Art/ Pic Of The Day

(click on image to enlarge)



A giant trompe l'oeil rendering of a child painted on a farm field in Leysin, Switzerland (Valentin Flauraud/SAYPE/Handout via REUTERS).  Note farm buildings above child's head for perspective.

The artist calls the coronavirus- themed work "Beyond crisis."  Here's the story behind it.

Sunday Reflection: Pete Seeger

"I love my country very dearly, and I greatly resent the implication that some of the places that I have sung and some of the people that I have known, and some of my opinions, whether they are religious or philosophical, make me less of an American." -- singer, songwriter, activist Pete Seeger, born this day in 1919, was a relentless champion of civil rights, worker rights, peace, and music as a healing and enlightening force. Both as a solo artist and a member of the seminal folk group The Weavers, Seeger focused much of his attention of environmental issues, including his beloved Hudson River, later in life. A prolific songwriter, Seeger wrote such classics as "Where Have All The Flowers Gone," "If I Had A Hammer," "Little Boxes," "Turn, Turn, Turn," and many others.

(photo: Roger Ressmeyer / Corbis)

Trump's Unfolding Testing Disaster

For weeks, it's been a constant demand for more testing capabilities in order to identify asymptomatic people, isolate them and contact trace who they may have been in contact with. But the first step in the process is testing, and Very Stable Genius and sociopath Donald "COVID Donnie" Trump has failed in that critical task. Perhaps because he's focused on a quick fix vaccine or treatment -- a pill one could take and the economy springs back to life -- he's not grasping the need for testing now (or he is afraid that more testing would uncover much greater levels of infection). As The Guardian article notes:

"...analysts say that without centralized governance and coordination, the national effort remains a competing coalition of state and local outfits hampered by duplicated work, competition for supplies, siloed pursuits of non-transferable solutions and red tape that leaves some labs with testing backlogs and others with excess capacity.

All of which leaves the US without a unified, coherent strategy for testing and contact tracing to contain a virus that does not respect state borders and has already killed more than 60,000 Americans.

Without it, the imminent experiment of reopening the country could be catastrophic, warned Harvard epidemiologist Michael Mina in a conference call with reporters this week." (our emphasis)

Sensing that his incompetence on this fundamental aspect will damage him politically, Trump has repeatedly sought to hold the states responsible for testing, who as the above quote notes, are competing for testing resources among themselves (and with the Federal Government). Trump has compounded the problem by misrepresenting the adequacy of supplies, pressuring states to reopen their economies regardless of the COVID-19 infection trends, and lifting social distancing guidelines:

"Meanwhile, as states begin to relax social distancing measures, the Trump administration is spreading dangerous misinformation, denying persistent supply shortages, underestimating the number of Covid-19 cases and exaggerating the margin of safety conferred by the current volume of testing and contact-tracing, experts say.

“We’ve done more than 200,000 tests in a single day,” Mike Pence said at a taskforce briefing this week, in which Trump touted testing as “one of the great assets that we have” in reopening the US.

But at current testing levels, with only rudimentary plans for contact tracing for new cases, the US will be flying virtually blind as it reopens, said Glen Weyl, a technologist who co-authored a report issued by Harvard’s Safra Center for Ethics that calls for 5m tests a day by early June."  (our emphasis)

Trump's cult is eager to reopen the bars, malls, etc. regardless of the likelihood that premature reopenings will spread this highly contagious virus, but the majority of Americans aren't going to return until they know it's safe. It'll be the worst of two worlds: no economic rebound and increased infections. A COVID Donnie production.

Photoshop Of The Week -- Exposed

The few, the economically anxious, the compensating.



Fixed it--


(Found via @travisakers)

(Top photo:  gun humpers protesting in Lansing, Michigan/ Getty Images)

Today's Cartoons

(click on images to enlarge)


(Bill Bramhall, New York Daily News)
 
(Peter Kuper, caglecartoons.com)
 
(Rob Rogers, robrogers.com)


(David Horsey, Seattle Times)


(Stuart Carlson, gocomics.com)


(Adam Zyglis, The Buffalo News)


(Robert Ariail, gocomics.com)
 
(Milt Priggee, caglecartoons.com)


(Patrick Chappatte, Boston Globe)


(Steve Sack, Minneapolis Star Tribune)


(Kevin Kallaugher, Counterpoint)


(Chris Britt, gocomics.com)


(Nick Anderson, Counterpoint) 

Aw, Crap: Kim Shows Up At Fertilizer Opening

Those of you who had murderous North Korean tyrant Kim Jong Un as "dead" in your on-line betting are losers today. The portly Kim reappeared after weeks of seclusion to open a fertilizer plant (insert your fertilizer jokes here). Speculation about Kim had grown after he missed the major national celebration on April 15 of his grandfather's birthday, North Korea's founder Kim Il Sung, something he's never missed before. Some believed that he was suffering from life-threatening cardiovascular problems, and that he'd had a setback after heart surgery.

