Thursday, April 30, 2020

Tweets Of The Day -- Unhinged


As we note in the post below, shitwaffle Donald "COVID Donnie" Trump spent the wee hours of this morning tweet- raging about all kinds of nonsense.  Here's some of the push- back:















Paranoid Trump Thinks China's Out To Get Him



The decline in the mental health of sociopath and pathological liar Donald "Disinfectant Don" Trump has accelerated under the pressure of the COVID-19 pandemic. Recently, he was widely ridiculed for his deadly musing that injecting disinfectants into humans would kill the virus, forcing him into another widely ridiculed lie about being it being a "sarcastic" comment. Just today, he's reeled off dozens of angry tweets ranging from a defense of his felonious former aide Michael Flynn, to a random attack on MSNBC's Brian Williams. He's reportedly furious at polls showing former VP Joe Biden leading him in battleground states that he narrowly won in 2016.

His latest half-baked notion is that China is trying to sink his Presidency, after weeks of declaring China was doing a great job in limiting the virus' outbreak:
"The Republican president, often accused of not acting early enough to prepare the United States for the spread of the virus, said he believed China should have been more active in letting the world know about the coronavirus much sooner.

Asked whether he was considering the use of tariffs or even debt write-offs for China, Trump would not offer specifics. 'There are many things I can do,' he said. 'We’re looking for what happened.'

'China will do anything they can to have me lose this race,' said Trump. He said he believes Beijing wants his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, to win the race to ease the pressure Trump has placed on China over trade and other issues." (our emphasis)
This is in line with his corrupt cult's "strategy" to blame China for the spread of the virus in order to deflect attention from Trump's 70-day holiday from fighting the virus from January through March. They are going to try to link Biden to China in voters' minds, one of the great examples of projection in politics, after it was revealed that the Trump Organization has borrowed millions of dollars from the state-owned Bank of China in 2012, and given the business dealings of his lusted-after daughter in obtaining Chinese trademarks for her schlock merchandise.

(photo: The Very Stable Genius concocts another conspiracy.)

Today's Cartoons


(click on images to enlarge)


(Bill Bramhall, New York Daily News)


(Tom Toles, Washington Post)


(Stuart Carlson, gocomics.com)


(Matt Wuerker, Politico)


(Jack Ohman, Sacramento Bee)


(Jeff Stahler, gocomics.com)
 
(Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)


(Clay Bennett, Chattanooga Times Free Press)


(Michael de Adder, Counterpoint)


(Marty Two Bulls, m2bulls.com)


(Nick Anderson, Washington Post Writers Group)


(Chris Britt, gocomics.com)
 
(Kevin Kallaugher, Baltimore Sun)


(Marc Murphy, Louisville Courier-Journal, KY)

No Truth, But Consequences


Pathological liar can't keep track of his lies (and/or his "cognitive decline" flaring up):

Tuesday, when asked if the U.S. could surpass 5 million COVID-19 tests a day:
“Oh, we’re going to be there very soon.  If you look at the numbers it could be that we’re getting very close.”
Wednesday, when asked about the previous day's claim:
“Do I think we will? I think we will, but I never said it.”

We're not even testing 10 percent of the 5 million per day now, largely because the shitwaffle refuses to use the Defense Production Act to force companies to manufacture (among other things) test kits, for fear that the actual number of infected Americans will make him look bad. 

A consequence of "electing" an incompetent, narcissistic, gaslighting, grifting, multiple- bankrupted reality show host as "president," ladies and gentlemen, part infinity.

New Unemployment Claims Rise, Now Over 30 Million


How much of this could have been avoided with a competent, sane person in the Oval Office, who  heeded warnings and took bold steps early on in the coronavirus pandemic:
The American economy continues to stagger under the weight of the coronavirus pandemic, with another 3.8 million workers filing for unemployment benefits last week.
The figures announced Thursday by the Labor Department bring the number of workers joining the official jobless ranks in the last six weeks to more than 30 million, and underscore just how dire economic conditions remain.
Many state agencies still find themselves overwhelmed by the flood of claims, leaving perhaps millions with dwindling resources to pay the rent or put food on the table.
If anything, according to many economists, the job losses may be far worse than government figures indicate. A study by the Economic Policy Institute found that roughly 50 percent more people than counted as filing claims in a recent four-week period may have qualified for benefits but were stymied in applying or didn’t even try because they found the process too formidable.
“The problem is even bigger than the data suggest,” said Elise Gould, a senior economist with the institute, a left-leaning research group. “We’re undercounting the economic pain.”
The blood, and the pain, are on COVID Donnie's hands.

