Michigan can’t catch a break.

As if things weren’t already bad enough in Michigan, on Tuesday, dams in Edenville and Sanford flooded. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer declared a state of emergency in Midland County and ordered all residents to evacuate the area immediately.

“If you have not evacuated the area, do so now and get somewhere safe,” Whitmer said in a statement. “This is unlike anything we’ve seen in Midland County.”

It may be unlike anything we’ve ever seen, but federal regulators saw this coming. As other outlets have reported, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has long warned the owners to increase capacity of the Edenville dam’s spillways to prevent a flood, going as far back as 1999. The agency

… Read the rest

The BBC reports:

A Toronto teenager has become the first Canadian ever charged with carrying out an “incel”-inspired terror attack.

The 17-year-old boy is accused of fatally stabbing a woman in February.

Incel, short for “involuntarily celibate,” is an online subculture focused on members’ perceived inability to find romantic or sexual partners.

Well, that’s a very forgiving way of putting it. It’s an online subculture focused on the evil of women who think they have a right to refuse demands for sex. It’s a male online subculture that rages at women’s sexual autonomy.

The suspect, who cannot be named because he is a minor, had already been charged with murder shortly after the incident, which took place at an

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State of Nevada “thinks” that they can send out illegal vote by mail ballots, creating a great Voter Fraud scenario for the State and the U.S. They can’t! If they do, “I think” I can hold up funds to the State. Sorry, but you must not cheat in elections. @RussVought45 @USTreasury

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 20, 2020

Michigan sends absentee ballot applications to 7.7 million people ahead of Primaries and the General Election. This was done illegally and without authorization by a rogue Secretary of State. I will ask to hold up funding to Michigan if they want to go down this Voter Fraud path!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 20, 2020

… Read the rest

Trump is getting excited about the G7 summit and toying with the idea that maybe just maybe it should be in person after all (so that he can insult people to their faces, dammit, like a real American).

“Now that our Country is ‘Transitioning back to Greatness’, I am considering rescheduling the G-7, on the same or similar date, in Washington, D.C., at the legendary Camp David,” Trump wrote in a tweet. “The other members are also beginning their COMEBACK. It would be a great sign to all – normalization!”

Yeah! Never mind that the curve isn’t flattening! Let’s do this thing!

Trump is clearly eager to look ahead to the next stage of reopening the country, but the

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Aw, now the Trumpies are ruining a perfectly good misogynist nickname by appropriating it from all those right-on lefty dudes. No fair!

https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1263161964504719360

It’s SO KAREN to tell Twitter to do something just because the president of the United States called some guy a murderer. Who does she think she is??

https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1263164947317612546

I WANT TO SPEAK TO THE MANAGER!!!!

OK Karen https://t.co/HrMza7SGE4

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) May 20, 2020

Don Junior is using it??? Aw, no, that’s got to ruin it.

https://twitter.com/WEdwarda/status/1263110330399547392 https://twitter.com/greg_price11/status/1263141582250872837… Read the rest

Did god make a clerical error?

35 of the 92 people (38%) who attended services at a rural Arkansas church March 6–11 tested positive for the coronavirus, ultimately killing three, according to a case study released Tuesday by the CDC.

…

Contact tracing found that an additional 26 people were infected after interacting with attendees of the church, and one person from that group died.

The CDC has mostly left it to the states to decide whether churches should close or not. It’s not hard to figure out why – who needs the hassle?

In Arkansas, the state banned indoor gatherings of more than 10 people, but exempted religious services.

Why? Because the state doesn’t want to tangle with … Read the rest

Oh look, more filth.

In yet another assault on checks and balances, President Trump abruptly removed the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) independent watchdog late Friday – the same night he announced plans to fire the State Department Inspector General (IG). At DOT, the acting IG was overseeing a high profile investigation of Secretary Chao’s alleged favoritism benefiting her husband Senator Mitch McConnell’s political prospects, but has now been replaced with a political appointee from within the agency. The acting IG’s ouster calls into question the future of the Chao-McConnell investigation, other critical oversight, and whether the watchdog was dismissed for unearthing damaging information. 

