QOTD II -- Dangerous, Spineless, Heedless, Self-Serving

"It definitely made it worse.  And his reaction was — if not the worst in the world — among the worst in the world. It was dangerous. It was spineless. It was heedless. It was self-serving." -- Dr. William Haseltine, genetic biologist and chair and president of Access Health International, on Donald "Moron Vector" Trump's handling of the coronavirus outbreak.  Compare and contrast with the sycophantic remarks of Dr. Deborah Birx noted below.

QOTD -- Everything Trump Touches Dies, Cont.

“He’s been so attentive to the scientific literature and the details and the data. I think his ability to analyze and integrate data that comes out of his long history in business has really been a real benefit during these discussions about medical issues.” --  Dr. Deborah Birx, Coronavirus Task Force coordinator, in a pure bullshit reference to notoriously ignorant, anti- science narcissist Donald "Moron Vector" Trump during an interview on the Trump- loving Christian Broadcasting Network on Thursday.  It's not the first time that Birx has lied or misled in the service of our despicable Dear Leader, as the article at the link demonstrates.  It's long past time to tune this sycophant out.  Another reputation gone forever.

BONUS:

I think about her colleagues at Walter Reed, her family, her teachers at Penn State and Houghton College. What must they be thinking as they watch this hostage tape, and hear her describe him as a master of the scientific literature and a wizard with data. pic.twitter.com/OPXoLkVCCF

— Jay Rosen (@jayrosen_nyu) March 29, 2020

Trump Wants Governors To Bow To Get Virus Aid

In another sign of his out of control malignant narcissism, vindictive sociopath Donald "Dear Leader" Trump is willing to withhold equipment and support from two states whose governors haven't been sufficiently "nice" to him. Governors Jay Inslee of Washington, and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan were the targets of Dear Leader's ire for simply criticizing the delays in getting ventilators, masks and other personal protective equipment to their states. As with everything, it's transactional and petty with Dear Leader, especially now that he wants public praise despite the inadequate and incompetent job he's doing because elections are coming:

 "All I want them to do, very simple, I want them to be appreciative. I don't want them to say things that aren't true. I want them to be appreciative. We've done a great job."

While avoiding responsibility for his bungled response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Trump wants to take credit for the $2 trillion relief package that he signed yesterday. There are reports that he's even insisting on having his name on the checks going to individual Americans, rather than the routine practice of having the Secretary of the Treasury or the Treasurer of the U.S. sign them:

"Mr. Trump has told people he wants his signature to appear on the direct payment checks that will go out to many Americans in the coming weeks, according to an administration official. The White House didn’t comment.

Normally, a civil servant—the disbursing officer for the payment center—would sign federal checks, said Don Hammond, a former senior Treasury Department official." (our emphasis)

Accept no responsibility, but take the credit because it's all about him and his personal and political fortunes and not the people of this country.

BONUS:   Not surprisingly, he's also refusing to go along with the transparency provisions of the law regarding the $500 billion corporate slush fund. If "good faith" was assumed during the negotiations, it was a big (and foreseeable) mistake.

Vid Of The Day -- Trump And Easter

God only brought one guy back from the dead on Easter. Trump is here to bring back the whole economy on Easter 2020. Enjoy this clip (possibly, like, the best ever), share and be sure to subscribe to Making Podcasts Great Again (@TrumpPod) - new every week! pic.twitter.com/aUifVWRzfh

— J-L Cauvin (@JLCauvin) March 24, 2020

Today's Cartoons

(click on images to enlarge)


(Dave Whamond, caglecartoons.com)


(Matt Wuerker, Politico)


(Chris Britt, gocomics.com)


(Michael de Adder, Counterpoint)


(Phil Hands, Wisconsin State Journal)


(Pat Bagley, Salt Lake Tribune)


(Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)


(Clay Bennett, Chattanooga Times Free Press)


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


(Steve Sack, Minneapolis Star Tribune)


(Jack Ohman, Sacramento Bee)


(Darrin Bell, Counterpoint)
 
(Scott Stantis, Chicago Tribune)


(Tom Toles, Washington Post)


(Ken Catalino, gocomics.com)


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

Weekend Holding Pattern Song

As many states and cities remain in a desperate holding pattern for life- saving ventilators and personal protection equipment, this song with the complementary title by the Allah-Las struck us as an aural balm to get us into the weekend.  Maybe it's their California roots, but their music has echoes of other California bands of an earlier era, like Love, It's A Beautiful Day, and The Grateful Dead.  "Holding Pattern" is the first cut on their October 2019 album, "Lahs."  Hope you enjoy.

"Exponential Threat" Redux

As a public service, we will occasionally be showing this ad from Priorities USA (we posted it before on March 23, along with another vid).  It's the ad that Dear Leader Donald "Moron Vector" Trump doesn't want Americans to see, because it damns his incompetence in his own words.  He's threatening stations with legal action if they continue to air it, so please do what you can with your own blog/ social media, etc., to get this the widest distribution possible, knowing that it rankles the Moron Vector:



As I'm typing this, the number of reported coronavirus cases in the U.S. is 94,425, and the death toll is 1,429.