In Small Ball Election News.....


You may recall the zombie charge on the state capitol in Columbus, Ohio where a group of screaming Trumpist covidiots were captured in an iconic photo yelling through the glass doors to open the state up for viral bidness:

Joshua A. Bickel / AP


The wide-mouth apparition on the far left is Melissa Ackison, a small time far-right Trumpist activist who actually ran in the Republican primary for a State Senate seat. In this week's Ohio primary, Ackison was served up a heaping plate of sit down and shut up by the constituents of the 26th Senate district of Ohio, losing to State Rep. Bill Reineke by a whopping 65 to 35 percent. Which proves you can fool 35 percent of the people all the time.

Wednesday, April 29, 2020

Florida Plays Games With Virus Death Count


The Tampa Bay Times is reporting that Florida's Medical Examiners Commission has been prohibited from releasing COVID-19 death counts by the Florida Department of Health, apparently at the direction of Florida's ignorant and corrupt Trumpist weasel Gov. Ron "One Glove" DeSantis. The medical examiners' count was running 10 percent higher than the state's figures, so that caught the eye of DeSantis' enablers. Moreover, the state is going to remove causes of death and case descriptions from the list of deceased:
"Dr. Stephen Nelson, the chairman of the state Medical Examiners Commission, said the change in policy came after the state health department intervened.

The medical examiners’ list does not include names. But it provides demographic information, probable cause of death and case summaries with information about each person’s medical and travel history.

Nelson — who is also the medical examiner for Polk, Highlands and Hardee counties — said state officials told him they plan to remove causes of death and case descriptions. Without that information, the list is meaningless, he said." (our emphasis)
Trumpists want to diminish the numbers of dead in the COVID-19 pandemic so they look better and to justify reopening businesses in their jurisdictions. "Meaningless" data can be manipulated and sliced anyway to suit a political agenda. The lists of deceased are something that medical examiners have been keeping and publicly reporting for every state emergency since Hurricane Andrew in 1992:
"Transparency advocates, public health experts and medical examiners say comprehensive information about deaths is critical to understanding the epidemic’s path and impact.

Barbara Petersen, president emeritus of the First Amendment Foundation, said the interactions between the health department and medical examiners seemed to fit a troubling pattern.

'It’s just shocking to me the level of interference,' Petersen said.  (our emphasis)
In DeSantis, Trump has a reliable, venal puppet who's working for him and not the people of Florida.

BONUS:  According to CDC statistics, whatever death count is reported is very likely to be an undercount anyway.

BONUS II:  Meanwhile, the reported death toll in the U.S. just passed 60,000.


Tweets Of The Day -- Arbeit Macht Frei!


Working people everywhere, take note what the "party of life"/ "worker's party" is up to:








Translated from the original German --



Today's Cartoons


(click on images to enlarge)


(Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)


(Steve Benson, Arizona Mirror)


(Rob Rogers, Counterpoint)


(Drew Sheneman, The Star-Ledger, Newark, NJ)


(Tom Toles, Washington Post)


(Andy Marlette, Pensacola News-Journal)
 
(Kevin Siers, Charlotte Observer)


(Joel Pett, Lexington Herald-Leader, KY)

Perspectives on state and local level shenanigans--


(David Fitzsimmons, The Arizona Daily Star)
 
(Walt Handelsman, The Times-Picayune, New Orleans)


(Ken Catalino, catalinocartoons.com)


(Matt Wuerker, Politico)


(Bill Day, floridapolitics.com)

Mid-Week Song


Debuting last week on a CNN global town hall program, Alicia Keys' new classic, "Good Job," is a tribute to all of the essential workers who are keeping us afloat, from doctors and nurses, to grocery and postal workers, to police, fire and EMS personnel, and many more. It seems so inadequate given the risk and sacrifice, but "good job" is the least we can say to them. We can do more by giving them our maximum support now and going forward, like staying home, donating PPE, and donating to your local food banks and restaurants feeding health care and public safety workers.

