Initially when? February? Yeah fine, Fauci said that mask-wearing wouldn't do anything then, back when there were like a dozen cases isolated in New York City. If you haven't taken in new information since then, I don't know what to tell you. "WEAR MASKS WHEN AROUND OTHERS" has pretty much been shouted from the rooftops.

If you want to ignore it (like Jon), fine - that's your prerogative. But do so at your own risk.

And the risk of others. But hey, we're just sub-humans not worthy of respect or concern, NBD.

Well yeah, it's not really "fine" but I was I guess feeling charitable.

I don’t get the anti mask sentiment. In NJ probably 95/100 people have masks and it’s close to 100% indoors. That being said more than I would like are worn wrong but that’s to be expected. We have things Under pretty good control. Look are some other states where mask wearing is far less prevalent and they are out of control, but I’m sure it’s a coincidence.

Well, there is one young, healthy athlete looking at permanent damage.

This is what has to concern leagues/teams/players the most. Cannot assume young/healthy athletes will have positive outcomes. https://t.co/xtKTqnC74m

— Andrew Brandt (@AndrewBrandt) August 1, 2020

I'll add that even though for months scientific experts talk about how wearing masks is to prevent your air particles for traveling as far as they could as opposed to protecting you from the virus itself (though it did provide small protection), people still talk about how the mask "won't protect you". No shit. That's not been the point for months. If people don't know that by now they aren't listening.

FWIW, Republican voters are starting to come around on requiring masks:

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/07/republicans-masks-coronavirus-polls.html

It is anti mask sentiment like that which basically Keeps my family stuck at home due to my wife’s medical condition.




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betting on the impatience, entitlement, and selfishness of the American people has always seemed like a viable play... not sure they can ring the bells with it, but it's just sensible to align yourselves that way

sprinkle in a little bit of resentment and bigotry as needed, and you've got a legitimate recipe

It's probably better to play off of that "small protection" that it gives to the mask-wearer vs trying to protect other people. I mean take Jon again as an example. I'd say he has maybe a little regard for his own well-being (though again, I'd wager not a ton). But whatever that little is, I'd also bet it's more than what he has for everyone else outside of maybe a half-dozen people. ;)

I think the "protect others" argument just doesn't work for many. They just don't care.

I had to look back to confirm, but the difference in concern v. the Ebola outbreak a few years ago is pretty interesting. Back then it was conservatives who were most concerned, and most likely to hold the the opinion that that those who put themselves in harms way deserve what they got.

Why were anti-maskers so afraid of Ebola but so sure COVID is a hoax?

Wasn't there something like 4 people with Ebola in the US?

Something like that, all medical workers.

And also we already knew everything about how Ebola spread. Which is, not very easily.

Maybe that Ebola mask concern was part of wanting to keep Ebola patients out of the US? I seem to remember that coming up as a bit of a political topic.

On the anti-maskers these days, I couldn't have been the only person that laughed at Jon's sheeple comment above. Blindly following right wing media and demon sperm experts is the sign of education and enlightenment in some circles. The anti-maskers that I know are also completely convinced that hydroxychloroquine is the magic cure for Covid. Trump just isn't able to put an end to this Democrat plot because of the media.

That Dilbert guy is a complete loon but he had a great point a few years ago about how Americans are watching two different movies rather than sharing the same reality. This is just another example. I just don't understand the right wing media's motivation. Wouldn't their electoral chances improve if the spread of the virus slowed substantially before the election?

It's a vicious cycle of promoting/cheering the Trump administration's position on the virus rather than risking pissing him or his followers off, turning to downplaying, doing a 180, excusing and blaming any and everyone else when things turn out not to be quite what they told us weeks and months ago. Trump has many faults, but by far his biggest is refusing to take any responsibility or admitting he is wrong, which would at least allow us to correct our path mid-nosedive. Instead, we're in a tailspin.

Confirmation is for suckers.

And they're just going to leave it vacant, right?

SI

On Fox News' website, it's hard to find any coverage of Covid. Right now, there's a video hit of Birx interviewed on F&F that is the 8th story down the page, just above a story about Ellen DeGeneres. On the right side of the page, there's a "Coronovirus Latest" column down the page with 5 stories, 3 of which are sports-related, 1 about a Bollywood star, and another about European mink farm outbreaks.

It's a good thing the virus outbreak is behind us!

Trump could have easily played this in a way that helped the country and fit into his narrative. He could have said that this virus is coming, and it is dangerous, and it is all China's fault, and fuck China. But we are Americans, and we won't let this Chinese virus take us down, and we will all band together and sacrifice just like our grandparents and great-grandparents did in WWII, and we will beat this Chinese virus.

