- Okay, calling the pandemic “Chinese Virus” is pretty much racist by not-so-subtle implication. tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors brings us the writings of new Health and Human Services spokesperson Michael Caputo. They bring anti-Asian racism to a much more explicit level.
- So here’s the new narrative: My president wasn’t really suggesting everyone try injecting themselves with household cleaning products. He merely wanted the idea carefully researched. You know… set up a control group, and another group into whose veins you inject Clorox. Then see what happens. News Corpse speculates what might be behind this and other presidential suggestions.
- Jack Jodell at The Saturday Afternoon Post offers his take: President Trump has met a very small opponent impervious to bloviating and bully-boy tactics.
- At The Onion, in spite of presidential indignation, a potentially promising COVID-19 vaccine hits a roadblock after testing reveals it’s just a shotgun.
- PZ Myers is a little ticked off at the wheedling coverage by the NY Times of the Lysol-Gate presidential briefing. He compares Times headlines with those of Fox News, and cannot tell the difference.
- The news conference that produced Lysol-Gate will always be remembered for … well … you know. But Tommy Christopher points to another reason involving shameful performance by most of the press corps.
- In Letters from an American, Heather Cox Richardson notices an under-reported, and illegal, cover-up of the treatment of federal workers. Seems a purge is going on in violation of federal law.
- At The Moderate Voice, Joe Gandelman summarizes another scandal. Seems billions intended to help small businesses were hijacked and redirected to huge hotel and restaurant chains.
- We’ve all heard random Republican officials propose that folks my age have a duty to sacrifice their lives to COVID-19 for the sake of the economy. Ant Farmer’s Almanac offers its own Swiftian Modest Proposal, and why it won’t work. Stealing the headline – Shortage of Ice Floes Sinks Proposal to Send Seniors Adrift at Sea. I can hardly wait.
- driftglass watches Georgia governor Brian Kemp announce the reopening of some businesses and sees a rerun of a scary movie.
- North Carolina pastor John Pavlovitz has an observation about those evangelical Christians who join anti-lockdown protests. Seems they never were pro-life after all.
- nojo suggests that COVID-19 is less a cause of deadly symptoms than a symptom itself of a non-medical preexisting condition.
- Nan’s Notebook finds two photographs that illustrate the genius at the head of the Oval.
- Jonathan Bernstein analyzes, analyzes, and prolifically analyzes, then gives up. Seems traditional voting models won’t be much use during an unprecedented pandemic. So he can’t predict what will happen in November. Nobody can.
- Vincent at A Wayfarer’s Notes is beautifully poetic in positing that the pandemic is an opportunity: transforming partisanship and political opportunism into cooperation. Oh come on, stop laughing. It really is a beautifully written fantasy.
- My little dog Fala: Green Eagle delves into the conspiratorial world of the wingnut right, where targets include a dog owned by Ethel Kennedy.
- It’s been over half a century since Ayn Rand wrote a book dedicated to the virtue of selfishness. Libertarian Michael A. LaFerrara argues not only that selfishness is a virtue, but that altruism is a poisonous vice.
– Podcasts –