After they learned that Hicks has the virus.

After White House officials learned of Hicks’s symptoms, Trump and his entourage flew Thursday to New Jersey, where he attended a fundraiser at his golf club in Bedminster and delivered a speech. Trump was in close contact with dozens of other people, including campaign supporters, at a roundtable event.

After they knew. This is how he treats friends and allies – it’s a wonder he doesn’t set the rest of us on fire so that he can make us into cheeseburgers.

The president did not wear a mask Thursday, including at the events at his golf course and on the plane, officials said. He was tested after he returned to the White House, but he also appeared on Sean Hannity’s TV show from the residence by telephone.

Two people who spent time with him said he did not show noticeable symptoms although he seemed tired and acknowledged to other aides later Thursday that Hicks was ill. During his fundraiser in New Jersey, “he said the things he usually says on TV,” said an attendee.

He always says the things he usually says. That’s all he’s got. It’s all very very usually, and much repeated and stale and please don’t say it yet again.

Trump has regularly appeared in public and in private without a mask — and has mocked Biden for wearing one and for curbing his campaign events for safety’s sake. The president has insisted that the virus is mostly dangerous to older people — a group to which he belongs — or those with health complications, although medical experts say the virus can strike anyone.

He’s older, he’s physically inactive, he’s very overweight. The virus kills some young healthy people too, but he’s not in a low-risk group.

At Tuesday’s debate, Trump was pressed on his insistence on having huge campaign rallies where no one is required to wear facial coverings or to socially distance.

“We’ve had no negative effect, and we’ve had 35 to 40,000 people at some of these rallies,” Trump said.

Welp that’s over.

I guess only the canaille wear masks?

Donald Trump‘s family ignored mandatory mask-wearing requirements at the debate between him and Democrat candidate Joe Biden on Tuesday.

So they’re mandatory because of a lethal pandemic, so what. Viruses don’t infect important people.

On Tuesday, members of the Trump family and the Trump administration entered the debate hall, where rules required everyone in the room wear masks, without masks, according to NBC News correspondent Hallie Jackson.

A doctor in a white lab coat was reported to have started to approach Trump family guests to ask them to put on masks, also offering them one in case they did not have one.

Well one wouldn’t have done them much good.

As the doctor got closer to them, Jackson said on the news channel’s live blog covering the debate, “someone shook their head and no one she reminded to put on a mask ended up putting one on.”

In other words “Go away interfering medicine person, you are not rich and important as we are rich and important.”

They wore masks when they arrived but then…took them off. Why? Unclear. Because of the cameras maybe?

I bet they’re sorry now.

Republican donors are freaking out.

Republican donors who attended President Donald Trump’s fundraiser at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club are panicking after being around the commander in chief hours before he announced that he was infected with the coronavirus.

Well, you know, being around Donald Trump is just not healthy.

“The donors have been texting and calling. Freaking out,” the person with direct knowledge said.

The donors to Donald Trump. Do I feel compassion for them? I can’t say that I do.

Trump’s campaign, as of Friday morning, has not sent out any official guidance to many of the donors involved with the event. After publication of this article, donors who attended the gathering were sent an email with an 11:18 a.m. ET time stamp. The email reminds them that no one was permitted within six feet of the president and advises them to contact their doctor if they start feeling coronavirus symptoms. 

Also it was totally responsible and ethical and fine for Trump to be out schmoozing his donors at his golf club during the pandemic. Not one thing wrong with any of that.

The gathering had tickets costing up to $250,000. Dr. Rich Roberts, a longtime Republican donor, told The Lakewood Scoop on Friday that Trump privately met with about 19 people at the event. Roberts estimates that the meeting lasted about 45 minutes.   

Plenty of time. Triple the danger amount.

Some Republican donors questioned the president’s decision to go to the event after his longtime advisor Hope Hicks became ill. Hicks tested positive Thursday morning after displaying symptoms Wednesday night while on a campaign trip to Minnesota with the president. White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told reporters Friday that Hicks’ diagnosis became known just before the president left for Bedminster.

