He’s sulking.

A day after he floated the idea of using disinfectants and light to treat COVID-19, President Donald Trump declined to take any questions at his daily coronavirus briefing at the White House.

“If you don’t like my brilliant ideas you don’t get to ask me questions any more.”

Yesssssssssssss.

The briefing — which can sometimes last about two hours — was over in just over 20 minutes, following remarks from Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and FDA head Stephen Hahn. The two top government doctors charged with combating the coronavirus crisis, Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx, were not in attendance.

No party for Donnie today.

Oh for heaven’s SAKE.

Yes, we know, we could tell. He was “digesting the information” that disinfectants can remove a virus from hard surfaces, and telling us all about it the way a toddler tells us all about what she just learned. It’s sweet when a toddler does it, it’s not sweet at all when a 73-year-old criminal who is president of the US does it.

He’s way too old and way too in a responsible job that he himself sought to be just learning basic facts of that kind, let alone babbling nonsense at us in public about what he just learned, let alone babbling nonsense of the type “it would be a good idea for everyone to drink Lysol to get the virus out.”

Of course he had just learned it. Of course he was vomiting out every stupid thought about it that floated through the mush inside his skull. We know all that. None of that makes it okay.

Transcript of that chat with reporters today:

Trump: When I was asking a sarcastic — a very sarcastic question to the reporters in the room about disinfectant on the inside, but it does kill it, and it would kill it on the hands and that would make things much better. That was done in the form of a sarcastic question to a reporter.

Reporter: But you were asking your medical experts to look into it.

Trump: To look into whether or not sun — and disinfectant on the hands — but whether or not sun can help us. Because, I mean he came in yesterday and he said they’ve done a big study. This is a study. This isn’t where he hasn’t done it. This is where they’ve come in with a final report that sun has a massive impact negatively on this virus. In other words, it does not live well with humidity and it doesn’t live well with sun, sunlight, heat. It doesn’t live well with heat and sun and and disinfectant. And that’s what I brought up, and I thought that was clear.

He still hasn’t explained how he’s going to get sun inside the body.

I do think that disinfectant on the hands could have a very good effect. Now, Bill is going back to check that in the laboratory. You know, it’s an amazing laboratory, by the way. It’s amazing the work they do. So, he’s going to check because a hard surface. This is a hard surface I guess maybe depending on whose hand you’re talking about, right? But this is a hard surface and disinfectant, disinfectant has an unbelievable — it wipes it out. You saw it? Sun and heat, and humidity and you wipe it out. And this is from tests — they’ve been doing these tests for a number of months. And the result — so then I said, ‘Well, how do we do it inside the body or even outside the body with the hands and disinfectant I think would work.’ He thinks it would work. When you use it when you’re doing your hands. I guess that’s one of the reasons they say wash your hands, but whether it’s washing hands or disinfectant on your hands, it’s very good. So, they’re going to start looking at that. And there is a way of, you know, if light — if sun, sun itself that sun has a tremendous impact on or kills it like in one — it goes from what was it? Hours to like one minute instead.

So, I said you got to go back and look, but I’d like them now to look as it pertains to the human body. Not just sitting on a railing or sitting on a wall. I’d like to look as it pertains because maybe there’s something there. They have to work with — I’m not a doctor. They have to work with their doctors. but maybe there is something to light, and the human body, and helping people that are dying.

In other words he wants them to get the UV rays inside the body. Not just sitting on a railing where the rays are outside, but inside the body. They have to bring it inside the body, through the skin or some other way. They have to work with their doctors though – none of this amateur shit.

Oh wait, it turns out Trump was quoted out of context. You may wonder how that’s possible given that he said what he said at a live press briefing and there are many video clips of it with no telltale gaps or jerks where something was edited out, but that’s just because you’re a Nelitist.

The White House press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, on Friday said the news media had taken President Donald Trump’s statements on Thursday — when he said the US should investigate whether injecting disinfectant into people’s bodies might cure COVID-19 — out of context to run negative stories.

