Don't Get Me Started with Linda Sharp

Perspective Is Everythng

If you have been having trouble wrapping your mind around the number of deaths the United States has endured from COVID-19, try this.

This is the BYU Stadium.  At capacity it holds 63,725 people.  We are now at 63,856.

Hypocritical Condition of the GOP

February 29: 0 deaths

March 30: 3,148 deaths

April 30:  62,315 deaths

Waking up to this reality, I realized that something has been nagging at the back of my brain for a while.  It started when Republican politicians began their messaging that old people are expendable; that the economy is more important than lives lost; that Florida is "God's waiting room" for old folks; that old COVID patients did not deserve ventilators.  It persisted as I watched protesters holding signs like "Sacrifice The Weak" and "Your health is not as important as my liberty."  But up until the wee hours of this last day of April, I could not quite put my finger on it.  Staring into the dark, it finally hit me. 

Terri Schiavo.

March 23, 2005 - The very first entry I ever wrote on this blog was about the fight over Terri Schiavo.   I would go on to write six more in the following weeks.

A lone woman no one should have ever heard of was catapulted into the international spotlight when her husband made the heartbreaking decision, in conjunction with her long term doctors, to remove her feeding tube and allow her to die.  Then GOPers got involved.

Terri had lingered in a persistent vegetative state for fifteen years after suffering cardiac arrest and the subsequent damage to her brain from lack of oxygen.  Those circumstances were tragic enough.  A young woman, only 26, cut down in the prime of her life.  Her husband and guardian, Michael, supported doctors who tried in vain for two years to bring her to some degree of awareness through all manner of therapy.  Nothing worked.

In 1998 he made the decision to have her feeding tube removed and allow her to die in peace.  He petitioned the Sixth Circuit Court in Florida who supported his decision that Terri would not have wanted to "live" this way.  The tube was removed, only to be reinserted when a long battle with Terri's parents ensued.  Courts, appeals, motions, petitions - her tube was removed again in April of 2001.

Then it took a grotesque turn when first the Florida legislature passed Terri's Law, allowing then Governor Jeb Bush to intervene, have her removed from her hospice, her feeding tube reinserted, and then returned to hospice.  Again, more legal wrangling in which the Florida Supreme Court ruled Terri's Law unconstitutional. 

Throughout this highly painful, highly public battle, the country became more and more swept up in it.  Michael Schiavo received death threats from right to lifers - their hypocrisy is always a thing of beauty.  Activists caravaned and set up shop outside her hospice.  Right to die proponents clashed with pro life adversaries.  And everyone became an "expert" at end of life law.

On March 18, 2005, the feeding tube was again disconnected.  This prompted even bigger governmental intrusion when the likes of Rick Santorum and President George Bush decided they knew better and went to the courts.  On March 20, the Senate and the House were passing versions of bills that would transfer jurisdiction of the case to the federal courts.  Bush even left his vacation of clearing brush in Texas and flew to DC to sign it into law.

All because a husband was trying to do what husbands, wives, families do every day - make end of life decisions for a loved one.  And Republicans were doing what they do daily - deigning to insert themselves into the lives of others; lecturing us all on the sanctity of life, every life.

Terri finally passed on March 31, 2005.

I wrote then that: Hypocrisy and ignorance walk hand in hand - one is never lonely for the other.  So if any of the people camped outside Terri's hospice want to prove me wrong, they had better be on the road to the next hospice and the next and the next - because this scenario plays out every single day.

It is this hypocrisy that started me writing here.  And it is this hypocritical condition that has me still sitting here this afternoon.

Over 62,000 citizens have died in the space of two months.  So many of them preventable deaths.  Yet the GOP line is now a macabre one of death ain't no big deal.  That granny is an acceptable sacrifice it it means opening up TGIFridays.  Endless deaths are fine as long as we can once again get endless breadsticks at Olive Garden.

Where are the Republicans fighting in the courts to hold this administration accountable?  Where are the petitions, the motions, the appeals?  Where is the much needed intrusion to get PPE to health care providers?  Where are the right to lifers demanding testing at a high level so we can avoid more death?

The reality is, as I wrote a few days ago, they are not pro life, they are pro-THEIR-life.  They are conveniently silent when it works in their favor.  They are right to LIEfers - ready and willing to fuck their cause in the ass, lie about the facts, and sentence strangers to death if it suits what they want.  And what they want is to not be told what to do with their bodies.  Where they can go with their bodies.  What they have to wear on their bodies.  The same type people who were storming the hospice to save Terri are now holding signs saying it's cool to Sacrifice The Weak.

Oh, the sickly sweet stench of hypocrisy.

The most recent advocacy of culling the herd came from GOPer darling Ben Shapiro who said in an interview yesterday, "If somebody who is 81, dies of Covid-19 that is not the same thing as somebody who is 30 dying of Covid-19. If grandma dies in a nursing home at age 81, and that’s tragic and that’s terrible, also the life expectancy in the United States is 80.”

Ahhhh, so grandpa has lived enough by 80.  And hell, if he makes it to 81, that's just gravy for him as he sucks off the system, I guess?  And should they contract COVID, they are an easy write off, an acceptable loss to the economy gods.  Well, Ben, it sure sounds like you are going all death panelly here.  You remember death panels, right?  Those made up Obamacare things you rended your garments over years back?

So which is it?  Every life is precious and should be defended, or every life is precious until it wrinkles and needs a ventilator?

