Trump went to Capitol Hill to have lunch with the Republicans, and guess what he didn’t wear.

President Trump arrives to Senate GOP lunch, without a mask

Kushner, Mark Meadows and others also seen not wearing masks

h/t pooler @caphilltrish pic.twitter.com/DU2MAS0Ih4

— Ali Zaslav (@alizaslav) May 19, 2020

But his long run of not-mask wearing may be about to hit a wall.

Trump is scheduled to tour a Ford Motors plant in Michigan tomorrow, and the company has said it will require him to wear a mask for the visit.

That should be interesting.… Read the rest

Pence says he’s not taking hydroxychloroquine – but also that he totally would.

According to the Fox News reporter who interviewed the vice president, Mike Pence said he was not taking hydroxychloroquine because his doctor had not recommended it.

But Pence added that he “wouldn’t hesitate” to use hydroxychloroquine, even though there has been little evidence that the anti-malaria drug is an effective treatment against coronavirus.

More to the point, even though people with medical knowledge say it would be dangerous to take it. Pence is too cowardly and self-serving to warn against taking it even though, unlike Trump, he probably has some clue about why it’s not a good plan.

In a memo last night, Trump’s physician, Dr 

Why does Trump want people to take hydroxychloroquine?

Why obsess about this one drug? Why not remdesivir, for which studies are showing consistent positive results and about which experts are actually excited? Or two new possibilities that show promise, both already approved by the FDA to treat worms and asthma? Or any of the 47 other FDA-approved drugs that a team of researchers screened and found to have strong action against the coronavirus (the results of which were published in Nature on April 30)? Granted, these screenings were done against the virus in petri dishes. But the only solid evidence that hydroxychloroquine works against the virus is from similar in vitro studies. On the other hand, none of these

The Guardian is startled by Trump’s news.

Extraordinary news emerging from the White House – the president has mentioned that he has been taking hydroxychloroquine. This is the dubious treatment for coronavirus that Trump had fiercely touted in the past but which was found to have a very mixed effect on patients.

Mixed, perhaps, but also non-coronavirus-preventing. I think there’s no more reason to think hydroxychloroquine will prevent the virus than there is to think marshmallow fluff will, or varnish, or gypsum, or brine, or the urine of a rabid bat.

The US Food and Drug Administration cautions against use of hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine for Covid-19 outside of a hospital setting or a clinical trial due to risk of

President Trump on firing State Department Inspector General: "I don't know him at all. I never even heard of him. But, I was asked to by the State Department, by Mike…I have the absolute right as president to terminate."

Full video here: https://t.co/FWjHY8AWLb pic.twitter.com/avptfW0XIH

— CSPAN (@cspan) May 18, 2020

FOUR TIMES he says he has the right; two of those times he says “the absolute right.”

He also insists that it’s just normal to fire IGs hired by The Other Guy, just normal and good sense. That’s not the case.

He also thinks it’s perfectly fine for Pompeo to make his staffers do household chores for him.

“Here’s a man that is supposed to be negotiating war and peace

Reaction is…intense.

Dear doctors — how is Trump's White House physician allowed to prescribe this to him? Wondering what rules would govern a licensed doctor doing this at the order of the patient? https://t.co/HfhcIyjmQJ

— Susan Glasser (@sbg1) May 18, 2020

.@jeffmason1: What is the evidence that hydroxychloroquine has a preventative impact?

TRUMP: "Are you ready? Here's my evidence — I get a lot of positive calls about it … what do you have to lose?" pic.twitter.com/51b967dypu

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 18, 2020

I tried to listen to that whole clip but I got too bored. Seriously? Yes. Even now, even on this subject – he drones on and on like The Most Boring Man in the … Read the rest

That’s a bit of a thunderbolt.

"I happen to be taking it … right now, yeah" — Trump claims he's taking hydroxychloroquine, a drug he's touted as a potential coronavirus treatment despite a lack of evidence that can lead to potentially fatal heart problems pic.twitter.com/zxiNxlyfEs

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 18, 2020

Unless he’s lying of course. I don’t think he is though – the way he tells it looks like his way of bouncing himself into saying something outrageous, which is different from his way of lying.… Read the rest

Trump is determined to nail Obama for his crimes, if only he can find out what they are.

President Donald Trump headed into the weekend appearing convinced his predecessor committed a crime worthy of investigation — despite being unable to name the crime or provide any evidence for it. By Sunday, he emerged prepared to wage wholesale political war with the last person who held his office.

It was always about Obama. Mediocre white guys are one thing, but a not so mediocre black guy as president – that’s a personal insult to Trump himself and must be avenged.

Escaping the White House for another weekend at Camp David, Trump appeared “highly focused” on Obama over the course of

Same old same old same old – we’re told about the desperate need to respect trans rights, while we’re not told what, exactly, trans rights are meant to be, and whether they’re the same basic rights we should respect in all cases (cf the “Universal” in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights) or special rights particular to trans people, and if it’s the latter, whether those putative rights are compatible with everyone else’s rights.

Amnesty press release:

UK human rights organisations speak out for trans equality amidst growing threats to trans rights

But what is “trans equality”? Is there anyone anywhere who claims that trans people are not “equal” to everyone else? I sure don’t know of any such … Read the rest

Teen Vogue has an op-ed by a boy who wants to compete against girls instead of boys:

Growing up, I never felt like I fit in. I was trying to be this cool, masculine, teenage boy, but I felt like I was faking it. In high school, I secretly shopped for girls’ clothes at Goodwill and would put them on after school. But when I looked in the mirror, I was so disappointed. I didn’t understand it at the time, but what I was experiencing was gender dysphoria, a deeply painful feeling that comes from knowing that your sex assigned at birth and your body do not reflect your true gender.

