I’m sensing a theme here.

Why does everyone who speaks at one of #Trump's pressers have to first say what a great job he and his administration are doing? We know this is an epic fail! I have a reminder for Trump…"Heck of a job, Brownie!"

— bettemidler (@BetteMidler) March 20, 2020

Every single Trump briefing on coronavirus begins with this triumphalist self congratulatory recitation of what a great job he has done…

— Susan Glasser (@sbg1) March 20, 2020

… Read the rest

Nobody’s going to tell HIM not to be a racist shit.

"I'd like to begin by providing an update on what we're doing to minimize the impact of the Chinese virus" — for the third straight day, Trump begins his news conference with some casual racism pic.twitter.com/kHL3eAe7oP

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 20, 2020

… Read the rest

NPR reports:

The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee warned a small group of well-connected constituents three weeks ago to prepare for dire economic and societal effects of the coronavirus, according to a secret recording obtained by NPR.

Note what’s missing here: the word “everyone.” He didn’t warn everyone, he warned a small group of well-connected constituents.

The remarks from U.S. Sen. Richard Burr were more stark than any he had delivered in more public forums.

On Feb. 27, when the United States had 15 confirmed cases of COVID-19, President Trump was tamping down fears and suggesting that the virus could be seasonal.

“It’s going to disappear. One day, it’s like a miracle. It will disappear,” the president said

Of course he did.

Corona CHiNESE

Close up of President @realDonaldTrump notes is seen where he crossed out "Corona" and replaced it with "Chinese" Virus as he speaks with his coronavirus task force today at the White House. #trump #trumpnotes pic.twitter.com/kVw9yrPPeJ

— Jabin Botsford (@jabinbotsford) March 19, 2020

Remember that pause, and the sly sideways look? Before he said “Chinese”?… Read the rest

Oh dear, fallen down a wildly unpleasant rabbit hole.

Since tweeting Jonathan Ross and Graham Linehan, my timeline has been overrun with a dogpile of appalling comments from TERFs who think they hold some sort of moral high ground when it comes to their vile anti-trans bigotry. What a wildly unpleasant rabbit hole to fall down.

— Mike (@Mike_P_Williams) March 19, 2020

That’s a lot of clashing figurative language for one tweet, isn’t it – overrun, dogpile, high ground, rabbit hole, fall down. Orwell would have a good laugh, because it’s exactly the kind of lazy reaching for a stale phrase that he was objecting to.

But the substance came later.

What's worse is they simply do not realise how

One of the signers of the letter to the Guardian from the Guardian complaining of undefined “transphobia” is Alan Evans, ” Commissioning editor for science, environment, global health and the bike blog at the Guardian.” Science. Science, environment, global health.

Maybe reread the letter I signed – you've made quite the leap here

— Alan Evans (@itsalanevans) March 19, 2020

Rereading the letter doesn’t help – it still talks wildly of “transphobia” and “anti-trans content” and “trans equality” without ever defining what it means by them. It’s not exactly “science” to say that men are women if they say they are. It’s not a wild leap to look askance at a science editor who apparently agrees that women are … Read the rest

Suzanne Moore wrote a thing.

Here it is .You do what you want with this info. I.was denounced on a room of 200.when I was not there. This letter does not name me but associates my articles with walkouts. I have never heard of most of these people.

And they are not editorial.

Some people pretended to take that last sentence as snobbery, but her point was that they don’t work with the writers, aka the content-providers. Content is the issue here – the letter is about content and its providers.

We feel it is critical that the Guardian do more to become a safe and welcoming workplace for trans and non-binary people.

We are also disappointed in the

Wow indeed. That question.

Wow. A reporter from OANN asks Trump a loaded question about whether reporters criticizing his racism are "siding with foreign state propaganda" and Trump uses it as an opportunity to unload on the media pic.twitter.com/tZR7a6T1N5

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 19, 2020

One fragment from his run-on unpunctuated don’t you dare try to say anything while I’m talking reply:

I think I came up with the term, I hope I came up with the term, it’s fake news

Yeah sure he’s the first person ever to put the word “fake” together with the word “news.”

I had to look up OANN – One America News Network. Makes Fox look liberal.… Read the rest

Trump on when Americans get expect their lives to get back to normal: "I hope very soon … could have been stopped pretty easily if we had known, if everybody had known about it, a number of months before people started reading about it." pic.twitter.com/Loxp3juwEx

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 19, 2020

The reporter asks the question and he does his usual know-nothing blather – “I would hope very soon” and variations on that empty bromide. We don’t care what you hope, bozo. He gets more and more bullshitty and at peak bullshit the reporter cuts in to point out a contradiction – and he holds up his flabby hand like a traffic cop and says “Excuse me, excuse … Read the rest

Another White House press conference on the pandemic. Look how this festering sack of shit starts it.

"We continue our relentless effort to defeat the Chinese virus" — Trump again begins today's coronavirus news conference with some casual racism pic.twitter.com/Xgcmiq38Ur

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 19, 2020

Look at how he does it. Look at that pause after “defeat” – look at that guilty glance sideways before he says it.