Terri Schiavo should never have been a name known outside her friends and family.  She should have been allowed to die in peace.  Her husband should have been allowed to make the decision and mourn her privately.  That the conservatives of this country were so arrogant as to install themselves in that process, when they now are preaching death to the weak, old, and infirm cannot go unnoticed.  They have gone from battling in the courts for one vegetative woman to merely shrugging as we add another 2,000+ to the death count each day.  And the same Florida where Republicans very publicly created an unconstitutional law in order to take away the rights of a grieving husband, now has been found to have Republicans silencing the reporting of the actual COVID deaths in their state.

In this national health emergency, when 62,672 people have now died (357 more since I started typing), they are mute.  No calls for accountability.  No hearings on how Trump ignored his daily press briefings for weeks on end.  They are content to stand by and support this administration as it has bungled the response time, the testing, the needed supplies, and sacrificed life after life after life.  They actively advocate for removing old people from the ventilators so they can be used for someone else, someone younger.

This blog started because I could not believe the pomposity of Republicans inserting themselves into the private life of one citizen who did not need their faux concern.  It continues today because I cannot believe the silence and refusal to speak on behalf of 330 million citizens who actually need protection. 

The hypocritical condition in their party is stunning.

The GOP is on life support and come November needs the plug pulled.

The Numbers Game

As of this morning, we have exceeded the predicted low end of COVID deaths.  We now stand at 60,083.

Yes, we are a country with roughly 330 million people, so it is still easy for pandemic deniers to not pay attention.  With "only" 182 out of every million citizens dying, they still feel insulated in their ignorance.  They hide behind "it's just like the flu" even though we have reached flu mortality numbers in weeks vs flu's typically slovenly pace of six months.

The world has lost 220,685 people.

So let's add some perspective for the slow learners in the back who want to laud Trump's response to this virus.

Because he ignored the warnings in every daily briefing for weeks and weeks, coronavirus silently spread.  Because he was busier lying about testing capabilities instead of ramping up testing capabilities, COVID slithered from state to state.  Because the economy is more important to him than the people in it, he stalled on following the guidance of experts who urged the country to shut down so the virus could be slowed, the curve flattened.

Because he did nothing but whine, bitch, complain, and deny any responsibility - weeks were lost.  Weeks that would have seen up to 90% of those dead people still alive.  Families still whole.

But he did nothing. 

OK, wait, that is unfair.  He did golf (at least 6 times).  He did hold rallies (5 in January, half a dozen through February and early March). He held a Super Bowl party at Mar-a-lago.  He pushed us to the brink of war with Iran (ahhh, January, remember that innocent time?  Feels like decades ago.)

In terms of COVID, however, HE DID NOTHING.  Whether through sheer incompetence, fear paralysis, or his trademark indifference, the world around us got on top of their spreads.  The world around us took dramatic action, and their citizens paid attention to their part.  And as we took over the #1 spot in both cases and deaths, those other countries continued to take measures for their citizens - providing financial aid, housing relief, testing at high rates.

Because of all of this, we currently account for over 27% of deaths worldwide.  Almost 1/3.  Not impressed by that?  How about this one?  The United States accounts for only 4.2% of the world's population.

4.2% of the world's population, but we have 27% of the COVID-19 deaths.

Getting it yet?

But Trump did not get us there without some help.  Coming in clutch for the spray tanned succubus, FOX!  All their assorted nutbags used their shows to constantly tell their audiences that it was no big deal.  To call it a hoax.  To laugh at the liberals who were so concerned. 

The U.S. has reached 1 million confirmed coronavirus cases. Let's take a moment to honor the heroes who helped get us here. pic.twitter.com/YtzcHYuFcT

— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) April 28, 2020

While it is ultimately worthless to play the "What if" game, sometimes I can't help myself. 

What if President Obama had been found to ignore weeks of daily briefings about the impending pandemic?  Hell, what if President Obama was notorious for ignoring his classified briefings daily to begin with?  What if President Obama's advisors had to dumb them down with pictures and make them a single sheet for years?

What if 60,000 people died under President Obama?

What if President Obama went to the microphones and rambled about injecting disinfectant, leading poison control calls to spike?

What if the Obama administration's PPE response was being led and bungled by Malia's boyfriend?

What if President Obama appeared before the press and called them "nasty" and "enemies of the people" just because they asked relevant questions?

What if President Obama threatened to withhold needed aid to states where their governors "aren't nice to me"? 

What if each day we continued to lose over 2,000 American lives under President Obama?

What if every one of the above scenarios was replaced with President Hillary Clinton?  Seriously, FOUR people died in Benghazi and the GOP still fill their Depends and call for her head on a pike.

Republicans would have burned the place to the ground by now.  Investigations, hearings, threats, impeachment, censure, you name it.  And it would all be valid.  But because their sock puppet, Fuckwit McMango is in charge, they are silent.

Silent as states beg for help.

Silent as testing is still woefully inadequate.

Silent as it has been absolutely proven how long this administration knew, how many daily briefings Trump ignored.

Silent as states begin to open despite not having 14 days of declining positive tests.

Silent as lie after lie falls from his rancid maw each day.

Silent as thousands more die each day.

Silent as he takes to the podium each day to hold what amounts to another "I am great" rally.

They simply do not care what he does, what he says, how many lives are impacted by him as long as they retain their power. 

60,640 American citizens dead.  In the space of my typing, 557 more people have been added to the obituaries around the country. 

557.  It should matter to them.  Each update should hit them squarely in the gut as they realize how they have completely violated their oath of office, their promise to constituents, their pledge to this country.  How they are culpable for enabling such a monumental moron to run this country and these lives into the ground.

