May 25 2020
1 Comment
Free Republic, The Darnold, Tommy T

Today on Tommy T’s Obsession with the Freeperati – Pelosi-guided missile edition

Short one this week, good people.

Nancy Pelosi: ‘Morbidly obese’ Trump shouldn’t be taking hydroxychloroquine
washingtontimes.com ^ | May 18, 2020 | Victor Mortan

Posted on 5/19/2020, 12:44:31 AM by Berlin_Freeper

… She said taking that drug was not a good idea for the president because of his “age group and in his, shall we say, weight group,” which she described as “morbidly obese.”

DangerClose

” Rosie (O’Donnell) ’s a loser. A real loser. I look forward to taking lots of money from my nice fat little Rosie.”

The Darnold, 2006

To: Berlin_Freeper

Has the ice cream eating Botox princess opened the door to body shaming?

3 posted on 5/19/2020, 12:48:21 AM by Ouchthatonehurt

I dunno – let’s find out!

To: Berlin_Freeper

“Morbidly obese?”

I think not. After all, with your pencil thin body, you might just get blown away by the next strong gust of wind!

6 posted on 5/19/2020, 12:56:39 AM by proud American in Canada (In these trying times, Give me Liberty or Give me Death!)

I’d say that’s a yes.
To: Berlin_Freeper

 

BMI 31 is on the lowest end of obesity
35 could be and 40 is morbidly obese

Ergo Trump at 31 is not morbidly obese

9 posted on 5/19/2020, 1:00:51 AM by a fool in paradise (Joe Biden- “First thing I’d do is repeal those Trump tax cuts.” (May 4th, 2019)l)

And don’t forget – according to him, he’s 6’9″ and 150#.

To: Berlin_Freeper

I wonder if Pelosi, “The Wicked Witch of the West”, is as STUPID as she blathers about such UTTER NONSENSE as this??

Yours, TMN78247

16 posted on 5/19/2020, 1:18:32 AM by TMN78247 (“VICTORY or DEATH”, William Barrett Travis, LtCol, comdt., Fortress of the Alamo, Bejar, 18car36)

 

I’m glad we cleared THAT up!

TrumpDoubleChin

To: Berlin_Freeper

I saw a twitter post saying it was treason. It didn’t even make sense.

They are just scared of him proving all of them wrong as he calls them out.

21 posted on 5/19/2020, 1:44:51 AM by HollyB

TrumpHydro

To: a fool in paradise

BMI 31 is on the lowest end of obesity
35 could be and 40 is morbidly obeseErgo Trump at 31 is not morbidly obese

Close, but no cigar.At Trump’s last medical exam, height 6’3″, eight 239lbs, that calculates BMI to 29.1, merely “Overweight”.

(I was saving this part of the reply for last)

Arnold Schwarzenegger, when he won Mr. Universe, weighed in at 235 lbs. 6’3″ and his BMI was 29.4, “Overweight.”

25 posted on 5/19/2020, 2:12:08 AM by Swordmaker (My pistol self-identifies as an iPad, so you must accept it in gun-free zones, you hoplophobe bigot!)

Yeah.

.
.
TrumpFatBastard

 

Hope you’d already had breakfast.
.
See you good peeps next Monday!
Tagged , , , , , , , , ,
May 24 2020
1 Comment
Uncategorized

Not Everything Sucks

Can’t stop the celebration signal: 

A huge part of Ramadan is about the community, Ismail said. Not just getting together with family and friends for iftar meals to break fast at the end of the day, but eating with strangers and gathering with large groups to celebrate in the mosque. He wanted to try to emulate that in a game that has been so appealing to people in quarantine precisely because of the community aspect.

He put out a call on Twitter, offering to host people to celebrate Ramadan on his island, and very quickly got a lot of responses from friends, internet acquaintances, and complete strangers. There was so much interest that he had to create a sign-up tool to ensure everyone could be distributed to different meals throughout the month (Animal Crossing only allows eight people to visit an island at one time).

Ismail decided to start hosting iftars and suhoors (the early morning meal before the sunrises) on Animal Crossing. He said so far he’s had 70 to 80 people visit his island for Ramadan, which began on April 23.

Eid Mubarak, everybody!

A.

ps. I do not have Animal Crossing, you cannot sell me any apples or whatever, but you do you.

