…depending on your perspective it’s either a moderately irksome linguistic quirk or some sort of multi-dimensional-chess piece of intricate skullduggery but it’s deeply unfortunate that the word right can at one & the same time mean right in the sense of correct whilst also meaning (generally not at the same time) right as in “I don’t need your stinking facts, I done made me my own facts & they’s better’n yor’n”…or as one might objectively think of them…people who would rather pride themselves in being “of the right” or “the right people” or “people of the right” than ever once in their life actually be in the right about anything, ever…even just for a minute one balmy schoolday when the light is just right
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-wears-mask-public-setting-first-time-n1233590
…& even then never knowingly about anything actually important
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/07/11/fauci-trump-coronavirus
…so don’t start baking these folks prize cookies or anything
…well…if you live in the right places to be in a position to do that sort of thing you could bake ’em ‘prise cookies where the surprise is they’re made with pot & it mellows their reactionary, intolerant asses out a little?
…but every little helps, right?
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/person-classes-online-learning-or-mix-reopening-schools-will-bring-new-struggles
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/schools-reopening-coronavirus/2020/07/10/story.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/07/11/devos-schools-open-funding
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/trump-taxes-delay-election/2020/07/10/story.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/07/11/its-roger-stone-now-manafort-flynn-are-next
…for starters…I may never have been in the shape to pull off this kind of thing?
…& I lack the stature to have it make a splash if I just deadpan the thing
…but if anyone’s interested
…yes…as it happens I am still the kind of mad I used to associate with the probability that those exhibiting such symptoms were the ones who couldn’t deal with reality…& have for the better part of some five years now resigned myself to being (in contemporary terms) “paying cursory attention to the state of current affairs”
…for all that less of this is new than anyone ought to be comfortable about
https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/07/11/penicillin-coronavirus-florey-wwii-infection
…I used to want things to be different in a lot of the same ways I still do
…it never did sit right with me that life might be hard for everyone but it was still a damn sight harder for some than others in ways that bore little discernible signs of rhyme or reason that might at any level be other than morally reprehensible
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/07/09/trump-loses-supreme-court
…& history seemed to suggest that a degree of jaded cynicism & occasional hyperbole were not out of place when considering things like the pace of change or the trajectory of society at large
…but what we became used to as hyperbole designed to render political discourse starker & thus better communicate this or that bit of wretched perfidy is now language barely strong enough to convey the full weight of the assaults it describes against the very bone & sinew of a nation…& it’s no longer even an exaggeration
…& neither is the fact that I am fucking sick of this sick shit sitting in headline after headline
…but you know who I guaran-damn-tee didn’t have shit to do with running people over?
…fucking antifa is pretty close to the polar fucking opposite of the what the assholes driving into crowds both stand for & represent…which is shit like this
Of course they are trying to discredit fauci…I’m shocked
Ain’t nobody could have seen that coming….
Man this current regimes war on facts is a scary scary thing
And your last line is spot-on, sums it right up”Man this current regimes war on facts is a scary scary thing”.
Oh, they are definitely trying to discredit Fauci. He’s outperforming the Orange Menace on polls:
Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has had a higher approval rating than the president in national polls related to the coronavirus response.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/white-house-seeks-discredit-fauci-memo-leaked-reporters/story?id=71745265
Ted Cruz going maskless on a flight, despite cases exploding in Texas:
Someone pointed out there is an exemption to the airline’s rule if you are drinking, but you know this psycho is nursing the last tablespoon of coffee like that freak at the coffeeshop who hogs a whole table for three hours after ordering a single small coffee.
Honestly, I don’t feel super-skittish about the virus overall though I take reasonable precautions. But the one place I absolutely would wear a mask the whole time is in an airplane. No drinks, no snacks, no exposure. Airplanes are petri dishes at the best of times, and this ain’t the best of times.
That said, I’m perfectly fine with Cruz catching COVID.
