The Guardian has more up close reporting on the Michigan dramatics:

Despite a thunderstorm with heavy rains, dozens of protesters are on the Michigan State Capitol steps and lawn calling for an end to Michigan’s stay-at-home order, and demanding governor Gretchen Whitmer’s resignation.

The protest is organized by Michigan United For Liberty, a militia group that’s suing Whitmer over her orders.

The demonstrators include a small number of militiamen carrying assault rifles, and the protest is part of a high-tension week in Lansing.

Protesters gather outside the state Capitol in Lansing, Michigan. Photograph: Tom Perkins/Tom Perkins for the Guardian

It’s very banality of evil though, isn’t it. Geezers in chunky white trainers and rain jackets – they … Read the rest

The Michigan fascisti are at it again.

Despite heavy rain, armed protesters gathered Thursday at the State Capitol in Michigan in what the organizing group, Michigan United for Liberty, a militia group, has branded “judgment day.”

It’s their third gun-toting tantrum over the lockdown and the fact that the governor is a woman and a Democrat.

Ahead of Thursday’s protest, comments were made in private Facebook groups threatening Gov. Whitmer and lawmakers with violence, according to reporting by the Detroit Metro Times.

But hey by all means let them carry their assault weapons into the capitol.

Concern about Thursday’s gathering was higher than previous protests. But rain and an interruption in planning — Facebook reportedly removed the organizers’ private

… Read the rest

Speaking of magical thinking and reckless behavior – the Wisconsin Supreme Court has thrown out the stay home order.

In a 4-3 decision, the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down the state’s stay at home order, handing a defeat to Democratic Gov. Tony Evers in his administration’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

And consigning who knows how many hundreds or thousands of people to a hideous death, and more to a horrible illness that can take weeks to recover from and leave permanent damage to the heart, brain, blood vessels, kidneys, lungs – pretty much everything.

In its order, the Supreme Court said Evers’ stay at home order is “invalid, and therefore, unenforceable,” so some businesses and restaurants

… Read the rest

I keep wandering into magical thinking myself – I see more people out and about and think “Oh it must be getting bet – NO, stupid, people are getting more reckless.” I’m betting we all do that, not least because it’s normally a pretty good indicator. “Lots of people around here, probably not many tigers.” Normally pretty good, but then there can be the unexpected tiger.

The WHO warns us not to think all the tigers will go somewhere else.

Speaking at a briefing on Wednesday, WHO emergencies director Dr Mike Ryan warned against trying to predict when the virus would disappear.

He added that even if a vaccine is found, controlling the virus will require a “massive effort”.

…

… Read the rest

Remember on Monday Trump shouted that the numbers were coming down all over the country? The hell they are.

At a fraught press briefing on Monday, the president declared: “All throughout the country, the numbers are coming down rapidly.”

Yet county-specific figures show a surge in infection rates in towns and rural communities in red states such as Texas, Tennessee, Alabama, Kentucky and North and South Dakota, according to data tracking by the New York Times.

…

In a 7 May report, obtained by NBC News, the list of top 10 surge areas included Nashville, Tennessee; Des Moines, Iowa; Amarillo, Texas; Racine, Wisconsin; Garden City, Kansas, and Central City, Kentucky – a predominantly white town of 6,000 people

… Read the rest

They’re going after Fauci, because of course they are.

Yesterday, Fauci said during the Senate’s hearing that there are serious consequences if cities or states in the United States reopen too quickly: “There is a real risk that you will trigger an outbreak that you may not be able to control,” he said.

Fauci’s warning contradicts the stance of Trump and Republicans who have been gunning for* a swift reopening to save the economy and took Fauci’s statement as a personal attack.

[*not “gunning for” but advocating for – I can’t offhand think of a parallel metaphor for that]

Rand Paul, a Republican senator from Kentucky, sparred with Fauci during the hearing yesterday when asking the epidemiologist why schools

… Read the rest

On deck tomorrow:

Rick Bright, former director of a key office in the Department of Health and Human Services, will testify in front of the Senate tomorrow that the Trump administration was unprepared for the coronavirus pandemic and there will be dramatic consequences if the US fails to develop a national coordinated response, reports CNN.

Documents of the prepared testimony indicate that Bright plans to tell Congress that he fears “the pandemic will get far worse and be prolonged” without a response “based in science”.

“Without clear planning and implementation of the steps that I and other experts have outlined, 2020 will be [the] darkest winter in modern history,” Bright is expected to warn.

Let’s not do … Read the rest

Some people think so:

The sun had not been up for an hour when the president of the United States, in his ninth tweet of the day, said MSNBC anchor Joe Scarborough might be a murderer.

His exact words?

“When will they open a Cold Case on the Psycho Joe Scarborough matter in Florida. Did he get away with murder? Some people think so. Why did he leave Congress so quietly and quickly? Isn’t it obvious? What’s happening now? A total nut job!”

This isn’t random person making noise on Twitter, this is a head of state, a head of an all-too-powerful nuclear-armed state.

Many of the 18,000 false and misleading claims in our Trump database feature overheated rhetoric.

… Read the rest

Henning Schroeder at The Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the University of Minnesota:

Before the trophy went to Adolf Hitler, German Emperor and King of Prussia Wilhelm II held the award for Most Hated Man on Earth. And while Hitler’s Third Reich has become the ultimate go-to place for much journalistic handwringing about the horrible times we are living in, in reality it feels like we are still stuck in Wilhelm’s Second Reich — it’s Kaiserzeit in America. Donald Trump and the last German Emperor have a lot in common, the vanity, insecurity, the penchant for bombast and persönliches Regiment (personal rule), to name just a few. In Wilhelm’s case the brakes on his impulsive and egotistical

… Read the rest

And in good news that makes up for everything, in Costa Rica they've discovered a frog that looks more like Kermit than any other frog. pic.twitter.com/c1LlIbKxjO

— Conrad Brunstrom (@conbrunstrom) May 12, 2020

… Read the rest

The Globe and Mail reports:

Organizations across Canada that work to help sexually exploited women and girls say the Liberal government has decided not to renew federal funding they rely on, forcing them to close programs.

