Saturday, October 31, 2020

Tweets Of The Day

 

The number to have --

 

 

Trump translated --


 

S.O.S. -- 

 

 

Waxing prophetic? 

 

 

Where will YOU find his laptop?! 

 

 

 

 

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The Trump Death Tour By The Numbers

A study by Stanford University estimates that malignant narcissist and intentional COVID-19 spreader Donald "COVID Donnie" Trump's rallies to stroke his damaged ego has caused an estimated 30,000 new COVID-19 cases and a corresponding 700 deaths:

"The study examined 18 counties that hosted Trump rallies in locations such as Tulsa, Oklahoma; Phoenix, Arizona; and Winston-Salem, North Carolina, held between June 20 and September 22. It then compared the rate of post-rally Covid-19 infections in the host counties to that of comparable counties that did not host a rally. Attendance at individual rallies varied, but Trump often draws thousands of supporters to these events."

The study notes that the deaths aren't entirely among those that attended his public health-violating Nuremberg rallies, but are also reflected in the people they came in contact with later -- family, friends, the general public in their communities. Also note that the time period involved was from June 20 to September 22, the latter date being just as COVID infections and deaths began to rise to their current record numbers. Trump has held multiple rallies in the weeks since September 22, so the figures presented by the Stanford University study have undoubtedly been far exceeded.

A study by CNN also found that in counties that Trump had held rallies in between August 17 and September 26, 82% of the counties had increases in COVID infections. His September 12 rally in Minden, NV was followed by a 225% increase in new COVID cases in the weeks that followed.

Not only does this malignant narcissist not care about his cult followers, he's actively, demonstrably causing their infection by a deadly virus, which public health experts have been saying all along.

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Today's Cartoons

(click on images to enlarge)

(Steve Benson, Arizona Mirror)

(Ken Catalino, catalinocartoons.com)

(David Fitzsimmons,The Arizona Daily Star)

(Martyn Turner, Irish Times, Dublin)

(Kevin Kallaugher, The Economist, London)

(Clay Bennett, Chattanooga Times Free Press)

(Nick Anderson, Washington Post Writers Group)

(Chris Britt, gocomics.com)

(Steve Sack, Minneapolis Star Tribune)

(Bill Bramhall, New York Daily News)

(Ann Telnaes, Washington Post)

(Stuart Carlson, gocomics.com)

(Matt Davies, Newsday)

Last, but never, ever least, the great Tom Toles retires with this final cartoon.  He will be sorely missed.

 

(Tom Toles, Washington Post)


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Trump's Despicable Smear Of Doctors And Nurses


With his political desperation prompting new levels of vile dishonesty, mentally unstable con man and habitual liar Donald "COVID Donnie" Trump has falsely accused our nation's doctors and nurses who are putting their lives on the line of fabricating COVID deaths for their own profit. In two super-spreader events in the COVID-ravaged Midwest, Trump lied when he said at his rally in Michigan yesterday:

"Our doctors are very smart people. So what they do is they say, 'I'm sorry but everybody dies of Covid'. [snip] "With us, when in doubt -- choose COVID. Now they'll say 'Oh that's terrible what he said,' but that's true. It's like $2,000 more, so you get more money." (our emphasis)

With hospital ICUs overflowing, and the number of hospitalizations rising, the U.S. set a record of new COVID infections yesterday,  hundreds of doctors, nurses and health care professionals have lost their lives to the coronavirus after treating their patients' COVID.

Dr. Susan Bailey, president of the American Medical Association, issued a statement on behalf of the AMA expressing outrage at Trump's sick lie about the doctors treating the virus that he's given up trying to control:

“Throughout this pandemic, physicians, nurses, and frontline health care workers have risked their health, their safety and their lives to treat their patients and defeat a deadly virus. They did it because duty called and because of the sacred oath they took. The suggestion that doctors—in the midst of a public health crisis—are overcounting COVID-19 patients or lying to line their pockets is a malicious, outrageous, and completely misguided charge. COVID-19 cases are at record highs today. Rather than attacking us and lobbing baseless charges at physicians, our leaders should be following the science and urging adherence to the public health steps we know work—wearing a mask, washing hands and practicing physical distancing.”  (our emphasis)

Earlier last week, after Trump made the same false claims, the American College of Emergency Physicians called his assertions "reckless and false."