“President Trump has repeatedly said that Americans should consult with medical doctors regarding coronavirus treatment, a point that he emphasized again during yesterdays’ briefing,” McEnany said in a statement. “Leave it to the media to irresponsibly take President Trump out of context and run with negative headlines.”

Yes see the trouble with that is that it’s irrelevant. Trump said what he said, and it doesn’t matter that he has also said talktoyourdoctor. The point is not that he said “Pour Lysol down your throat right now,” the point is that he’s stupid and ignorant enough to talk about injecting disinfectant because it cleans hard surfaces so fast. The point is that he stood up in public and suggested that as an “interesting” idea for the medical experts to look into. (Mind you the point is also that some people could actually try it, but the sheer breathtaking stupidity is enough all by itself.)

The American Cleaning Institute also put out its own press release Friday “in response to speculation about the use of disinfectants in or on one’s body.”

“Disinfectants are meant to kill germs or viruses on hard surfaces,” the statement said. “Under no circumstances should they ever be used on one’s skin, ingested or injected internally. We remind everyone to please use all hygiene, cleaning and disinfecting products as directed in order to ensure safe, effective and intended use of those products.”

But Trump said the hands are a hard surface. He said it just this morning, in the Oval Office, talking to reporters. There are clips of that too.

So she is my new favorite person.

H/t Alan Henness

More of Trump’s sarcasm:

I do think this – I do think disinfectant on the hands could have a very good effect. Now Bill az gone back to check that in the laboratory, you know it’s an amazing laboratory, by the way, it’s amazing, the work that they do. So [rubbing his hands together vigorously] he’s going to check…because…it’s a hard surface, this is a hard surface [meaning, his hands, which he rubs together some more so we’ll understand], I guess maybe depending on whose hands yer talking about, right, but thiss sa hard surface [rubbing hands demonstratively] and disinfectant – [flinging himself back in his chair with passion] disinfectant has an unbelievable – it wipes it out.

Ok so to sum up so far – hands are a hard surface and disinfectant wipes “it” out on a hard surface, so…the GI tract is also a hard surface, just like hands, so it will totally work? Also, sir, is this part of the sarcasm?

Then it becomes about sun and heat and humidity. Wipes it out, he says. Well awesome, then we can all just take hot showers twice a day and we’ll be fine, right?

So I said how do we do it inside the body or even outside the body with the hands, with disinfectant, I think it would work, he thinks it would work –

So…he’s learned that disinfectant works on hard surfaces, and that hands can be cleaned, and he’s somehow decided that hands are hard surfaces, but I’m still not seeing the part of the path where he gets to the inside. It’s something to do with the hands, but what? Does he think we should scrub our hands really well and then scoop up some disinfectant and stick our hands down our throats and into our stomachs? Or what? The little fella is trying so hard to explain but there’s still just that crucial piece missing.

But you use it when you’re doing your hands, I guess that’s one of the reasons they say wash ya hands, but whether it’s washing your hands or disinfectant on ya hands, it’s very good. So…they’re gonna start looking at that, and there is a way of, you know, that if light, if sun [pointing excitedly], sun itself

And there the clip ends.

This will undo all the damage he did yesterday, for sure.

No, Don, that’s not going to work.

President Donald Trump said Friday that his remarks on injecting disinfectants to treat COVID-19 were sarcasm, after doctors responded with horror and disinfectant manufacturers urged people not to ingest the poisonous substances.

Nope. I mean, obviously that’s just a desperate ploy, but even apart from that – we know his mannerisms, and that was not his sarcastic mode. That was his “Look how smart I am, hearing about disinfectants in the pre-briefing discussion and then thinking up a way to use them even more strongly” mode. That was his big boy in big boy pants talking about sciencey stuff with the scientists because he had this uncle who was brilliant and he’s brilliant too and can talk sciencey and make suggestions and everything mode. People are surprised! People are surprised how brilliant he is, how good at this stuff he is – we’re lucky to have his brilliant suggestions and advice and thinky questions.

“I was asking a question sarcastically to reporters just like you, just to see what would happen,” Trump said on Friday during a bill signing for the coronavirus aid package. “I was asking a sarcastic and a very sarcastic question to the reporters in the room about disinfectant on the inside. But it does kill it and it would kill it on the hands, and it would make things much better.”

