Debates Motel pic.twitter.com/40lpMsDU6l

— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) October 8, 2020

… Read the rest

Official statement by official manager of official Trump campaign:

President Trump won the first debate despite a terrible and biased moderator in Chris Wallace, and everybody knows it. For the swamp creatures at the Presidential Debate Commission to now rush to Joe Biden’s defense by unilaterally canceling an in-person debate is pathetic. That’s not what debates are about or how they’re done. Here are the facts: President Trump will have posted multiple negative tests prior to the debate, so there is no need for this unilateral declaration. The safety of all involved can easily be achieved without canceling a chance for voters to see both candidates go head to head. We’ll pass on this sad excuse to bail out

He’s still taking the steroid so that’s why he’s still so hopped up.

The president confirmed he is still taking the strong steroid dexamethasone. It’s widely available in hospitals and doctors have highlighted it can make the patient feel better than they actually are, which could help explain some of the president’s unusually upbeat descriptions of how he is feeling over the past several days.

It almost certainly does explain it. That’s not the normal Trump we’re seeing. Normal Trump doesn’t keep telling us he loves us.

Trump downplayed the drug’s strength while sort of describing what medications he is still taking. “They have a steroid, it’s not a heavy steroid, they have that go a little longer. I’m

Oh goody another hopped-up manic video. That accordion is going to fall to bits at this rate.

TO MY FAVORITE PEOPLE IN THE WORLD! pic.twitter.com/38DbQtUxEu

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 8, 2020

He loves us! He really loves us!

It’s yesterday’s bullshit all over again. He likes to repeat himself, likes to repeat himself. He likes to repeat himself. Himself? He likes to repeat.

He took this stuff, it was incredible, incredible, ya gonna get it, ya gonna get it free, he got it approved, it woulda taken months, he got it approved, he’s done more in 47 months than Biden has in 47 years, he loves ya.… Read the rest

Trump wants to be seen as Mister Strong (that’s President Strong to you peasants).

Trump has sought to project the strongman image, flying to the White House by helicopter at sunset, standing on the balcony and taking off his face mask while still contagious, bragging that he feels better than he did 20 years ago and urging the public to neither fear the virus nor let it dominate their lives.

But if he wants to project the strongman image, why…

He’s not in that photo because he chose to ride in a golf cart instead. It was only a short walk…

His campaign has sent out fundraising emails preaching a similar if-I-can-beat-it-so-can-you-message, hoping to turn personal and political disaster to

Trump says it’s the parents of dead soldiers who gave him the virus.

In an interview on Fox Business, Trump told host Maria Bartiromo that he “figured there would be a chance” he would become infected with the coronavirus, citing his meetings with the families of America’s war dead.

…

He said the family members would approach him to “tell me a story about, ‘My son, sir, was in Iraq.’ Or, ‘He was in Afghanistan.’ And, ‘Sir, he did this, and he did that, and then he charged in order to save his friends.’ And, ‘Yes, sir, he was killed, but he saved his friends. He’s so brave, sir.’”

That’s four “sir”s in that one short passage.

Apart from

Timothy McVeigh lives on.

The FBI says it thwarted what it described as a plot to violently overthrow the government and kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, and federal prosecutors are expected to discuss the alleged conspiracy later Thursday.

…

The court filing also alleges the conspirators twice conducted surveillance at Whitmer’s vacation home and discussed kidnapping her to a remote location in Wisconsin to stand “trial” for treason prior to the Nov. 3 election.

“Several members talked about murdering ‘tyrants’ or ‘taking’ a sitting governor,” an FBI agent wrote in the affidavit. “The group decided they needed to increase their numbers and encouraged each other to talk to their neighbors and spread their message.”

…

The FBI was already

No.

‘I want difference to be seen as a strength. I want it to be acknowledged, respected and embraced.’ @MunroeBergdorf speaking on the type of world she wants to live in. #FTWomen #Gamechangers pic.twitter.com/7FJEPqPQhR

— Financial Times Live (@ftlive) October 8, 2020

But Munroe Bergdorf is not a woman.

A woman was displaced from that summit so that a man who role plays “woman” could be on it.

Also that photograph? That’s a very male idea of what women are supposed to look like and pose like and be seductive like and appear on a list of women as gamchangers like.… Read the rest

Even Don Junior thinks Trump is acting dangerously manic.

Donald Trump’s erratic and reckless behavior in the last 24 hours has opened a rift in the Trump family over how to rein in the out-of-control president, according to two Republicans briefed on the family conversations. Sources said Donald Trump Jr. is deeply upset by his father’s decision to drive around Walter Reed National Military Medical Center last night with members of the Secret Service while he was infected with COVID-19. “Don Jr. thinks Trump is acting crazy,” one of the sources told me. The stunt outraged medical experts, including an attending physician at Walter Reed. 

According to sources, Don Jr. has told friends that he tried lobbying Ivanka Trump, 

Originally a comment by Holms on Who advocate for their rights or interests.

Sastra

I just had a TRA tell me that thinking that a child going through puberty naturally […] is the Naturalistic Fallacy.

There seems to be surge in people calling things fallacies without realising a statement needs to meet a certain extremely basic formulation “A because B” in order to be an argument at all; before it can be declared a fallacious argument, it must first be an argument. And so it is extremely common lately for people to declare that any insult in a comment renders the entire comment an ad hominem argument, irrespective of whether the insult was relied upon in making an argument, … Read the rest

Voter suppression in Houston.