This move is the latest salvo of Trump’s assault on oversight. And it looks like the

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He had a reason.

There was a specific reason for President Trump’s sudden announcement on Monday that he was taking the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine. His goal was to undermine a whistleblower who had raised questions about the administration’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, a whistleblower who claimed that it was his skepticism about the utility of the drug that led to his firing. How could hydroxychloroquine be as dangerous as former top vaccine official Rick Bright suggested, Trump offered, given that he himself was using it?

Ah. So by the same token, if Trump gets some disinfectant inside his body, that will show it’s safe. Somebody point that out to him.

“The only negative I’ve heard was the study

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The Trump Show resumed after all the burgers and ice cream were gone.

Trump on Nancy Pelosi calling him "morbidly obese": "I don't respond to her. I think she's a waste of time." pic.twitter.com/hqCe5LjNxN

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 19, 2020

But wait! It turns out he does respond to her!

Just minutes after saying he would not respond to Nancy Pelosi calling him “morbidly obsese,” Trump unexpectedly unleashed an attack against the House speaker.

“Pelosi is a sick woman,” Trump said while answering a reporter’s question about his former national security adviser, Michael Flynn. “She’s got a lot of problems, a lot of mental problems.”

But he doesn’t respond to her. Make a note of it.

"It was a

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Trump went to Capitol Hill to have lunch with the Republicans, and guess what he didn’t wear.

President Trump arrives to Senate GOP lunch, without a mask

Kushner, Mark Meadows and others also seen not wearing masks

h/t pooler @caphilltrish pic.twitter.com/DU2MAS0Ih4

— Ali Zaslav (@alizaslav) May 19, 2020

But his long run of not-mask wearing may be about to hit a wall.

Trump is scheduled to tour a Ford Motors plant in Michigan tomorrow, and the company has said it will require him to wear a mask for the visit.

That should be interesting.… Read the rest

Pence says he’s not taking hydroxychloroquine – but also that he totally would.

According to the Fox News reporter who interviewed the vice president, Mike Pence said he was not taking hydroxychloroquine because his doctor had not recommended it.

But Pence added that he “wouldn’t hesitate” to use hydroxychloroquine, even though there has been little evidence that the anti-malaria drug is an effective treatment against coronavirus.

More to the point, even though people with medical knowledge say it would be dangerous to take it. Pence is too cowardly and self-serving to warn against taking it even though, unlike Trump, he probably has some clue about why it’s not a good plan.

In a memo last night, Trump’s physician, Dr 

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Why does Trump want people to take hydroxychloroquine?

Why obsess about this one drug? Why not remdesivir, for which studies are showing consistent positive results and about which experts are actually excited? Or two new possibilities that show promise, both already approved by the FDA to treat worms and asthma? Or any of the 47 other FDA-approved drugs that a team of researchers screened and found to have strong action against the coronavirus (the results of which were published in Nature on April 30)? Granted, these screenings were done against the virus in petri dishes. But the only solid evidence that hydroxychloroquine works against the virus is from similar in vitro studies. On the other hand, none of these

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The Guardian is startled by Trump’s news.

Extraordinary news emerging from the White House – the president has mentioned that he has been taking hydroxychloroquine. This is the dubious treatment for coronavirus that Trump had fiercely touted in the past but which was found to have a very mixed effect on patients.

Mixed, perhaps, but also non-coronavirus-preventing. I think there’s no more reason to think hydroxychloroquine will prevent the virus than there is to think marshmallow fluff will, or varnish, or gypsum, or brine, or the urine of a rabid bat.

The US Food and Drug Administration cautions against use of hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine for Covid-19 outside of a hospital setting or a clinical trial due to risk of

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President Trump on firing State Department Inspector General: "I don't know him at all. I never even heard of him. But, I was asked to by the State Department, by Mike…I have the absolute right as president to terminate."