He was being sarcastic and very sarcastic but also he meant it and it would TOTALLY WORK and make things much better.

Trump denied he was asking his experts to investigate the issue, and repeatedly reiterated that disinfectant on the hands and sun can damage or kill the coronavirus. He said he was urging his officials to investigate how “sun can help us.”

I mean duh. Why is everybody so stupid? Disinfectant on the hands can damage or kill the coronavirus so OBVIOUSLY it can do it in the stomach too. Clean hands, clean stomach, virus killed. Boom.

For some reason the makers of Lysol and Dettol have issued a statement saying don’t drink the stuff.

Due to recent speculation and social media activity, RB (the makers of Lysol and Dettol) has been asked whether internal administration of disinfectants may be appropriate for investigation or use as a treatment for coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2).

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.

I feel as if I’ve always known this, doubtless because the warnings came so early in childhood that I’ve forgotten them. I wouldn’t, for instance, scrub something with Lysol or any other cleaning product and then eat say an apple or a sandwich without washing my hands first. You just don’t let that stuff into your GI tract in any way.

BuzzFeed adds:

Speaking at the UK government’s daily coronavirus briefing on Friday evening, deputy chief medical officer Jenny Harries also urged people not to follow the president’s suggestion.

“Clearly, we would not support [that], from a medical professional perspective, it is really important that people use appropriate treatments that are evidence-based and tested,” she said.

More advice: don’t eat or inject motor oil, perfume, lighter fluid, nail polish, nail polish remover, kerosene, turpentine, shampoo, shaving cream, stain remover, glue, fertilizer, gypsum, nose drops…the list is long. Keep all of them at a safe distance from your mouth.

It’s all a conspiracy! A left-wing soshalisst Mooslim atheist health-mongering conspiracy to close our parks and make us drink bleach no wait to tell us not to drink bleach yes that’s it. Ice cream, Mandrake?

A video of a mother arrested in Idaho at a playground that was closed under stay-at-home orders during the coronavirus pandemic has quickly gone viral, with far-right social media accounts rallying around her.

But the mother, 40-year-old Sara Walton Brady, wasn’t on the playground simply so her kids could play. Brady is an anti-vaccine activist with connections to several far-right groups in Idaho, and she was participating in an organized protest on Tuesday against the governor’s stay-at-home order. A group of people removed police caution tape to enter the closed playground, the Idaho Statesman reported, and Brady refused police requests to leave before she was arrested.

Because freedom freedom freedom freedom. People should be free to stay home to avoid the virus if they want to and people should be free to cluster in parks to spread the virus around if they want to. That’s freedom!

They expostulate and exclaim as if they were Freedom Riders being dragged off buses in 1964 as opposed to being selfishness-glorifying right-wingers determined to spread a lethal virus.

“I didn’t wake up today thinking, I’m taking my kids to the park to get arrested — but when tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty!” Brady said to supporters following her release. “We have a duty to stand up to tyranny, or we’re gonna lose our republic.”

Except that closing playgrounds during a pandemic isn’t tyranny. They’re closed in my nabe too. There are signs explaining: the playground is a high-touch area (because of the equipment, the swings and slides and the like) so they are wrapped in yellow tape while the rest of the park remains open, with signs warning that they can be closed if they get crowded so don’t crowd them, and people are not crowding them. Efforts to protect public health are not tyranny.

Brady was involved in a protracted and public battle with her local school district concerning her son’s vaccinations in 2017, and her Facebook page is filled with anti-vaccine posts.

In other words she wanted to endanger the other children in her son’s school, while taking advantage of the fact that most or all the other children are vaccinated. The core principle of this “movement” is utter selfishness.

This protest, which was livestreamed on Facebook, was a follow-up to a large rally against stay-at-home restrictions organized by a coalition of radical groups. They include the anti-vaccine group Health Freedom Alliance, the gun rights group Idaho Second Amendment Alliance, and the Idaho Freedom Foundation, a far-right group that wields significant power in the state.