But, Trump couldn't do that. First, he is a snake oil salesman, so his line always has to be "everything is fine." The car won't break down. The roof doesn't leak. You can never admit to a problem, regardless of whether it is your fault.

Second, shared sacrifice goes against the "Only I can fix it" model that he projects. We are the change we have been waiting for is such an Obama idea. The last thing an authoritarian wants is the Bobs to call him in and ask "So what would you say it is you do here?"

Third, it really would have required major sacrifice and inconvenience to get ahead of the virus. And a lot of Trump's voters picked him because they were tired of sacrifice and inconvenience for themselves. The whole point was to make other people start sacrificing so Trump's voters could finally stop having to be so angry all the time (Side note: It didn't really work, though, did it? If anything, winning has made the MAGAs even angrier and more aggrieved (there's probably a dissertation to be written about that)). So telling people that they have to sacrifice cuts against his base.

tl;dr The Chinese nature of the virus gave Trump a way to address it consistent with his views, but addressing it cut against too many other aspects of his image.

There are a lot of things a theoretical Trump could have done that would have helped both himself and the country, but the real Trump can't do any of those things.He's the scorpion on the frog's back, except he keeps stinging himself and blaming the frog.

The ironic thing of course being those same folks like talking about sacrifices that others do (the troops, the cops, WW2, etc) and went after millennials because they don't want to sacrifice. Then the first time they were asked to sacrifice, they throw a fit.

I can't believe we're still on this Hydroxy shit.

Smel those free markets.

#BREAKING: President Trump says TikTok must be bought by US company and pay cut of selling price into US Treasury: "Right now they don't have any rights unless we give it to them." pic.twitter.com/VJ7gC1u6nc

— The Hill (@thehill) August 3, 2020

Medium Buying
@MediumBuying
The Trump campaign has placed a Fox News-only buy in DC cable zones. 8/3-8/16 flight, $38K total

Got to keep the toddler happy

Those people are just lazy and will now get jobs as I have been told by some people here. Anxiously awaiting the massive drop in the unemployment rate now that the subsidy is over.

Yep

Yale study finds expanded jobless benefits did not reduce employment | YaleNews

The new talking point I'm seeing pushed on social media isn't that the jobs will be there when the stimulus goes away (because it will be apparent very soon that the jobs are not there).

It is that all of these people should have been saving their unemployment checks so that they would still have money to live on when the checks stopped.

So it will still be their fault. It is always their fault.

Reminder: Not only did extra unemployment benefit end, but PPP 8-week periods expired for many employers. So far I’ve heard of two people I know who were laid off *today.* Pray for our country. This could get significantly worse in a hurry.

Oh yeah. See that all over the place already.

Is this wrong? When did saving money and fiscal responsibility become evil?

My cousin and her boyfriend lost their jobs at the start of all of this. They just returned home from a 2 week beach vacation yesterday. She was complaining to my dad that they didn't know what they were going to do now that the extra money has run out.

Lots of stupid people out there.

No, it's not wrong. Just that most people aren't jumping around buying luxury items with their checks. It's just a useless stereotype like the "lazy unemployed worker" to try and defend a pathetic economic situation.

And in fact plenty of them were using that full amount to live. People tend to forget that the folks who were laid off weren't just fast food employees who were only pulling down $20,000 a year. You don't get to the levels of unemployment (esp compared to the numbers pre-pandemic) we currently have just by those jobs disappearing.

Whenever there is an economic downturn, the people who let it happen will look for a scapegoat. And that almost all the time is poorer people. Happened in 2008 and is happening again now. Sad thing is that it works.

I remember Bush did the same thing to Qwest. Party of free markets does not in fact like free markets.

That's not even a free markets thing. That's just Trump doing what's natural - attempting to take advantage of perceived leverage. I'm just shocked he didn't come right out and say they had to pay it to him or his family.

lol

Remember the guy that said the 2016 election was like flight 93 and voting Clinton winning would lead to all of our deaths? Now he says the 2020 election has even higher stakes!

I cannot believe Falwell would put that photo online and think he wouldn't be attacked for it.

Drunk.

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Trump is rigging the Census by cutting it short by a month.

It's amazing how everyone understands that the GOP can't win national majorities, but we just pretend everything is normal.

"It would be a real shame if something would happen to your teen dancing video thing."

SI

And let's not forget that the main reason governments pay out money like that is to make sure those folk still spend it. It's done to benefit "the economy" as much as the people getting it. If everybody saved it, it wouldn't serve it's purpose.

