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

Michigan’s Attorney General was not impressed with Trump’s bratty refusal to wear a mask at the Ford plant yesterday.

“The president is like a petulant child who refuses to follow the rules,” [Dana] Nessel said in a Thursday evening appearance on CNN. “This is no joke.”

Nessel, who wrote a strongly worded letter to Trump ahead of his visit telling him that he had a “legal” and “moral responsibility” to wear a mask, unleashed on the president in an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. Nessel slammed Trump for sending a “terrible message” and said his unwillingness to adhere to Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s executive order and Ford’s company policy mandating face coverings showed that he does not care about anyone

Today Trump is blending theocracy with medical malpractice murder.

President Trump begins his WH briefing by saying places of worships are essential. He says he is calling on governors and local leaders to allow churches and other places of faith to open "right now."

— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) May 22, 2020

But they’re not essential. Religion is supposed to be a spiritual thing, so clearly the bodily presence of a particular human can’t be essential. Religion is surely high up on the list of activities, joys, supports, sources of meaning or enlightenment or consolation or all those that can be conducted in solitude or at home with family as opposed to requiring physical presence during a pandemic. I get that … Read the rest

Why does Trump stand with his ass popped, his body bent forward, and his t-rex arms dangling? It’s not by accident. pic.twitter.com/LuEhHZMOwm

— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) May 22, 2020

Bonus: how also to sit normally.… Read the rest

Trump says

President Donald Trump on Thursday said “we are not closing our country” if the U.S. is hit by a second wave of coronavirus infections.

“People say that’s a very distinct possibility, it’s standard,” Trump said when asked about a second wave during a tour of a Ford factory in Michigan.

Oh it’s standard; well that’s ok then. By the same token, it’s standard for fire to burn, so we’re not going to evacuate the building if the alarm goes off. Just deal with it.

“We are going to put out the fires. We’re not going to close the country,” Trump said. “We can put out the fires. Whether it is an ember or a flame, we are going

Another one of these:

The thought police strike again:@OUTPOSTGallery is evicting artist @stephaniedouet from her studio space after getting an anonymous complaint about a Facebook post.

She wrote this after reading about Keira Bell

https://t.co/mY7EdJHTB6 pic.twitter.com/xpJr20xTdO

— Maya Forstater (@MForstater) May 21, 2020

Stephanie Douet says more on her blog today:

I have just been expelled from Outpost studios and membership for writing this post that their Committee describes as ‘explicitly transphobic and discriminatory’ and ‘causing discomfort and offence’.

My post may have been ignorant or insensitive, but it was neither transphobic or discriminatory, or was it intentionally hurtful.

My question is this: how is anyone ever gain any meaningful understanding, see someone else’s point of view or

Sure enough, Donnie Defiant didn’t wear a mask at the Ford factory.

President Trump, sitting in front of what seems to be a new back drop saying “Transition to Greatness,” talking about his work with African American communities and opportunity zones. Backstreet Boys “I Want It That Way” is playing in the background. pic.twitter.com/6Iqvyj7yR4

— Meridith McGraw (@meridithmcgraw) May 21, 2020

Aw look, isn’t that cute, there’s Jared, too, with his mask on the table in front of him. I suppose that’s the Princess on his left – can’t tell about her mask.

Ford has a policy that everyone in their plants is required to wear masks, but Trump is not wearing one pic.twitter.com/LM2u5Zv1RF

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 21,

Golly.

Many will disagree, but @FoxNews is doing nothing to help Republicans, and me, get re-elected on November 3rd. Sure, there are some truly GREAT people on Fox, but you also have some real “garbage” littered all over the network, people like Dummy Juan Williams, Schumerite Chris…

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 21, 2020

So he just up and admits right out in the open that he thinks Fox is supposed to be helping him get re-elected.… Read the rest

Trump is on his way to Ypsilanti as we speak.

"I want to get our country back to normal. I want to normalize." — Asked if he'll follow Ford's policy and wear a mask during his visit to a plant in Michigan, Trump indicates he doesn't want to pic.twitter.com/XJ3CfqTxEF

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 21, 2020

Hilariously, the transcript crawl renders the question about wearing a mask as “You’re a mess today at the Ford plant”? No doubt it will be corrected any minute now.

Anyway Trump of course doesn’t say he will, and does instantly change the subject. “I wanna NORmalize,” he says idiotically. Well duh, Sherlock, don’t we all; we’re not doing this because we like it. We … Read the rest

Michigan’s Attorney General has asked Trump to follow the rules.

Ahead of President Trump’s planned trip Thursday to a Ford manufacturing plant in Michigan, the state’s attorney general implored him to wear a face mask on his tour, citing a “legal responsibility” — and said he would be asked not to return if he does not do so.

In an open letter addressed to Trump, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel (D) asked the president, who has consistently appeared barefaced in public and at the White House, to adhere to executive orders issued by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) and Ford’s policy mandating masks to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. Trump is scheduled to visit a factory southwest

Bad combination:

Floodwaters unleashed by a dam failure in central Michigan have reached a Dow Chemical facility and Superfund site, the company admitted Wednesday, raising the possibility that the flood could turn into a full-fledged environmental catastrophe.

Because the flood could contain toxic gunk, kind of like the Flint water supply.

The Times reports:

With much of Midland expected to be underwater by later on Wednesday, it was likely that the floodwaters would breach the levees designed to protect the Dow compound, said Allen Burton, a professor of earth and environmental sciences at the University of Michigan. This meant that, at the site itself, flooding could reach storage tanks, potentially releasing chemicals onto farmland and residential areas that

Mitch is all in an uproar because workers are being CODDLED. He’s not having it.

Mitch McConnell promised House Republicans Wednesday that the beefed up unemployment benefits enacted earlier this spring “will not be in the next bill.”

The Senate majority leader told the House GOP minority in an afternoon phone call that he is comfortable waiting to see how the nearly $3 trillion in coronavirus spending previously approved plays out before moving forward on the next relief legislation. And he told them that the ultimate end-product won’t look anything like House Democrats’ $3 trillion package passed last week, according to a person briefed on the call.

Well of course he’s comfortable. He’s been milking his job for $$$ for … Read the rest

wut pic.twitter.com/r283HEZpVc

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 20, 2020

Right, because the only possible reason to have a woman as a running mate is because he wants to fuck her. Good job of insulting your own sex, KC.… Read the rest