To accuse our health care professionals of profiting from COVID-19 underlines Trump's depravity and his constant projection. He can't imagine anyone helping others without making money, so he projects his own sick motivations on others. 

VOTE. HIM. OUT. 

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Sean Connery, 1930-2020

 

This day had to come, yet it's just another reason to despise 2020.  

There's so much that could be said about the impact Sir Sean Connery made on the lives of many of us -- the proud Scotsman was every bit as much a part of the British invasion as The Beatles.  But for us, he was just simply one of our favorites of all time regardless of the role -- but, of course, especially as "Bond, James Bond," 007.  Here's Variety's obit.  Tributes are already pouring in.

Rest in peace, Sir Sean.


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Deep Fakers

Trey Parker and Matt Stone present intrepid consumer reporter "Fred Sassy" (who looks suspiciously like someone else) and his recent exposé on deep fake technology.  Funny, extremely clever, and frightening. (h/t Colorado Bureau Chief Shauna)

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Friday, October 30, 2020

QOTD

"In many ways, the whole Trump Presidency can be encapsulated in the past few days and weeks. It is self-dealing, denialism, dishonesty, and deflection. It is narcissism, recklessness, and disregard for the public good—and for democracy itself. There is nothing and no one he has not corrupted—or tried to. Even the remaining uncertainty about the election’s outcome is a product of Trump’s cynical, self-serving, and dangerous assault on the political system. Washington can read the polls, but after four years there’s still no poll that can fully account for this President. Folks, it ain’t over till it’s over." -- Susan Glasser in The New Yorker today.  Her subtext is to make sure that you vote and that your vote gets in on time to forestall the games COVID Donnie and his crooked judges will try to play on and after November 3.


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Ad: Puerto Ricans Won't Forget Trump's Betrayal

Latin salsa super star and philanthropist Marc Anthony witnessed first hand white supremacist and habitual liar Donald "COVID Donnie" Trump's disregard and despicable behavior toward our fellow Americans who call Puerto Rico their home. Treating them as third class citizens, when they've shed their blood for America in every war since World War I and have contributed so much to our culture and vitality as a nation. Trump is counting on enough Puerto Ricans to forget his lies, disrespect and neglect. Marc Anthony is here to tell him they won't forget on November 3.

 
It'll be a close election in Florida, and the Latino vote will be absolutely critical.  Puerto Rican-Americans are a large and politically aware demographic there and elsewhere throughout the U.S.  They won't forget, and they could make a big difference in defeating Trump.
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Tweets Of The Day

 

Heads up!


 

 

Take it from Taylor Swift (87 million + Twitter followers) -- 

 

 

An independent judiciary blahblahblah -- 

 

 

History lesson -- 

 

 

Keep a good thought -- 

 

 

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Today's Cartoons

(click on images to enlarge)

(Dave Granlund, davegranlund.com)

(Gary Markstein, gocomics.com)

(Bill Bramhall, New York Daily News)

(Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

(Nate Beeler, Counterpoint)

(Jack Ohman, Sacramento Bee)

(Ken Catalino, catalinocartoons.com)

(Kevin Siers, Charlotte Observer)

(Clay Bennett, Chattanooga Times Free Press)

(Nick Anderson, Washington Post Writers Group)

(Mort Gerberg, @mortgerberg)

(Tom Toles, Washington Post)

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

(Signe Wilkinson, Philadelphia Inquirer/Daily News)


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Polls, With The Usual Caveats

With four days before election day, and after over 75 million voters have already cast their ballots, the data gurus at FiveThirtyEight.com are projecting that former VP Joe Biden has an 89 percent chance of winning the election. They simulate the election 40,000 times to judge who has the best chance of winning. Their projections indicate that Biden will end up with an overwhelming 346 to 192 margin over white supremacist demagogue and con man Donald "COVID Donnie" Trump.  Per FiveThirtyEight:

"We’ve gotten a lot of new polls in the past couple of days, but so far, there’s little evidence of the race tightening. If anything, Biden is continuing to make gains in the Midwest (1.7 points, on average, since the final debate)."