Poll: Public Sours On Trump's COVID Handling


It's a little over six months until the election -- a political eternity -- so polls at this point are snapshots in time. That said, the public has soured on demagogue and incompetent narcissist Donald "COVID Donnie" Trump on his handling of the pandemic, and overwhelmingly wants to be safe rather than rush a "reopening" of the economy.  In the latest NPR/ PBS Newshour/ Marist poll, 65% believe having people go back to work without further testing is a bad idea. The numbers are even higher for sending kids back to school and opening restaurants for in-house dining being bad ideas.

By a margin of 55% to 44%, voters disapprove of Trump's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. They also rate the handling of the pandemic by their Governor at 64% approval, versus 32% for Trump. Similarly, they approve of their Governor's handling of the economy by a margin of 54% to 39%.

Finally, as to who they'd prefer handling the coronavirus pandemic, former VP Joe Biden tops Trump 55% to 40%. They'd also prefer Biden handling the economy by 51% to 44%.

BONUS: Trump's cult isn't likely to abandon him no matter the extreme hardships he brings to them. It's Jonestown-level fanaticism.

"Dystopia" And "Two Americans" Ads Hit Trump And Trumpers


We've got to hand it to the folks at The Lincoln Project for cranking out ads that, in our opinion, are pretty damn good nut punches.  Here are two just out in the past few days (feel free to share on your social media):





Tuesday, April 28, 2020

Trump Ignored Early Coronavirus Warnings (Cont.)


As we pass the 1 million confirmed COVID-19 cases in the U.S., and over 58,000 dead (more in 2 months than over the 9 years of the Vietnam War), we see once again the consequences of electing an illiterate, ignorant, narcissistic dolt as "president":

U.S. intelligence agencies issued warnings about the novel coronavirus in more than a dozen classified briefings prepared for President Trump in January and February, months during which he continued to play down the threat, according to current and former U.S. officials.
The repeated warnings were conveyed in issues of the President’s Daily Brief, a sensitive report that is produced before dawn each day and designed to call the president’s attention to the most significant global developments and security threats.
For weeks, the PDB — as the report is known — traced the virus’s spread around the globe, made clear that China was suppressing information about the contagion’s transmissibility and lethal toll, and raised the prospect of dire political and economic consequences.
But the alarms appear to have failed to register with the president, who routinely skips reading the PDB and has at times shown little patience for even the oral summary he takes two or three times per week, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss classified material.  (our emphasis)
It wasn't just the PDBs that COVID Donnie was ignoring, at great peril to our country, but also the warnings of health officials.

All the time, he was focused like a laser, but on the wrong things -- the stock market and his re- election campaign.  Just what you would expect from a damn narcissistic sociopath.

Again, Pence Unmasked... As A Dolt


VP Mike "Dense" Pence visited the Mayo Clinic and was told in advance about the clinic's policy requiring everyone to wear a face mask in the facility, to guard against transmission of COVID-19. Here was his response:



Not too surprising, given this (from a July 2017 visit to the Kennedy Space Center):



And yet, he's a genius compared to you- know- who.

It was a failure by Mayo not to have told him no mask, no visit.  That would have been the right example to set.

(Photos:  top, screenshot from PBS News; bottom, Mike Brown/ REUTERS)

Tweets Of The Day -- Combover's Flyover














Reality check --



QOTD -- Played


"Someday, we’ll get some perspective on how the press has contributed to this mess -- just as we can now look back on the news coverage of the run-up to the Iraq War and clearly see the sins committed then by most of Big Journalism: the shameful lack of skepticism, the foolish granting of anonymity to deceptive and self-interested sources.

"When we have that distance, what I suspect we’ll see is a candidate and a president who played the media like a puppet while deeply damaging the public’s trust in the press as a democratic institution. Someone who dazzled us with his show, while acting constantly in his own self-interest while we willingly — almost helplessly — magnified his message
." --  Margaret Sullivan, observing that history won't judge the media's coverage of nitwit incompetent Donald "Moron Vector" Trump kindly.