May 24 2020
4 Comments
Athenae, COVID-19

Selfishness

Yeah:

I mean, as much as anything would shut the NRA crowd up, maybe a message of WEAR A MASK SO A FOREIGNER DOES NOT GIVE YOUR WHITE DAUGHTERS THE PLAGUE would have helped. These hissyfits almost never make sense, though, so I’m hesitant to attribute the behavior of the president’s fanclub to actual things and not to, say, whatever propaganda they’re absorbing through who knows what kind of talk radio signals.

Look, I’m claustrophobic and wear glasses and a mask makes me HUGELY uncomfortable. The sight of crowds of people in masks tweaks something in me and it’s scary, and you know what?

MY FEELINGS DON’T MATTER AT ALL GOOD GOD.

Crowds of people in masks seem scary, and so the answer to that isn’t to not wear a mask, it’s to not vote for a headass sentient cheeto who mishandles a pandemic so badly that we need to wear masks in crowds instead of having a summer that looks like last summer.

If  I don’t want to wear a mask, or see crowds of people wearing masks, I can stay home, stay away from crowds, and not do things like go to stores or the farmer’s market. That’s how I can not be scared while also NOT POTENTIALLY SPEWING VIRUS ALL OVER PEOPLE OR TAKING IT IN THROUGH MY FACE. It’s really a dumb argument to have to make, which is the point of making us make it, which is to distract us from all the dead people.

This isn’t about freedom, it never is. And it’s not even about protecting ourselves, because if it was, we’d be protecting ourselves by voting out every member of the GOP forever until the end of time. That’s the only way to end this.

A.

May 23 2020
Adrastos, Comedy, Diary, Film, Fog Of History, Odds & Sods, Political Crack, R.I.P., Sports, Television

Saturday Odds & Sods: Shapes Of Things

Abstraction by Rolph Scarlett.

I don’t have a helluva lot to add to what I said as the 13th Ward Rambler earlier this week. I’m still keeping my head down during the lockdown. We’ve had a few front porch visitors, which breaks the monotony and allows Paul Drake to make goo-goo eyes at company and get his nose prints all over the lower glass panes of our front door.

This week’s theme song was written by Paul Samwell-Smith, Keith Relf, and Jim McCarty in 1966 and represented a  sonic breakthrough for The Yardbirds. The tune’s Wikipedia entry is absurdly detailed and argues that Jeff Beck should have received a songwriting credit as well. It’s okay: Beck assumed de facto ownership of the song after recording it with The Jeff Beck Group on 1968’s Truth album.

We have three versions of Shapes Of Things for your listening pleasure: the Yardbirds original, the Jeff Beck Group, and David Bowie from Pin-Ups. They’re all shapely and thingy:

Now that we’ve shaped things and contemplated Jeff Beck’s guitar virtuosity, let’s jump to the break.

Continue reading →

May 22 2020
Adrastos, Friday Cocktail Hour, Music, Songs For The Pandemic

Friday Cocktail Hour: John Barleycorn

Let’s cross the pond for some bibulous folk music. Rumor has it that the Brits like to tipple even with all the pubs closed. At least I hope they’re still closed. I know some Thatcherites are getting antsy. Freedom, man.

We’re going to keep it simple this week and post multiple versions of the same song. It’s known as both John Barleycorn and John Barleycorn Must Die.

In case you’re wondering who the hell John Barleycorn is:

The character of John Barleycorn in the song is a personification of the important cereal crop barley and of the alcoholic beverages made from it, beer and whisky. In the song, John Barleycorn is represented as suffering indignities, attacks and death that correspond to the various stages of barley cultivation, such as reaping and malting.

It’s hard to be a metaphor but John Barleycorn has borne it with grace for centuries.

We begin with two of the finest recent practitioners of traditional folk music, Martin Carthy, and the late Dave Swarbrick:

Martin Carthy is one of the leading members of the Waterson-Carthy family. It has various branches and tributaries including his wife Norma Waterson and his fiddler daughter, Eliza Carthy. The next bit of Barleycorn comes from the Imagined Village album and features Paul Weller along with the odd Carthy and a more modern sound starting with the second verse:

Up next, a John Barleycorn I’d never heard until today. It’s a typically tricky Tull arrangement featuring the Greek singer George Dalaras:

John Barleycorn sung with a Greek accent? Now I’ve heard everything.