It’s not written down. That’s what the pause and the glance tell us – along with who would do that? – they tell us he ad-libs it.

It’s racist, obviously, and it’s all the more racist given that he’s been told it’s racist repeatedly, but even more – it’s not … Read the rest

Fox News is getting credit for cutting back a little on the lies.

Rupert Murdoch’s Fox cable networks, amid this crisis, have not been diverted from their primary mission, even if misinformation is the price. Apologia and advocacy for both Donald Trump and the Republican Party has typically taken precedence at Fox News and Fox Business. Even at a time when such a collective public effort is required to combat a global pandemic, the danger wasn’t a deterrent. Some anchors and guests likened COVID-19 to the flu, which is patently false. Fox Business’ Trish Regan theorized that media alarm about COVID-19 was “yet another attempt to impeach the president.” They encouraged Americans to congregate and travel, ignoring safety advice from

Owen Jones on the other hand found that wretched content-free “ooh somebody said” piece of dreck in the Independent a prompt to make another soaring declaration of allegiance.

To trans people, one of the most besieged, marginalised and oppressed minorities in Britain: you have few vocal allies in the media. But we are not going to stop using our voices to stand by and fight for you, whatever happens. https://t.co/awCWD1fsSo

— Owen Jones (@OwenJones84) March 18, 2020

To trans people, one of the most besieged, marginalised and oppressed minorities in Britain: you have few vocal allies in the media. But we are not going to stop using our voices to stand by and fight for you, whatever happens.

Who says… Read the rest

The “Chinese flu” thing just won’t quit.

Good on @yamiche for following up re the use of racist terms to refer to the coronavirus pandemic. Trump makes Yamiche repeat the terms over and over again, and then says he thinks Asian-Americans "will agree with" the use of that language. #CoronavirusPandemic #Coronavirusupdate

— Nope. (@JoyAnnReid) March 18, 2020

And not just agree but agree 100%.

.@Yamiche: Is a White House official using "Kung-Flu" to talk about the coronavirus acceptable? Do you think your "Chinese Virus" rhetoric puts people at risk?

TRUMP: "Not at all. I think they probably would agree with it 100 percent." pic.twitter.com/EqPoVZaU8V

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 18, 2020

… Read the rest

This is not journalism, this is passive-aggressive finger pointing and hissing. Ellie Harrison in the Independent:

Jonathan Ross has been branded “transphobic” after he endorsed comedian Graham Linehan’s controversial views on Twitter.

Wtf is that supposed to mean? What’s it doing in a newspaper? Branded by whom? “Branded” how? Anybody could say that about anyone. It’s meaningless. It could mean that Ellie Harrison has “branded” Jonathan Ross that way by saying it just before she started typing.

New lede:

Somebody called somebody something.

You don’t say; what a shocker.

There’s also the sleazy “controversial” pasted onto Linehan. Controversial according to whom? Controversial according to what standards?

Newspaper editors should spike this kind of shit. It’s childish gossip … Read the rest

Useful.

Yeah. No.

Please share this with anyone who believes Trump's bullshit.

“I’ve always known this is a pandemic. I’ve felt that it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic … I’ve always viewed it as serious.”
#trumpliedpeopledied pic.twitter.com/2R69MIa8v6

— Holly Figueroa O'Reilly (@AynRandPaulRyan) March 18, 2020

… Read the rest

Uh oh, Prince Jared’s in trouble.

(Kidding about the uh oh. I’d love to see him kicked back to New Jersey.)

Last Thursday, as the stock market was on the way to losing nearly 2,400 points—its biggest single-day plunge since the 1987 Black Monday crash—Donald Trump was worrying about the fate of the football season. NFL players aren’t scheduled to report to training camp for months, but according to a source, Trump feared that the league might preemptively announce it was following the NBA and NHL and suspend or delay operations due to the coronavirus. So Trump called NFL owners to see if any action was on the horizon. “Trump begged them not to cancel the season,” a source

Interesting. As the virus numbers go up, the taking it seriously numbers go down.

In the face of the coronavirus worsening across the U.S. and reordering the daily life of millions of Americans, fewer people view the pandemic as a real threat, according to a new NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll.

Just about 56% of Americans consider the coronavirus a “real threat,” representing a drop of 10 percentage points from last month. At the same time, a growing number of Americans think the coronavirus is being “blown out of proportion.”

The differences between political parties are stark, with a majority of Republicans saying it is overblown and the vast majority of Democrats considering it a legitimate threat.

A … Read the rest

About that 1918 flu pandemic…the CDC has some basics.

The 1918 influenza pandemic was the most severe pandemic in recent history. It was caused by an H1N1 virus with genes of avian origin. Although there is not universal consensus regarding where the virus originated, it spread worldwide during 1918-1919.  In the United States, it was first identified in military personnel in spring 1918.

It is estimated that about 500 million people or one-third of the world’s population became infected with this virus. The number of deaths was estimated to be at least 50 million worldwide with about 675,000 occurring in the United States. Mortality was high in people younger than 5 years old, 20-40 years old, and 65