Mitch is all in an uproar because workers are being CODDLED. He’s not having it.

Mitch McConnell promised House Republicans Wednesday that the beefed up unemployment benefits enacted earlier this spring “will not be in the next bill.”

The Senate majority leader told the House GOP minority in an afternoon phone call that he is comfortable waiting to see how the nearly $3 trillion in coronavirus spending previously approved plays out before moving forward on the next relief legislation. And he told them that the ultimate end-product won’t look anything like House Democrats’ $3 trillion package passed last week, according to a person briefed on the call.

Well of course he’s comfortable. He’s been milking his job for $$$ for years. Nice to be Mitch but not everyone gets that kind of comfort.

McConnell warned against trial lawyer “vultures” ready to file lawsuits and said Republicans are “going to have to clean up the Democrats’ crazy policy that is paying people more to remain unemployed than they would earn if they went back to work,” McConnell said.

Starve the peasants!

Right, because the only possible reason to have a woman as a running mate is because he wants to fuck her. Good job of insulting your own sex, KC.

Michigan can’t catch a break.

As if things weren’t already bad enough in Michigan, on Tuesday, dams in Edenville and Sanford flooded. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer declared a state of emergency in Midland County and ordered all residents to evacuate the area immediately.

“If you have not evacuated the area, do so now and get somewhere safe,” Whitmer said in a statement. “This is unlike anything we’ve seen in Midland County.”

It may be unlike anything we’ve ever seen, but federal regulators saw this coming. As other outlets have reported, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has long warned the owners to increase capacity of the Edenville dam’s spillways to prevent a flood, going as far back as 1999. The agency issued another warning in 2004 when the ownership changed hands to a company called Boyce Hydro LLC, and another in 2017, when it declared the dam to be a “high hazard.” In 2018, the FERC revoked Boyce Hydro’s license, prompting years of litigation.

Meanwhile Trump is busy saving us from all this pesky government regulation.

The BBC reports:

A Toronto teenager has become the first Canadian ever charged with carrying out an “incel”-inspired terror attack.

The 17-year-old boy is accused of fatally stabbing a woman in February.

Incel, short for “involuntarily celibate,” is an online subculture focused on members’ perceived inability to find romantic or sexual partners.

Well, that’s a very forgiving way of putting it. It’s an online subculture focused on the evil of women who think they have a right to refuse demands for sex. It’s a male online subculture that rages at women’s sexual autonomy.

The suspect, who cannot be named because he is a minor, had already been charged with murder shortly after the incident, which took place at an erotic massage parlour…

When Toronto police learned the crime may have been motivated by an extremist ideology, they contacted Canada’s federal RCMP, which ultimately decided to press terrorism charges.

It’s not all that far-fetched to see rape as a form of terrorism against women. It’s not just a quick and convenient way to grab sex, at least not always. It’s also an expression of misogyny and a warning to The Others.

“Incel” is short for “involuntarily celibate”. It generally – though not exclusively – refers to online groups of men who feel they are unable to enter into sexual relationships. They blame women for their grievances, which they discuss in internet forums.

Again, it’s not so much that the men “feel they are unable to enter into sexual relationships” – it’s that they feel rage and hatred toward women who refuse to Put Out. Women are withholding bitches who have that thing between their legs but won’t share it.

In 2018, Alek Minassian allegedly drove a van into a busy Toronto commercial street killing 10 people and wounding 16.

He later told police the attack was retribution for years of rejection by women, and that he identified as a member of the incel movement. He was charged with 10 counts of first-degree murder and 16 counts of attempted murder, but he was not charged with terrorism.

…

Minassian was allegedly inspired by Elliot Rodger, who killed six people in a stabbing and shooting spree in Isla Vista, California, in May 2014.

Because those sorority bitches wouldn’t spread for him.

Trump is getting excited about the G7 summit and toying with the idea that maybe just maybe it should be in person after all (so that he can insult people to their faces, dammit, like a real American).

“Now that our Country is ‘Transitioning back to Greatness’, I am considering rescheduling the G-7, on the same or similar date, in Washington, D.C., at the legendary Camp David,” Trump wrote in a tweet. “The other members are also beginning their COMEBACK. It would be a great sign to all – normalization!”

