So about these people staging anti-mask rebellions at Trader Joe’s and similar – we’re getting some contradictory instructions on the subject.

The mask FAQ for King County, Washington, where Seattle is, is one source of such contradictory instructions.

Question one:

When am I required to wear a face covering?

You must wear a cloth face covering over your nose and mouth in an indoor public setting and at outdoor public spaces where it is difficult to maintain six feet of physical distance at all times. This means you don’t need to wear a face covering when you’re outside walking, but you would be directed to wear one while at a farmers market or visiting a crowded park where social

I listened to Moral Maze on groupthink yesterday. It was moderately interesting though it didn’t really dig very deep. From the blurb:

The word was coined in the 1970s by social psychologist Irving Janis. It has come to refer to people who are passionate about a particular view of the world and who treat those who don’t share their values with contempt, or even hostility. Today, commentators talk also of ‘cancel culture’ – public denunciations of high-profile individuals whose beliefs are deemed to be incompatible with the prevailing moral orthodoxy. When ‘unacceptable’ private thoughts are made public, reputations can be trashed and jobs are sometimes lost.

People aren’t going to stand up and say “hooray for groupthink,” are they.

But … Read the rest

Orac on the anti-maskers:

Let’s start with one lie in particular that antimask advocates have been peddling (and are still peddling) to try to trick store and restaurant owners into thinking that the ADA says that they don’t have to wear a mask. For instance, take a look at this woman ranting in Trader Joes in the video in this Tweet that she has a “medical condition” that makes it impossible for her to wear a facemask:

This is a Trader Joe’s today. In Los Angeles. Cases are through the roof in California. Is there any way to reach these people?

pic.twitter.com/q1hIQr6aCL

— Joshua Potash (@JoshuaPotash) June 27, 2020

She has a breathing problem? Like hell she does. If … Read the rest

They are unabashedly telling us lie after lie after lie.

White House reporters continue to press Kayleigh McEnany on the meaning of Trump’s tweet this morning about Nascar driver Bubba Wallace and the decision to ban Confederate flags at races.

One reporter asked the press secretary why the president would not praise Nascar’s decision to ban Confederate flags.

McEnany replied that Trump was against demonizing American citizens. “He stands against the demonization of Americans, and he stands firmly on the side of preserving our history,” McEnany said.

What does the Confederate flag have to do with demonizing American citizens? I guess the idea is that removing it would imply criticism (or “demonization”) of the people who like it? But … Read the rest

Apparently Trump has nothing serious to worry about right now.

Has @BubbaWallace apologized to all of those great NASCAR drivers & officials who came to his aid, stood by his side, & were willing to sacrifice everything for him, only to find out that the whole thing was just another HOAX? That & Flag decision has caused lowest ratings EVER!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 6, 2020

Say WHAT? Who tf is Bubba Wallace and why tf is Trump babbling about NASCAR and ratings? As the pandemic infections and deaths keep shooting up up up while the rest of the world is pushing theirs down?

CNN explains:

President Donald Trump on Monday bemoaned NASCAR’s recent decision to ban

How to mask pic.twitter.com/Mm8IBTrNxd

— Sarah Cooper (@sarahcpr) July 6, 2020

He says that thing he keeps saying, with that same note of surprised happy: “I think I look good in it.” As if we’re all anxiously leaning forward worrying about how he looks in it. As if we give the tiniest rat’s ass about how he looks in it. As if he doesn’t look like a festering pile of burger grease and evil no matter what he puts on his head. As if how he looks in it has any bearing whatever on the issue of stopping the lethal pandemic.… Read the rest

It turns out that cringey BBC “let’s you trash ‘Karens'” tweet didn’t go down all that well.

Really not well at all. I’ve scrolled and scrolled and haven’t seen a “good stuff” reply yet.

Helen Joyce: I can only shudder when I think just how ashamed these women are going to be of their ageist younger selves in, ooh, about 15 years. Talk about internalised misogyny

TheMoominmama

You would [think] after being dragged to court by its experienced female presenters for age & sex discrimination that the bbc would have learned it’s lesson. Sadly no. The broadcaster thinks broadcasting pejorative ageist & sexist language & popular abuse among the woke crowd i[s] ok.

ThePen: ‘Don’t be so … Read the rest

Republicans are shocked, shocked that Trump appears to be a racist.

President Trump’s unyielding push to preserve Confederate symbols and the legacy of white domination, crystallized by his harsh denunciation of the racial justice movement Friday night at Mount Rushmore, has unnerved Republicans who have long enabled him but now fear losing power and forever associating their party with his racial animus.

Now? What, he hasn’t been showing his “racial animus” all along? The guy who was saying Mexicans are rapists before he even stole the election?

Trump has left little doubt through his utterances the past few weeks that he sees himself not only as the Republican standard-bearer but as leader of a modern grievance movement animated by

If Trump can corrupt and silence even the technical experts what hope is there?

Not much.

On Saturday night, President Donald Trump made the dangerously inaccurate claim that 99% of coronavirus cases are “totally harmless.” On Sunday morning, one of his top health experts failed to correct the assertion, a stunning breakdown of the government’s core duty to keep Americans safe and protect the public health.