A normal person with a moral compass would have canceled the trip, but not our President Psychopath.

At least now they’ve learned their lesson, right?

Nah.

Jesus. “Duhhhhh I’ve been tested” – guess what, dude, you can test negative one minute and then positive the next. When YOU KNOW YOU’VE BEEN EXPOSED you shouldn’t be out there quacking into reporters’ faces.

“And that’s why I’m not wearing a mask.”

Tic toc tic toc

How ya like him now?

President Donald Trump has spent months trying to move the country’s focus away from the coronavirus. He’s purposely downplayed the threat it poses to Americans, pushed unscientific treatments and ensured the country that a vaccine would be arriving any day. In pre-recorded remarks at the annual Al Smith Dinner on Thursday night, Trump promised that “the end of the pandemic is in sight, and next year will be one of the greatest years in the history of our country.”

Hahahahaha cool, minutes later – oops Hope Hicks has the COVID, minutes after that, oops Trump has to quarantine, minutes after that, oops Trump has the COVID.

Just this morning, when I woke up, I was thinking sadly it might be days before he tested positive. I wasn’t daring to hope it had already happened, let alone hope for symptoms.

He’ll be fuming that he can’t get out there to shout at crowds of screaming racists. With no masks.

And according to the pool reporter traveling with Trump to and from the debate, “all family members who entered without a mask, members of his administration and other guests were not wearing masks.” A doctor affiliated with the Cleveland Clinic approached the group offering masks if they did not have them. No one in the group put on a mask. In addition, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said on ABC News Friday morning that “no one was wearing masks in the room when we were prepping the President during that period of time, the group was about 5 or 6 people in total.”

I wonder how hard they’re all kicking themselves this morning.

What we do know is that Trump’s attempt to make these final weeks of the election about something other than the coronavirus failed the second he got his positive test back. Cable news will cover his illness — and the people he came into contact with and whether they are also sick — wall to wall for weeks. While Covid-19 was the lead story for most news outlets on most days for the last few months, it is likely to become the ONLY story for the foreseeable future.

Will there be a sympathy vote?

You already know, but just to get things started…

You reap what you sow.

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump tested positive for coronavirus, the President announced early Friday morning, an extraordinary development coming months into a global pandemic and in the final stretch of his reelection campaign.

Good.

He’s been laughing and jeering and sneering, he’s been putting other people in danger in their thousands, he’s kneecapped the national response to the pandemic so thoroughly that we have the worst death toll in the world, so it’s only fair that he should get it himself.

The White House doctor says

The President and First Lady are both well at this time, and they plan to remain at home within the White House during their convalescence.

The fact that they’re “well at this time” means nothing. The disease can start out mild and then become not mild and then kill you.

Rest assured I expect the President to continue carrying out his duties without disruption while recovering, and I will keep you updated on any future developments.

Blah blah blah. Virus gonna do what virus does.

Originally a comment by Bruce Gorton on Grab that pen and sign.

Saw on a comment about Stephen King coming out in support of Rowling:

Eva Webb: Adorable Antifascist Pumpkin Queen

because agreeing to disagree means agreeing to not exist, and agreeing to let the other person write papers that effect policy that affects the lives and rights of the people she’s attacking. there is no agree to disagree when you’re lobbying to have someone’s legal rights taken away or restricted

You don’t have the right to force other people to see you the same way you see yourself, otherwise we’d all want most of the world to see us as ultra-rich billionaires, and the tax authorities to see us as ultra-poor non-profits. That people see you differently to how you see yourself isn’t some sort of phobia on their part, nor is it an unbearable trauma, it’s life.

If you require the affirmation of others to exist, you don’t actually exist. Reality is real whether we agree with it or not, if your existence is contingent on the words of JK Rowling, then you don’t actually exist, any more than Hagrid actually exists.

Rowling is a rich author in the UK. She is not directing UK policy, never mind global policy. Freedom of speech is a right, not all of the “rights” asserted by trans lobbyists actually qualify as such.