Lest you become complacent with this analysis, they provide a caution to watch Pennsylvania as an example:

"Take Pennsylvania, the state our forecast currently thinks is most likely to decide the election. Biden doesn’t have much extra cushion in polls there, so a 2016-magnitude polling error could deliver the state to Trump. Remember, Trump has a meaningful chance of winning the election, per our forecast — a little worse than the chances of rolling a 1 on a six-sided die and a little better than the chances that it’s raining in downtown Los Angeles. And remember, it does rain there. (Downtown L.A. has about 36 rainy days per year, or about a 1-in-10 shot of a rainy day.)"

Still, a 1-in-10 shot is a pretty dramatic odd. What they can't factor in is Republican pre-and-post election interference with the vote count, something they've been engineering for months, planning on a slim Trump loss that they can cheat into victory. The spate of court cases filed to skew the vote Trump's way are the most glaring example of their cynical vote-robbing efforts. So a big, undeniable blue wave turnout will help to neuter their despicable efforts.

The operative word in all of this is "projection." If people responding to the pollsters don't cast their ballots and sit out the election, it's 2016 all over again. And for those with ballot in hand, it's too late to mail them in. TOO LATE.  So you must take them to an official ballot drop box / take them to your county board of elections, or vote in person safely, either early voting or on election day. Election information can be found here, from early voting sites and times to location of ballot drop boxes. 

BONUS:   Election guru Charlie Cook says "Don't Expect A Contested Election" --

What I am wondering is if this will be one or the rarest species of national elections—a wave election in a presidential year ending in a zero, meaning it will reverberate for a decade thanks to the coming redistricting. There are not a dozen Republican Senate seats that could fall, as Democrats suffered in 1980, but Joe Biden may well replicate Ronald Reagan’s 10-point victory over President Carter. The odds are it will be a bit less, perhaps in the 53 to 44 percent range, with 3 percent going to independents and write-ins, half of the number from four years ago. 
We take nothing for granted.  We run through the tape until all the polls close on Tuesday.  We make the margins so big that Republican chicanery can't undo them.


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Weekend Music

Happy birthday (81!) to Grace Slick (The Great Society/Jefferson Airplane/Starship), the charismatic vocalist, songwriter and iconoclast who helped lead the music explosion in San Francisco in the mid- late '60s.  The Jefferson Airplane's "Surrealistic Pillow" remains one of our favorite albums of that era, and Grace contributed significantly, singing lead on "Somebody To Love" (written by her brother- in- law Darby) and writing and singing lead on "White Rabbit."  (The "White Rabbit" video footage was shot at Woodstock and the song audio is edited from the album by the subscription channel.)  Hope you enjoy.


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Sarah Cooper And Helen Mirren Do Trump's "Access Hollywood" Tape

Sarah Cooper and Helen Mirren recreate the infamous "Access Hollywood" tape of COVID Donnie (Cooper) and Billy Bush (Mirren), featuring "I moved on her like a bitch" and "Grab 'em by the pussy." Classic COVID Donnie:  misogynistic, ugly and demeaning.

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The Price Of Incompetence And Reckless Disregard

 COVID Donnie, take a bow:

More than 2,000 new coronavirus cases in Colorado. More than 6,400 new cases in Illinois. And more than 1,000 new cases in New Mexico.

All record-breaking numbers for those states — and all on a day when the United States as a nation reached two grim new highs. On Thursday, the country recorded at least 90,000 new cases (that’s the equivalent of more than one per second) and crossed the threshold of nine million cases since the start of the pandemic.

Over the past week, the United States has recorded more than 500,000 new cases, averaging more than 77,000 a day, and nine states reported daily records on Thursday. More total cases have been identified in the United States than in any other country, although some nations have had more cases in proportion to their populations.

Ninety thousand (90,000!) new cases yesterday; a 42 percent increase in cases over the last two weeks; the death rate up 16 percent in the same time period.  Eleven out of the 12 states with the highest number of cases per capita are states won by COVID Donnie in 2016, but you MAGA cultists keep telling yourselves we're "turning a corner."