For those 557 people, and the 60,083 who were sacrificed before them, please check your voter registration, and please add your "1" voice, one heart, one vote on November 3rd.

Because the only numbers game that matters to these murderers is at the ballot box.

Mask Not What You Can Do For Your Country

The Trump administration is a collection of preening, overconfident, under-intelligent, hubris laden idiots.  Distanced by their disdain for the people for whom they are supposed to be working, the "common man" is far from their reality.  We are icky.  We are poor.  We are contemptible to all of them for daring to question what they get up to in OUR White House.

But when one steps out into the masses, you would think they would make an effort to minimally assimilate, or at the very least, set a good example.

You would think...

This morning, Trump's personal Q-tip, Mike Pence, visited COVID patients at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.  Standard, photo oppy stuff.  What wasn't standard, however, was his complete disregard for the lives we have already lost; his complete flouting of the rules required for entry. Mayo has a strict rule that all who enter will wear masks.  Again, you would think, on the day when this country woke up and was able to say "Good Morning, VietDon" in terms of coronavirus deaths (58,341 - 121 more than Vietnam), that setting a good example for said country and following the damned rules would be the easiest thing to do, especially for the head of the Coronavirus Task Force.

PENCE flouts Mayo Clinic policy that everyone on campus wear a mask, even as he meets with staff and a patient. pic.twitter.com/kfo64KQDhU

— Dan Diamond (@ddiamond) April 28, 2020

After footage began making its way out, Mayo felt the need to cover its own ass and Tweeted from its account:

While I find it unconscionable that the powers-that-be at that renowned facility allowed him to ignore the rules and dangers and not only access their halls but their patients, I find it completely cowardly that shortly after posting that Tweet they deleted it.  Sorry, Mayo, the internet is FOREVER.

Trump makes not wearing a mask his "thing."  He refuses to do so, refuses to enforce social distancing at his daily masturbation rallies.  So Pence not wearing one sends the message that he is 1. Of the same ignorant mindset as the Comb over Clown and/or 2. Is completely aware of the dangers but is far more afraid of a mean Tweet from his boss, the Tangerine Taint. 

Examples during times of crisis should be set from the top.  That is part of what they are entrusted with when elected.  We trust that our leaders will, duh, lead.  But at this point, anyone who continues to look to this collection of carnies for leadership is just an idiot.  They are only interested in one thing:  POWER.  Not sacrifice, not humility in the face of this pandemic, not grace under pressure, and certainly not adherence to rules.  Rules are for the plebes.

Whoever stood at the entrance of the Mayo Clinic and welcomed Pence should have denied him entry.  It should have been as simple as, "I'm sorry, Mr. Vile Vice President, but if you choose to not wear a mask, you cannot go beyond this point." 

Throughout the world, the Mayo Clinic is literally regarded as the gold standard for medical care, research, and innovation.  With this one bend of the knee, they have downgraded themselves to Dollar General status.  In terms of legitimacy, they are now the Miracle Whip Clinic.  They chose this milktoast (no, I did not mean milquetoast - he is the whitest man alive and milquetoast - ergo, milktoast) Trump toadie over the well being of their patients.

Seriously, we are in a time when people would crawl over broken glass and don whatever a hospital required in order to just be with their stricken loved one while they fight for their lives against this virus, but there he was.  An albino asshat endangering them all.

When asked by the press why he did not comply, his arrogance was on full display.  HE doesn't have the virus.  HE gets tested ALL THE TIME.  Oh, and he wanted to be able to look everyone in the eye.

I'll let that one sink in for a moment.  I apologize if that throbby vein in your head finally explodes.

No doubt he will be lauded by Trump, FOX, and the MAGA base.  This will be seen as "manly."  This will reinforce in their followers that masks are for pussies.  And just like the surge in poison control calls that Trump denies any responsibility for, as more people show up in public with red hats on and masks off, Pence will deny there is any correlation.

This is the most selfish, self indulgent, ill equipped, imbecilic administration this country has ever seen.  They have no interest in what they can do for this country, just in what this country can further do for them.

58,568.  Heckuva job there, Pency.

Mask not what you can do for your country, huh, Mike, you self centered dandelion gone to seed.  Paging, COVID-19, if you have any space on your dance card...

 

Trump Finally Has His Vietnam

This afternoon we reached a milestone.  Not a highwater mark, as we know the "waters" will continue to rise.  But a milestone nonetheless.

As of right now, we stand at 1,000,341 positive COVID-19 cases in the United States.  We've breached the million mark.  We account for a full third of all worldwide COVID cases, and over 1/4 of all worldwide covid deaths.  Cue the "We're #1" crowd.

For Trump, something even bigger will be happening by morning.  As he loves to refer to himself as a "wartime president," and as he avoided military service like he avoids Melania and vegetables, we are set to reach a casualty number that is in line with an actual war in our history.

We stand at 56,498.

That means by tomorrow, going on our average of over 2,000 lives lost per day, Trump will finally have his Vietnam.  Hell, as ratings are all that matter to him, he will have outdone the Vietnam War.  Only 58,220 lives were lost then.  Pfft.  Losers.

Yes, under his stellar misdirection, his breathtaking degree of idiocy, and his inability to threaten the virus into giving up, he now not only holds the bragging rights to the most COVID cases in the world, but to the most "soldiers" sacrificed in his "war."