Today's Cartoons


(click on images to enlarge)


(Dave Whamond, caglecartoons.com)


(Dan Wasserman, Boston Globe)


(John Deering, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)


(Bill Bramhall, New York Daily News)
 
(Andy Marlette, Pensacola News-Journal, FL)


(Walt Handelsman, The Times-Picayune, New Orleans)


(Joe Heller, Green Bay Press-Gazette, WI)


(Tom Toles, Washington Post)


(Jack Ohman, Sacramento Bee)


(Chris Britt, gocomics.com)


(Nick Anderson, Washington Post Writers Group)


(Jen Sorensen, gocomics.com)

And, from abroad --


(Heng Kim Song, Lianhe Zaobao, Singapore)


(Tjeerd Royaards, Cartoon Movement, Netherlands)


Trump's "Advice" Causing Poison Cases To Spike



After sociopath and con man Donald "Disinfectant Don" Trump mused last Thursday about injecting cleaning fluid into the human body to kill the coronavirus, there were fears that the members of his gullible cult would poison themselves as a result. Reports from Kansas indicate that happened there this weekend:
"After President Donald Trump floated ingesting highly toxic disinfectant as a treatment for the coronavirus, Kansas health authorities say a man drank cleaning product over the weekend.

Lee Norman, the state health officer, said the head of the Kansas Poison Control Center reported a more than 40 percent increase in cleaning chemical cases.

'Including a fellow over the weekend who drank a product because of the advice he’d received,' Norman said during a news conference Monday." (our emphasis)
Poison control centers are reporting spikes in calls after Trump's ignorant statement, something he refused to take responsibility for yesterday. Reminiscent of the case of the Arizona couple that ingested fish tank cleaner containing a derivative of chloroquine resulting in one death, we're going to continue to be seeing his low information followers, who believe his every word, taking lethal doses of dangerous chemicals. Then again, they may have heard the modest proposal of radio jock Howard Stern, who suggested that Trump and his followers inject Clorox:
“I would love it if Donald would get on TV and take an injection of Clorox and let’s see if his theory works,” Stern said. “Hold a big rally, say f—k this coronavirus, with all of his followers, and let them hug each other and kiss each other and have a big rally.”
In this era of Disinfectant Don, absurdity is reality and can lead to death.

(image: Setting an example for a change.)

"Diamond and Silk" Marked Down For Quick Sale



Unhinged social media Trump cultists who call themselves Diamond and Silk (a.k.a. Zirconium and Polyester) have apparently gone too far in their blather than even Trump TV will tolerate. The duo were booted off of Fux platforms for spouting lunatic coronavirus conspiracy theories, including the claim that the number of deaths was being inflated deliberately to harm their Dear Leader.

The two are known for their cultish adoration of demagogue and mentally unstable con man Donald "COVID Donnie" Trump, with some African Americans referring to their obsequious praise of him as "cooning." They've certainly used their social media celebrity to endear themselves with far right audiences and organizations, who have rewarded them with paid gigs at conferences, etc. They've been frequent visitors at the White (Supremacist) House, where Trump cynically poses with them for photos.

There's no question that, despite their greatly diminished audience as a result of Fux's move, they'll certainly find an even more unhinged outlet to air their crackpot notions, because you can always sell zirconium and polyester as diamonds and silk to some people.

(photo: You go girls....literally.)

Testing, Testing (Cont.)


Moron vector Donald "COVID Donnie" Trump continues to lie about the status of testing for coronavirus while shirking Federal responsibility for it.  The farcical "blueprint" rolled out at yesterday's misinformation event continues to put the onus on states to conduct massive testing, while not providing the resources and capacity to do so.  That's been the regime's strategy now for months -- to try to shift blame for their on- going incompetence in ramping up testing.  (A cynic would say their aversion to mass testing was based on not wanting to have the growing levels of infection "spook" the stock market, lest it damage COVID Donnie's re- election bid.)  The Trump regime, through invocation of the Defense Production Act, had a unique capability to respond forcefully when it mattered, but it didn't.  Time has been and continues to be squandered, and lives lost, for the sole purpose of shielding COVID Donnie from the consequences of his ignorance and criminal incompetence.

Lickspittle and human termite Mike "Dense" Pence was asked about the lack of testing yesterday, and this was his "explanation":





Once again, testing -- and re- testing -- is the path to restoring public health and confidence and must precede "re-opening" the economy.  We're nowhere near the number of tests that need to be administered to assure we can move forward.  As Dr. Ashish Jha, Director of Harvard's Global Health Institute points out, it's all connected to a basic and continuing shirking of responsibility on the part of COVID Donnie and his enablers:


BONUS:


Monday, April 27, 2020

Attacks And Boasts, But No Empathy


These analyses of the content of the mini campaign rallies "briefings" malignant narcissist Donald "COVID Donnie" Trump has been holding for weeks (and is starting up again today after saying just days ago he wouldn't be doing them any more -- surprise!) reinforce why they've been so politically damaging to the shitwaffle.

