Dominic Cummings’s perfectly reasonable not at all crazy explanation for that little side trip to Barnard Castle is that his eyes were wonky from his bout with COVID-19 so before driving himself and wife and child back to London from Durham he would take a little test drive (with child) to find out if he could see well enough to drive. As one does.

Look, Cummings did what any caring parent would do: chuck his kid in the backseat and then drive off to test his dodgy vision. I think all parents can relate to that

— Hadley Freeman (@HadleyFreeman) May 25, 2020

William Tell? pic.twitter.com/V9nO7Rwo2p

— Katie Barker (@KatieSBarker) May 25, 2020

"Next exit for Barnard Castle…" pic.twitter.com/ZDd3HkfARA

—

Oh nothing, just hanging a governor in effigy, just your normal Sunday outing.

What started out as a freedom-loving celebration of the Second Amendment ahead of Memorial Day turned into Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear being hanged in effigy and protesters chanting outside the governor’s mansion.

Not that that’s a very big jump. A “freedom-loving celebration of the Second Amendment” is actually a freedom-for-me violence-promoting celebration of guns and white supremacy.

The Second Amendment rally, meant to inspire people “about what it really means to be FREE,” according to Take Back Kentucky, attracted at least 100 people to the Kentucky State Capitol in Frankfort on Sunday.

Again, it’s important not to take the rhetoric at face value. Second Amendment … Read the rest

Trump’s busy weekend:

As the death toll in the coronavirus pandemic neared 100,000 Americans this Memorial Day weekend, President Trump derided and insulted perceived enemies and promoted a baseless conspiracy theory, in between rounds of golf.

In a flurry of tweets and retweets Saturday and Sunday, Trump mocked former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams’s weight, ridiculed the looks of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and called former Democratic presidential rival Hillary Clinton a “skank.”

He revived long-debunked speculation that a television host with whom Trump has feuded may have killed a woman and asserted without evidence that mail-in voting routinely produces ballot stuffing.

In short he carried on like an angry disordered incel who lives on Twitter and potato … Read the rest

Good timing.

If you’re heading to the park this weekend, remember to stay 2 metres apart from people you don’t live with.

More information: https://t.co/u1A6XADgV1 #StayAlert pic.twitter.com/CHVjr1R5jA

— UK Prime Minister (@10DowningStreet) May 24, 2020

https://twitter.com/inselratte/status/1264628607911067650

pic.twitter.com/3mTCeGVNry

— Sally Agarwal (@atina0987) May 24, 2020

I believe Durham is nice. pic.twitter.com/Th10VIsoyG

— Pete M – Project Here (@fastcarspete) May 24, 2020

… Read the rest

Boris Johnson says everything Dominic Cummings did was fine and according to the rules and what anyone would do. This is bewildering to most observers because of all the rules Cummings broke.

Facing intense pressure to explain why Cummings appeared to have flouted lockdown rules by driving more than 260 miles to his parents’ estate in Durham with his wife and young son after his wife became ill, the prime minister said Cummings had simply been trying to keep his family safe.

“I have had extensive face-to-face conversations with Dominic Cummings and I have concluded that in travelling to find the right kind of childcare, at the moment when both he and his wife were about to be incapacitated by

Birx says Trump does wear a mask.

White House public health adviser Dr Deborah Birx is appearing on Fox News Sunday and according to Fox News Sunday, she says: “President Trump does wear a mask when he is unable to social distance from others.”

There’s one slight snag though: she also says she doesn’t actually know that, she just assumes it.

“I’m not with him every day and every moment so I don’t know if he can maintain social distance. I’ve asked everybody independently to really make sure you wear a mask if you can’t maintain the six feet,” Birx said.

“I’m assuming that in a majority of cases he’s able to maintain that six feet distance.”

Surprise surprise, Trump continues to be a jackass.

After playing golf yesterday, Donald Trump was back on the fairways at his course in Virginia today. According to CNN’s Manu Raju, this is the president’s 266th trip to one of his golf clubs since he took office.

Photos from Saturday, showed the president failing to observe social distancing and shaking hands during his round as the number of deaths from Covid-19 in the US approaches 100,000.

See that, America?? That’s FREEDOM.… Read the rest

The beach is not for you, peasants.

Public health officials promote exercise and fresh air during citywide lockdowns, and virologists have said it’s largely safe to be outside as long as people observe physical distancing. But, as the Guardian reported earlier this week, 100 million Americans, especially people of color and poor communities, don’t have access to a decent park or public space, which includes beaches.

…

Now, as many communities in the north-east start to open up, they have decided to keep their shores closed to outsiders. In Connecticut, home to what Kahrl calls the country’s most “exclusionary coastline”, beaches are requiring residential passes to park near the shore. In Long Island, a cluster of suburbs

Also, again, publicly saying Joe Scarborough murdered a woman who worked for him.

A blow to her head? Body found under his desk? Left Congress suddenly? Big topic of discussion in Florida…and, he’s a Nut Job (with bad ratings). Keep digging, use forensic geniuses! https://t.co/UxbS5gZecd

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 24, 2020

Updating to add a new one:

A lot of interest in this story about Psycho Joe Scarborough. So a young marathon runner just happened to faint in his office, hit her head on his desk, & die? I would think there is a lot more to this story than that? An affair? What about the so-called investigator? Read story! https://t.co/CjBXBXxoNS

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 24,

Trump’s conversation with the rest of us is at a new level of horror.