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Thursday, October 29, 2020

Tweets Of The Day

 

Son-in-law of Abraham Lincoln and man born with a silver foot in his mouth --

 

 

Jon Ossoff roasts a chicken named Perdue -- 

 

 

The corruption starts at the top -- 

 

 

Chuck. Effing. Todd. 

 

 

W.O.A.T. -- 

 

 

Top priority -- 

 

 

Nine Inch Nails, With Teeth -- 

 

 

And, finally, he kicks losers to the curb when he's done with them -- 

 

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Voyeur-Cuckold Falwell, Jr. Suing Liberty U.



Fundie hypocrite (redundant, we know) and first-hand (no pun) observer of his wife's adultery Jerry "Fall Bad" Falwell, Jr. is suing his former employer, Liberty University, over his ouster by the school amid multiple scandals. Falwell, who watched while his wife and her young pool boy lover bumped nasties, filed his complaint in state court in Lynchburg, VA. Part of his complaint is typical faux-outrage we see so much of among far-right fundies:

"Mr. Falwell has suffered damage to his reputation, damage to his profession, humiliation, and anguish; lost business opportunities; and suffered other pecuniary damage."

"Damage to his reputation." Snort. We'd venture that Falwell accomplished that single-handedly (no pun) when he sat in the corner of his bedroom doing who knows what while watching his wife's sexytime. The complaint alleges that Falwell was subjected to "a malicious smear campaign incited by anti-evangelical forces," which included the Lincoln Project, despite the fact that the original, well-sourced story was published by Reuters (fundies gotta throw some hate at the opponents of their Golden Calf).

While Falwell, adhering to the money-grubbing prosperity gospel, didn't initially specify damages in his complaint, as a barometer, he claims to have been responsible for the school's $1.6 billion endowment. In retrospect, Falwell should have been more careful about his wife's attraction to the pool boy's endowment.

(photo: Jerry Falwell, Jr. and not-his-wife building his reputation)

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Today's Cartoons

(click on images to enlarge)


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

(Stuart Carlson, gocomics.com)

(Adam Zyglis, The Buffalo News)

(Chris Britt, gocomics.com)

(Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

(Rob Rogers, Counterpoint)

(Joel Pett, Lexington Herald-Leader, KY)

(Nick Anderson, Washington Post Writers Group)

(Kevin Kallaugher, Counterpoint)

(Tom Toles, Washington Post)

(Pat Bagley, The Salt Lake Tribune)

(Phil Hands, Wisconsin State Journal)

(Mike Peters, Dayton Daily News)


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Trump To Suffocate "Lungs Of North America"

 

He's doing his damnedest to destroy every good thing while he still can:

President Trump will open up more than half of Alaska’s Tongass National Forest to logging and other forms of development, according to a notice posted Wednesday, stripping protections that had safeguarded one of the world’s largest intact temperate rainforests for nearly two decades.

As of Thursday, it will be legal for logging companies to build roads and cut and remove timber throughout more than 9.3 million acres of forest — featuring old-growth stands of red and yellow cedar, Sitka spruce and Western hemlock. The relatively pristine expanse is also home to plentiful salmon runs and imposing fjords. The decision, which will be published in the Federal Register, reverses protections President Bill Clinton put in place in 2001 and is one of the most sweeping public lands rollbacks Trump has enacted.

The new rule states that it will make “an additional 188,000 forested acres available for timber harvest,” mainly “old growth timber.”

For years, federal and academic scientists have identified Tongass as an ecological oasis that serves as a massive carbon sink while providing key habitat for wild Pacific salmon and trout, Sitka black-tailed deer and myriad other species. It boasts the highest density of brown bears in North America, and its trees — some of which are between 300 and 1,000 years old — absorb at least 8 percent of all the carbon stored in the entire Lower 48′s forests combined.

“While tropical rainforests are the lungs of the planet, the Tongass is the lungs of North America,” Dominick DellaSala, chief scientist with the Earth Island Institute’s Wild Heritage project, said in an interview. “It’s America’s last climate sanctuary.”