To those who still want to defend him - and make no mistake, you look as stupid as you probably feel trying so hard to still spin for him online - here's the reality, the results of his mismanagement, his bankruptcy of responsibility:

March 1 :  1 death

March 16:  95 deaths

March 31:  5,151 deaths

April 6:  13,298 deaths

April 15:  32,712 deaths

April 21:  45,536 deaths

April 27:  56,498 deaths 

Those are some ratings!  The Vietnam War - formal dates for US involvement run from Aug of 1964 to May 1975 - took almost 11 years to draft and kill that many people.  Trump accomplished it in less than two months.

The word draft is apropos.  None of these COVID dead volunteered for the war in which they found themselves.  A war in which their bodies fought valiantly.  They were unwillingly drafted by Trump's incompetence, his reluctance to take it seriously, his being completely unfit for duty.  His emotional bonespurs cost these people their lives.

And yet there he was on Twitter, three days after openly pondering the merits of injecting disinfectant and shoving grow lights up our asses, not consoling the country over the number of dead; not offering comfort to the families left reeling.  No, he was whining like the little bitch he is about how hard this war has been for him, how unfairly he has been treated.  How the media is the enemy of the people.  Seriously?  This from the Noble laureate who caused a spike in calls to poison control hotlines all weekend.

(Note:  For those not playing the home version of WTF (Watch Trump Fuck up) on Twitter, he railed against those in the media who have won Noble prizes yesterday and how they should return them.  1.  It's Nobel.  2. Journalists receive Pulitzers 3. Trump will never receive either.  Soundly called out and mocked for his idiocy, he doubled down and hid behind the word "sarcasm" yet again.  That is until he completely deleted his trail of embarrassment.)

We are at a moment of horrendous loss of life and a moment when experts are still begging for widespread testing so we can have something even remotely accurate to go on.  This afternoon, we are at 17,016 citizens tested out of every million.  And our deaths per million are now up to 170.  Both are regarded as woefully under reported. 

As reported this morning in WaPo, an analysis of deaths in the early days of COVID tracking has been done for the United States.  They found 15,400 excess deaths - above the positive COVID deaths - which is twice as high as is expected for that period of time.  Now, not every one of those deaths is covid related, but it shows just how woefully inadequate our testing capabilities were, and still are.

States are opening with so few tests having been done that governors (looking at you Kemp) are able to hide behind the false illusion of "Hey, we have only had 23,773 positive cases!  We have almost FOUR MILLION PEOPLE IN OUR FINE STATE!  Get out and shop!  Work out!  Eat out!  Get yer nails did!"  It leaves out that only 127,169 tests have been administered.  That's just over 3% of the population of Georgia.  But by all means, go forth and multidie!

We are adding an average of 2,000 deaths daily to our tally.  That means by Wednesday we will hit 60,000 lives lost - the hoped for low end of deaths if we all invoked the Lorax, cared a whole awful lot, and stayed away from each other.

But we haven't because we are selfish and stupid.  Not all of us, but enough that revel in flipping off science, experts, and liberals by going out, mingling, and sharing their stupidity and covidity with each other.   In Trump's "war" they will be lucky if they only get fragged by the virus - mild or even no symptoms.  But the Viral Cong will be waiting like a sniper to take out as many lives as it can.  And like its real life Vietnam counterpart, the Viet Cong, it is patient.  It knows the terrain and where to hide for maximum damage.  And you will never hear a shout of "Incoming" to warn you.  One breath, one wipe - that's all it will take.

Donald has called his army of dimwits to march, and they have responded in droves.  It is worth noting that Colonel Coward is leading from the rear as usual.  No threat or danger to him.  That's what the peons are for.

Vietnam was a horrific time for this country.  So many lives thrown at an enemy, so many lives lost.  And in the end, a country in the streets protesting for it to end.  It had become so pointless, the pain too much to bear.

Fast forward to the Virusnam war - so many lives thrown at an enemy, so many lives lost.  And in the end, a country in the streets protesting for selflessness to end.  It has become so pointless to them to stay inside, the pain of homeschooling their own children AND having their roots grow out, just too much to bear.

The casualness of how this is all being treated is writ large across the country, not just in the pictures of protesters swarming state houses, but in the comments of leaders.  Governor DeSantis of Florida pretty much wrote off the large elderly population of his state by calling it "God's waiting room."  Fuck grandpa and grandma - they came here to die anyway and we need Disney World and the beaches open!

Dr. Kelli Ward, a former Senator and now chairwoman of the Arizona Republican Party, has openly urged protesters to wear scrubs and pretend to be healthcare workers.  Something that these days is very much akin to stolen valor in the actual military.  These men and women put their lives on the line daily to treat COVID patients, and many of them have succumbed themselves.  They are sacrificing so much to take care of us, and will have to take care of these pretenders when they find themselves on the wrong end of a ventilator.  And they will.  Because that is what actual heroes do.

 

Like the poser that he is and always has been, Sergeant Shithead cares only about how he looks as he stand before the troops and "leads." 

Trump has spoken for more than 28 hours in the 35 briefings held since March 16, eating up 60 percent of the time that officials spoke, according to a Washington Post analysis of annotated transcripts from Factba.se, a data analytics company.  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.

Look, we all know he is batshit crazy.  We all know he is incredibly stupid across all subjects. And his decline down the rabbit hole of his own narcissism is on display daily at these "briefings."  He is unspooling, unraveling, and taking this country down with him.  Like Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now, he is paranoid, full of delusions of grandeur, and dangerous.

Unlike Colonel Kurtz, I see no one in the Republican Party brave enough to get rid of him.  No one stands up to him.  They ignore his ramblings.  They spin his riffs.  They blame us for hearing exactly what we heard.  They play it off as if everything is fine.  The GOP is literally this meme come to life.