Kentucky's Worst Is On Display (UPDATED)

The Commonwealth of Kentucky seems to send the worst Republicans to Congress, starting with corrupt, obstructive hack Sen. "Moscow Mitch" McConnell. who was bypassed in the COVID-19 relief negotiations. Another useless hack is flaky Sen. "Ayn" Rand Paul, who refused to self-quarantine while he was waiting for a COVID-19 test result which was later positive, after voting against a bill to provide free COVID-19 testing.

The latest Kentuckian nimrod to emerge is sociopathic "libertarian" clown Rep. Thomas "Assie"Massie, who is deliberately complicating the vote today on the $2.2 trillion COVID-19 relief bill by insisting on a recorded vote, rather than a remote voice vote by House members. By requiring the presence of House members for a recorded vote, Massie is potentially exposing them to the virus, too. NBC reports:

"Democratic and Republican leaders were scrambling members of Congress back to Washington late Thursday because they suddenly believe the $2 trillion economic relief package might not pass by the voice vote planned for Friday and could be delayed if at least 216 members don't show up to vote on the floor.

Members are now racing to get back to Washington by Friday morning — in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic — because leaders fear that at least one member, likely to be Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., will demand a recorded vote. [snip]

Ultimately, passage isn't in jeopardy — but it could be delayed for as long as it takes for 216 members to arrive in Washington. The House gavels in at 9 a.m. Friday and is expected to have two hours of debate. [snip]

Members have been scattered across the country as flights have been canceled and millions of people have sheltered in their homes amid the pandemic. Public health officials have said in the last 48 hours that anyone traveling from New York should quarantine for 14 days — which could affect many members of Congress. There are also two members who have tested positive for the virus and over a dozen more who are self-quarantining after possible exposure." (our emphasis)

This isn't the first time this sick prick has gummed up humanitarian relief efforts. Roughly 10 months ago, Massie blocked the $19.1 billion disaster relief bill for victims of the hurricanes and wild fires, apparently to put the spotlight on his immature, warped self. If Massie's recklessness only affected the sorry people in his district that keep voting for him, that's one thing. But he's a dangerous menace to all current and future victims of the coronavirus, and everyone and everything affected by it.

BONUS:  Assie is getting a lot of blowback from his own party, including Dear Leader. We think a Trumper should primary him!

UPDATE:  Assie's ploy went down in flames due to the best Speaker of the House in U.S. history. The relief bill passed the House on time and will be signed soon.

UPDATE II:  #Masshole is trending on Twitter.

(photo: Massie, left, and Paul, two pea brains in a pod. Looks like they share the same hairstylist, too.)

Trump: New York Doesn't Need More Ventilators! (UPDATED)

He's going to have more blood on his hands, because “I have a feeling that a lot of the numbers that are being said in some areas are just bigger than they’re going to be”:

TRUMP on New York’s ventilator needs for the coronavirus outbreak:

"I don't believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators. You know, you go into major hospitals sometimes, they'll have two ventilators. And now all of a sudden they're saying can we order 30,000 ventilators?" pic.twitter.com/WMuOlkaGZk

— JM Rieger (@RiegerReport) March 27, 2020

In the recording, he always comes back to what's most important to him, being able to point to the stock market and the economy as a rationale for his re- election.  To that end:

We haven’t seen anything like it, but the end result is we’ve got to get back to work, and I think we can start by opening up certain parts of the country.

That's what you get when the phone rings at 3 a.m., and the person answering it is an ignorant, childish, narcissistic sociopath. (Note: A commenter makes a good point about how ventilators are being parceled out as they are.)

(This is also another Trump quote that will end up in a Democratic ad using his own words as evidence of his incompetence and culpability for lives lost unnecessarily.)

UPDATE:  Apparently he's telling Michigan they're on their own, too.  Pure, evil sociopath.

UPDATE II:  The Moron Vector continues to flip flop.  Maybe these would've been destined only for red states --

Just over 12 hours ago Trump told Hannity that "I don't believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators.” Now he’s reversed course. He’s totally incoherent. https://t.co/hIJI8PnAem

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 27, 2020

UPDATE III:  Someone who would know calls out Moron Vector's claims --

According to Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI), Trump isn't even talking to the auto industry and helping them manage the production of PPE and equipment. pic.twitter.com/U4QlbLvpiD

— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) March 27, 2020

A Graphic Perspective On COVID-19 Job Loss

This morning's front page of the New York Times has a dramatic graph of the historic nature of yesterday's unemployment claims numbers, running along the bottom and then climbing straight up the right edge. 

Tweets Of The Day -- It's Who They Are

It just takes a few tweets...