For example, there is no right to compete in sporting events under your preferred category. Otherwise the featherweight champion of the world in boxing, would be a mediocre heavyweight. A heavy person identifying as a light person would not be considered as having their existence or rights denied by boxing boards for this rule.

Now I’ve disagreed with some feminists on the issue of abuse shelters before. I think that there is a need for abused persons to have services geared towards them regardless of sex, that abused men do have a need for services directed towards them.

However, it doesn’t help abused men to close shelters that cater solely to women. The needs of the abused should take precedence over anybody’s feelings over the matter, and women who do not wish to face men after being abused, have the right to such safe places free of men even if you disagree with their personal feelings. “I’m a man and I would never…” doesn’t mean that she is in a state to face you, and her state of mind is the important thing in that situation.

People recovering from trauma should not be expected to be at their most emotionally stable, you don’t expect someone to run when their leg is broken, why do you expect the equivalent to people escaping abusive situations? There is a time and a place for discussing such issues, an abuse shelter is not one of them.

And what goes for men, goes for trans too. The answer to abuse suffered by trans individuals isn’t to shut down Women’s Place, it is to create shelters and services that cater to the needs of trans abuse sufferers. If you demand that shelters perform in a way that suits your politics rather than the needs of their residents, then you’re putting your politics ahead of the needs of abuse sufferers. Your rights do not trump the rights of those in need of such services.

It isn’t a denial of trans rights to state as such, anymore than it would be a denial of men’s rights to state as such.

Finally, if Rowling’s position on trans issues was simply ignored, then it would be largely unknown to the general public. Her advocacy only has the meaning it does now, because of the over-the-top reactions of ideologues who are chasing clicks and the latest sensation. It is as important as it is, mainly because of the rush to the virtue signal that has highlighted how lacking in virtue the signalers really are.

In the UK you have the Conservative Party in charge. In the US you have the Republican Party.

There are a lot of issues which should be taking precedence in both countries, and your press is arguing over the views of a children’s book author. There is this plague of highlighting the trivial to distract from the substantive, which only serves to undermine any real progress on any real issues.

Originally a comment by Screechy Monkey on That’s showbiz.

Maroon @2: “And then four years later, Lester Holt sandbagged Dukakis by asking him if he would support the death penalty if someone raped his wife.”

It was Bernard Shaw, by the way.

It was perhaps in poor taste, but it was the easiest question in the world to answer politically. Dukakis could have said something like this:

“[optional: Bernard, that’s a disgusting and offensive question.] Would I support the death penalty for my wife’s killer? I’d want to do it myself with my own bare hands, slowly and painfully. I would be blinded by my rage and grief, and not interested in hearing any reasons why his life should be spared. And that’s exactly why we don’t let victims’ families sit as judge, jury, and executioner. We have a system of justice where impartial judges and jurors decide on guilt and punishment, and that’s as it should be. So would I want bloody vengeance for my wife? Yes, absolutely. But what I want most of all is to live in a country where justice is done. [optional puffery about how wonderful American justice is, even though it isn’t really true, but this is 1988]”

Rightly or wrongly, many Americans want to believe that their President has emotions, is a fighter, etc. (It’s why some people like Trump.)

Dukakis’s problem wasn’t that he was asked an unfair question, or that opposition to the death penalty was inherently unspinnable. It was that he gave a bland, unemotional answer to a question that should have provoked a reaction. Dukakis had already built up an image as a somewhat robotic technocrat — if he had showed some anger and feeling in his response, nobody was going to paint him as unhinged, it would have rounded him out as a human being. Hell, he could have just ripped Shaw a new orifice and that would have been a much better answer.

Dukakis was a politician. He had no excuse for botching that. One of the frustrating things about Democrats is that so many of them just plain suck at politics, and then complain that voters and the media focus on the wrong things. Well, yeah, of course they do. Voters are mostly idiots. I learned that in 8th grade student council elections, and have found no reason to change that opinion since. It’s one of the many reasons I’m not in politics. But if you’re going to get in the game, for fuck’s sakes, play to win, don’t complain about the rules of the game.

