakota’s 988 total cases – 768 – are in Minnehaha County, which includes the Smithfield Foods pork processing plant in Sioux Falls, the site of one of the largest known clusters of COVID-19 cases in the country. 

That’s ok. The people who work there are mostly immigrants, so nobody cares what happens to them. The virus won’t spread from the plant to the world outside the plant because Donald Trump would never let that happen.

CBS affiliate KELO-TV reports Noem

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“I gave the men liberty”

Apr 14th, 2020 3:55 pm | By

That other captain is also reminiscent of our current pumpkin head.… Read the rest



The duplicate key did exist

Apr 14th, 2020 3:49 pm | By

The old classics are the best.… Read the rest



Ah but the strawberries

Apr 14th, 2020 3:36 pm | By

Who knew Trump was a fan of mutiny?

So is he identifying with Captain Bligh or Fletcher Christian?

But lots of people are remarking that he’s more like Captain Queeg.

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