In Idaho, the Second Amendment Alliance organized a rally against her arrest at city hall on Tuesday evening, and then her supporters continued their protests outside the home of the officer who arrested her, which was guarded by four police officers. Video shows Ammon Bundy, who led the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in 2016, joining that demonstration.

Same principle – the occupation of Malheur was about cattle ranchers wanting to use public land to feed their cattle, in other words freedom to steal public goods for private enrichment and to hell with everyone else.

Oh christ here’s the clip. Why has the 25th amendment not been invoked yet??! This is beyond belief!

And then I said – suppose you brought the light inside the body – which you can do – either through the skin or in some other way. Aaaand [turning to look at Birx] I think you said you’re gunna test that too. Sounds intresting.

He thinks for a couple of seconds then turns to look at Birx again.

And then I see the disinfectant, that knocks it out in a minute – one minute – aaand is there a way [turns to look at her again] we can do something like that. Byyyy injection inside [swirly gesture with hand] or almost a cleaning [flap of the hand] coz you see it gets in the lungs and does a tremendous number on the lungs so it would be interesting to check that.

He’s thinking that because disinfectants get rid of the virus on surfaces that therefore you can spritz some into the lungs and it will get rid of the virus there too, and the lungs will take a deep clean breath and everyone will sing The Donald Trump Song.

HE’S STANDING THERE AT A PRESS BRIEFING TELLING DOCTOR BIRX WE SHOULD TRY PUTTING DISINFECTANT IN PATIENTS’ LUNGS.

Next morning: updating to add closeup of Dr Birx as Trump drivels. She keeps her face as stony as she can, which is not 100%. When he says “by injection” she flinches, and from then on she is blinking rapidly, probably displacement behavior so that she won’t scream expletives.

The Guardian has more notes on Trump’s accelerating mental decay:

Maybe we should insert some cleaning products in people?

“Supposing you brought the light inside the body – either through the skin or some other way,” Trump wondered. He also mused about ways to use disinfectants on people, “by injections inside or almost a cleaning.”

“It’d be interesting to check that,” the president said. “You’d have to use medical doctors.”

That would be interesting. That would be very interesting. Let’s try it on Trump. Let’s inject some disinfectants inside Trump, starting with his brain. We’d have to use medical doctors. Can we start now?

The DHS’s Bryan is asked about the president’s suggestions that disinfectants be injected into a person.

“We don’t do that within our lab,” Bryan said.

Party-poopers.

“Maybe it works, maybe it doesn’t work,” Trump interjected — but disinfectants like isopropyl alcohol definitely has an effect on “stationary objects.”

Great, get a firm grip on Trump and shove it right on in there.

“Medical doctors,” should see “if there any way to apply light and heat to cure”, the president said. He asked Dr Deborah Birx if that’s possible.

Fevers are the body’s way of apply heat to treat itself, but she hasn’t heard of it being used as a treatment, she responded.

“It’s just a suggestion,” Trump said. “If heat is good and if sunlight is good, that’s a great thing as far as I’m concerned.”

He’s right. Sunlight is good and heat is good – the more the better. We should think about moving the earth a lot closer to the sun to take advantage of the benefits of sunlight. We should also put people who have the virus in very hot rooms in front of windows facing south, and heat the virus out of them. Trump is very science.

Today’s coronarally is on, and Trump has been giving suggestions about how to fix the virus – heat and light, he says, apply heat and light.

Rucker points out that people are looking for real advice, not random brain-hiccups about getting a sunburn.

He says he told Kemp you do what you want to do, and without pause he re-enacts how he shouted at him and then tells us all he’s not happy with BRIAN KEMP that’s BRIAN KEMP.

He’s so weird. How do all these people keep a straight face for all these hours? I’ve known difficult people, eccentric people, temperamental people, but I’ve never known anyone as flamingly bizarre and off-piste and just fucking nuts as Trump.

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on Largely in a lot of parts of the world.

“It’s overhyped,” she said.