Apparently, Kim was only incommunicado -- that kidder -- and laying low until his big moment for the fertilizer plant opening. Psyche!

(photo: Kim cuts the ribbon, as his captive audience looks on. Reuters)

Due Weight And Due Process

There's still more of the story to come, despite former VP Joe Biden's forceful and categorical denial of his accuser Tara Reade's claims of sexual assault in the early '90s. One would think that if Biden or his team had any doubt of his innocence, they would have counseled a more nuanced response, or full disclosure. He was right to acknowledge that the accuser in a sexual assault case should be given the benefit of the doubt, and that such claims need to be fully investigated regardless of the accused's position, and let the chips fall where they may.

After the allegation was looked into by the New York Times and found to have inconsistencies, others have given Reade's claim a closer going over. Former state and Federal prosecutor Michael J. Stern expressed his skepticism in an opinion piece the day before Biden's denial. Acting as a virtual defense lawyer, he discusses his reasons for skepticism in several categories:

• Implausible explanation for changing story
• People who contradict Reade's claim
• Missing formal complaint
• Memory lapse
• Compliments for Biden
• Rejecting Biden and supporting Sen. Sanders
• Admiration for Vladimir Putin

One of the more bizarre angles is her open admiration, sometimes expressed in sensuous terms, for Russian thug Putin. That certainly doesn't refute her claim, but it's an odd piece of the puzzle to be considered, as are the missing complaint and changing story.

In a opinion piece at CNN.com, Lucia Brawley, a tech company executive, offers her perspective on the accusations:

"Even though for many Americans the implications of her accusations are horrible, even though many of us fear this he-said-she-said case might destroy our country's one chance to rid itself of President Donald Trump, we must not reflexively discredit her, or give Biden a pass, or look away. 

We must always listen to women's accounts of sexual assault. We must give them their due weight. 

But listening to every woman doesn't necessarily mean believing every woman. We can be skeptical of the accused -- in this case a presumptive Democratic candidate for the highest position in the land -- and his supporters, and demand a response to the allegations. Biden has now given one. We need to decide whether we believe him. In doing so we must also follow the facts." (our emphasis)

Finally, David Axelrod, a former aide to President Obama, points out that Biden was extensively vetted in 2008 before being place on the Presidential ticket. That process is long and brutal, looking into everything that might damage the candidate. They found nothing. We're waiting to see what Biden's National Archive records have, if anything. In the meantime, deep breath everyone and focus on the facts.

BONUS:  Steve M. at No More Mister Nice Blog noticed something interesting in a story about Reade not mentioning sexual assault in a "limited report" she filed concerning Joe Biden years ago.

Muzzling Experts: Damage Control And Revisionist History

First there was this piece of banana Republicanism:

The White House is blocking Dr. Anthony Fauci from testifying before a House panel next week on the U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic. 

Fauci, an leading infectious disease expert, is a prominent part of the White House’s coronavirus task force. 

“While the Trump Administration continues its whole-of-government response to COVID-19, including safely opening up America again and expediting vaccine development, it is counterproductive to have the very individuals involved in those efforts appearing at congressional hearings,” White House spokesman Judd Deere said in a statement Friday. “We are committed to working with Congress to offer testimony at the appropriate time.”

Apparently, the concept of not appearing at "congressional hearings" only applies to the Democratic- controlled House, since the Republican- controlled Senate Health Committee is scheduled to have Dr. Fauci testify on May 12.  Regardless, muzzling Fauci in any way is another obstruction of Congress' oversight role and a transparent attempt at coverup and damage control by this supremely inept and vile regime.

Then, later on Friday, there was another sign Trump's regime is going all out to revise the history of his catastrophic, ongoing incompetence in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic:

President Trump moved on Friday night to replace a top official at the Department of Health and Human Services who angered him with a report last month highlighting supply shortages and testing delays at hospitals during the coronavirus pandemic.

The White House waited until after business hours to announce the nomination of a new inspector general for the department who, if confirmed, would take over for Christi A. Grimm, the principal deputy inspector general who was publicly assailed by the president at a news briefing three weeks ago.

The nomination was the latest effort by Mr. Trump against watchdog offices around his administration that have defied him. In recent weeks, he fired an inspector general involved in the inquiry that led to the president’s impeachment, nominated a White House aide to another key inspector general post overseeing virus relief spending and moved to block still another inspector general from taking over as chairman of a pandemic spending oversight panel.

