Jesus christ.

Rudy Giuliani has advice for governors and mayors: Take the blame when you have to… when you play with your boss, sometimes it’s better when you don’t win the golf game. He’s the boss, he’s got all the resources pic.twitter.com/IntMpHvzsN

— Acyn (@Acyn) March 28, 2020

One, HE’S NOT THE BOSS.

That’s not what a president is. Trump is not an extra-big cop. He’s not our boss. He doesn’t hire or fire us, he doesn’t give us tasks to perform, he doesn’t call us into his office. He’s not our boss.

He’s not the boss of governors, either. Yes he’s the executive of the whole country, but that doesn’t mean the governors work for him, and they … Read the rest

He’s doing the daily rally. It’s so awful I can’t not share some of the awful. (I’m not watching. I’m just getting the awful via reporters on Twitter. I can’t bear watching.)

! Trump says he's told Vice President Mike Pence not to call the governors of Washington or Michigan.

"They don't treat you right, I don't call."

He says Pence is a different type of person and will call anyway.

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) March 27, 2020

There’s a pandemic, and he refuses to call governors who don’t suck up to him enough.

Trump says of Pence: "He calls all the governors. I say, 'Mike, Don't call the governor of Washington. You're wasting your time. Don't call the woman

He really thinks he’s a god-emperor.

We are marshalling the full power of government and society to achieve victory over the virus. Together, we will endure, we will prevail, and we will WIN! #CARESAct pic.twitter.com/zb2PJTldGQ

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 27, 2020

Also why is he bragging about doing something he should have done WEEKS ago?

How I wish he would just drop dead.… Read the rest

Trump is withholding assistance from governors who don’t kiss his ass.

In case you missed it, El Caudillo del Mar-a-Lago went on teevee with Sean Hannity on Thursday night and explained in rather precise detail how his pandemic shakedown is going to work. For example, he is not happy with Gretchen Whitmer, the Democratic governor of the state of Michigan, where Detroit has become a hot zone in which hospitals are overwhelmed and already preparing contingency plans to triage patients in order to ration things like ventilators. In several appearances addressing the crisis in her state, Whitmer has been critical of the federal response—or lack thereof—to the pandemic. The president* told Hannity:

“She is a new governor, and it’s

I wasn’t the only one confused by the Derbyshire police rebuke of walking in an empty landscape. The government had to clarify.

The government has said people should “stay local” and not travel unnecessarily for exercise.

New advice clarifies that people must use “open spaces” near to home, where possible.

It follows confusion over whether people could drive places to go walking, running, or cycling.

Exercise is one of the few defined reasons that people in the UK are allowed to leave their home during the coronavirus pandemic.

Derbyshire Police sparked a heated debate on Twitter this week when it shared drone footage of people walking in the Peak District, with a warning that daily exercise should not involve

Pandemic or no pandemic, Labour is still busy getting rid of all these pesky women who don’t agree that men become women by saying some words.

Earlier this week, the Labour party – you remember, the party of fairness and kindness and compassion and equality – decided that it has no place for a woman who has worked tirelessly to protect women from abuse and to remind the world about murdered women who are so often ignored.

Let’s start with murdered women. There are quite a lot of them: 241 women were killed in England and Wales last year. Most of them are killed by men – men they know. Often this is taken as mundane, just one of those

It’s maybe inappropriate to complain about public godbothering at this time, but there’s such a fundamental absurdity at the heart of the whole thing that I can’t not raise an objection. I’ll just leave names and handles out of it.

A guy on Twitter, a guy who writes for the Atlantic and wrote a book called Learning to Speak God From Scratch (so you can find his name obviously, I’m just not naming him here), tweeted:

I don’t often ask for prayer on here, but my friend Laura from NYC has COVID-19. She has double pneumonia and is in ICU on a ventilator fighting for her life right now. She is only 30. Please pray for her.

I hope she … Read the rest

A CNBC reporter:

NEW: Cruise industry not confident it could borrow from any of the existing loan programs bc of offshore registration.

Sr. admin official says bipartisan Senate grp working to ensure they can access one of the facilities–or else will seek a legislative fix in the next package.

— Kayla Tausche (@kaylatausche) March 26, 2020

You have got to be kidding.

Why do the cruise companies have offshore registration? Not for a hobby, not to be whimsical, not to give Offhshorelandia a boost. No, they have it for the purposes of not paying taxes and not obeying labor laws.

Given that, why on earth is a Senate group working to ensure they can have our money anyway?

None of this should ever have been allowed. Responsible adults should have blocked him from running, or failing that blocked him from getting nominated. Failing that they should have invoked the 25th amendment the minute he was inaugurated. Now we’re stuck with a mass murderer.

President Donald Trump faced new and troubling questions Thursday about his response to the coronavirus pandemic, as it became clear that there is a nationwide shortage of ventilators, masks and other crucial medical equipment. During a White House news conference, Trump was asked about the shortages and responded by falsely suggesting lying that the problem was unforeseen. He also shrugged off responsibility for the crisis and encouraged states to find their own resources.

That’s … Read the rest

That terrible missing theory of mind again.