"People are dying, but..." says Fox "News" talking head --

"all my friends are saying you know, this is not a priority, people are dying and i realize that, but they can't get their nails done" pic.twitter.com/UnkqFdvvmp

— Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) March 26, 2020

The smug, elected (!) tribune of the billionaires people puts a female reporter in her place --

Here's Mitch McConnell responding to a female reporter's extremely straightforward question about the coronavirus bill by condescendingly asking her, "do you work here?" pic.twitter.com/kgZwDJElB1

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 26, 2020

The incompetence, toujours the incompetence --

SCOOP: We obtained the detailed National Security Council “pandemic response playbook” left by the Obama team for the Trump team. It was, basically, “thrown onto a shelf.” w/ @ddiamond https://t.co/BPQYLLkyL0

— Nahal Toosi (@nahaltoosi) March 26, 2020

We'll let Sen. Sanders deliver the final blow --

Here’s Bernie Sanders pointing out the absurdity of Republicans clutching pearls over workers making a few extra bucks from the coronavirus bill when they had no problem with trillion-dollar tax cuts for the wealthy in 2017 pic.twitter.com/ABenmjayVl

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 26, 2020

Today's Cartoons

(click on images to enlarge)


(Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
 
(Bill Bramhall, New York Daily News)


(Michael de Adder, deadder.net)


(Jack Ohman, Sacramento Bee)


(Tom Toles, Washington Post)


(Lalo Alcaraz, LA Weekly)


(Bill Day, caglecartoons.com)


(Pat Bagley, The Salt Lake Tribune)


(Steve Sack, Minneapolis Star Tribune)


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


(Matt Wuerker, Politico)
 
(Stuart Carlson, gocomics.com)


(Matt Davies, Newsday)

Turns Out "The Party Of Life" Has Higher Priorities

(click to enlarge)



The next time you hear the rotted- out Republican Party refer to itself as the "Party of Life," because of its sanctimonious solicitousness for life before birth (but not after!), remember what its real priority is and always has been:  holding power at all costs.  To these two- legged rats, keeping power means keeping the economy from tanking and maintaining the fiction that they've been its smart stewards.  It's especially evident since the icon and Dear Leader of the party, sociopathic nitwit Donald "Moron Vector" Trump is in a fever to put people at risk in the misbegotten service of saving the economy his re- election chances. (Karma's a bitch: As we note in an earlier post below, the COVID-19 cases are increasing in states that voted for Moron Vector.)

When #gopdeathpanels started to trend as a result of comments by Texas Republican Lt. Gov. Dan "Under The Bus, Grandma" Patrick, dumbest person in the Senate and shame of Wisconsin Ron "Tiny" Johnson, and right- wing media twatwaffles like Fox "News'" Steve Hilton and Glenn Beck (who said "I'd rather die than kill the country" -- be our guest, Glennie!), it should have been (but likely won't be) a permanent definer of the essential hypocrisy and deep cynicism of this collection of sociopaths, con artists and misfits calling itself a party.  These "pro- lifers" are perfectly willing to sacrifice the most vulnerable to prop up their political and financial fortunes and those of the likes of Dear Leader, just like their facile abandonment of their small government, laissez- faire philosophy for a big government -- shall we say socialist -- philosophy, occurs only when their cushy asses are on the line.  (If they were going to use the cudgel of "socialism" against even the most centrist Democrats this year, the trillions of pump- priming dollars they voted to go into the private sector should dispense with that line of attack.)

Were it not for the criminal incompetence of Dear Leader in the early days of the crisis, and continuing to this day with his refusal to use the Defense Production Act to get critical supplies and ventilators manufactured and deployed, we wouldn't hear these right- wing social Darwinists revealing themselves as the selfish sociopaths that they and Dear Leader are.  Now that they've said their quiet parts out loud, don't ever let them get away with that "Party of Life" bullshit.

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

"Trump Virus" Spreading Faster In Red States (UPDATED)

Racist sociopath Donald "Kung Flu" Trump's despicable sycophantic servant, Secretary of State Mike "Plumpeo" Pompeo, is playing his boss' coronavirus race card now in a shameful, petty, and destructive way on the international stage:

G-7 failed to agree on statement after U.S. insisted on calling coronavirus outbreak "Wuhan virus" https://t.co/nGPhaM9hj7

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) March 25, 2020

Now it looks like COVID-19 is spreading faster in states that unfortunately voted for Trump (and have Rethuglican governors like Florida's Ron "DeDope" DeSantis and Mississippi's Tate "Taint" Reeves) and who have swallowed his happy talk:

Here's another interesting comparison. Yesterday, detected cases increased by 31% in Trump states as compared to 21% in Clinton states. https://t.co/IwPxTfnoeB

— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) March 26, 2020

So, given that the misinformation and lies about the virus spread in the past two months by Trump is impacting Trump states more, we should call this the "Trump Virus" right?

BONUS:  Karma continues to be a bitch.

UPDATE:  The U.S. trajectory of confirmed cases is ahead of all other countries at this stage, worse than China, Italy or Spain:

(click on image to enlarge)

Trump's Glass House: Mental Decline

Mentally unstable sociopath Donald "Moron Vector" Trump and his campaign are preparing to smear his likely Dem Presidential opponent Joe Biden with suggestions that he's suffering from mental decline. Trump TV is actively aiding with that smear, but Comedy Central's Trevor Noah and his team have put together a look a Trump who is clearly exhibiting decline in his own mental faculties. They cleverly juxtapose Trump TV's comments about Biden with shocking clips of Trump exhibiting what they're saying is Biden's problem:



Trump may want to reconsider his smear strategy on this one, because people who live in glass houses.....