Finally, you didn’t think I’d skip the Traffic version, did you? It was the first rendition of John Barleycorn I heard as a wee laddie:

The last word goes to cartoon Frank, Dino, and Sammy:

May 22 2020
3 Comments
Adrastos, COVID-19, Food and Drink, Political Crack, The Darnold

Headline Of The Day: GOP Sycophancy Edition

I awoke this morning feeling unproductive. It may have had something to with the 32 ounces of frozen margarita I imbibed last night. To paraphrase an old beer ad: Great taste, not so great feeling. Whiskey and beer are my jam, not tequila.

Shorter Adrastos, I’m feeling unproductive this morning. Did I say that already?

I may rally before the Friday Cocktail Hour but Charlie Pierce has bailed me out with this headline:

Ron Desantis’s Devotion To Trump Makes Brian Kemp Look Like Adam Schiff.

Both Florida and Georgia have governors who won close races against African American opponents. Kemp was helped by some good old-fashioned voter suppression and his refusal to resign as Secretary of State during the campaign

Neither DeSantis nor Kemp would have won without Trump’s support. Hence their endless sycophancy. They’ve both fiddled with the books to minimize the impact of the pandemic in their states. So much for the latest iteration of the New South. To paraphrase, H.L. Mencken: it’s the Sahara of the Trumper Bozart.

This tweet from the peerless Mr. Pierce set NOLA Twitter ablaze but left me nonplussed:

Been there, done that with Buy Us Back, Chirac. Pick up the phone, Macron doesn’t have the same ring to it.

The last word goes to The Champs:

May 22 2020
Adrastos, Catblogging

Friday Guest Catblogging: Brother Louie

Little Buddy is a repeat offender. I’d like to introduce his canine brother, Louie. They appear to be giving their human, Kyle, the evil eye. He’s a drummer so he probably had it coming.

This one’s for the pooch:

May 21 2020
1 Comment
Adrastos, Diary, Music, Songs For The Pandemic

Home Is Where The Heart Is

In this edition of Songs For The Pandemic, we focus on the home front. One home in particular, mine. It’s Dr A and my anniversary today. I can’t think of anyone else I’d rather be home bound with.  As Maybe Cousin Telly would surely say at this point:

That brings me to today’s music. Songs about home: being there, going there, losing your way, and finding your way home.

Our first selection comes from our friends in Fairport Convention. I say friends because Dr A and I met them on our grand English music tour in 2007 and they’re all nicer than nice:

While we’re on the subject of hearts and home, a tune from a former Fairporter or is that ex-Conventioneer?

Can you handle another Winwood song? Just lose yourself in the music:

After wandering about, it’s time to head home.

When you finally return home, it’s time to proclaim: This Must Be The Place:

May 21 2020
Adrastos, Bayou Brief, COVID-19, Diary, Gret Stet Politics

Bayou Brief: The Age Of Uncertainty

My latest column for the Bayou Brief went live at 11 AM yesterday. I’m trying to make the time and day, Wednesday, a bi-weekly thing. Regularity in regular features floats my boat. Oops, that sounded like a laxative commercial or some such shit. I should flush that paragraph, but I won’t. I don’t want to bring on another toilet paper apocalypse…

I had a lot of fun writing The Age Of Uncertainty. There’s even a vaguely amusing story about the writing process. I had a notion that I wanted to write about masks, reopening, and pandemic politics BUT I didn’t have a theme to tie everything together in a wordy bundle. The idea of stealing a Galbraith title came to me in a moment of wakefulness at 3 AM on Sunday morning. Sometimes insomnia can come in handy.

I spend some time in the column pondering the masking of America:

An important part of making phase-1 work is a willingness to wear a mask in public. I understand why people dislike masking. I have a size 8 head, which makes it difficult to find a mask that fits. Additionally, I’m almost as blind as a bloody bat and I’ve had a problem with my glasses fogging up while masked. It’s a pain but it’s imperative to protect others from your germs. I don’t know about you, but I prefer to keep my germs to myself and for you to do likewise. It’s one reason I’m staying in my Bat Cave for the time being.