Megan Walker, executive director of the London Abused Women’s Centre, said her organization will have to close its federally funded anti-sex-trafficking program. The program operated for five years and served more than 3,000 trafficked, prostituted, sexually exploited and at-risk women and girls.

So Trudeau is pro-trafficking then?

Under the program, women and girls could access their services immediately, Ms. Walker said. They could drop in to the centre when they needed clothing or to be some place warm, and staff members helped them

… Read the rest

Trump & his Goons want the CDC to fix the death count for them.

President Donald Trump and members of his coronavirus task force are pushing officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to change how the agency works with states to count coronavirus-related deaths. And they’re pushing for revisions that could lead to far fewer deaths being counted than originally reported, according to five administration officials working on the government’s response to the pandemic.

The numbers are too big, Trump explains.

Officials inside the CDC, five of whom spoke to The Daily Beast, said they are pushing back against that request, claiming it could falsely skew the mortality rate at a time when state and local

… Read the rest

Once you start a fight, be sure to keep it going forever, because that will make you look Tough and Resolute and Manly despite the weird goldy combover.

Asian Americans are VERY angry at what China has done to our Country, and the World. Chinese Americans are the most angry of all. I don’t blame them!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2020

The Guardian explains:

At a briefing in the White House Rose Garden, [ Weijia ] Jiang asked the president why he continues to claim – wrongly, as he did again on Tuesday – that the US is performing better than other countries in terms of testing for coronavirus.

“Why does that matter?” asked the reporter,

… Read the rest

I hadn’t heard of Orange Man Bad. Apparently it’s a meme about how stupid the libtards are for caring that Trump is bad. A Republican takes issue with that thought.

Amidst this death and destruction the president of the United States has been spending his days pecking around on his iPhone, tweeting that certain cable TV hosts are murderers and dogs and that the husband of his top strategist is a “moonface” loser. Oh, and he claimed—again—that the opposition party and the American media are “The Enemy of the People!”

…

The malignant self-obsession and childish vitriol only scratches the surface of the man’s flaws. His compulsions aren’t hidden or covered up. They are broadcast for the

… Read the rest

Republican Kentucky senator says uppity black former president should Keep His Mouth Shut.

Last week, remarks by Obama were leaked to Yahoo News that were highly critical about Trump and his administration, seeming to break a convention in US politics that former occupants of the White House rarely criticize their successors.

Does that convention apply to private conversations though? I don’t think so. Obama’s remarks were leaked.

But really that’s beside the point; I wouldn’t think McConnell had more of a case if Obama had made his remarks in an editorial in the Washington Post. Conventions are all very well but Trump is not a normal “occupant of the White House.” It’s not just that he has bad policies, … Read the rest

Trump started yesterday’s press brawl by reading a statement, adding his own random remarks. It’s faintly comical how easy it is to pick out the ad libs.

In the span of just a few short months, we’ve developed a testing capacity unmatched and unrivaled anywhere in the world, and it’s not even close.  This is a core element of our plan to safely and gradually reopen America.  And we’re opening, and we’re starting, and there’s enthusiasm like I haven’t seen in a long time.

See them?

In the span of just a few short months, we’ve developed a testing capacity unmatched and unrivaled anywhere in the world, and it’s not even close.  This is a core element of our

… Read the rest

In Kabul:

Two babies and 11 mothers and nurses have been killed in a militant attack on a hospital in the Afghan capital.

Another 15 people, including a number of children, were injured when several gunmen attacked the Kabul hospital on Tuesday morning, officials said.

Part of the hospital is run by the international medical charity, Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF), and some of those working there are foreigners.

So God hates women, babies, medical workers, and foreigners.… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Screechy Monkey on The more accurate terminology.

I think it’s important to separate two things.

1) The underlying ruling is, I think, poor. I disagree with the substance of it, and I think a judge should refrain from limiting counsel’s language except in very clear-cut cases.

2) The reaction of the ADF’s counsel is worse. First, it’s shitty advocacy. When a judge tells you to stop saying something because it doesn’t help your case and he considers it uncivil, you STOP SAYING IT. Find another way to make your arguments. The entire point of wanting to use one term instead of another is because you’re an advocate trying to persuade the judge. Persisting in using … Read the rest

According to this chart the US doesn’t have the highest per capita rate of infections. I stand corrected.

Of course, the number of actual cases in a country is going to be higher than official figures show, with testing rates also varying dramatically. As with all figures relating to confirmed cases, they should be treated with caution.

… Read the rest

Sir, sir, what did you mean, sir?

Hours after Trump posted a string of tweets and retweets about “Obamagate” — a new conspiracy theory that holds Obama responsible for masterminding the Russia investigation and railroading former Trump administration National Security Adviser Michael Flynn into a guilty plea for lying to the FBI (never mind that there’s no evidence of investigatory misconduct) — Philip Rucker of the Washington Post called Trump’s bluff.

“In one of your Mother’s Day tweets, you appeared to accuse President Obama of ‘the biggest political crime in American history, by far’ — those were your words. What crime exactly are you accusing President Obama of committing, and do you believe the Justice Department should prosecute him?”

… Read the rest