Yeah! Never mind that the curve isn’t flattening! Let’s do this thing!

Trump is clearly eager to look ahead to the next stage of reopening the country, but the number of US coronavirus cases and deaths continues to climb. The country’s death toll is expected to hit 100,000 in the coming days.

With that in mind, it’s hard to imagine that world leaders will feel comfortable traveling to the US as it continues to grapple with the crisis.

Wimps! Sissies! Weenies! They need to get over here and round up some cattle in a thunderstorm, that’d show them.

Aw, now the Trumpies are ruining a perfectly good misogynist nickname by appropriating it from all those right-on lefty dudes. No fair!

It’s SO KAREN to tell Twitter to do something just because the president of the United States called some guy a murderer. Who does she think she is??

Don Junior is using it??? Aw, no, that’s got to ruin it.

Did god make a clerical error?

35 of the 92 people (38%) who attended services at a rural Arkansas church March 6–11 tested positive for the coronavirus, ultimately killing three, according to a case study released Tuesday by the CDC.

…

Contact tracing found that an additional 26 people were infected after interacting with attendees of the church, and one person from that group died.

The CDC has mostly left it to the states to decide whether churches should close or not. It’s not hard to figure out why – who needs the hassle?

In Arkansas, the state banned indoor gatherings of more than 10 people, but exempted religious services.

Why? Because the state doesn’t want to tangle with godbotherers, or because the state actually thinks god will wipe out all contagion inside the church and also as far as the parking lot?

Kentucky and Kansas both had federal court rulings against their governors’ orders to temporarily ban mass gatherings at religious services.

Getting the virus at the supermarket would be silly, but getting it at church would be ad majorem dei gloriam.

Oh look, more filth.

In yet another assault on checks and balances, President Trump abruptly removed the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) independent watchdog late Friday – the same night he announced plans to fire the State Department Inspector General (IG). At DOT, the acting IG was overseeing a high profile investigation of Secretary Chao’s alleged favoritism benefiting her husband Senator Mitch McConnell’s political prospects, but has now been replaced with a political appointee from within the agency. The acting IG’s ouster calls into question the future of the Chao-McConnell investigation, other critical oversight, and whether the watchdog was dismissed for unearthing damaging information. 

This move is the latest salvo of Trump’s assault on oversight. And it looks like the President made sure to cover all his bases to block accountability, not only nominating an IG to succeed the experienced watchdog who held the post, but also demoting the acting IG who was investigating Chao, and installing a political appointee to serve in his place while the Senate considers a permanent replacement. To make matters worse, Trump’s pick to be the new acting IG, Howard “Skip” Elliott, already has a job overseeing the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), an office he will now also be in charge of policing. 

Trump’s decision to sideline DOT acting IG Mitch Behm (who has 17 years of experience with OIG) was lost in the shuffle of outrage following the announcement that Trump planned to fire the State Department IG, but potential conflicts of interest abound. The most high profile is the DOT OIG’s review of allegations that Secretary Chao gave Senator McConnell’s constituents special treatment and helped steer millions of federal dollars to Kentucky as he is facing low approval ratings and a tough reelection bid. 

Are we drowned yet?

He had a reason.

There was a specific reason for President Trump’s sudden announcement on Monday that he was taking the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine. His goal was to undermine a whistleblower who had raised questions about the administration’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, a whistleblower who claimed that it was his skepticism about the utility of the drug that led to his firing. How could hydroxychloroquine be as dangerous as former top vaccine official Rick Bright suggested, Trump offered, given that he himself was using it?

Ah. So by the same token, if Trump gets some disinfectant inside his body, that will show it’s safe. Somebody point that out to him.

“The only negative I’ve heard was the study where they gave it — was it VA?” Trump said, referring to the Department of Veterans Affairs. “With, you know, people that aren’t big Trump fans gave it.” He then went on to express surprise at this perceived disloyalty from VA, given the legislation he had signed to support it. (The legislation he mentioned was in fact first signed by President Barack Obama.)

It’s funny that he’s such a belligerent insulting mean shithead yet he’s surprised when some people don’t like him. I wonder if anyone actually likes him.

Speaking to reporters Tuesday afternoon after a meeting with Republican senators, he again disparaged the study.