But it's not fine.  Not even close.  Kurtz was fiction and Kurtz had his comeuppance.  Trump is real and Trump is on a warpath all his own.  Deluded, cornered, unable to spin away a deadly pandemic.  The people will not stop dying just because he says they should.  COVID flips the bird at his calendar of reopening the country. 

In that respect, he really is a wartime president.  Because we are at war against him.  Fighting for the soul of this country.  Fighting for our very lives.  We must not let him win.

56,624 now dead.  He will have his Vietnam by morning.

Come November 4, 2020, we all must be able to step outside, take a deep breath of victory, and say, "I love the smell of electoral napalm in the morning."

The Evolution of An Idiot

Going to keep it brief today - taking a Self Care Saturday.

Many people were incredulous about my piece yesterday - surely there are not GROUPS of people who actively use bleach as some half ass cure-all?!?  Yes, I was serious, they call it MMS (Miracle Mineral Solution/Supplement), and many actually all ass it by making enemas.

And don't call me Shirley.

At this point no one should be surprised by what drops from the flaccid earthworm lips of the IMPOTUS.  His whole life has been one big mad lib ad lib.  King of Bullshit!  Colonel of Con!  The biggest assclown in the Ringling Brothers circus!

First we had his bravado laden promises that it was no big deal.

January 22:  "We have it totally under control. It's one person coming in from China. We have it under control. It's going to be just fine."

January 29:  "We think we have it very well under control. We have very little problem in this country at this moment — five — and those people are all recuperating successfully."

Then we moved on to Dr. DREad expounding on his great knowledge of how viruses fear warmth.

February 10: "by April or during the month of April, the heat, generally speaking, kills this kind of virus."

Trump inner monologue:  Hmmm, more cases... must pull out the bullshit.

February 24:  "The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA" 

Trump inner monologue:  Remember, I sell the sizzle, not the steak (the steaks went bankrupt, dammit.)  Confirmed cases now up to 58, so razzle, dazzle 'em, Donny.

February 26: "When you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that's a pretty good job we've done."

Trump inner monologue:  Shit, better add some tap shoes and do a little soft shoe...

February 27:  "It's going to disappear. One day it's like a miracle, it will disappear." 

Trump inner monologue:  402 confirmed cases.  Dammit, it's not disappearing.  Now what?  Promises!  Promises always work!  Remember that one about Mexico paying for the wall?  Fuckin' rubes...

March 6: "Anybody that wants a test can get a test. ... The tests are all perfect, like the letter was perfect, the transcription was perfect, right?" 

Trump inner monologue:  Crap, almost 1,000 cases.  I know, LOOK OVER THERE!

March 9:  "So last year 37,000 Americans died from the common flu."

Trump inner monologue:  Shhhhhh, if we close our eyes it can't see us.

March 10:  "Just stay calm. It will go away."

Trump inner monologue:  6,400 cases.  Shit.  It can still see us. Not my fault, not my fault, not my fault.

March 13:  I don't take responsibility at all.

Trump inner monologue:  Well, that landed like a frozen eagle turd.  Talk about my family, yeah, that's the ticket.  Stupid family... except Ivanka, I like Ivankaaaaaaaa.

March 16:  "I've spoken actually with my son. He says, 'How bad is this?' It's bad. It's bad.

March 19:  Trumphausen by hydroxychloroquine sets in.  He will tout it for weeks to come.  Stockpiles 29 million tablets.

Trump inner monologue:  65,800 cases.  What the fuck?  How dare it not listen to me?  Pander!  Yes, pander to the base!

March 24:  "I think Easter Sunday — you'll have packed churches all over our country."

Mistakes high speed viral train for hope...

March 24: "We begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel" 

Trump inner monologue:  Crap on a Klondike!  What do you mean there are 161,800 cases and 2,475 have dared to die on me?  Fine, act concerned... furrow brow, bite lip...

March 29:  "We think, by June 1st, a lot of great things will be happening." 

Narrator:  A lot of great things did not happen.  3,431 dead.

Trump inner monologue:  I am killing it in the ratings!  Talk about that!

March 29:  "the “Ratings” of my News Conferences etc. are so high, “Bachelor finale, Monday Night Football type numbers.”

Trump inner monologue:  How dare they not care about my numbers?!?  Fine, act concerned.  That's where I soften my voice, wave my invisible accordion, and try not to sniff.

March 31:  "This could be a hell of a bad two weeks."

Trump inner monologue:  272,380 cases?!?  8,141 dead?  GTFO.  Bluff, yeah, that's the ticket.  Bluff.

April 3:  "I said it was going away - and it is going away."

Trump inner monologue:  Economy crashing?!?!  Dammit, that's my thing!  To hell with the dead (9,171), pander to the idiots!

April 4:  "The cure cannot be worse than the problem itself.” 

April 4:  Trumphausen by hydroxy still in full effect.  “I hope they use the hydroxychloroquine, and they can also do it with Z-Pak.  What do you have to lose? In some cases, they're in bad shape. What do you have to lose?"

Trump inner monologue:  Tweet, dammit, TWEET!

April 8:  “FLATTENING OF THE CURVE!” 

Narrator:  Curve did not respond to his Twitter feed which is astonishing considering it was in ALL CAPS and everything.  23,555 people dead by April 13.

Trumphausen now complicated by addition of those 29 million pills in stockpile, he pulls always elusive "friend" from ass.

