Richard Wolffe at the Guardian observes the humiliation.

…nothing truly comes close to the embarrassment of his so-called comeback rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Saturday.

It was so toe-curlingly cringeworthy, such a crushing humiliation. There are 80s pop bands who have enjoyed greater comebacks than Donald Trump.

Ok the smaller than expected crowd was humiliating but at least the rally itself was good, right? Trump on top form? Feeding off the energy of the [smaller than expected] crowd?

Trump told the crowd at great length why he couldn’t possibly walk down a ramp unaided. He even re-enacted his walk down the deadly incline. He also treated them to a long excuse about why he couldn’t hold a glass

Look at this maniac.

"Don't you understand, you dumb son of a bitch" — I challenge you to try and make sense of this Trump rant pic.twitter.com/LJnS4W9oVn

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 21, 2020

What he really wants to be is a stand-up comic. He gets so high on his own performance…it makes my skin crawl.… Read the rest

The Tulsa tweets are interesting.

WATCH: Due to lack of attendance, workers have begun to dismantle an outdoor stage that had been setup in an overflow area for a speech by President Trump near the arena in Tulsa tonight.

The president will speak soon in the arena. pic.twitter.com/SekDGR2f2Z

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) June 20, 2020

UPDATE: At his rally in Tulsa just now, President Trump referred to #Coronavirus as the “Kung-Flu”. https://t.co/yt7rXLzvHi

— Weijia Jiang (@weijia) June 21, 2020

Trump is cracking jokes in Tulsa about Covid-19, calling it "kung flu" which is not only racist but belittles the deaths of 122K Americans and the horrific loss for their families.

— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) June 21, 2020

Also…I hate to … Read the rest

Charming.

As you can see, that’s Facebook and it’s public, so I found it. This is the nice lady who wants to murder Rowling:… Read the rest

Barr is every bit as evil as anyone thought but not as fiendishly clever. Not so clever at all really.

President Donald Trump on Saturday denied involvement in firing Geoffrey Berman, the powerful prosecutor atop the Manhattan US Attorney’s office, shortly after Trump’s attorney general sent Berman a letter saying the President had done so.

Who, me? Nah I didn’t. Pass the burgers.

Attorney General William Barr told Berman, whose office has led prosecutions and investigations of Trump’s allies, that Trump had agreed to remove him after he refused Barr’s effort a day prior to oust him.

“Unfortunately, with your statement of last night, you have chosen public spectacle over public service,” Barr wrote in his letter to Berman.

Hahahahahahaha

This is what overflow looks like at the Trump rally in Tulsa right now. Pence is scheduled to speak out here in about 10 minutes. People still streaming in but not nearly the number the campaign said they were expecting. pic.twitter.com/hbypfviOxv

— Abby D. Phillip (@abbydphillip) June 20, 2020

The overflow where there is no overflow.

Trump and Pence had planned to speak separately to approximately 40,000 “overflow” attendees.

That idea has been scrapped. #TrumpsCoronavirusRally pic.twitter.com/69ij2WNby9

— Gage Ulrik (@mh_otter) June 20, 2020

Sir sir where are all the people sir?… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Bjarte Foshaug at the Miscellany Room.

People have always noticed that human beings have different innate physical traits. Furthermore, the distribution of these differences is not entirely random. Some of the most obvious (let’s call them “sex differences”) seem to cluster into two sets of traits that tend to go together far more often than expected by chance. One of these sets (let’s call it the set of “male” traits) is clearly more representative of fathers than mothers while the opposite is true of the second set (let’s call it the set of “female” traits). Roughly half the people on the planet have a strong preponderance of traits from the first set, and roughly the other … Read the rest

Apparently it’s a crime to attend Trump’s rally if you’re not a fan of Trump? Or if you’re wearing an “I can’t breathe” T-shirt?

So…they arrested her because shirt?… Read the rest

How murderous is this Tulsa rally exactly?

Three items:

An indoor event. Instead of holding the event outdoors, it is being held indoors in a center that regularly crowds people together for concerts and sporting events.

No physical distancing. The president has touted that his campaign has already received more than one million requests for seats. And he has mentioned that only 22,000 people (or even up to 40,000 if he can get the adjacent convention hall) will be allowed to attend. Someone needs to check that math because 22,000 — already 2,800 people above capacity — signifies there will be no physical distancing in place.

No masks. Trump has also reported that those attending the rally will 

Oops, what was that again about go to the Trump rally but wear masks but have a fabulous time but stay six feet apart but jump up and down and scream?

JUST IN – 6 members of the Trump campaign advance staff in Tulsa doing logistics for Trump's rally tested positive for COVID, per @carolelee @kwelkernbc @albamonica @kellyo

— Josh Lederman (@JoshNBCNews) June 20, 2020

NEWS: Six staffers working on the Trump Tulsa rally have tested positive for coronavirus.

A campaign statement says "quarantine procedures were immediately implemented. No COVID-positive staffers or anyone in immediate contact will be at today’s rally."

— Geoff Bennett (@GeoffRBennett) June 20, 2020

Wellllllll that’s ok, no problem, just whisk them away in a sealed … Read the rest

On the one hand – wear masks, maintain distance, stay away if you’re at risk – on the other hand, have fun, knock yourselves out, MAGA. Clear?

Pam Bondi, one of Trump’s lawyers who served as Florida’s attorney general from 2011 to 2019, downplayed concerns by public health officials about today’s rally in Tulsa.