“If you look at the one survey, the only bad survey, they were giving it to people that were in very bad shape. They were very old. Almost dead,” Trump said. He described the study as “a Trump-enemy statement.”

A few hours later, again pressed on his use of the drug for an unproven purpose, Trump again suggested that opposition to it was simply political.

“There was a false study done where they gave it to very sick people, extremely sick people, people that were ready to die,” he said. “It was given by obviously not friends of the administration.” He later added that it “was a phony study and it’s very dangerous to do it.”

Unlike getting disinfectant inside the body.

The Trump Show resumed after all the burgers and ice cream were gone.

But wait! It turns out he does respond to her!

Just minutes after saying he would not respond to Nancy Pelosi calling him “morbidly obsese,” Trump unexpectedly unleashed an attack against the House speaker.

“Pelosi is a sick woman,” Trump said while answering a reporter’s question about his former national security adviser, Michael Flynn. “She’s got a lot of problems, a lot of mental problems.”

But he doesn’t respond to her. Make a note of it.

He says a lotttttttt of stupid shit in that one clip. The question is “Why is it ok for you to promote the use of this drug [Trump interjects “K”] when you’re not a doctor?” Trump starts with “Welll I’ve worked with doctors an if you look at the one survey, the only bad survey, they were giving it to people who were in very bad shape, they were very old, almost dead…”

Trump went to Capitol Hill to have lunch with the Republicans, and guess what he didn’t wear.

But his long run of not-mask wearing may be about to hit a wall.

Trump is scheduled to tour a Ford Motors plant in Michigan tomorrow, and the company has said it will require him to wear a mask for the visit.

That should be interesting.

Pence says he’s not taking hydroxychloroquine – but also that he totally would.

According to the Fox News reporter who interviewed the vice president, Mike Pence said he was not taking hydroxychloroquine because his doctor had not recommended it.

But Pence added that he “wouldn’t hesitate” to use hydroxychloroquine, even though there has been little evidence that the anti-malaria drug is an effective treatment against coronavirus.

More to the point, even though people with medical knowledge say it would be dangerous to take it. Pence is too cowardly and self-serving to warn against taking it even though, unlike Trump, he probably has some clue about why it’s not a good plan.

In a memo last night, Trump’s physician, Dr Sean Conley, said of the president’s use of the drug, “After numerous discussions he and I had regarding the evidence for and against the use of hydroxychloroquine, we concluded the potential benefit from treatment outweighed the relative risks.”

That makes no sense. Trump is taking it as a prophylactic rather than treatment, and anyway how did “we” arrive at that conclusion? What would that even mean? Trump knows nothing about medication or biology or any other relevant body of knowledge, so what relevance could his “conclusion” have? That physician is a lousy rotten example of a physician.

Why does Trump want people to take hydroxychloroquine?

Why obsess about this one drug? Why not remdesivir, for which studies are showing consistent positive results and about which experts are actually excited? Or two new possibilities that show promise, both already approved by the FDA to treat worms and asthma? Or any of the 47 other FDA-approved drugs that a team of researchers screened and found to have strong action against the coronavirus (the results of which were published in Nature on April 30)? Granted, these screenings were done against the virus in petri dishes. But the only solid evidence that hydroxychloroquine works against the virus is from similar in vitro studies. On the other hand, none of these other studies are getting attention on Fox News and right-wing Twitter, which seems to be where Trump gets his medical information.

It’s the fallacy of name recognition combined with the extreme smallness of the space for new information in Trump’s brain. He fixated on the name at some point and the rest is froth – there is no rational explanation, there’s only Trump’s desolate wasteland of a mind.

One thing that is indisputable, based on information dating to World War II, is that these chloroquine-derived drugs are treacherous because they have a narrow therapeutic index — which means the dose needed for treatment is close to the toxic dose. This is why doctors use them so carefully.

Trump seems unable to grasp this basic concept. And he doesn’t seem interested in the dangers.

No; once again, it’s the tiny space for new information in his brain. He has room for ” hydroxywotsitsname good” and that’s it. Brain full up; next customer please.