For even the most clueless among us who might have swallowed COVID Donnie's horseshit lie about being an"environmentalist," the blinding truth is now in sharper focus:  that this malignant, climate change denying regime is an enemy of the planet.  Not only did COVID Donnie pull the U.S. out of the Paris climate accord, his regime weakened greenhouse gas emissions standards, weakened protections of endangered species, promoted offshore oil and gas drilling, altogether rolling back 100 environmental rules.

Court challenges on many of these actions are underway or will follow.  But the best way to reverse this assault on our stewardship of at least our part of the planet is to kick this monster and his many Republican bootlicks out of office in the coming days.  It's only then that we can begin to repair the damage, though some of it may be already beyond fixing.

(Image: Mendenhall Glacier in the Tongass National Forest; Getty)

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QOTD: Looking At Trump's America

In his op-ed piece in this morning's New York Times, entitled "How Will I Ever Look At America The Same Way?",  Frank Bruni expresses the feeling that the four years of Trumpism have stripped away much of the faith in our fellow citizens to do the right thing, or even hold the same values:

"It’s always assumed that those of us who felt certain of Hillary Clinton’s victory in 2016 were putting too much trust in polls.

I was putting too much trust in Americans.

I’d seen us err. I’d watched us stray. Still I didn’t think that enough of us would indulge a would-be leader as proudly hateful, patently fraudulent and flamboyantly dishonest as Donald Trump.

We had episodes of ugliness, but this? No way. We were better than Trump.

Except, it turned out, we weren’t. [snip]

Trump snuffed out my confidence, flickering but real, that we could go only so low and forgive only so much. With him we went lower — or at least a damningly large percentage of us did. In him we forgave florid cruelty, overt racism, rampant corruption, exultant indecency, the coddling of murderous despots, the alienation of true friends, the alienation of truth itself, the disparagement of invaluable institutions, the degradation of essential democratic traditions.

He played Russian roulette with Americans’ lives. He played Russian roulette with his own aides’ lives. In a sane and civil country, of the kind I long thought I lived in, his favorability ratings would have fallen to negative integers, a mathematical impossibility but a moral imperative. In this one, they never changed all that much." (our emphasis)

In plain view, white supremacist demagogue and would-be autocrat Donald "COVID Donnie" Trump has shredded norms of over 200 years, condemned over 250,000 Americans to their deaths because of his criminal negligence, and fomented racism and violence among his rabid cult. It's that cult which has been impervious to Trump's open corruption, cruelty, indifference to them, and reckless and immoral policies. Indeed, they've embraced them, and Bruni believes a "united" America may be irretrievable, even if former VP Biden in elected next month. It's a sobering commentary, and worth the read.

(Bruce Springsteen's reading of Elayne Griffin's "The Gray House" in the post below, which complements this theme)

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"Covey Spreader" And Springsteen's "Vote Them Out"

 The Lincoln Project got "Randall," the original voice of "honey badger don't give a shit" fame, to voice "Covey Spreader."  Gotta say, nice to have them on our side (for now).


 

 

Now here's Bruce Springsteen reading poet Elayne Griffin's "The Gray House" on his Sirius XM radio show.  Powerful.

  

 Sharing is caring.

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Wednesday, October 28, 2020

Tweet Of The Day -- FFS, Don't Put Your Ballot In The Mail Now

 

 

1. Use an official ballot drop off box; 

2. Drop it off at an early voting site; 

3. Drop it off at your county election board office; or

4. Vote in person early or on November 3 if you don't do 1-3, above. 

Here's a place to start for more information.


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Today's Cartoons

(click on images to enlarge)

(Steve Sack, Minneapolis Star Tribune)

(Kevin Siers, Charlotte Observer)

(Clay Bennett, Chattanooga Times Free Press)

(Tom Toles, Washington Post)

(Matt Bors, gocomics.com)

(Pat Bagley, The Salt Lake Tribune)

(Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

(David Horsey, Seattle Times)

(Ingrid Rice, politicalcartoons.com)

(John Deering, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

(Rob Rogers, robrogers.com)

(Dave Granlund, davegranlund.com)


(Dave Whamond, caglecartoons.com)

(David Fitzsimmons, The Arizona Daily Star)


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