It’s all part of being a grown-up. You gotta do what you need to do, not what you wanna do. What I wanna do is post a Graham Parker song with mask in the title:

May 21 2020
1 Comment
Michael F

Still Batshit After All These Years

trump_joker_650

I guess we’re at the Bush II administration build a school/paint a school/insist that building a school/painting a school is evidence of the phenomenal success in Iraq point in DJT’s own crash-and-burn.

If only we wouldn’t test, if only people weren’t dying, if only our health care system wasn’t stressed to the limit while the overall economy implodes…everything would be awesome.

Yet…it’s all just another day, another IOKIYAR…

And now the grand experiment begins, i.e., looks like they’ve decided a month and a half or so of quarantine is more than enough — you’d think the MAGAts who like to hunt, fish, boat, etc., would be doing just that, but I guess with a second term on the line it’s shop till you drop with them…literally.

And, just me perhaps, but I can’t decide if it’s the spineless Democrats or feckless press or some combination of both that allows Trump to continue to suck up all the media oxygen without someone, anyone, pointing out how bugfuck insane this all is.

He STILL thinks the pandemic is an annoying obstacle to his re-election, and not, you know, a pandemic.

We’ve normalized mass death, epic grifting, flouting of constitutional norms, impeachment (sure, he was acquitted, but you’d think that alone would be a powerful rhetorical weapon for the party that’s, um, the opposition)…nepotism, and so on…at least for the GOP.

And if they get four more years, you can be sure it’s game over/no replay.

May 21 2020
Adrastos, Books, Pulp Fiction Thursday

Pulp Fiction Thursday: The Border Lord

I usually avoid posting “bodice ripping” romance novel covers. The one on the left, however, has a ripping good tagline: “A saucy wench defies her king for love.” Red sauce or white?

May 20 2020
Adrastos, Music, Songs For The Pandemic

Open

I’m skeptical about the efforts to “reopen” the economy. Why is it always the economy, not parks or schools? Oh yeah, money.

For your listening pleasure, we have three songs with open in the title. None were hits but I like them. Maybe you will too. The titles get longer as the post goes on. Do you detect a pattern or just patter?

First, Squeeze goes to church; a wedding to be exact. That’s right, a Difford and Tilbrook gospel song:

Next up is the title track of the worst album Yes ever recorded but what a title track. It features swell harmonies from Anderson, Squire, and Sherwood as well as typically stellar bass work by Chris Squire:

Finally, some fusion era jazz from the great Flora Purim featuring another great bass player, Alphonso Johnson:

May 20 2020
Adrastos, COVID-19, Diary, Film, Food and Drink, Music, Political Crack, Stupid Republican Tricks, The Darnold, Your President Speaks

The Age Of Overkill

It’s hard to know where to start some days. There’s so much happening that my mind reels like the drunk monkey in the ancient koan. Overkill is the koan of the realm in 2020. Pun intended; it always is.

It should come as no surprise that there’s rot at the core of the federal government. The Impeached Insult Comedian has been on a firing bender of late. A sinister one indeed: he’s been firing Inspectors General. They’re the ones in charge of keeping the various departments on the straight and narrow. That’s impossible during the Trump regime. Straight is out, crooked is in. It’s the age of overkill, after all.

The most worrisome of the firings is at the State Department where Mike Pompeo was being investigated for various abuses of power including turning his staff into servants. Inspectors Generals frown on civil servants walking their bosses’ dog. They’re only supposed to walk government dogs but since they don’t exist, dog walking is out.

I wonder if anyone in Trumpistan is literate enough to be familiar with Nikolai Gogol’s satirical play The Inspector General aka The Government Inspector. It mocked corrupt provincial officials in Tsarist Russia. In 1949, Hollywood reduced Gogol’s biting satire to imbecilic farce. Imbecilic farce certainly describes the Trump regime’s bumbling response to COVID-19. Make that deadly imbecilic farce.

Notice Danny Kaye’s orange skin in the poster below. I hesitate to make a Trump comparison since Kaye was a leading Hollywood liberal. Besides, he had much better hair than the Kaiser of Chaos:

Back to Gogol. Perhaps Mike Flynn discussed him in one of his many conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. You know, the ones he lied about to protect himself and President* Pennywise.

In other news, Trump has been making outlandish and untrue statements on a daily basis. No surprise there: he’s the personification of overkill, after all. He gave a whole new meaning to the term American exceptionalism with this deeply stupid remark:

When we have a lot of cases, I don’t look at that as a bad thing — I look at that in a certain respect as being a good thing because it means our testing is much better. … So I view it as a badge of honor, really.