What is the public to conclude now that Trump says he’s taking hydroxychloroquine? If the past is any indication, more people will decide to take it. But unlike Trump, most will do so without the benefit of an in-house doctor and 24-hour monitoring to check for side effects — such as blindness, kidney failure, suicidal thoughts and heart attacks. Trump never uses his bully pulpit to warn people about what they’re stepping into, should they take his medical advice. But he should. It’s the least he can do.

Yes but that would require understanding a little more about hydroxywhosis and as we know, understanding a little more about something is not in Trump’s skill set.

The Guardian is startled by Trump’s news.

Extraordinary news emerging from the White House – the president has mentioned that he has been taking hydroxychloroquine. This is the dubious treatment for coronavirus that Trump had fiercely touted in the past but which was found to have a very mixed effect on patients.

Mixed, perhaps, but also non-coronavirus-preventing. I think there’s no more reason to think hydroxychloroquine will prevent the virus than there is to think marshmallow fluff will, or varnish, or gypsum, or brine, or the urine of a rabid bat.

The US Food and Drug Administration cautions against use of hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine for Covid-19 outside of a hospital setting or a clinical trial due to risk of heart rhythm problems.

Yes but what have you got to lose? Can’t answer that, can you.

But the FDA can.

The FDA has warned against using hydroxychloroquine or a related compound, chloroquine, for treating or preventing Covid-19 without medical supervision in a hospital, or as part of a clinical trial.

“While clinical trials are ongoing to determine the safety and effectiveness of these drugs for Covid-19, there are known side effects of these medications that should be considered,” the FDA commissioner, Stephen M Hahn, said in a statement issued in late April. “The FDA will continue to monitor and investigate these potential risks and will communicate publicly when more information is available.”

Blah blah blah, but Trump knows better.

FOUR TIMES he says he has the right; two of those times he says “the absolute right.”

He also insists that it’s just normal to fire IGs hired by The Other Guy, just normal and good sense. That’s not the case.

He also thinks it’s perfectly fine for Pompeo to make his staffers do household chores for him.

“Here’s a man that is supposed to be negotiating war and peace with major, major countries with weaponry like the world has never seen before,” Trump told reporters. “And the Democrats and the fake news media, they are interested in a man who is walking their dog.”

Trump fired the State Department’s inspector general, Steve Linick, on Friday. According to NBC, Linick has been investigating whether Pompeo and his wide made a staffer walk their dog, pick up dry cleaning and make them dinner reservations, as well as the circumstances of Pompeo’s sale of US weapons to Saudi Araba despite a congressional ban.

“I would rather have [Pompeo] on the phone with some world leader than have him wash dishes because maybe his wife isn’t there or his kids aren’t,” Trump said.

Of course, a third option would have been for the Pompeo family to hire dogwalkers and other helpers, rather than relying on State Department employees to do their personal errands.

It’s not a binary choice. “Either you wash my dishes, or I have to go home and wash them myself, leaving the Saudi ambassador waiting in my office.” No. Federal employees are not the only people available to do household chores for Mike Pompeo.

Reaction is…intense.

I tried to listen to that whole clip but I got too bored. Seriously? Yes. Even now, even on this subject – he drones on and on like The Most Boring Man in the World and at “we had a rePORT” I just couldn’t take it any more. I can’t take it when it’s that guy on the bus and I can’t take it when it’s Donnie Dimwit. The fruity raspy juicy speeded-up voice of the town bore, who talks fast and loud so that no one can interrupt him – EVERYBODY KNOWS THAT VOICE.

Also, what do you have to lose? Well, life, health, function, stuff like that.

A doctor sent him a letter. A letter! Wudja liketa see it? He’ll have Molly make you a copy. A letter! The doctor didn’t want anything, he didn’t say can I come have dinner with you mister president. He just sent the letter! So naturally who wouldn’t take it, based on that? So far he’s still here, he tells us.

That’s a bit of a thunderbolt.

Unless he’s lying of course. I don’t think he is though – the way he tells it looks like his way of bouncing himself into saying something outrageous, which is different from his way of lying.

Trump is determined to nail Obama for his crimes, if only he can find out what they are.

President Donald Trump headed into the weekend appearing convinced his predecessor committed a crime worthy of investigation — despite being unable to name the crime or provide any evidence for it. By Sunday, he emerged prepared to wage wholesale political war with the last person who held his office.