I have just two links to add, hopefully this wasn’t already covered:
https://www.latimes.com/science/story/2020-07-10/injection-prevent-coronavirus-feds-manufacturers-fail-to-act
This captures it pretty well:
https://buzzflash.com/articles/thom-hartmann-for-buzzflash-trump-has-only-had-one-job-in-his-entire-life-celebrity-will-it-work-for-him-in-november
I listened to Thom Hartmann the other day and some in his circles believe that if Trump loses, he will resign before the inauguration so Pence could pardon him. Why would Pence do this? He could make way more as a former president (even if for just a day) than as former VP on talking circuits and maybe pass some terrible executive orders before he left. Sounds totally logical but assumes that Trump thinks or will not be pulled out of the White House like the screaming baby he is.
…it’s certainly their brand of bullshit…it would dovetail with why Stone got a commuted sentence rather than a pardon, too
…as I understand it it’s generally accepted that accepting a pardon is something that usually comes with an underlying acceptance of guilt in that you require a pardon…& arguably removes the right to plead the 5th in associated court proceedings?
…doubt it would make much difference because this is Roger Stone & we know he’s guilty in the instance that got him sentenced just the same as we know he’s guilty of a bunch of other shit so he’d have to pull a few extra somersaults but he’d still most likely have an argument for the 5th still being applicable but it makes sense they would want to shore up his ability to keep acting as a firewall in terms of connecting convictable stuff to the orange menace himself
…same kind of thing will most likely get trotted out for Cohen & Flynn – trying to show willing in that regard being probably what brought Cohen up short on the gag order infraction that had him taken back into custody the other day…although who knows, maybe they get the pardon version if they can stick to throwing more people that aren’t called Trump under any buses headed their way?
…so I think the main thing other than misplaced pride that might argue against the last-minute substitution to engineer a pardon is that hopefully he connects being pardoned with admitting guilt & won’t take the hit?
…he seems to be into cornered-rat territory to the point that I’d buy him gnawing off metaphorical appendages to get out at this point…& as/when/please-god-if he loses in November I buy that he’d want to flounce off out of pique at the slight against him rather than parade about as a globally-recognized loser through the new year
…but I think he might be banking on still being seen as an asset by the GOP even if he’s no longer president on the basis that the more cover they provide him the more they open the door to bullshit founded in the same it’s-clearly-all-kinds-of-corrupt places which they might find useful in future…which isn’t nothing?
…if it were up to me they’d find that backfired on them spectacularly whichever way they went about it the same way that I haven’t stopped hoping that in the longer term Stone goes down harder than Icarus did
…on account of how they can argue ’til they asphyxiate about how in some narrow, overly-technical & convoluted sense they somehow get not to be sitting in prison while all their shit gets taken away for ever…but are culpably & conspicuously & in all other ways evidently in the habit of for-real criminal behavior on a potentially unprecedented scale & 100% as guilty as they come…but what do I know?
I could absolutely see Pence doing this. It would give him a sort of “heir apparent” appeal to the MAGAs that could potentially help him in future bids for office. I’d go 50/50 on Trump accepting that kind of deal. I could easily see him saying yes and then backing out, because he’s his own worst enemy.
Honestly, as much as I’d like to see Trump in jail, I’d prefer that he disappear forever and leave his worshipers without a figurehead. And I fear that if he ended up in jail, it would just feed the MAGA persecution complex and create a cause celebre, which the country really doesn’t need. If they cook up a plan to shuttle him off somewhere forever, I won’t mind.
The scariest theory I have heard is that he will buy OAN and become the Hannity of that network to keep his hateful shit going and promote the next generation of Trumpers.
…yup…that’s on my list of reasons why I might be more okay with “god forbid” being a functional injunction than one might expect of a self-described agnostic?
Yeah, that would be completely on-brand. I mean, he’s clearly mostly incoherent at this point, but would any of the OAN audience even notice? His worshipers explain away his very obvious mental impairments now, so I don’t think they’d be inclined to look critically at him in the future.
About the only positive I could see there is that it might work as a “release valve” to keep his worshipers from doing anything even more stupid. Maybe. It’s a big IF.