Brazen grifter orders people to give him their emergency money.… Read the rest

From the New England Journal of Medicine yesterday:

As a chief physician executive, I rarely get involved in my health system’s supply-chain activities. The Covid-19 pandemic has changed that. Protecting our caregivers is essential so that these talented professionals can safely provide compassionate care to our patients. Yet we continue to be stymied by a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE), and the cavalry does not appear to be coming.

Our supply-chain group has worked around the clock to secure gowns, gloves, face masks, goggles, face shields, and N95 respirators. These employees have adapted to a new normal, exploring every lead, no matter how unusual. 

They put together a very convoluted deal to get a large shipment of three-ply face … Read the rest

Crazier every day.

The clip starts in medias res with “…real information, and responsible and thoughtful dialogue from their elected leaders n from [he lifts his head from the page he’s been reading and exclaims] the media!” And with that he abandons the script and repeats his moth-eaten rant about the media, which reminds him of his moth-eaten obsession with Haberman, and away he goes. It’s loony tunes.

An unhinged Trump trashes Maggie Haberman: "She came out and said Mark Meadows was crying. And they made it sound — and it's okay if he did. I mean, look. But I think he was crying probably really for the wrong reason. They had it down. But he's not a crier …

It would be nice if everyone could grasp this point.

Males can ONLY ever experience life in a male body. Males can't ever experience what it's like to exist as female. Males may desire to appear feminine, but it doesn't mean that they have any understanding of the lived experience of being female. This, they can NEVER access.

— Amy E. Sousa (@KnownHeretic) April 18, 2020

It’s the truth. I can’t experience life in a lizard body or an eagle body or an elephant body (and neither can any other human). We can try to imagine what it’s like, but that’s the limit of what we can do.

People who are not born X can’t experience what it’s like to … Read the rest

Baby Don is having another Twitter tantrum.

No matter what you do for the Do Nothing Democrats, no matter how GREAT a job you are doing, they will only respond to their Fake partners in the Lamestream Media in the negative, even in a time of crisis. I thought it would be different, but it’s not. In fact, it’s even worse…

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 18, 2020

….them happy, or even a little bit satisfied. They were RUDE and NASTY. This is their political playbook, and they will use it right up to the election on November 3rd. They will not change because they feel that this is the only way they can win. America will not be

Originally a comment by Artymorty on Soz nomination canceled.

Lumping race and religion/”faith” together is exactly the kind of thing that causes problems for women within Muslim families who disagree with the conservative tenets of the faith, who need support, and who are too-often ignored by UK “progressives” who are far too concerned about “Islamophobia” to listen too closely to the issues raised by liberal Muslims and Brits with Pakistani/Indian heritage.

Subsuming women’s rights entirely into the category “gender” is such blatant sexist bullshit, it’s clear these “awards” are a joke.

And indeed, of course class isn’t mentioned. I’m sure these are comfortably well-off young people, the kind of people I’ve had to work and live alongside my whole … Read the rest

Congratulations to Trump adviser Stephen Moore on a comment at once strikingly stupid and deeply offensive.
“I call these people the modern-day Rosa Parks — they are protesting against injustice and a loss of liberties.” https://t.co/2V1mhWFDC9 pic.twitter.com/TJIa4EZnap

— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) April 18, 2020

I call these people the modern-day Hitler – they are protesting against democracy and the common good.

Rosa Parks was not protesting some generic “injustice and loss of liberties”; she was protesting Jim Crow laws that kept slavery in place in all but name for almost a century. The segregation of public transportation was insulting and racist, yes, but it was also part of a larger system that kept African-Americans captive despite the official end of … Read the rest

More of this kind of crap:

On Tuesday 21st February 2020, we were surprised and delighted to find that Woman’s Place UK had been nominated for something called the National Diversity Awards.

Congratulations! You have just been nominated for the Community Organisation (Gender) award at the National Diversity Awards!

Woman’s Place UK felt honoured by the nomination.

We were invited to accept the nomination and to create a profile page.

In the meantime, why not create a profile page so others wishing to nominate you can find you! Please click the link below to confirm you accept this nomination.

They clicked on the link below but it didn’t work. The password they’d been issued was rejected. They tried … Read the rest

Mary McCord on Trump’s call for insurrection:

Just a day after issuing guidance for re-opening America that clearly deferred decision-making to state officials — as it must under our Constitutional order — the president undercut his own guidance by calling for criminal acts against the governors for not opening fast enough.

Trump tweeted, “LIBERATE MINNESOTA!” followed immediately by “LIBERATE MICHIGAN!” and then “LIBERATE VIRGINIA, and save your great 2nd Amendment. It is under siege!” This follows Wednesday’s demonstration in Michigan, in which armed protestors surrounded the state capitol building in Lansing chanting “Lock her up!” in reference to Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, and “We will not comply,” in reference to her extension of

Oh NPR. Do better.

From Minnesota to Oregon, protestors have rallied to reopen the economy and question the legality of statewide COVID-19 restrictions.

Critics of these events say President Trump has added to the confusion. https://t.co/wNYxMgWcrR

— NPR (@NPR) April 18, 2020

“Critics say” Trump is inciting violence and civil war, and they’re right to say so.… Read the rest

Asked if he's concerned about anti-stay-at-home protesters spreading Covid when they congregate together, Trump indicates he's not because "these are people expressing their views." (Pandemics don't work like that.) pic.twitter.com/rjJRqHj0Og

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 17, 2020

No, these are people expressing their views, I see where they are, I see the way they’re working [flapping hands back and forth to illustrate the way they’re working], they [shrug] seem to be very responsible people to me, but it’s uh, y’know they’ve been treated a little bit rough, yes go ahead.