For this degree of media and institutional attention, she was expecting a lot more deaths. This? Pfft! This is just weak sauce. Should be tucked in under the horoscopes.

“And I don’t wish anybody ill will. You know I don’t wish that…

But we don’t know that, do we? There’s a strong whiff of the other, like, you know that sentence you just uttered in regards to a pandemic that, in less than four months, has come within spitting distance of killing more Americans than the Vietnam war, in which you thought that it has been “overhyped?” Besides, is it a good idea to “underhype” a pandemic?

but I think it hurts certain ages in certain places and largely in a lot of parts of the world.

Problem is, given the correct circumstances, you could end up being one of those people of a certain age, in a certain place. The virus doesn’t issue invitations which you can decline, it doesn’t announce its presence, it can’t be blocked by call display. It would only take a single slip-up or mistake amongst the security people* of your gated community, or amongst your household staff** (assuming you haven’t cut them off from the outside world) and you might very well be our next contestant.

* I bet they’re well equipped with PPE, and using social distancing protocols to keep you safe.

** See *above.

“In the country it’s not as rampant as the press would have you make it.”

It’s certainly more rampant than you’d want to be in the midst of, though, isn’t it? Because of the combination of woeful, criminal lack of testing, and asymptomatic spread, there’s no way to know just how rampant it is. And opening businesses prematurely will only make it MORE RAMPANT.

Another reason we’ll be needing to get those express flights to Mars up and running:

The number of people harmed by floods will double worldwide by 2030, according to a new analysis.

The World Resources Institute, a global research group, found that 147 million people will be hit by floods from rivers and coasts annually by the end of the decade, compared with 72 million people just 10 years ago.

By 2050 the numbers will be catastrophic.

Floods are getting worse because of the climate crisis, decisions to populate high-risk areas and land sinkage from the overuse of groundwater.

And because we’re not doing much about any of them.

The worst flooding will come in south and south-east Asia, including in Bangladesh, Vietnam, India, Indonesia and China, where large populations are vulnerable.

Much of Bangladesh is one huge delta.

The effects will be less dire but still increasingly serious in the US, where the risk is highest for coastal flooding. The US ranks third among countries with the most to lose from urban coastal flooding in the next 10 years, after China and Indonesia.

Just ignore it, maybe it will go away.

The Guardian talks to one of Trump’s billionaire fans about this whole business of billionaire Trump fans having a big influence on whether or not we get to survive the pandemic:

One of Donald Trump’s most fervent billionaire donors is lobbying against strict stay-at-home rules in the election battleground state of Wisconsin, raising troubling new questions about how the president’s rightwing financial supporters may influence the US response to the pandemic.

Liz Uihlein, the billionaire behind Wisconsin’s Uline shipping and packaging company – who with her husband, Richard, has been dubbed the most “powerful conservative couple you’ve never heard of” – is using her clout to try to force Wisconsin’s Democratic governor to relax stay-at-home rules, claiming that the crisis has been “overhyped” by the media.

I don’t think having a shipping and packaging company gives a person the right to put millions of other people at risk from a pandemic. An eccentric view, I know, but I seem to be stuck with it.

Health experts have warned that premature reopening of the US economy could risk US efforts to control the virus, ensuring that it surges in places where rules on lockdowns are relaxed. Trump, who still appears in daily press conferences with a team of public health experts such as Dr Anthony Fauci, has wavered on the issue. He has urged protesters to “liberate” several Democratic states from their lockdowns and usually appears keen for a swift reopening, but he has also criticized the Republican governor of Georgia for reopening too early.

Oh come on now. That’s not Trump “wavering” on an “issue” – it’s Trump saying whatever pops into his echoingly empty head at any given moment, without the slightest attention to whether or not it’s consistent with what he said 30 seconds before.

“It’s overhyped,” she said. “And I don’t wish anybody ill will. You know I don’t wish that, but I think it hurts certain ages in certain places and largely in a lot of parts of the world. In the country it’s not as rampant as the press would have you make it.”

Ah there it is – the not very veiled hint that the virus infects only Those Other People Over There, and not good clean rich white people like ourselves.