Trump, who reportedly ignored a pandemic response playbook put together during the Obama years, claims nobody could've seen a pandemic coming and tries to blame Obama for his lack of preparation pic.twitter.com/7rjpwb7V5X

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 26, 2020

“This was something that nobody has ever thought could happen…”

No. It isn’t. It is not. That is not what it is. What it is is not that. People who know about this subject absolutely thought this could happen, and that it would. Epidemiologists, virologists, journalists who read and talk to epidemiologists and virologists – they most definitely thought it could happen, and they said so. Trump never thought it could happen. Trump is … Read the rest

Still hard to believe we have a president who had a two month head start to prepare for an obvious crisis and didn’t because he thought admitting it would hurt him personally. It is unforgivable. https://t.co/3d2WQCxER1

— Matthew Miller (@matthewamiller) March 26, 2020

… Read the rest

I’m confused by this.

Despite posts yesterday highlighting issues of people still visiting the #PeakDistrict despite government guidance, the message is still not getting through. @DerPolDroneUnit have been out at beauty spots across the county, and this footage was captured at #CurbarEdge last night. pic.twitter.com/soxWvMl0ls

— Derbyshire Police (@DerbysPolice) March 26, 2020

The clip shows a couple walking their dog in an empty landscape, and captions it “Not Essential.” It shows several more like that – people very social distanced indeed, getting fresh air and exercise.

What, exactly, is the problem? The Derbyshire cops seem to be confusing the pandemic with the war. Fuel isn’t rationed, nobody has to invade Europe right now, we can still find oranges.

Travelling to

Utterly disgusting.

Any hope of G7 foreign ministers releasing a joint statement on the fight against COVID-19 was killed today after the U.S. insisted the document refer to it as the “Wuhan virus.”

As originally reported by Der Spiegel, and according to sources with knowledge of the situation, when U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo insisted the novel coronavirus be referred to by the name of the Chinese city where the outbreak first appeared, ministers from other countries refused to agree.

They were doing a video conference, having scrapped an in-person one planned for Pittsburgh because of the pandemic. One of the ministers suggested a joint statement on said pandemic.

Sources say that’s when Pompeo said the U.S. wanted

I have to wonder what the hell basis the Trump campaign thinks it has to tell tv stations to pull this ad. Trump did say all those things we hear him saying, after all, and the numbers have rocketed up the way the graph illustrates, after all, so…???

So yeah, share share share.… Read the rest

I asked Kate Smurthwaite a few questions about life under COVID-19 for the people who make life worth living.

Tell us how the pandemic is affecting comedians and others who perform to live audiences.

The live entertainment industry no longer exists… Every comedian, musician, actor, magician, burlesque dancer I know as well as all the people I know who are sound engineers, front of house staff, dressers, bartenders, venue managers, promoters, publicists, poster-designers and stage hands are now all unemployed people and likely to stay that way for months and months to come.

There’s a widespread sense of panic and desperation. Few will qualify for government assistance, despite Boris’s big claims. For most of us turning professional is the result … Read the rest

More on the Federalist’s “let’s let the young people get C19 in hopes of herd immunity”:

Twitter temporarily locked the account of The Federalist Wednesday after the conservative opinion site published a piece, written by a dermatologist based in Oregon, that proposed the deliberate spread of the coronavirus in order to boost immunity to the disease.

The op-ed, penned by Dr. Douglas Perednia, proposed an “outside the box” solution to the current pandemic that flies in the face of advice from experts, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, who are urging social distancing.

…

“It is time to think outside the box and seriously consider a somewhat unconventional approach to COVID-19: controlled voluntary infection,” The Federalist wrote in a now-removed tweet linking

The monster has stirred.

The LameStream Media is the dominant force in trying to get me to keep our Country closed as long as possible in the hope that it will be detrimental to my election success. The real people want to get back to work ASAP. We will be stronger than ever before!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 25, 2020

….I have been packed all day with meetings, I have no time for stupidity. We’re working around the clock to KEEP AMERICA SAFE!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 25, 2020

… Read the rest

Superb.

God only brought one guy back from the dead on Easter. Trump is here to bring back the whole economy on Easter 2020. Enjoy this clip (possibly, like, the best ever), share and be sure to subscribe to Making Podcasts Great Again (@TrumpPod) – new every week! pic.twitter.com/aUifVWRzfh

— J-L Cauvin (@JLCauvin) March 24, 2020

… Read the rest

The Federalist did what now?

The Federalist comes out in favor of–and I am not making this up–"safe infection sites" where children can be voluntarily infected with #covid19. pic.twitter.com/4CbggjqCg8

— Lindsay Beyerstein (@beyerstein) March 25, 2020

Erm…have they forgotten that there is no effective treatment yet? Which means there is no such thing as “safe infection”?

Also…a dermatologist? Really?

Bold news analysis from a local dermatologist pic.twitter.com/fzzKH6dDmW

— Tim Miller (@Timodc) March 25, 2020

https://twitter.com/jaredlholt/status/1242845915423158281

What’s the thinking here? That taking C19 seriously is a libbrul thing, the way taking climate change seriously is a libbrul thing? That treating it with frivolity or reckless endangerment or both is a Trump-Republican thing? (If it is that means Princess Ivanka will … Read the rest