This isn’t a 3-year-old sleepy after a nap, this is a guy who decided he should be president of the US.… Read the rest

Ok so Trump is sticking to it. Let’s have a civil war, so that Trump can add that to his scrapbook.

"They wanna take their guns away … when you talk about 'liberate' or liberation, you can certainly look at Virginia as one" — Trump is unrepentant about his tweets basically calling for civil unrest in states with democratic governors pic.twitter.com/1y9PdGfzZb

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 18, 2020

… Read the rest

The governor of Washington state isn’t too impressed either.

The president is fomenting domestic rebellion and spreading lies – even while his own administration says the virus is real, it is deadly and we have a long way to go before restrictions can be lifted. 2/7

— Governor Jay Inslee (@GovInslee) April 17, 2020

The president’s actions threaten his own goal of recovery. His words will likely cause a spike in infections where distancing is working.

That will further postpose the 14 days of decline his own guidance says is necessary to ease restrictions. 4/7

— Governor Jay Inslee (@GovInslee) April 17, 2020

I hope someday we can look at today’s meltdown as something to be pitied, rather than condemned.

The Guardian live on Trump’s incitement of fascist revolt:

Minnesota governor Tim Walz said he has been unable to reach the president or the vice president to decipher the meaning of Trump’s “LIBERATE MINNESOTA!” tweet.

What can they say? “He meant fascist men with guns should forcibly take over the government of Minnesota and throw it open to the pandemic.” I don’t suppose they want to say that to the governor, just about him.

The Democratic governor told the Wall Street Journal that his calls to the White House in the past couple of hours have gone unreturned.

Trump’s tweet echoed messaging from right-wing protesters who have expressed outrage about stay-at-home orders meant to limit the spread of coronavirus.

Meanwhile … Read the rest

Trump wants gyms to re-open. That’s bonkers.

The inclusion struck public health experts as bizarre. ‘Gyms are like a petri dish,’ said Laurence Gostin, the director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University. ‘People are close to one another, they’re sweating, they’re coughing and sneezing, they’re touching multiple surfaces, they’re sharing equipment, they’re indoors. Literally all of the heightened risk factors for COVID transmission are all entwined together in a gym.’

I would guess a plane is the very worst place to be, but a gym looks like a close second.

The decision on gyms came a day after Trump’s phone call with sixteen business leaders including Stephen Ross, the founder and chairman

Time for the 25th.

25TH AMENDMENT! pic.twitter.com/2eptyDpMwT

— Translate Things (@TranslateThings) April 17, 2020

NOW IS THE TIME: this fool is calling for mass civil disobedience to stop Stay at Home orders. Trump has crossed the last line. All true Americans must say it together now: #TrumpMustResign! https://t.co/bQf0xdC9o2

— Malcolm Nance (@MalcolmNance) April 17, 2020

25th Amendment. If these tweets inciting violence do not get you thinking it is time, you are part of the problem. @MSNBC and @CNN, this should be the entire focus of today's press conference. Do not be bullied. Call it out. Ask everyone else there if it is time for the 25th. https://t.co/u9RaHaaqlG

— Fred Guttenberg (@fred_guttenberg) April 17, 2020

https://twitter.com/TopherSpiro/status/1251184854353444865

So are

Aaron Rupar on the eruption:

President Donald Trump can’t help but sow division, even at a time when Americans are largely united in supporting stay-at-home orders and social distancing to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

It’s not that he can’t help it, it’s that he loves doing it. He can’t help being the person he is, I guess, but the person he is loves doing malevolent cruel destructive things to people who are more vulnerable than he is, and to people who are not Donald Trump.

Just after 11:21 am Eastern time on Friday, President Donald Trump posted a trio of tweets endorsing the so-called liberation of a trio of states with Democratic governors from measures they’ve

Trump is erupting again.

LIBERATE MINNESOTA!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 17, 2020

LIBERATE MICHIGAN!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 17, 2020

LIBERATE VIRGINIA, and save your great 2nd Amendment. It is under siege!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 17, 2020

Liberate them from…measures to slow the spread of the virus? Liberate them to get sick and die or survive with reduced lung capacity or damaged kidneys or both? Funny kind of liberation.

….testing that you should be doing. We have given New York far more money, help and equipment than any other state, by far, & these great men & women who did the job never hear you say thanks. Your numbers are not good. Less

Got a shortage of N95 masks? Then the thing to do is give a huge packet of money to a bankrupt company with no employees that has never made masks. Problem solved!

In this chaotic effort to obtain supplies, the Trump administration awarded a $55 million contract to Panthera Worldwide LLC, a company with no expertise in the world of medical equipment, for N95 masks, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday.

Panthera’s parent company filed for bankruptcy protection last fall, and one of its owners last year said it had had no employees since May 2018, The Post reported, citing sworn testimony. It’s no longer listed as an LLC in Virginia, where its main office is, after fees

The ACLU doesn’t already have enough to do, it seems.

Trans people belong in sports — and everywhere else. pic.twitter.com/KcJXatqxrO

— ACLU (@ACLU) April 16, 2020

Trans girls are girls, they tell us, superimposed on images of…two women. Not trans, not girls, just women. They’re actors: Blake Lively and Leighton Meester. Why is the ACLU telling us “trans girls are girls” with photos of two women?

Maybe the idea is that when we hear or read the phrase “trans girls” (or women? or have we officially reverted to calling women “girls” now, as if it were 1955 again?) we are supposed to visualize… Blake Lively and Leighton Meester. We’re supposed to visualize women, and not just women but young pretty … Read the rest