Really? A badge of honor? The only good thing about this loony remark is that it gives me an excuse to post this:

Where is my badge? Indeed, sir.

You’ve surely heard the Trumpian claim that he’s taking hydroxychloroquine to keep the coronavirus at bay. He’s lying, deeply stupid or both. Given what Nancy Smash called his “morbid obesity,” I wonder if he’s ingesting these instead:

It’s hard to top that sight gag. Attempting to do so would be overkill.

The last word goes to Men At Work and Colin Hay with two versions of an insomnia song I forgot to post last week:

May 20 2020
2 Comments
Adrastos, Album Cover Art, Music

Album Cover Art Wednesday: Little Games

I’ve had The Yardbirds on my mind since my friend Sam Jasper posed a trivia question about them on the Tweeter Tube. Here’s the question Jeopardy-style: Who are Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page?

Little Games is the fourth and final album recorded by the original band. Jimmy Page stepped forward as the sole lead guitar player but there was sonic confusion. The Yardbirds were evolving into a proto-Jam band live. This album was produced by Mickey Most who was best known for producing acts such as Herman and the Hermits. The result is something of a musical mess. So it goes.

As you know, I’m inordinately fond of psychedelic covers even when, as in this case, they don’t reflect the music.

Here’s the whole damn album:

May 19 2020
5 Comments
Athenae, On Wisconsin, So Called Liberal Media, Stupid Republican Tricks

You Don’t Understand, or You Do, And in Either Case We’re All Dead

The Journal Sentinel’s editorial board: 

But it’s not the court’s fault that the governor and top lawmakers can’t work together for the common good. Nor is it the court’s job to set public health policy in Wisconsin. That’s the job of the governor and Legislature. So do your jobs, Gov. Tony Evers, Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos. Adopt clear rules for the state moving forward. Do so now, so the novel coronavirus is contained.

The governor issued rules and Republicans and the State Supreme Court blew them up. Yelling at them all to do their jobs assumes everyone didn’t. For decades Republicans have been detonating government without any kind of plan for what happens afterwards, and the answer is always this kind of scolding bullshit about how everyone needs to compromise, as if everyone is trying to, equally hard, and just needs a nudge.

Look, this isn’t a case where you can split the baby (AND THE FUCKING POINT OF THAT STORY IS THAT SOME COMPROMISES CAN’T BE MADE JESUS CHEESY FRIES CHRIST). The governor did something within his power to do, and Republicans didn’t like it and blew it up. Everybody technically DID do their jobs here. I don’t see how it’s always the Democrats’ fault when poop-flinging GOP monkeys fail to stop flinging poop and start playing the violin.

There’s no middle ground there. You’re either performing Vivaldi or you’re covered in shit.

Once and for all the marbles in the land, can anyone name me a single case of Republican acquiescence to a policy they don’t like? Can anyone name me a time in recent memory when the GOP was like, well, we’re not fond of that, but we’ll deal with it because you won an election. Democrats are out here bending over backwards and under and THROUGH in order to give Republicans something, anything, and Republicans are using their contorted bodies as roadblocks to prevent those of us without our heads up our asses from going anywhere.

Democrats voted for Republican judges and Republican tax cuts and Republican limits on abortion and Republican limits on spending and Republican limits on food stamps and Republicans’ staggeringly unlimited WARS. Democrats voted for the impeachment OF THEIR OWN GODDAMN PRESIDENT.

Democrats voted over and over and over to compromise, and we’re still hearing that “nobody” is doing their job, that “nobody” wants to compromise, that “nobody” can find any solutions.

Democrats have found solutions. They’ve found good ones and half-a-loaf ones and they’ve reduced them to a quarter of a loaf to try to get Republicans to vote for them, every time, they are like out here begging please, please compromise with us. And Republicans won’t, and the only reason you don’t see that, as a professional Knower and Explainer of Civic Life to Citizens, is that you don’t want to see it, and whichever one it is, it’s killing people.