CNN’s Dana Bash pressed US Food and Drug Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn repeatedly Sunday morning to explain the President’s false statement in his Fourth of July speech from the South Lawn of the White House, one that minimized the devastating effects of the virus and seemed to encourage Americans to ignore the deadly risks

We’re doomed.

Drunk people can't properly socially distance, a UK police officer warned after finishing a late shift Saturday — the first day that pubs reopened in England after the coronavirus shutdown. https://t.co/pBctzJgFyI

— CNN (@CNN) July 5, 2020

So what happens around July 18?

As the video shows, lifting #COVID19 bar restrictions in the UK led to a worst-case scene last night in London, as 10s of 1000s filled the streets, maskless, drinking, crowded.
Will this lead to a surge in new cases, in mid-July?@devisridhar @richardhorton1 @JeremyFarrar https://t.co/1vezh82mVs

— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) July 5, 2020

… Read the rest

God damn it Beeb!

Oh holy god it will be like this, won’t it.

H/t latsot… Read the rest

So Trump was playing with his toy trucks before it was time to get on the chop-chop to the Big Plane to the Faces Rock, and he was having ever such a nice fantasy about building a huge Disneyland kind of thing all full of the best Americans ever, like Donald Trump and Billy Graham and the guy who invented graham crackers and some crackers in uniforms and people like that.

Among the combative and unusual ways President Trump chose to celebrate Independence Day, some historians were particularly puzzled Saturday by his announcement for a new monument called the “National Garden of American Heroes” populated by a grab bag of historical figures chosen by his administration.

Well not puzzled … Read the rest

Trump’s “look at the big guns” celebration:

The US president staged a “Salute to America” jamboree on the south lawn of the White House with flyovers by military jets, parachute jumps and patriotic songs, but little effort among guests to physical distance or wear face masks.

Stupid and pathetic way to “salute America,” as if military force were the whole story. How about instead showing off our music and dance?

“We got hit by the virus that came from China,” the president said, prompting a strange whoop and applause from someone in the audience. “We’ve made a lot of progress. Our strategy is moving along well. It goes out in one area, it rears back its ugly face in

Another item from that oh so progressive Parliament Square rally yesterday.

A nappy for women who don't wish to share toilets with men. Lovely crowd altogether. pic.twitter.com/91WGmsgEIF

— Siún Ní Mhurchú (@ZippyLeDrew) July 4, 2020

Aw yeah. If you bitches don’t want men in your toilets here’s a nappy for you, hawhawhaw.… Read the rest

Nigel Farage has apparently violated the quarantine rules.

Nigel Farage appears to have broken the UK’s quarantine rules after posting a photo in a pub at midday today – less than two weeks after returning from the US.

And by the way who let him into the US? Trump slapped a spite quarantine on the UK ages ago.

There are calls for an investigation after the Brexit Party leader shared a photo with a pint as the coronavirus lockdown in England eased and pubs reopened for the first time. He wrote: “12 o’clock, first customer in. Love it.”

MSNBC footage shows Mr Farage at a Donald Trump rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, at 1.02am (UK time) on 21 June.

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That is, a boy successfully fought his school so that he could use the girls’ toilet.

It doesn’t sound quite so progressive that way does it.

That’s why it’s necessary to keep putting it that way.

(Notice no mention of how the girls at that school feel about the boy’s successful fight to join them in their toilet.)… Read the rest

Newsweek reports:

After a month of tweets, back and forths and intense scrutiny over her views on transgender issues, J.K. Rowling has ignited the debate once more by thanking Harry Potter fan site founder Emerson Spartz, of MuggleNet, for supporting her.

Well she didn’t “ignite the debate.” She thanked someone. No one was required to shout the house down in response. None of this stupid hounding of Rowling is necessary or inevitable. It’s people choosing to make a huge fuss over the trivial subject of people’s personal feelings about their “identities.” It’s not the most intelligent or useful choice I’ve ever seen.

“After hours of stomach churning & frantic pacing, I decided that, as founder of MuggleNet, I have

He’s not into any of that namby-pamby weenie-peenie Bring Us Together shit, he’s into saying THOSE DIRTY OTHER PEOPLE ARE ENEMIES and we gotta crush them like bugs.

Standing beneath Mount Rushmore on the eve of American independence day, Donald Trump staged a defiant celebration of what critics say is white identity politics and warned the nation’s history is under siege from “far-left fascism”.

Having it both ways, isn’t it. Fascism is by definition far-right, not any kind of left.

The US president defended the symbolism of statues and monuments before a packed crowd at an event that revelled in political incorrectness calculated to enflame the country’s current divisions and enrage liberal critics. There were few face masks and even

Trump says everything’s fabulous.

Donald Trump barely mentioned the Covid-19 pandemic sweeping the US in his incendiary speech at Mount Rushmore on Friday night. But in an appearance at the White House to wish Americans a happy fourth of July, the president referenced the virus, albeit to tell people how great a job he is doing. Predictably, he also recycled his old tactic of blaming the virus on China.

Chinadiddit therefore it’s fine that Trump has done everything he can to make it far far worse than it had to be.

“We were doing better than any country had done in history … and then we got hit with this terrible plague from China and now we’re getting closer