The Texas Supreme Court on Wednesday forbade the state’s most populous county from [to] mailing unsolicited applications for mail-in ballots to millions of registered voters ahead of the Nov. 3 election.

…

In a 14-page opinion, the state Supreme Court reversed lower-court rulings and held that the Democratic clerk of Harris County, which includes Houston, lacked the statutory authority to distribute unsolicited mail-in ballot applications to some two million voters.

Harris County clerk Chris Hollins said the planned mailers—which would include information about who is and isn’t eligible to vote by mail—fell under his duty to conduct early voting and would serve as a helpful guide. The state sued to block the mailings,

More on ⁦@jk_rowling⁩ #transactivism, my sacking by ⁦@Mslexia⁩ as a result of signing the letter supporting the right to free speech and against trolling and the supine ⁦@Soc_of_Authors⁩ ⁦@englishpen⁩ . At least ⁦@PrivateEyeNews⁩ gets it pic.twitter.com/Rpoy9qgeTw

— Amanda Craig (@AmandaPCraig) October 7, 2020

The full image:

That’s the Chair of the Society of Authors, Joanne Harris, saying

People with power, money and influence do not experience the same effect from online abuse as those with less power. That doesn’t mean we should approve of abuse. But ‘silencing’ a person in power doesn’t actually silence anything.

So there, JK Rowling. You’ve had success and money from your books (even though … Read the rest

There’s a New Video from the king. He tweeted it himself. He plays a lot of accordion on it. He explains that he doesn’t know what “therapeutic” means. He says everybody is going to get Regeneron, for free. He says China is gonna pay a very big price. He plays the hell out of that accordion.

A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT! pic.twitter.com/uhLIcknAjT

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 7, 2020

… Read the rest

Ha! No.

And then this idea that he said “I’m your leader” and he said it more than once and I can understand why certain people would think that sounds a little dictatorial but the president is the leader and I think the president’s sort of mapping

Wait wait wait I have to stop you right there.

No he is not. He is not. He’s the chief government administrator; he presides over the government. That’s it. He is not our leader. We don’t have one and we don’t need one. Remember Il Duce? Remember Der Führer? Those were avowed Leaders, and they led everyone right over a cliff. We don’t have or want a governmental Leader. Get … Read the rest

From Stat News in February 2017:

Sharissa Derricott, 30, had no idea why her body seemed to be failing. At 21, a surgeon replaced her deteriorated jaw joint. She’s been diagnosed with degenerative disc disease and fibromyalgia, a chronic pain condition. Her teeth are shedding enamel and cracking.

None of it made sense to her until she discovered a community of women online who describe similar symptoms and have one thing in common: All had taken a drug called Lupron.

Thousands of parents chose to inject their daughters with the drug, which was approved to shut down puberty in young girls but also is commonly used off-label to help short kids grow taller.

I guess this is like the … Read the rest

The barrister is fuming.

Today is a profoundly shameful day for our justice system which engineered a hearing on the healthcare of trans children in which no trans children, or charities who advocate for their rights or interests, have representation. But the anti-trans lobby is represented twice over.

— Jo Maugham (@JolyonMaugham) October 7, 2020

But it’s not “for trans children” versus “the hate campaign.” People who think it’s not healthy or useful for teenagers to take drugs that block puberty don’t think that because they “hate” those children – they think it because there are good reasons to think it. People who think it’s wonderful for teenagers to take drugs that block puberty don’t think that because they are … Read the rest

About that tweet from the misogynist barrister yesterday…

Which, if you don’t want it, is a pretty massive takeover of your body. It’s pretty massive if you do want it, but if you don’t want it it’s all that plus the not wanting it part. Men like the barrister should think about that just a tad more than they normally do.… Read the rest

Nathan Robinson at the Guardian considers Trump’s fraud-skills.

Donald Trump has one particular skill: pretending things are different than they seem. He was never a good businessman, but he was fantastic at playing a good businessman on TV.

Was he? I never saw it, so I don’t know, but from his performances that I have been seeing for the past four years plus a few months, my guess is that he was successful rather than fantastic. I don’t think it’s about his talent so much as it is about the eager willingness of his audience to be impressed. Why that is I don’t think I will ever understand, but I get that it is. The behaviors that make me … Read the rest

Oh I see. I thought Trump was just randomly saluting in that Trumpolini moment on the White House balcony Monday, but it turns out he was saluting the helicopter.

He went up the outside stairs, which is not the custom; he stood there gasping like a fish, which is obviously not a sign of robust health and recovery from the virus; and finally he saluted the Marine helicopter as it departed, which is…just wacko.

Yesterday he shut down the Congressional attempt to pass a new stimulus bill, which is savagely cruel to the millions of people who are struggling in the shutdown.

Today he has cranked out a massive barrage of venomous retweets and tweets, which betrays a total … Read the rest

He’s dangerously manic and insane.

NOW THAT THE RADICAL LEFT DEMOCRATS GOT CAUGHT COLD IN THE (NON) FRIENDLY TRANSFER OF GOVERNMENT, IN FACT, THEY SPIED ON MY CAMPAIGN AND WENT FOR A COUP, WE ARE ENTITLED TO ASK THE VOTERS FOR FOUR MORE YEARS. PLEASE REMEMBER THIS WHEN YOU VOTE! https://t.co/gsFSghkmdM

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 7, 2020

(He originally spelled “caught” as “cought”…probably while coughing.)

(Also, what difference does he suppose it will make if people “remember” that he thinks he’s entitled to a third term in defiance of the 22d amendment? They can’t give it to him by voting this year, but they could deny it to him by voting for the other fella.)… Read the rest