We hear day after day after day about DEMOCRACY DYING IN DARKNESS as if there’s a fundamental difference between a dead newspaper and one that cedes its institutional voice to a fucking parrot that just flaps and screams BOTH SIDES BOTH SIDES regardless of what kind of seed’s in its bowl. This isn’t me being a Democrat, here. This is me looking at the way things are going, at what went down, and saying this isn’t true, it isn’t correct. It’s not just politically slanted or biased or influenced, it’s flat-out factually WRONG.

You all follow me on a bunch of platforms, I’m not exactly opposed to telling Democrats what to do (call me, guys), but in this case it’s like:

EXT. A WARM SUNNY DAY, NOT TOO HUMID, OF WHICH IN WISCONSIN THERE ARE PRECISELY SIX AND THEY MUST NOT BE WASTED. OUTDOORS, BESIDE A LAVISH INGROUND POOL.

POOL IS FILLED WITH DEMOCRATS IN VARIOUS DONKEY-THEMED SUITS AND TRUNKS, SWIMMING, SPLASHING, HAVING A GOOD TIME BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT YOU DO IN A SWIMMING POOL.

REPUBLICANS, STANDING AROUND PERIMETER: Water is communist. This is a giveaway. We’re not getting in.

DEMOCRATS: Guys, do you need more room? We can move over. Axelrod, get that inflatable duck out of the way.

REPUBLICANS: Nope. Not swimming today. Not doing it.

DEMOCRATS: But it’s so nice here. You’ll feel better after you cool off. Here, you can share our lounges and beer, too. Is the water too cold? Jimmy, is there any way to warm up the water? Look, we know Billy was being inappropriate, and we’ve told him he can’t come back if he can’t keep his hands off the lifeguards. Here’s a 20-page anti-lifeguard-harassment policy we wrote. Brad, hand out the binders. We even ordered you guys extra hot dogs!

REPUBLICANS: You’re all stupid and we’re not doing this.

JOURNAL SENTINEL EDITORIAL BOARD: *marches in wearing matching purple objectivity visors* EVERYBODY GET IN THE POOL!

REPUBLICANS: We will not get in the pool until they accede to our demands. This is tyranny.

DEMOCRATS: *looking around* Um, we’re already in the pool, and they won’t tell us what they want, so here’s what we offered them, and uh, they still won’t get in, so I’m not sure what we’re supposed to do here …

JS EDITORIAL BOARD: *pulls out bullhorn* THE PROBLEM WITH POOLS IS THAT NO ONE WILL SWIM IN THEM, EVERYONE NEEDS TO GET IN.

DEMOCRATS: Oh for fuck’s sake.

EXEUNT.

Swimming pools aren’t the problem. You could at least be honest, and tell Republicans they have to stick their toes in the water, and pretend to have a good time, it’s a party.

A.

May 18 2020
1 Comment
Adrastos, COVID-19, Diary, Music, Political Crack, Songs For The Pandemic

Many A Mile To Freedom

Who knew one could be slammed while hunkering down at home? That’s where I find myself today. I’m working on a fairly tricky 13th Ward Rambler Column for the Bayou Brief and helping Dr. A research a new iPhone. Her current phone goes down to nothing when she does anything elaborate so it’s time for a change. I blame PD since it’s often caused by photographing that four-legged prima donna.

I did some good work at First Draft last week but one post hasn’t gotten quite as much love as the others. It’s feeling needy. If you haven’t already read it, check out Conspiracy Of Cretins, not Cretans, I like the latter.

On with today’s entry in our Songs For The Pandemic series. Every time we hear some Trumper whine about losing their liberties to the lockdown, Dr A and I say, “Freedom, man.” Those knuckleheads are among the cretins referred to above. Oy, just oy.

I had already planed to use one of Steve Winwood’s most underrated Traffic tunes, Many A Mile To Freedom, as a reminder that this shit is going to be around for awhile. Patience is in order.Then it occurred to me that Winwood has recorded two other outstanding songs with the word freedom in the title. Freedom, man.

I give you Steve Winwood’s Freedom Song Cycle. Here we go:

Since we’re glad to be free, I couldn’t resist posting the first two tracks from John Barleycorn Must Die. They belong together. Freedom, man.

I thought of this next song while watching Governor Whitmer deal with armed cretins in Michigan. Freedom, man.

Freedom, man.

Tagged , ,
May 18 2020
3 Comments
COVID-19, Free Republic, The Darnold, Tommy T

Today on Tommy T’s Obsession with the Freeperati – Putrid Potpourri edition

Good morning, people! I wish I could social distance myself from the Freeperati – but the ISO suits make a big difference.