The truth- tellers and watchdogs are being marginalized or removed when we need their honesty and professionalism the most.  All the more reason we need to take out the trash in November.

Pic Of The Day: Anti-Social Gathering

Pro-COVID armed far-right militia types trying to intimidate Michigan legislators and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer yesterday in Lansing, MI into some virus-spreading action (see post below).

The covidiots even got Travis Bickle to join them.

(photo: AFP via Getty Images)

QOTD -- Culture Warriors

"It is time to recognize reality.  The Bible-thumpers, reactionaries, racists, and miscellaneous paranoid morons comprising Red America are not our fellow countrymen.  They voted for Trump largely because he would "own the libs" and inflict pain on us.  They are our enemies, they hate us, and they are actively waging aggressive war against us.  I have nothing in common with this horde of gibbering barbarians." -- Infidel 753, in his post "The culture war turns hot."  As he points out, we're in an all- out struggle with these gun- humping seditionist goons, slugs the Orange Baboon is calling "very good people." Fortunately, there are more of us than them, but we aren't heard if we don't show up to vote.  Please go read the whole post.

(Photo:  Armed right- wing covidiots enter the Michigan statehouse yesterday to bray about stay- at- home orders; Getty Images)

Report: NRA A Broken Organization

A new report from NRA Watch chronicles the serious crisis that's engulfing the National Rifle Rampage Association, from an internal "civil war" to huge financial losses over the past three years. Extending back to 2018, the NRA has been running at a loss -- $100 million over two years -- forcing it to gut $80 million out of its operating budget.

As serious as the financial collapse is to the NRA, its infighting over the past two years has debilitated it, with its own board members focusing on the lavish expenses of Wayne LaPierre, the head and frontrunner for America's #1 domestic terrorist. Their lobbyist Chris Cox was forced out by LaPierre in a purge of non-loyalists, which also included disgraced Iran Contra arms smuggler Oliver North.

LaPierre, however, is still riding the NRA's gravy train, as the report notes:

"In a period where the NRA announced a freeze of its employee pension fund, the organization’s most recent regulatory filings indicate that its top 10 executives took home an aggregate of $9.8 million in compensation. This includes a 57 percent increase in compensation to CEO Wayne LaPierre, who received a total of $2.15 million in the most recent reporting period." (our emphasis)

The report is an exhaustive overview of the corruption and greed at the gun lobby. That they are teetering on the brink of collapse might be one of the best things to come out of the Trump era.

Today's Cartoons

(click on images to enlarge)


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


(Tom Toles, Washington Post)


(Mike Peters, Dayton Daily News)


(Christopher Weyant, Boston Globe)


(Kevin Siers, Charlotte Observer)


(Bart van Leeuwen, caglecartoons.com)


(Robert Ariail, gocomics.com)


(Dave Whamond, caglecartoons.com)


(Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)


(Jack Ohman, Sacramento Bee)


(Milt Priggee, caglecartoons.com)

Weekend Sunny Day Music

We need this.  From his 2002 album, "The Rising," here's Bruce Springsteen live in Hyde Park (2009) with "Waitin' On A Sunny Day."

One China Conspiracy Down, Others To Come

As we noted yesterday, pathological liar and sociopath Donald "COVID Donnie" Trump and his enablers are attempting to shift the focus from his disastrous, slow response to the COVID-19 pandemic to conspiracies involving China. To be sure, China was not cooperative or transparent during the early stages of the pandemic, but Trump wants us to imagine a conspiracy that a Chinese lab manufactured the virus and released it, intentionally or not.

The Wuhan lab in question has spent years researching bat-borne viruses in China and elsewhere. There is always the risk that viruses being researched in the lab could result in the spread of disease, but there is no evidence of that in this case. In a statement from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the innuendo that Trumpists were pushing about the virus being manmade and biological warfare against the U.S. was debunked:

"The Intelligence Community also concurs with the wide scientific consensus that the COVID-19 virus was not manmade or genetically modified."

In a press conference yesterday, Trump was confronted with his own DNI's statement and appeared baffled by it, wanting to know by name "who said it," a sign that he'll be silencing that voice of contradiction soon.

Testing, Testing (Cont.)

Reality check:

FACT:
US has conducted 16.4 tests per every 1,000 people, below the world average and about the same as *Belarus*

Iceland: 136 per 1,000
Bahrain: 71
Italy: 30
Russia: 22
Belarus: 17 https://t.co/Cuj4j5czc5

— Carol Leonnig (@CarolLeonnig) April 29, 2020