April 13:  “Just recently, a friend of mine told me he got better because of the use of that — that drug.”

As study after study comes out challenging his Trumphausen by hydroxy, Rick Bright, former director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, states that he was demoted because he objected to the administration’s promotion of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine.

Trump inner monologue:  Deny, deny, coffee boy, who?

April 22:  “Well, I've never heard of him.”

Trump inner monologue:  Trumphausen went bankrupt.  Dammitdammitdammit.  I know!  Those wipes on my desk kill 99.9% of germs!  I'm brilliant!

April 23:  "I see the disinfectant that knocks it out in a minute, one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning? As you see, it gets in the lungs, it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it would be interesting to check that."

Imbleachment takes hold as Trump is roundly lambasted as the complete fuckwit he is.

Trump inner monologue:  How dare they quote me to me?  Deny, deny, deny.  Do that gaslighty thing they always talk about.  I always thought gaslighting was that thing we did back in school when you fart on a lighter...  where was I?

April 24:  "I was being sarcastic!"

Today we wake up to article after article, report after report of state Poison Control Centers fielding hundreds of calls about taking Lysol, bleach, etc after listening to Trump. 

April 25:  53,266 dead.  God help us all.  Where will the moronoavirus evolve next?

What we truly need is an imbecilectomy.  A complete amputation of the malignant orange growth.  Cut it off, douse it in Pine-sol, and leave it in the sun.

After all, he did say, "There's been a rumor that -- you know, a very nice rumor -- that you go outside in the sun or you have heat and it does have an effect on other viruses."

You know what?  Screw sunlight.  Just cut it off, douse it, and cleanse it with fire to be safe.  Say it, Khaleesi:  Trumpcarys.

 

It Confounds The Science

I know this dates back to 2017, but considering the continued aversion to facts and experts and data by Dr. Do Little in the White House, it still holds up.

Grab your love beads and hum along.

And don't stop there. Here's part two:

Here's hoping the Parody Project updates soon.  In the meantime, search them out on Youtube and subscribe.

Oh, hell, it's Friday, here's a chaser for you.  Drink up, Mar-A-Lago-Ville.

Injecting Disaffectant

President Ignoramus McCrazypants took to the microphones again yesterday to share his wisdumb with the world.

This time, he was hot on the idea that injecting a disinfectant or internalizing some sunshine would be a quick fix for this inconvenient pandemic in which he stars as worst actor in a misleading role.

I'm not joking.

And before you get started, neither was he.

After hearing presentation President Trump suggests irradiating people's bodies with UV light or injecting them with bleach or alcohol to deal with COVID19. pic.twitter.com/cohkLyyl9G

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) April 23, 2020

It does not matter that he has come forward this morning saying he was being sarcastic.  He wasn't.  What matters to him is that he is being roundly, soundly mocked for yet another self inflicted flapping-his-gumshot wound.  And he is embarrassed.

So cue the gaslighting.  Which works, by the way.  His supporters are banging the "You have TDS" (Trump Derangement Syndrome) drum - for us daring to play back his words, call him out for the danger which is inherent in them.  We are the crazy ones for being shocked.)

He stood there, at the same podium where he spent weeks selling the snakeoil of hydroxychloroquine as a sure fire cure for coronavirus.  At the same podium where his MAGAt base lapped up his verbal diarrhea.  At the same podium where he ignored all the experts cautioning against self medicating.  At the same podium where a now dead Arizona man heard him, trusted him with his life, and ingested the similar sounding ingredient in his fish tank cleaner.

He stockpiled 29 million pills of the drug.  He bragged about it a less than two weeks ago.  He invoked his breathless Marilyn Monroe voice and told the world to take it, "What have you got to lose?"  Then the studies started coming in from around the world, and from our own veterans affairs department. The bottom line?  There were more deaths among those given hydroxychloroquine versus standard care, researchers reported.  And today, the FDA is out urging people to not take chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine to treat covid-19 outside of a hospital or formal clinical trial, citing reports of “serious heart rhythm problems."

Anyone hear him hawking the drug this week?  Of course not.  And he, like his FOX nincompoopatriots now act like they never pushed it, touted it, hailed it as a miracle. 

Aside:  Ever stop and think how stunning it is that they were all apoplectic over President Obama wearing a tan suit and his use of mustard, yet they defend this bloviating cretin at every unstable turn?  Literally, that was a controversy - Grey Poupon - yet President COVIDcleanse advises ingesting disinfectant and ...NOTHING.  He was just joking - you know inJESTing.

Sorry, where was I?

There is danger every time this moron stands at the podium.  This time, his mouth meandering about disinfectants has literally led to the makers of Lysol releasing a public statement:

"As a global leader in health and hygiene products, we must be clear that under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body (through injection, ingestion or any other route).  As with all products, our disinfectant and hygiene products should only be used as intended and in line with usage guidelines. Please read the label and safety information," the statement continued, adding that the company believes it has a "responsibility in providing consumers with access to accurate, up-to-date information as advised by leading public health experts."

Because our leader is an idiot.  Because companies know that people actually listen to him, believe him, trust him.  And because they do not want to be added to the world's vernacular the way Kool-Aid was after Jonestown (although in reality, they drank Flavor-Aid mixed with cyanide), they are trying to caution the public.

Again, it does not matter that he is trying to walk it back this morning.  The world heard him say it.  The world watched him, in all seriousness, looking to Dr. Scarfy Von Neckerchief and encouraging her to get on it.  This is the President.  The man sits at the Resolute Desk.  Although with the amount of backtracking he does, and the "I was just joking" that routinely happens, it is more apt to call it the Resolute Jest.