I hope Trump continues to do interviews. He's the best ad for voting for Biden. His response to the question about John Lewis, immediately making it about himself - he didn't come to my inauguration, he didn't come to my SOTU speeches... it's just so on brand for a narcissist. And he keeps saying he's never met John Lewis and doesn't know much about him. How is that? You're effing President!

Perfect!

#COVID statistics, @realDonaldTrump edition: pic.twitter.com/Ifs3fCczXi

— Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) August 4, 2020

JFC

.@jonathanvswan: “Oh, you’re doing death as a proportion of cases. I’m talking about death as a proportion of population. That’s where the U.S. is really bad. Much worse than South Korea, Germany, etc.”@realdonaldtrump: “You can’t do that.”

Swan: “Why can’t I do that?” pic.twitter.com/MStySfkV39

— Axios (@axios) August 4, 2020

He's going to get re-elected lol.

If they spend the money, they are being irresponsible for not saving it.

If they save the money, they are being selfish for hording it when it is supposed to stimulate the economy.

The poor, by design, can never win these debates.

If by winning you mean never being criticized by someone on the internet, then there are no winners, except Betty White.

But the poor can help themselves by following good financial advice.

Hmmm . . . the least criticized Mount Rushmore. . .

Fred Rogers
Betty White
Willie Nelson
Tom Hanks

Like, if you met someone who legitimately disliked any of those four, you would immediately judge that person, right?

If you showed up to a meeting with your boss to discuss last months widget sales and performed this way you would be fired and our president is doing it to discuss a global pandemic that has killed 150K Americans. Its unconscionable.

I can't believe his handlers let him go on air like that. I mean it's like "LOOK, I HAVE A REALLY SIMPLE BAR GRAPH (that the audience can't see and is easily disproved by the host)!"

SI

So many quality parts from that interview:

All he had to do was manage the pandemic... the man would have easily been re-elected imo.

Instead we get someone who is profiting from the Presidency.

It really is amazing. His followers like to slam Biden and say he is mentally unfit, yet their guy is shuffling through papers trying desperately to prove a point that really can't be made, referencing data that he should have memorized. A real president would be locked and loaded regarding all the numbers.

He Still Could!

Experts still say that a real lockdown could get it under control in 4-6 weeks.

He could sent out the Bat Signal today to the GOP governors, Fox News, Russian facebook trolls, etc. that the new plan is to stop the virus. That would get the MAGAs on board. Liberals already want to stop the virus. We'd do it.

And by the end of September, he'd be the hero who saved us all and coast to reelection. And, bonus, we'll stop having a 9-11's worth of death every three days. So that would be nice.

This assumes he could do that. Profiting from the Presidency has been his M.O. since day 1.

I hope that Project Lincoln or whomever takes that interview part where he talks about John Lewis, the fact that no one from his adminstration as far as I know went to his funeral or any of the official functions, find out if they did the same with Herman Cain, and put it in every market with a large African-American/Latino population and make them see how he really feels about them. Do a bunch of his comments about Mexicans and the Wall too.

I mean the percentage of African-Americans who voted for him was already low, but it should be pretty close to zero at this point.

I don't understand how, didn't Trump say he has done more than LBJ?

The sad part is smart people know he's scum, some still support him because they get a benefit out of it, but stupid people, god bless them for supporting this turd. He's one of them.

It's good to know he wishes child predators well.

It's also good to know that he doesn't understand ballot application vs actual ballots (I'm assuming he does but after the COVID charts, he may be dumber than Gump).

Lot of Republicans hate Fred Rogers.

When has Trump managed anything?

There are plenty of Republicans who fond of Willie right now either (Willie is not a fan of Trump and has openly thrown in with the Dems)

Really? Why?

Because he was an "evil, evil man" that ruined a generation of kids.

Did 'Fox and Friends' Call Fred Rogers an 'Evil, Evil Man'?

There is absolutely no difference between how Trump acts in that Swan interview and how he has acted every single other day for the past three years. There is no way anyone's mind has been changed about him because of that interview.

— Joe Dunman (@JoeDunman) August 4, 2020

One big difference between the trump presidency and every other one is that other presidents take credit for things they actually accomplished while president. trump just takes credit for random things that other people did that happened while he's been president.

Doesn't take away from your last sentence, but there's also plenty of people "criticizing" Tom Hanks these days. (If that's what we call attempting to call him & his wife pederast's, tie them in with Epstein and the Clintons, and claim they're part of a global/Hollywood elite child sex trafficking ring, and they only got Greek citizenship so they can evade prosecution in the US.)

Nah -most Presidents do that, especially on the economy. Just not as brazenly as Trump does.