Full video here: https://t.co/FWjHY8AWLb pic.twitter.com/avptfW0XIH

— CSPAN (@cspan) May 18, 2020

FOUR TIMES he says he has the right; two of those times he says “the absolute right.”

He also insists that it’s just normal to fire IGs hired by The Other Guy, just normal and good sense. That’s not the case.

He also thinks it’s perfectly fine for Pompeo to make his staffers do household chores for him.

“Here’s a man that is supposed to be negotiating war and peace

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Reaction is…intense.

Dear doctors — how is Trump's White House physician allowed to prescribe this to him? Wondering what rules would govern a licensed doctor doing this at the order of the patient? https://t.co/HfhcIyjmQJ

— Susan Glasser (@sbg1) May 18, 2020

.@jeffmason1: What is the evidence that hydroxychloroquine has a preventative impact?

TRUMP: "Are you ready? Here's my evidence — I get a lot of positive calls about it … what do you have to lose?" pic.twitter.com/51b967dypu

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 18, 2020

I tried to listen to that whole clip but I got too bored. Seriously? Yes. Even now, even on this subject – he drones on and on like The Most Boring Man in the … Read the rest

That’s a bit of a thunderbolt.

"I happen to be taking it … right now, yeah" — Trump claims he's taking hydroxychloroquine, a drug he's touted as a potential coronavirus treatment despite a lack of evidence that can lead to potentially fatal heart problems pic.twitter.com/zxiNxlyfEs

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 18, 2020

Unless he’s lying of course. I don’t think he is though – the way he tells it looks like his way of bouncing himself into saying something outrageous, which is different from his way of lying.… Read the rest

Trump is determined to nail Obama for his crimes, if only he can find out what they are.

President Donald Trump headed into the weekend appearing convinced his predecessor committed a crime worthy of investigation — despite being unable to name the crime or provide any evidence for it. By Sunday, he emerged prepared to wage wholesale political war with the last person who held his office.

It was always about Obama. Mediocre white guys are one thing, but a not so mediocre black guy as president – that’s a personal insult to Trump himself and must be avenged.

Escaping the White House for another weekend at Camp David, Trump appeared “highly focused” on Obama over the course of

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Same old same old same old – we’re told about the desperate need to respect trans rights, while we’re not told what, exactly, trans rights are meant to be, and whether they’re the same basic rights we should respect in all cases (cf the “Universal” in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights) or special rights particular to trans people, and if it’s the latter, whether those putative rights are compatible with everyone else’s rights.

Amnesty press release:

UK human rights organisations speak out for trans equality amidst growing threats to trans rights

But what is “trans equality”? Is there anyone anywhere who claims that trans people are not “equal” to everyone else? I sure don’t know of any such … Read the rest

Teen Vogue has an op-ed by a boy who wants to compete against girls instead of boys:

Growing up, I never felt like I fit in. I was trying to be this cool, masculine, teenage boy, but I felt like I was faking it. In high school, I secretly shopped for girls’ clothes at Goodwill and would put them on after school. But when I looked in the mirror, I was so disappointed. I didn’t understand it at the time, but what I was experiencing was gender dysphoria, a deeply painful feeling that comes from knowing that your sex assigned at birth and your body do not reflect your true gender.

He didn’t know it at the time, … Read the rest

From the police blotter:

Headline: Woman who ‘bragged about being a paedophile’ approached boys at Remembrance event

Subhead: Recently-released prisoner Leah Harvey showed ‘sheer arrogance’ by talking to the boys in front of police officers. She later approached two girls in a takeaway

Story:

Leah Harvey breached her sexual harm prevention order twice by approaching two boys at a Remembrance Day event and two girls working in a takeaway.

…

The second breach occurred between November 4 and November 26 and involved two teenage girls working at a takeaway in the Caerphilly area.

Ms Yeo [the prosecutor] said she went into the takeaway and made the girl feel “uncomfortable”.  

The defendant returned on November 22 and tried to talk

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