It was always about Obama. Mediocre white guys are one thing, but a not so mediocre black guy as president – that’s a personal insult to Trump himself and must be avenged.

Escaping the White House for another weekend at Camp David, Trump appeared “highly focused” on Obama over the course of Saturday and Sunday, a person familiar with the matter said.

“Highly focused”=weirdly obsessed.

As he huddled in the mountainside retreat’s rustic cabins with a roster of Republican lawmakers — many of whom forged national profiles defending Trump during his impeachment proceedings — Trump discussed ways to advance the baseless conspiracy about the former president, the person said.

Guys, how can we advance this baseless conspiracy? Will you join me in shouting about it on Twitter?

At Camp David this weekend, Trump was joined by several lawmakers who gained prominence by their aggressive support of him during House impeachment hearings — including Republican Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Elise Stefanik and Lee Zeldin of New York, Devin Nunes of California, and Matt Gaetz of Florida, along with his new chief of staff Mark Meadows and his wife Debbie.

Your basic liars for Trump.

Same old same old same old – we’re told about the desperate need to respect trans rights, while we’re not told what, exactly, trans rights are meant to be, and whether they’re the same basic rights we should respect in all cases (cf the “Universal” in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights) or special rights particular to trans people, and if it’s the latter, whether those putative rights are compatible with everyone else’s rights.

Amnesty press release:

UK human rights organisations speak out for trans equality amidst growing threats to trans rights

But what is “trans equality”? Is there anyone anywhere who claims that trans people are not “equal” to everyone else? I sure don’t know of any such claim.

But what does “live freely as themselves” mean?

Drawing up declarations of human rights takes some thought and care, because if you’re sloppy about it you find you’ve said we can all ride roughshod over each other, and goodbye to human rights in that world. The slogan in the image is like that. Do we want to say that pedophile priests must be able to “live freely as themselves”? Do we want to say that of murderers, frauds, gang bosses, CEOs of corporations that trash the planet or poison the consumers or exploit the workers or all of those?

And then the sign hiding behind the slogan – “I am who I say I am.” You may be, whoever you are, but does it follow that everyone is? Is it the case that everyone is who she says she is? Is it true that all people are who they say they are?

Don’t be ridiculous. Of course it’s not, and it would be massively less so if that became a Human Right and a general law. I could say I’m the boss of Amazon so please send all the checks to me, but I would be telling a falsehood.

And it’s not just fraud and crime; it’s also life more broadly. People don’t know everything there is to know about who they are. People take an optimistic view of themselves, which could often benefit from a more detached view from outside. The puff adder in the White House is a glaring example – do we want to agree that he is who he says he is? Or that Kushner is, or Princess Ivanka, or Kayleigh McEnany?

Also depressed people have a distorted view of themselves, as do anorexic people; correction from the outside can help them. “I am who I say I am” just isn’t a general truth, and it makes a rotten slogan.

Today a joint statement has been released from some of the UK’s leading human rights organisations in support of trans equality to mark the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Intersexphobia and Transphobia (17 May). 

See above. Who opposes trans equality? No one that I know of.

Amnesty International, Liberty and Human Rights Watch joined to send a message that trans rights are human rights:

“Human rights are universal and belong to everyone. Yet too often in the UK trans people are spoken about and treated as though their rights don’t matter.“

No they’re not. The claims that some trans activists make are challenged on the grounds that they are too sweeping and/or conflict with the rights of girls and women. Nobody says the rights of trans people don’t matter; we question the new bizarre special rights that are in tensions with the rights of female people.

The toxic media coverage about trans people has recently spiked. At times of crisis and political change, marginalised groups are often singled out for abuse and hate. History has shown us time and time again the dangers of setting the rights of one marginalised group up for debate. But we know that our rights and freedoms are bound together.

That sounds nice, but the reality is that some of the claimed rights of men who say they are trans are not at all bound together with the rights and freedoms of women.

What’s more, this isn’t an equal conversation or level playing field. Key voices are missing – trans and non-binary people, and in particular young trans people. They are so often spoken about, not listened to. As a society, we need to make space so they can be finally heard without having to defend who they are.

If “who they are” is men who claim to be women, then there are situations in which women need to be able to say no.