The company, which has remained open because it is considered an essential business, has come under fire for allegedly adopting lax safety practices in the face of the pandemic, including initially discouraging employees from working at home and not providing enough space to the non-warehouse employees who did come to work.

Well, come on now. Warehouse employees are obviously in the Those Other People Over There category, as are the non-warehouse employees. Only employERS count as real people.

Mitch McConnell to states (that aren’t Kentucky): you’re on your own.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Wednesday he would rather let state governments declare bankruptcy during the coronavirus pandemic than receive more federal funding. He suggested Republicans should oppose additional aid for state and local governments in future coronavirus relief bills.

…

McConnell alleged that local governments would use federal funds to simply bail out pensions, which he pinned as the source of most of their financial trouble. He also said Congress would not “just send a blank check down to states and local governments to spend any way they choose to.”

“We all have governors, regardless of party, who would love to have free money,” the Kentucky Republican said. He said lawmakers were “going to push the pause button here, because I think this whole business of additional assistance for state and local governments needs to be thoroughly evaluated.”

So Andrew Cuomo points out an inconvenient fact.

New York state puts 116 billion dollars more into the “federal pot” than it takes out. Kentucky? Mitch McConnell’s state Kentucky? It takes out 148 billion more than it puts in.

How about Mitch McConnell declares intellectual and moral bankruptcy.

How dare a woman write a book.

This book – which I need to read.

Terry Gross did a pretty interesting conversation with Mark O’Connell about his book on apocalypse preppers, but there was this one area where…how shall I say, everyone was missing something. I can’t find a transcript but there’s a summary.

On how some doomsday preppers see Mars as a backup planet

Mars is almost like the next step up from New Zealand. If New Zealand is kind of the safest retreat on this planet, then, if — everything goes wrong here and the planet gets hit by an asteroid or whatever — the term that is used amongst Mars enthusiasts would be we need a “backup planet.”

That already gets my back up, because Mars can’t be a “backup planet” (and neither can any other planet). To take all the stuff humans would need to survive would take an impossible amount of fuel; just to take some humans would take an impossible amount of fuel, and why would that be available after a civilization-ending catastrophe? Colonizing Mars is not feasible, it’s a fantasy. But that’s not even the thing; it gets worse. O’Connell expands on the idea (about 20 minutes in) (my quick transcription, with some “kind of”s omitted):

You know, things like climate change, an asteroid strike, anything that could sort of present an existential threat. The idea is that even on, you know, a long-term scale, the sun is going to burn out eventually, and the idea is that we need to sort of insure the future of humanity and so we need a sort of second place, to form a backup for civilization, for the species.

Because the sun will burn out eventually, so we damn well better get to Mars so that we can have a backup.

Terry Gross says she doesn’t know much about space travel but wouldn’t Elon Musk and the other people planning this be dead by then?

Good point but there’s a rather more basic one…

He goes on:

It’s about having a backup planet […] it’s not really about the individuals, it’s about you know preserving the species, it’s about if an asteroid hits earth or the sun explodes or whatever you want to have a backup planet for humanity.

And that will be Mars. A solar planet.

Neither of them noticed.

The embarrassing shameful bit where Trump stands there like a palooka who doesn’t know where his arms go, watching Redfield explain what he said to the Post.

To be fair, for once Trump does have a ghost of a point: Redfield said one thing in the interview and the Post said another thing in the headline. Redfield says the interview was accurate and the headline wasn’t. That happens a lot: the reporters don’t write the headlines, and the people who do write them don’t always bother with accuracy. It has annoyed me often. Redfield said the next wave would be more difficult, the headline said more devastating. Not the same thing.

But the only reason Trump cares is because he thinks the headline makes him look bad – him, Donald Trump, the only person who matters.

And then when Redfield finishes Trump shouts at him urgently “But we may not even have corona coming back, just so you underst -” – which is bullshit.

Do look at the way he’s standing. He does it to hide his gut, but the result is his arms dangle awkwardly in front of his body, and his bum sticks out in back. He looks ridiculous, and doesn’t even realize it.

That would make a good headline.