SI

To be honest, I think Republicans hate all of them. Fred made children weak apparently, Willie is a druggie who cares about all people, Tom Hanks has spoken out against Trump...

I don't think Betty White is applicable, she's a woman and in the eyes of most Republicans doesn't deserve a voice.

Hilary Clinton has proven that Republicans will not hesitate to criticize a woman.

I'd contest this.

We have many people dying now in Trumpistan supported areas. They may still hold it against Democrats, minorities, millennials and what-not, but some of them, along with not getting any free checks any more might be getting more than annoyed. Specially since Dear Leader has actually pivoted on mask wearing.

It seems like in their cushioned worlds, it only matters when it affects them. Guess what, it's now affecting them and Trump can't even string words together in a way that tells them their suffering is to own "libs".

Will it change his cultists, nope, but I am sure independents are as tired as me with his stupidity, rantings, incompetence, and his general corruption.

I still think he'll steal the election in November.
Btw, that payroll tax would be awesome for me, I still have a job (for now).

Wow. :eek:

Willie was a tax evader. I don't care about the guy one way or the other (not a fan of that kind of music), but the first "bad" thing that comes to mind is his tax issue.

Have you watched the guy give a speech? He gets up there, with supposedly prepared remarks, and reads them off like a 3rd grader who has just been handed a thesis. I'm fairly certain he never sees any of these speeches until the moment he hits the podium. I'm sure these interviews are handled the exact same way.

Trump is lazy and refuses to do any prep work. You can always tell when he's surpried by something he's only now read for the first time. That's where his, "not many people know that" tic comes from.

Also his narcissism. In Trump's mind, he is the smartest guy ever. So if he does not know something, then the only explanation has to be that it is very obscure knowledge. He simply cannot conceive of himself not knowing something without a good excuse.

Yes, a lot of his ad libs do seem to happen when it looks like he's reading something surprising to him for the first time, or he wants to emphasize it because it's so new to him that no one else must know it either.

Pretty sure Trump is too, he just didn't get caught, so his minions love him for it.

What an effing clown show. "Sir, we're going to lose Florida and need all the votes we can get! Talk up Florida's mail-in voting!"

Whether you call it Vote by Mail or Absentee Voting, in Florida the election system is Safe and Secure, Tried and True. Florida’s Voting system has been cleaned up (we defeated Democrats attempts at change), so in Florida I encourage all to request a Ballot & Vote by Mail! #MAGA

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 4, 2020

Florida's system is Safe and Secure, Tried and True up until he loses Florida.

Anyone know if Yosemite is any relation to Dolemite?

Because Hanging Chad Florida is what we should all look towards as the shining example of an exemplary election night system.

Isn't Hanks getting tormented by Qanon folks? Every tweet I see about him is followed by the nuttiest replies.

Attention Required! | Cloudflare

Yeah Hanks gets completely shit on by wack jobs in every Facebook comments thread.

I had no idea re: Hanks. I've been lucky enough to avoid Q posters for the most part.

We really are left with Betty White.

All I know is that if someone doesn't like Jeff Bridges they are immediately suspect.

What a shock - USPS is proposing to increase postage on ballots from 20 cents to 55 cents.

Well I'm glad Trump lackey Kris Kobach lost the KS Senate nomination because I want to see them all lose horribly in elections, but I'm also sad because Dems had a chance to flip Kansas for the first time since the 40's I think.

Also Joe Arpaio lost his Sheriff race barely last night too

Lacy Clay ;lost his seat in St. Louis. He held it for 20 years and his Dad held it for the previous 32 years. Cori Bush beat him in the primary by a few percentage points.

This makes me so happy, so over that Fossil here.

I can't believe that many people voted for him really.

He called into a radio show to explain and was bombed. I would say he likes to party.

The context is out folks with the first interview from Jerry Falwell Jr WLNI. The trailer park boys costume party on a yacht was “...whatever.”

“Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Junior spoke to the MorningLine about an Instagram photo that has raised some eyebrows” pic.twitter.com/WNCbhUBNlR

— Andrew “Not a Pulpit CEO” Novell (@Andrew_Novell) August 5, 2020

This one's dedicated to you Jerry

Iron Maiden - Holy Smoke (Official Video) - YouTube

This may deserve its own thread but man I hope the NRA goes
down hard.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cnb...f-dealing.html

Over a million in new jobless claims. Thought the lazy people were all going back to work now that the $600 a week ended?

I’ve actually seen this spun as a positive since it’s less than last week so that means people are going back to work.

Those folks know what the term 'new' means, right? ;)