First up – Secret Disservice!

Eleven Secret Service Agents Test Positive For COVID-19 And Fears Of It Spreading Through The White House Are Mounting
Business Insider ^ | 5-10-2020 | Sophia Ankel

Posted on 5/10/2020, 7:37:38 AM by blam

Eleven members of the US Secret Service have tested positive for the coronavirus as of Thursday evening, according to Yahoo News.

Documents from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) seen by Yahoo News, revealed that the agency has 11 active coronavirus cases and an additional 60 employees who are reportedly self-quarantining. On top of this, another 23 members have already recovered from COVID-19, the diseases caused by the coronavirus.

It is not known whether the employees who tested positive for the coronavirus worked at the White House or if they had recent close contact with President Donald Trump or Vice President Mike Pence.

Both Trump and Pence get tested for the disease regularly but have not tested positive so far. However, Trump said this week that he would switch from having weekly to daily tests following the new cases, according to The Hill.

Justin Whelan, a spokesperson for the Secret Service told Yahoo News that the agency is following guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

“To protect the privacy of our employee’s health information and for operational security, the Secret Service is not releasing how many of its employees have tested positive for COVID-19, nor how many of its employees were, or currently are, quarantined,” Whelan added.

The news comes as President Donald Trump revealed on Friday that Mike Pence’s press secretary, Katie Miller, tested positive for the coronavirus. Miller, who is the wife of Stephen Miller — Trump’s senior adviser, and primary speechwriter — confirmed her diagnosis with NBC News, adding that she was asymptomatic.

Ivanka Trump’s personal assistant has also tested positive for the coronavirus, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins reported.

1 posted on 5/10/2020, 7:37:38 AM by blam
Reactions?
To: blam
So when no testing is done, they shout there are no cases here!
Duh, motherfucker. And by “they”, you mean The Darnold.
They start testing and the percentage of those with wuflu explodes! Look, cries the presstitutes, it’s a pandemic. A pandemic right here. Right here in River City! A pandemic of epic proportions, and its coming your way. 🤦🏻‍♂️
4 posted on 5/10/2020, 7:45:17 AM by 9422WMR (WuFlu and democRATS are destroying the country.)
Coming?  I’d say it’s already arrived.
To: Travis McGee

 

I wan to know who snuck it to the SS. The press or someone else.

7 posted on 5/10/2020, 7:47:57 AM by VTenigma (The Democrat party is the party of the mathematically challenged)

Scape that goat, baby!
To: VTenigma

 

SS agents go home to wives and kids, who are exposed to the world.

This is why the ChiComs calculate they will win the bio war they launched.

We are an open society, and that means open to their bio war infections, in a way that their leadership is not.

10 posted on 5/10/2020, 7:54:31 AM by Travis McGee (EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)

To: P.O.E.

 

Yeah, it’s all a hoax. Nothing at all. Boris Johnson was faking it. And Trump has nothing at all to worry about.

Flu bros are morons.

We’re in a bio-war launched by China, and you turn it into an excuse to attack Americans.

The ChiComs are laughing their asses off at us.

12 posted on 5/10/2020, 7:56:17 AM by Travis McGee (EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)

No, the “ChiComs” are scared shitless, as they’re at the epicenter of this one.
I’M the one laughing my ass of at you.
.
The flubros aren’t giving up without a fight :
To: Maris Crane

 

Just noticed…Business Insider…it has an agenda.

25 posted on 5/10/2020, 8:18:21 AM by Maris Crane

Yeah.
Business.
And you tagged yourself in that post.
Response?
To: Maris Crane

 

I think you should attend one of those corona parties where people intentionally get it. Please do. Then document how your body deals with it for us.

29 posted on 5/10/2020, 8:24:29 AM by RummyChick ( Yeah, it’s Daily Mail. So what.)

Shazam
.
Lots more to come!

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Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,
May 17 2020
Uncategorized

Not Everything Sucks

The bees on the roof of the library are okay:

A.