He didn’t know it at the time, … Read the rest

From the police blotter:

Headline: Woman who ‘bragged about being a paedophile’ approached boys at Remembrance event

Subhead: Recently-released prisoner Leah Harvey showed ‘sheer arrogance’ by talking to the boys in front of police officers. She later approached two girls in a takeaway

Story:

Leah Harvey breached her sexual harm prevention order twice by approaching two boys at a Remembrance Day event and two girls working in a takeaway.

…

The second breach occurred between November 4 and November 26 and involved two teenage girls working at a takeaway in the Caerphilly area.

Ms Yeo [the prosecutor] said she went into the takeaway and made the girl feel “uncomfortable”.  

The defendant returned on November 22 and tried to talk

No you are.

Donald Trump has hit back at Barack Obama’s criticism of his administration’s handling of the coronavirus crisis, accusing the former US president of being “grossly incompetent” during his time in office.

It is rare for a former president to rebuke a successor, but Obama did so during an online speech to graduating university and high school students yesterday, although he did not name Trump in his comments.

It’s also rare for a selfish malevolent corrupt greedy racist sexist lazy brainless monster to be president, too.

“More than anything, this pandemic has fully, finally torn back the curtain that so many of the folks in charge know what they’re doing. A lot of them aren’t even pretending

Originally a comment by Bjarte Foshaug on The same rights as others.

As someone who doesn’t think or feel in any of the ways required to qualify as either “man” or “woman” according to gender ideology, what I want to know is this:

• Which toilet am I allowed to use if there are only two and both are reserved for people who think or feel in ways that I don’t?

• Which sporting events am I allowed to participate in if they’re all reserved for people who think or feel in ways that I don’t?

• How am I supposed to fill out all those forms that require me to tick off a box for either “F” or … Read the rest

Trump responds to Obama’s speech: "Look, he was an incompetent president, that's all I can say. Grossly incompetent." pic.twitter.com/bgkbMFvURr

— Acyn (@Acyn) May 17, 2020

Well, no.… Read the rest

It’s not a sign of a healthy movement for social justice when all it can offer is repetition of dud slogans. By “dud” I mean slogans that don’t even work as slogans, independent of how often they get repeated.

Like so:

We'll keep saying it until *everyone* knows:

Trans rights = human rights.
Trans rights = human rights.
Trans rights = human rights.
Trans rights = human rights.
Trans rights = human rights.
Trans rights = human rights.

#IDAHOBIT

— Amnesty UK (@AmnestyUK) May 17, 2020

That’s just stupid. You can’t force people to “know” something just by typing it six times on Twitter. You can type any old nonsense six times on Twitter; you can do it six times … Read the rest

Pink News is worse than ever.

Meet the powerful international cabal of…lesbians.

“TERF is hate speech and it’s time to condemn it,” gender-critical writer Amy Dyess announced in October 2018 – words she now regrets.

Hmm. Amy Dyess has, shall we say, picked quite a few fights with various women – fights that came out of nowhere and escalated the way a rocket escalates. I’m one of those women and I had barely interacted with her.

“TERF is a slur used to sexually harass, threaten, and silence lesbians,” continued Amy’s viral Medium post, which was liked more than 4,300 times.

Back then, Amy was connected to an international network of powerful lesbians.

Ah yes the famous international network … Read the rest

Eric Trump says Democrats are exploiting the pandemic to Defeat Donnie the Good.

He told the geniuses at Fox yesterday:

They think they are taking away Donald Trump’s greatest tool, which is being able to go into an arena and fill it with 50,000 people every single time. You watch, they’ll milk it every single day between now and Nov. 3. And guess what, after Nov. 3 coronavirus will magically all of a sudden go away and disappear and everybody will be able to reopen.

Ah yes, we’re all milking it. We just love not being able to get on a bus or take our time deciding which ice cream to get. We also love watching people die in agony.… Read the rest

Oh so that’s which movie it is. I’ve never seen it (and have no desire to).

A few hours after taunt-tweeting at Laurence O’Donnell, suggesting the MSNBC anchor cried when forced to admit that, yes, the President made a lot of money on The Apprentice (a dubious claim that has been debunked before), but a few hours before he retweeted a pic of new Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany done up like Supergirl, Trump shared a “deep fake” video in which his own head was superimposed on Pullman’s as he gave the St. Crispin’s Day-esque speech from the Roland Emmerich’s 1996 film Independence Day.

In which The Enemy was From Space, so not really all that applicable, … Read the rest

The Beeb reports:

Two teenage girls have been murdered in a so-called “honour killing” in north-west Pakistan following a video circulated on the internet.

They are said to have been shot dead by a family member earlier this week in a village on the border of the North and South Waziristan tribal districts.

The killing occurred after a short mobile video of them with a young man surfaced on social media, police said.

Totally understandable. Female people are a commodity, whose value rests on the purity (as opposed to filth) of their genitals. They belond to the men in their family, and if their genitals are rendered impure, they become not just worthless but a liability. Their filth equals … Read the rest

I have to return to this absurdity, because there’s just so much absurdity in it.

pic.twitter.com/L3sxMC9fXm

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 16, 2020

It’s the fact that he tweeted it that’s so grotesque – that it’s right there for all to see.

You know, a normal person wouldn’t see it as flattering in the first place. A normal person wouldn’t see a clip with her head perched awkwardly on someone else’s body as a compliment. It’s not a compliment, is it. It’s a statement that Trump’s body is not all that glorious, along with a statement that his general self-presentation is not all that great. The alternative body is relaxed, comfortable, cool – not herky-jerky and flailing like Trump’s … Read the rest