Trump’s “press secretary” tried to con journalists into thinking Amy Barrett was a Rhodes scholar.

If you watch it you see that she says “my bad” in a brushoff sort of way when she’s exposed as having lied to the reporters. We don’t refer to people who went to, say, Wharton as “Wharton scholars.” We say they graduated from Wharton or attended Wharton or got a BA at Wharton. (In Trump’s case we note that they did it by paying a less stupid kid to take the SATs for him.) The “press secretary” and former Fox News sleaze got caught telling a flattering lie about the religious fanatic Trump nominated for RBG’s seat.

Danger? What danger? I don’t see any danger, do you? Oh you mean danger to the female prisoners – oh well who cares about them.

She’s not just some random shouter, she’s a Councillor. And a woman.

Texas governor goes for more voter suppression.

Gov. Greg Abbott issued an order Thursday requiring counties to close multiple locations where voters can drop off completed mail-in ballots.

As an election security measure, counties will be limited to one dropoff site where poll watchers — designated by political parties and candidates — must be allowed to observe ballot deliveries by voters, Abbott said.

“Election security” my ass – it’s voter suppression.

Travis County has four dropoff locations, including three downtown, while Harris County has opened 12 locations as election officials strove to meet unprecedented demand for mail-in voting during the pandemic — particularly amid questions about the efficiency of the U.S. Postal Service.

“As we work to preserve Texans’ ability to vote during the COVID-19 pandemic, we must take extra care to strengthen ballot security protocols throughout the state. These enhanced security protocols will ensure greater transparency and will help stop attempts at illegal voting,” Abbott said in a statement.

They will make it harder for people to vote, is what they’ll do. That’s voter suppression. Scumbag.

How that nightmare looked from farther away:

Over the years, the presidential debates have become as much about entertainment as elucidation. As journalists we hype them like Vegas world heavyweight boxing bouts beforehand and score them like TV critics afterwards.

Indeed, and it’s maddening. There’s so much palaver about the stupid debates, as if they mattered, when in fact there are much better ways to evaluate the candidates and what they plan to do.

Ever since Ronald Reagan mastered the genre, the debates have tended to reward star power over expertise.

Well there you go. If it works for a Reagan and doesn’t work for a Mondale then it’s not a good instrument.

Presidential debates increasingly have come down to who can deliver Reagan-style one-liners, the jokes or putdowns that are rerun endlessly on the news in the days afterwards. What is supposed to be a job interview has become more like an audition for the role of leading man.

And…that’s not what presidents are for. They’re not our roommates or colleagues, we don’t have to live with them, we don’t even have to like them.

He’s still finding ways to get worse.

About Trump and the Proud Boys…

The president was asked repeatedly by the moderator, Chris Wallace, to condemn violence by white supremacists and rightwing groups, such as armed militias, as well as criticizing leftwing protesters.

Instead, Trump addressed the Proud Boys, a far-right group whose members have been sentenced to prison for attacking leftwing protesters in political street fights, and said: “Proud Boys, stand back and stand by! But I’ll tell you what, somebody’s got to do something about antifa and the left.”

The Proud Boys, whose uniform is a black polo shirt, immediately celebrated the president’s comment in posts on social media platform Telegram. One Proud Boys group added the phrase “Stand Back, Stand By” to their logo. Another post was a message to Trump: “Standing down and standing by sir.”

Ready to “do something” about antifa and the left sir.

In 2019, a New York judge who sentenced two Proud Boys members to prison for assaulting leftwing protesters after an event in New York City said that cracking down on political violence was essential.

“I know enough about history to know what happened in Europe in the 30s when political street brawls were allowed to go ahead,” the judge said at the Proud Boys’ sentencing, the New York Post reported.

And what happened in the 40s as a result.

Biden’s running mate, Kamala Harris, also condemned the president’s refusal to disavow white supremacists. “The president of the United States, in the year of our Lord 2020, refuses to condemn white supremacists,” she said.

Maybe they’ll make him their god when he loses the election.