The apologists are out in full force.  That is predictable.  Keep in mind that this is the same King of Crap that suggested nuking hurricanes, that windmills cause cancer, and that we should have alligator moats at the border.  And they cheered him.  The problem with yesterday's freestyling is that there are people who already drink bleach, who force it on their children.  The internet is full of support groups of anti-vaxxers who advocate drinking it to prevent or cure cancer and autism.  Groups swear by turpentine, their child's urine - and these are not small one-offs.  They have tens of thousands of followers who already believe this dangerous bunk, so having it reinforced by the president?  You can practically hear the Karens cheering in exoneration as they subject their child to another bleach enema.

Look, we already know that the glut of his followers are not the brightest, most discerning lights on the Trump-made-it-OK-to-say-Merry-Christmas tree.  We know this.  They block out every sight, sound, and syllable that does not support him.  So there are, as I type, some of his cultists who are eyeing the cleaning products under the kitchen sink.  Because they are not intellectually curious to begin with, and in their brains, in what passes for logic - "Well, these wipes kill 99.9% of the bacteria on my counter, so how about I gobble one down and it can clean me all the way through?" is not a big leap.  And if they even care to Google, they will easily find these groups urging them to gulp.

And what will follow is serious illness, and death.

These zealots don't need injected with disinfectant.  What they desperately need is an IV of disaffectant.  Something that will finally knock them loose from their lockjaw grip on his power teats.  Something that will make them wake up and see that every warning was right.  That every lib they mocked was trying to save us from this and more.  That their blind loyalty has been to a proven idiot with zero skin in the game of their lives.

Since last night I have watched previous Trump supporters online marvel at how they could have ever voted for him.  One, aghast at having blindly supported this dolt, asked his Twitter following if they thought Trump was "this stupid and reckless" before the election.  The reaction was immediate - if only Twitter had a dumbfounded font...

YES.  Anyone paying even a modicum of attention knew exactly who he was, how unfit he was, how dangerous he would be with unfettered power.  How out of his depth (a puddle) he was on any subject.  It was all fucking there for anyone to see.  Yet as much as it repulsed thinking people, it attracted numbskulls, racists, and those for whom venality is oxygen, like fruit flies to a rancid peach.

I will say it again - it should not take them dying; it should not take someone they love dying; it should not take them feeling the white house heat of a target on their backs for them to wake up.  For them to finally become disaffected with him, his behavior, his disregard.

But it will.  So as Georgia opens today, as other GOPer led states begin to put business over bodies - it is hard to feel sorry for them.  They will spread this virus further.  They will become sick, some mortally so.  And they will turn to their jaundiced Jim Jones for advice.  The very same people who mocked teenagers eating Tide pods will belly up to the bleach because he said so, and because they stop listening after he stops talking.

With 51,453 COVID deaths as of this moment, all apologies to Mr. Clean, Lysol, and Clorox for what will surely happen.  It's not your fault stupidity is viral, too.

You Are Not Pro-life, You Are Pro-YOUR-Life

Hypocrisy has always been a hallmark of the conservative party in this country.  Do as I say, not as I do.  Don't tell me what I can do with my body, as I tell you what you can do with yours.  Kaepernick is a son of a bitch traitor but I am a patriot.  Deficits are bad, unless we are in charge.  Don't lump us in with every white, Christian gun nut who slaughters 50 people, as we make blanket statements about every person who is Islamic when a terrorist happens to be Muslim. 

The examples go on and on.

But during this pandemic, as people are dying by the thousands daily, a truly heinous river of hypocrisy has been flowing down from Bullshit Mountain. 

The GOP, which loves to tout itself as the standard bearer of the right to life agenda, has begun to show daily that they are not pro-life at all.  They are pro-THEIR-life. 

We currently stand at 49,089 people dead from coronavirus in this country.  That we know of.  I stress that part because we are still only testing at an average of 13,387 per million.  Plus with the revelation yesterday that positive COVID deaths have been identified in California back in early February, in terms of accurate numbers, we literally know nothing, Jon Snow.

A full 1,000 people have been added to the death count since I first checked this morning - just three hours ago - yet here we stand on the precipice of states beginning to "open" tomorrow.  Because selfishness and self importance are the true agenda of the conservatives.  Lives mean nothing to them, as long as they are not their lives.

The Lt Governor of Texas, Dan Patrick, who famously stated last month that grandparents would gladly die for the economy for their grandchildren, is now on record as saying, in defense of the economy, "There are more important things than living."  Texas currently has 486 dead and counting.

Last week, Rep. Trey Hollingsworth, R-Ind., argued that it was the "lesser of two evils" to allow more Americans to die than to keep the economy shut down.  Indiana has 706 dead and counting.

Senator Ron Johnson (R) of Wisconsin called on Trump to reopen the country because "death is an unavoidable part of life."  This, despite his state adding 11 more to its death toll since yesterday.

The mayor of Las Vegas pushed professional journalist Anderson Cooper to this yesterday with her flippant attitude about endangering lives as she pushes to get casinos up and running again despite repeated warnings from experts.

Over at FOX, home of the dullard brigade, they have spent a full month touting that “the cure is worse than the disease.”  The cure being these stay at home precautions.  They also spent a month helping the COVIDiot-in-Cheif tout hydroxychloroquine as a magic solution to coronavirus, only to quickly switch gears and act like they never said a word when studies came out this week that the drug has been determined by doctors around the world to account for more deaths than successes.  Seems Trump has gone radio silent on his sure-cure "What have you got to lose?" stockpile, too.