The New York Times:
The self-regard, the credit-taking, the audacious rewriting of recent history to cast himself as the hero of the pandemic rather than the president who was slow to respond: Such have been the defining features of Mr. Trump’s use of the bully pulpit during the coronavirus outbreak. [snip]
By far the most recurring utterances from Mr. Trump in the briefings are self-congratulations, roughly 600 of them, which are often predicated on exaggerations and falsehoods. He does credit others (more than 360 times) for their work, but he also blames others (more than 110 times) for inadequacies in the state and federal response.

Mr. Trump’s attempts to display empathy or appeal to national unity (about 160 instances) amount to only a quarter of the number of times he complimented himself or a top member of his team
(our emphasis)

The Washington Post did a similar analysis:
Over the past three weeks, the tally comes to more than 13 hours of Trump — including two hours spent on attacks and 45 minutes praising himself and his administration, but just 4½ minutes expressing condolences for coronavirus victims. He spent twice as much time promoting an unproven antimalarial drug that was the object of a Food and Drug Administration warning Friday. Trump also said something false or misleading in nearly a quarter of his prepared comments or answers to questions, the analysis shows.  [snip]

Trump has attacked someone in 113 out of 346 questions he has answered — or a third of his responses. He has offered false or misleading information in nearly 25 percent of his remarks. And he has played videos praising himself and his administration’s efforts three times, including one that was widely derided as campaign propaganda produced by White House aides at taxpayer expense.
Both analyses are good reads, though any sentient person having had any exposure to Trump could tell you that it's always all about him.  The pathological lying, the self- aggrandizement, the self- pity, the obsessive need to blame others for his mistakes, the infantile attacks on the media and his political enemies -- it's all part of what makes this ignorant moron the absolute worst nightmare for our country at this catastrophic time.

Pic Of The Day: El Salvador's Jammed Jails


(click to enlarge)



El Salvador has one of the highest prison populations per capita of any Western Hemisphere nation, and also the most crowded, a terrible danger during the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Photographer Tariq Zaidi took some photos for BBC inside several El Salvadoran prisons, creating some stark, surreal images, lit with natural light, that are reminiscent of realist paintings.

Twit Tweet, Thwap -- Working Hard At Hardly Working


Twit tweet:



Thwap:





Do we need to be reminded what "work" the shitwaffle is doing, in the midst of a pandemic?  Here we go --







Where's Master Jared? Solving The COVID Crisis!



The Daily Beast is inquiring as to the whereabouts of jackass-of-all-trades and consort of Princess Ivanka, Master Jared Kushner these days:
"Over the past two weeks, Kushner has been notably removed from coronavirus-related operations, according to four officials working in coordination with his team. One official working in the White House said it was 'unclear' exactly what he and his team had actually done over the last two weeks. Another individual familiar with Kushner’s work said they hadn’t received updates from his team in 'about a week.'  [snip] 
'He muddied up a process that was really not needing a fix,' said Juliette Kayyem, a former assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. 'What that does is disempower FEMA because if at any moment Jared or one of his henchmen demand assets to be redistributed at their discretion, FEMA’s planning gets disrupted. I’ve never seen operations on something this scale being run out of the White House...'  [snip] 
'[Jared] could be in his office just googling ‘coronavirus,’ show the results to the president, and still get a gold sticker from his dad-in-law,' said a senior Trump administration official who works with the coronavirus task force. 'He is solving the coronavirus like he’s bringing peace to the [Middle East].'”  (our emphasis)
Aside from demonstrating how much the nepotistic Master Jared (and Princess Ivanka) are deeply despised and resented by Trump's own staff in the White (Supremacist) House, these sentiments are a reflection on the incompetent and flailing Dear Leader, who has assigned his inexperienced, but cocky, son-in-law to meddle in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Master Jared is a classic trust fund dilettante who was born on third base and thinks he hit a triple. He should go back to bringing peace to the Middle East, or reorganizing Government, or supervising construction of Trump's vanity wall. Anything but this life-or-death issue.

BONUS:



(photo: Undisclosed location? Kevin Dietsch/CNP)

Today's Tomorrow Cartoon: Disinfectant Don


(click to enlarge)



"More absurd than reality" should be idiotic sociopath Donald "Disinfectant Don" Trump's political epitaph.

November 3 can't come soon enough.