Daniel Dale also taking notes.

Trump: "I had calls during the week with all sorts of representatives and systems, like the hospital system."

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) March 21, 2020

He had a call with the hospital system. Cool.

Trump: "Walmart, as an example, has been really helpful to us." He adds, "And I guess, I assume, they're doing pretty well, because people are certainly buying, more than even a clip at Christmas, by substantial numbers. Pretty amazing. But they're doing incredible."

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) March 21, 2020

That’s the important thing. That’s what we want to know about.

Trump is listing actions he's announced this week and thanking companies for helping with the situation. "Hanes, everybody knows Hanes,

Trump is doing another press briefing – not because we’re in a crisis but because he can’t do rallies and he needs his attention fix.

"We're gonna be celebrating a great victory in the not too distant future. And I just want to thank everybody." — Trump pic.twitter.com/VGi5cnP9wm

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 21, 2020

The “wut” is: “an example of the…pair no rickard, which…”

Yeah, no idea.

"It's still a good idea, if you can, to make that donation" — Pence encourages people to give money to their local churches pic.twitter.com/7cYCCIzNn7

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 21, 2020

Because what we need right now is more religion.

Earlier today…

Trump tore down America’s pandemic preparedness, then spent weeks blustering

I guess Bonehead is really mad that Fauci dared to set him straight on how drugs are tested yesterday.

He wants us to understand that he knows better. Fauci is just a pen-pusher, Trump has INSIGHT.

….be put in use IMMEDIATELY. PEOPLE ARE DYING, MOVE FAST, and GOD BLESS EVERYONE! @US_FDA @SteveFDA @CDCgov @DHSgov

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

“But sir, it hasn’t been tested yet and – “

“PUT IT IN USE IMMEDIATELY.”… Read the rest

Well there’s another several thousand people infected.

Brendan O’Neill must be parodying himself.

The pubs are being closed. Oh noes, the backbone of Britain, remember the Blitz, where were you when the old King threw the first football/cricket ball/crumpet.

The barmaid tells us she isn’t sure if they will close at 8 or 10 this evening. ‘We are awaiting government instructions’. I can’t believe what I am hearing. I feel like I am in North Korea. British governments don’t close down pubs, right? Not pubs.

North Korea. Self-parody; has to be.

It is almost too depressing for words. I know that media people and luvvies for whom pubs are just places you go to for a hip gastro lunch consisting of overpriced dirty burgers will

World Central Kitchen posted on February 3:

WCK’s Chef Relief Team first opened a kitchen at the US southern border in Tijuana, Mexico in November 2018. Families, including many children, are fleeing violence, poverty, and instability in places like El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Once the refugees get to the border to apply for asylum, they can be forced to wait up to a year for their case to be heard. Due to financial challenges or safety concerns, many families are unable to return home, leaving them stuck at the border while they wait.

More than a year after setting up our first kitchen in Tijuana, we have opened a second location to cook for and serve refugees

Sixty EIGHTY years ago the US had Roosevelt. Now we have an evil egomaniacal clown.

In an extraordinary exchange on Friday, President Donald Trump viciously attacked an NBC News reporter who asked what his message would be to Americans who are frightened by the coronavirus pandemic that is spreading across the country.

…

Moments later, Kaitlan Collins, a White House correspondent for CNN, asked Trump if it was appropriate to embark on tirades against members of the news media during a public health crisis.

“You see yourself as a wartime President right now, leading the country through a pandemic that we are experiencing,” Collins noted. “Do you think going off on Peter, going off on a network is appropriate

Possibly worst tweet of all time:

The coronavirus pandemic has shed light on how transgender people's care can be treated as "non-essential." https://t.co/JNnHt9gMWT

— VICE (@VICE) March 19, 2020

… Read the rest

I found I needed to watch the whole sequence that led to that rage-fit at a reporter, so I found the complete video and watch-stop-watched until I got there.

It starts at 1:36:47. A reporter asks Fauci about the anti-malaria drug chloroquine and if there’s any evidence that it can be used as a prophylaxis against the coronavirus. Fauci says no, and explains that the evidence the reporter is talking about is anecdotal, and why that doesn’t count. So then Trump speaks up and – from his great pool of expertise on this subject, which is that he “feels good about it” – contradicts everything Fauci just said.

That’s the context in which Peter Alexander asked his question about giving … Read the rest

We’re in the flailing hands of a lunatic.

When @PeterAlexander asked Trump, “What do you say to Americans who are scared,” the president lit into Peter, called him a “terrible reporter,” called it a “nasty question” and bashed NBC and Comcast.

My goodness.

— Philip Rucker (@PhilipRucker) March 20, 2020

Asked what he says to millions of Americans who are scared, Trump says: "I say that you're a terrible reporter."

— Peter Baker (@peterbakernyt) March 20, 2020

ISO cam on Peter Alexander as Trump melts down about a fair question pic.twitter.com/6iOO2LwWQC

— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) March 20, 2020

Full-on tantrum over a perfectly reasonable question.

Updating to add a better clip, with split screen.

Trump has an epic meltdown and

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