May 17 2020
5 Comments
Athenae, COVID-19

I Don’t Know What To Tell You if You Are Still Surprised

Roger Cohen, who like most of the New York Times has come to the conclusion that the president enjoys stirring shit and encouraging violence:

Nobody foresaw what a pathogen about one-thousandth the width of an eyelash could trigger in a society where truth itself has been obliterated by President Trump, day after lying day. If he could deny the visible, like the number of people at his inauguration, imagine what he could do with the invisible. Or don’t imagine it, just look around.

Trump, in a tweet last month, urges his tens of millions of followers to “LIBERATE” Virginia from the lockdown and “save your great 2nd Amendment,” which is “under siege.” Or, roughly translated, grab your guns while you can to fight the liberal virus conspiracy, just the latest attempt after climate change and all the rest to emasculate America.

His languidness, Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and go-to person for every known problem on the planet, is asked by Time magazine whether he is willing to commit to the holding of the Nov. 3 election. “I’m not sure I can commit one way or the other, but right now that’s the plan,” he says.

Good to know. Right now, there’s a plan to hold an election. Gun up, dude, before it’s too late.

I mean, I’m not trying to be a dick, but whenever somebody’s like “he’s encouraging his followers to shoot politicians!” all I have is:

“Yeah.”

“He thinks the virus is a hoax! A conspiracy! He’s lying to keep the numbers down!”

“Yeah.”

“There are thousands of people dead and he doesn’t have a plan!”

“Yeah.”

“How can he –”

Look.

This is who he’s been since that Bund rally of a convention back in the summer of 2016. I remember sitting in a hotel room (I was organizing a conference, already one of the dumbest and most frustrating experiences of my entire life) watching on the C-SPAN feed and arguing with men online that “lock her up” meant something different to women than it did to them.

You spend enough time in crowds, you understand there’s a feel to them, an undercurrent, and you learn to listen to it. There was always something raw and ugly about Trump’s. Most people would see that, see the “she’s a cunt” T-shirts and hear the chants, and leave, knowing this was leading nowhere good.

We elected it instead.

And at the time I said it was all performance, and I didn’t mean for him: I meant for his people, from whom he feeds like some science-fiction monster wrapped around its host’s brain stem. The performance is FUCK YOU, that’s all it is, SUCK ON THIS, that’s all it’s been for decades in the Republican party, and it’s the same today, and I’m just so tired.

So yeah, he doesn’t have a plan. And thousands are dead. And he thinks it’s an excuse to get his people, “tactical” vests and all, riled up because that’s all he knows how to do. And he can count on somebody to write editorials that are basically “both sides” memes and talk about how “Washington” is broken, as if Joe Biden is out here telling the Black Panthers to take over the Alabama statehouse. Christ, sometimes I wish he would.

If you are coming to this NOW, if the virus was your thing, I mean, congratulations I guess, but don’t expect me to share your shock and outrage. “He’s a monster!”

Yeah.

A.

 

May 16 2020
Adrastos, Comedy, Diary, Film, Fog Of History, New Orleans, Odds & Sods, R.I.P., Television

Saturday Odds & Sods: Drift Away

The Sleeping Girl by Pablo Picasso

Summer is slowly but surely returning to New Orleans. The first two weeks of May were blissfully temperate but summer’s cauldron has begun to boil. It’s unclear if it’s a Pepper Pot but you never can tell.

We had a serious thunderstorm in the wee small hours of Friday morning. I originally planned to put PD’s big ass box out with the trash but thought better of it. I wish I could claim second sight but I’m glad I didn’t have to scoop wet cardboard off the grass.

I did not know until googling information about this week’s theme song that Mentor Williams was Paul Williams’ kid brother. It’s unclear if Paul mentored Mentor in the songwriter’s craft but the older brother never wrote a song as good as Drift Away. Mentor W wrote it in 1970 and after several misfires it became a monster hit for Dobie Gray in the summer of 1973. One couldn’t escape its refrain:

“Oh, give me the beat, boys, and free my soul.
I wanna get lost in your rock and roll and drift away.”

We have two versions of Drift Away for your listening pleasure by Dobie Gray and my 13th Ward homies the Neville Brothers.

I know there was a hit version of the song in 2002. I refuse to post a video by anyone who spells cracker with a K. Take that, Uncle Kracker.

Let’s pay a visit to Disambiguation City with the Kinks hard rocking, Drift Away. It sounds nothing like Mentor W’s song but it’s a classic in its own right.

I hope your attention isn’t drifting away. If it is, the time is right to jump to the break.

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