But hey, what's a few more thousand added to the pyre, right?  I swear, in the Venn diagram of hypocrisy, the people who claim to be pro-life and the people who are championing a pro-death policy to save the economy are one solid overlapped circle.

But it's not just the GOP leaders and talking heads that have been steeply discounting the value of American lives.  Their equally selfish, ignorant followers are showing up at protests with signs like these:

"Sacrifice the weak"  Let that sink in.  So desperate to get back to life filling that beer gut with Bud and chicken wings, they literally are advocating that the weak can just be sacrificed.  These are the same hypocritical asswipes who claim to stand up for the weakest - you know, those embryos they weep over.  Seriously, anti-abortion?  Puh-leez. They LOVE abortion. They obviously have zero compunction about aborting thousands of their fellow citizens at every age.

This notion that we should just accept tossing thousands of citizens into the fire in order to satisfy the economic volcano god is reprehensible.  One last time, COVID IS TAKING LIVES AT ALL AGES.  This is not some virus that only takes those with one foot already in the grave.  See this child?  This beautiful, innocent child?  She died from COVID this past week.  Skylar Herbert was only five years old.  And healthy, right up to the point that she wasn't.

FIVE YEARS OLD.  I would say that is far closer to the embryo than the grave, wouldn't you? 

Hmm, still too old for you to care?  How about her?

Jay-Natalie La Santa, four months in this world.  Dead from COVID-19.  Yes, she was born with a heart condition, but she DIED FROM COVID.

COVID. Does. Not. Care.  It doesn't care if you worship at the altar of Trump's wrinkled, sagging ballsac or are a Resister all the way.  It does not care if you have a McMansion or are homeless.  It does not care if you healthy and run marathons or have diabetes and a goiter.  It just does not care.  It cares only about gaining entrance to your body and then playing a game of viral chicken with your immune system.  Some will win.  A lot of us. But so very many are losing.  Boston's obituaries were 15 pages long this past weekend.  Just this morning Senator Elizabeth Warren announced her brother had died from COVID.  Alone.  No funeral either.

Yet those who happily hector women outside abortion clinics and push for more and more intrusive restrictions in terms of pregnancy because they are so very pro-life, are literally in the streets threatening violence if they don't get their way and are able to endanger as many lives as they want as long as they can go get a tattoo of Trump's face on their chest or their Karen cut refreshed.

There is no pro-life agenda.  There really never has been.  It is what is has always been, a pro-I-get-to-tell-you-what-to-do agenda.  An I-am-a-selfish-intrusive-prick agenda.  An As-long-as-I-get-what-I-want-fuck-you agenda. 

You are not pro-life.  You are pro-YOUR-life.  The problem is you don't think YOUR life could possibly be in any danger.  Shouting that you are "covered in Jesus' blood" is laughable.  Seriously, even Jesus is looking around for someone else to take the fucking wheel.  Acting like hubris and ego are some cloaking devices from COVID?  Well, it just makes me sit around waiting for you to be the next dumbass that comes up dead after boldly claiming in an interview that 'it's no big deal" or "a conspiracy."

You have made it perfectly clear that your pro-life agenda is all about getting your way.  Shitting your pants over not being able to bowl, get a haircut, a massage, or go to the gym.  Well, happy you, because tomorrow all those things open up again in Georgia!  Go forth, sweat, cough, sneeze, spread it out and breathe it in.  We'll be self distancing and staying home and, oh yeah, starting the 14 day clock to see how many of you selfish, insipid jackholes come up positive.

Just curious - when you do test positive and you will; when your five year old is suddenly in tears over a headache that just won't stop; when your husband is on the couch gasping for air but the ER won't take him because he can still breathe a little; when you are on a ventilator dying alone before your new tattoo even heals - will you get it then?  Will you suddenly see how fucking mercenary and stupid you have been?  Will you desperately beg the nurses and doctors you have mocked for a month to help you, save you?

Or will you fade away, happy to be a sacrifice to the gods of Wall Street?  Will your last breath be to ask how the Dow is doing?  Will you envision yourself a martyr that will be remembered for your march to reopen Dave and Buster's?

New flash:  You will be remembered for one thing:  Your egregious, self absorbed, narcissistic behavior.  Oh, and Trump will never hear of you, speak of you, give a single shit about you.  He never has.  You are his shield, his useful idiots, his 5th Avenue sacrifices.

Places will be reopening tomorrow and into the next week.  Despite every expert who says it is too early.  Despite all the evidence that we are making progress, but need to stay the course.  Despite every single study that says we need massive increases in testing everywhere.  Employees will be put in danger because of you.  They will be forced off unemployment because now their state says their place of employment is able to be open.  And we know, that try as they might to clean and disinfect behind you, you won't care.  You will show up unmasked, breathing your stupidity and potential COVID everywhere.

876,156 cases.  559 more dead since I sat down here.

Don't you hypocrites ever say you're pro-life again.

The Lyin' King

The songs that continue to come out because of this farce of an administrasham speak to both the need to laugh and the endless frustration with what continues unfettered. 

Creativity like this helps provide what we all need in our days - a little lift, if even for a few minutes, and the reassurance that we are absolutely not alone.

Volume up and enjoy the latest - The Liar Tweets Tonight.  Randy Rainbow is not the only one with musical chops.  Hats off to Roy Zimmerman and The ReZisters, featuring Sandy Riccardi. Made in collaboration with the Raging Grannies of Mendocino.