President Donald Trump on Saturday shared a series of messages containing sexist taunts and personal insults against prominent female Democrats, including Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi.

And that’s putting it mildly.

In one message shared by the president, John Stahl, a conservative who gathered only 3% of the vote in his bid for election to California’s 52nd House district in 2012, called former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton a “skank.” 

And the president of the US endorsed and shared that misogynist garbage.

The president just retweeted someone calling the first woman nominee of either major political party in the US “a skank” a few hours

More on that old favorite, Trump’s hatred of reading:

After failing to read about the coronavirus, Trump failed to respond to it. It’s not a stretch to say that if the president read, thousands of lives might have been saved.

Trump’s ghostwriter for The Art of the Deal, Tony Schwartz, speculated that Trump has never read a single book in his adult life, not even a book about him or “by” him, of which there are 17. Trump pretends to have written more books than he pretends to have read.

…

When Megyn Kelly asked him about the last book he read, Trump replied, “I read passages. I read areas. I’ll read chapters. I don’t have the time.”

The front page of The New York Times for May 24, 2020 pic.twitter.com/d14JhFp4CP

— The New York Times (@nytimes) May 24, 2020

… Read the rest

David Graham in the Atlantic:

Imagine that the White House chief of staff wrote a secret memo, at the behest of the president of the United States, to the Treasury secretary and the director of the Office of Management and Budget. In the carefully hidden memo, the chief of staff directs the two to secretly and illegally cut off all federal funding to two key swing states, both led by Democratic governors, with the goal of rigging turnout in favor of the president’s party in the 2020 election.

Now imagine that the memo leaked to The Wall Street Journal, which splashed the story across its front page. The other major papers would quickly follow. Cable news would cover

Further to this whole vexed topic of sensible precautions to protect self and others versus batshit-crazy opposition to sensible precautions to protect self and others on the grounds of FREEDOMFREEDOMFREEDOM – the governor of North Dakota wishes people would just stop vexing.

“This is a … senseless dividing line,” Burgum said, according to a Washington Post report, “and I would ask people to try to dial up your empathy and your understanding.

“If someone is wearing a mask, they’re not doing it to represent what political party they’re in or what candidate they support. They might be doing it because they’ve got a five-year-old who’s been going through cancer treatments.”

They also might be doing it because other… Read the rest

Martin Pengelly on Trump’s fun day out:

Early on a fine morning in Washington DC, the president was seen by reporters “in his typical golf wear of white polo shirt and white baseball cap … before he departed the White House” for an undisclosed location. Secret service agents accompanying the president were photographed wearing masks. Trump was not seen to cover his face.

The agents protect Trump; Trump deliberately puts the agents at risk.

As of Saturday morning, more than 1.6m cases of Covid-19 had been confirmed in the US, with the death toll approaching 100,000.

…

Trump’s fondness for golf has been a constant source of controversy, not least for its cost to the taxpayer and its

A tale of two headlines:… Read the rest

God how I hate him. Not Daniel Dale; Trump.

The president has called three prominent black journalists dumb in the last month alone. pic.twitter.com/XXUTeRL6XS

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) May 22, 2020

I hate him. I hope he dies in the night.… Read the rest

Speaking of Trump gasping every few words this morning…how about that physical he never finished?

It’s been more than six months since President Donald Trump claimed to have started his annual physical at Walter Reed hospital but the White House is declining to explain why he has yet to complete the yearly doctor’s examination.

It’s not because he’s in perfect health, we know that much.

Asked in early March about when he would complete his physical, the president told reporters, “I’m going probably over the next 90 days. I’m so busy, I can’t do it.”

But he’s not “so busy.” We know that. He spends hours every day tweeting, and hours every day watching Fox.

The White House declined

God we’re stupid.

In the last few weeks a spate of American stores have made headlines after putting up signs telling customers who wear masks they will be denied entry. On Thursday, Vice reported on a Kentucky convenience store that put up a sign reading: “NO Face Masks allowed in store. Lower your mask or go somewhere else. Stop listening to [Kentucky governor Andy] Beshear, he’s a dumbass.”

What can be the point? It’s a respiratory disease, spread via coughs, sneezes, breathing, spitting – it spreads from the face. Why would you not want to wear a mask around people, given that the disease can kill a lot more readily than, say, a cold? Why turn it into … Read the rest

Here he is saying it himself in his own hoarse breathless wheezy is he choking voice.

TRUMP: "Some governors have deemed liquor stores & abortion clinics essential, but have left out churches … it's not right. So I am correcting this injustice & am calling houses of worship essential. I call upon governors to allow churches & places of worship to open right now" pic.twitter.com/e0VU8XeLEm

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 22, 2020

Notice how long it takes him to figure out what “mosque” spells.

Notice how he’s gasping between words.

“…over the past what now seems like a long period of time.”

Bit of a snag while he spells out “identifying.” That’s a hard word to read, isn’t it. I-denti-fying.… Read the rest