[That is: one of Trump’s lawyers, who served as Florida’s attorney general from 2011 to 2019. Trump doesn’t have several lawyers who served as Florida’s attorney general from 2011 to 2019. Commas exist for a reason, people.]

“We hope that people are going to stay socially distanced, are going to wear a mask, (use) hand sanitzer and be respectful of each other,” Bondi told the

Oops. Trump tried to fire the SDNY prosecutor but he’s refusing to resign.

Attorney General William Barr’s declaration he replaced Geoffrey Berman of the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York renewed the debate over the extent to which Barr is acting [i]n President Donald Trump’s interests rather than the nation’s. The office of Berman, who is refusing to quit, is leading a probe into Trump’s lawyer Rudolph Giuliani and associates and has also indicted a Turkish state-owned firm involved in an Iran sanctions-busting case which Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has raised with Trump.

Scores of former Justice Department officials had already called for Barr to quit over a series of interventions that appear specifically

God what a tool.

Mike Pence declined to say the words “Black lives matter” during an interview with an ABC affiliate in Pennsylvania, instead saying that “all lives matter.”

“Let me just say that what happened to George Floyd was a tragedy,” Pence told ABC6 in Philadelphia, when asked directly if he would say that Black lives matter. “And in this nation, especially on Juneteenth, we celebrate the fact that from the founding of this nation we’ve cherished the ideal that all, all of us are created equal, and endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights. And so all lives matter in a very real sense.”

Uh, sir, no, sir, that’s exactly not what we celebrate especially on … Read the rest

It’s a personal choice.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Friday she won’t be wearing a mask at the president’s rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Saturday, calling it a “personal choice.”

So what if it’s a personal choice? What’s that got to do with anything? It’s a personal choice for people to cough in people’s faces on purpose, too, so what?

She said not wearing a mask still complies with guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control, telling reporters Friday that masks are recommended but not required. 

But since they are recommended (and I don’t think the CDC has the power to require people to wear things anyway), why not wear one? What is the purpose of the “personal … Read the rest

Huh. Don Junior is committing wire fraud.

More threatening fundraising texts from Don Jr. pic.twitter.com/LNLnU6ZA3k

— Jennifer Palmieri (@jmpalmieri) June 19, 2020

You’re the ONLY 1 – except all the others who got the same text.

That is interesting. I got the same text from #DimwitJr saying that I was the only one who had not join the club. pic.twitter.com/W3I4qJcnVM

—1) (@DrDigiPol) June 19, 2020

https://twitter.com/colin5392/status/1274093551790538754

Norm Eisen also says – yep wire fraud.

This is 18 USC 1343 wire fraud by Trump campaign

No way the other 99 really replied, so all elements are met

1)scheme to defraud 2)with intent to defraud & 3) foreseeable & actual use of interstate wire comms.

Barr won't investigate, but states

So some people did protect a statue of a feminist woman writer (not exactly a poet), even though it didn’t actually need protecting. Story partially true. Literary Hub explains:

Worldwide protests ignited by the death of George Floyd have continued, including in Nuneaton, Warkwickshire, where a group of locals thought they were protecting a statue of George Eliot over the weekend.

Valiant defenders of this bronze effigy popped up following incidents in which Black Lives Matter supporters took down a statue of a 17th-century slave trader in Bristol and tagged a monument of Winston Churchill with the words “is a racist” in central London.

The people guarding the Eliot statue in Nuneaton were presumably operating on the assumption that

Reporter: "Why does the President keep hiring people that are 'dumb as a rock, overrated, way over their heads, whacko, and incompetent'?"

Kayleigh McEnany: "…He likes the model of having a team of rivals, like what we saw in President Lincoln's administration." pic.twitter.com/Bc8bHHxUI5

— The Hill (@thehill) June 19, 2020

Reporter: Yes but why hire a team of rivals who are dumb as a rock, overrated, way over their heads, whacko, and incompetent?

KM: Wull sometimes those rivals prove those labels to be true.

Me: If they’re all that it’s bound to be obvious just by chatting with them for a minute, so…… Read the rest

Hmm.

Right now in my home city (in the UK) the statue of a feminist poet is being torn down simply because she is white… all because a black criminal was murdered by a white cop in the USA. This madness is tearing society apart. It has to stop. 2/2

I tried Google News and Google – nothing. The closest Google can find to “white feminist poet statue torn down” is ” Bristol mayor: Colston statue removal was act of ‘historical poetry‘” from the Guardian…which is not close at all.

The conversation started with Annoying’s annoyance at me for tweeting that Trump is threatening protesters, because hey, he didn’t say a word about threatening them.

Right, and when … Read the rest

It’s all just so bonkers.

President Donald Trump on Friday, gearing up for his first campaign rally in months in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Saturday, threatened any protesters who show up outside or try to disrupt the event, saying “it will be a much different scene” than how they’ve been dealt with in “New York, Seattle, or Minneapolis.”

“Any protesters, anarchists, agitators, looters or lowlifes who are going to Oklahoma please understand, you will not be treated like you have been in New York, Seattle, or Minneapolis. It will be a much different scene!” Trump tweeted Friday morning.

It wasn’t clear exactly what Trump meant or what he could do to carry out his threat, but he has taken an

Trump announces he will unleash violence on protesters.

Any protesters, anarchists, agitators, looters or lowlifes who are going to Oklahoma please understand, you will not be treated like you have been in New York, Seattle, or Minneapolis. It will be a much different scene!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 19, 2020

President of the United States, here, threatening protesters with violence.… Read the rest