Good one.

Not so good.

Damn. There I was thinking no one would be rushing forward to say “Barbie Kardashian” is no threat to anyone and that it’s transphobic and evil to say he is. DINGDING wrong again.

They also posted the statement on Facebook.

We are profoundly disappointed with the recent piece shared by the Limerick Leader. The Limerick Feminist Network have been active in Limerick and working on the ground with the feminist community for several years and we are disappointed that we were not contacted for comment. Never the less, here are our views on the matter.

Trans women are not a threat to cis women. With the rise of the far-right and the huge increase in calls to domestic and sexual violence support services since the beginning of lockdown it is clear that some of the biggest threats to women right now are cis men and white supremacy.

The notion that cis men are pretending to identify as female, changing their names and obtaining certificates of gender recognition just to get access to abuse and victimise women is not only ludicrous but completely inaccurate and a narrative that makes trans women incredibly unsafe.

Trans women are women, trans men are men. We stand with all of our trans and LGBTQIA+ siblings and will continue to promote and practice feminism that is inclusive and intersectional.

It is never okay to dead name a trans person. There is no place for transphobia in Irish feminism.

We hope that the Limerick Leader takes the time to learn from this and urge them to contact and include the diverse voices of local community organisations in future.

So, you know, if you’re out and about in Limerick and you run into “Barbie Kardashian” on the street you shouldn’t turn and walk swiftly away, you should approach him and offer your warm kind compassionate intersectional inclooosivity.

The people of Twitter are disputing and/or reproaching John Cleese for signing the letter, but they’re not shouting or threatening or hurling sexual insults and fantasies about violence. Funny, that.

Sarcasm. Oh no not sarcasm!

So there.

Of course the nonsense follows swiftly.

MY hormones, mine mine mine, me me me. It’s personal.

Once more, with feeling: it’s not about existing. It’s about truth-claims. Truth-claims about the self are not the same thing as existence. If you say you’re forty feet tall and I say you’re not, you don’t abruptly pop out of existence. That’s not how it works.

What SurvivalSavvy said:

Oh John. Please say this isn’t so. Are you really abandoning inclusion and diversity for narrow minded anti-trans bigotry? So very disappointed.

Compelling stuff, for sure.

How is it any of a woman’s business that men want to take the word “women” away from women? The question answers itself.

What Trump refused to say is significant.

Fox News’s Chris Wallace — who had spent most of the debate with the demeanor of someone unexpectedly pulled from the audience to ride a bronco at a rodeo — pushed Trump on his recent reluctance to say that he would ensure a smooth transition should he lose.

“Will you urge your supporters to stay calm during this extended period, not to engage in any civil unrest?” Wallace asked. “And will you pledge tonight that you will not declare victory until the election has been independently certified?”

Oh hell no. Of course he won’t.

“I’m urging my supporters to go into the polls and watch very carefully, because that’s what has to happen,” Trump said. “I am urging them to do it. As you know, today, there was a big problem in Philadelphia. They went in to watch. They were called poll watchers, a very safe, very nice thing. They were thrown out. They weren’t allowed to watch. You know why? Because bad things happen in Philadelphia, bad things.”

In fact they were asked to leave because of the pandemic restrictions.

There is a utility to having poll watchers in place, people trained to track voter turnout or, for those with particular expertise, to assist those who might need help casting a ballot. What Trump is obviously encouraging is to poll watching what armed militias are to police: self-appointed experts whose priority is less keeping order than confronting perceived enemies. It wasn’t the first time that Trump had similarly called on his supporters to serve in that capacity, but it was probably the call that had the largest audience.

And let’s not forget that this is in a country with a long and murderous history of such “poll watching” to keep the descendants of slaves from voting. Black people were lynched for voting not that many decades ago. Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner were murdered in 1964, when Donald Trump was 18.

That was in a different Philadelphia.

The reviews are harsh.

Then Dana Bash says that was polite, she’s just gonna say it like it is: that was a shitshow.

Why are tv news personalities moderating these debates anyway? None of this is a good idea.