Make them all go first!

From HIVE at VANITY FAIR:

America is just over a week into the White House’s “Slow the Spread” coronavirus initiative, which recommends citizens practice social distancing and refrain as much as possible from leaving their homes. But Donald Trump has spent the past few days whining about the struggling stock market and signaling a return to business as usual, despite warnings from his own medical experts that an additional several weeks are necessary to contain the still-growing pandemic. Sending the country back into full-time work mode would undermine efforts to curb the outbreak and will almost certainly lead to more Americans dying—one worst-case model found that 2.2 million people could die if the outbreak is allowed to spread unmitigated. Right-wing media outlets know this, but they’re still backing the White House’s ill-advised pivot in near unison.

In fact, the death cult speed-run to save the stock market already has its first round of volunteers. On Monday night, Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick kicked things off by telling Tucker Carlson that he is ready “to take a chance on [my] survival in exchange for keeping the America that all America loves,” i.e. one in which business is booming. Carlson, who commended Patrick’s comments as a necessary “conversation,” discussed the proposal on Tuesday night with his colleague Brit Hume, who concluded that it is “an entirely reasonable viewpoint.”

Original DVD cover

When you say self-serving, you’ve said it all!

From NBC News:

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., threw his support behind the Republican tax plan Thursday, boosting the bill’s chances of passage.

McCain said that while the Senate bill is “far from perfect,” he believes it will “enhance American competitiveness, boost the economy and provide long overdue tax relief for middle class families.”

The Maverick added, “But my wife Cindy inherited a Budweiser fortune, so fuck all that shit about working together and gimme those tax cuts!!”

Original ad

The Lobbying Epidemic

From The Charlotte Observer:

The drug epidemic of the 1980s and ’90s was horrific.

…snip…

That period is no longer considered the worst drug epidemic in the nation’s history. The ongoing opioid crisis has, unfortunately, taken that title – because no one was lobbying Congress on behalf of crack cocaine dealers the way they have for large drug companies. That’s the devastating finding from a joint investigation by “60 Minutes” and The Washington Post released last weekend. Between 2014 and 2016, the drug industry spent $106 million lobbying Congress for a law that makes it virtually impossible for the DEA to freeze suspicious narcotic shipments from the companies.

Original book cover 

Hannity always takes a knee for Twitler

From Newsweek:

President Donald Trump is embroiled in a long-running verbal spat with NFL players over their kneeling during the national anthem to protest social injustice toward African-Americans. He has taken objection to their perceived disparagement of the star-and-striped flag, the national anthem and the military.

But on Wednesday night, the president talked through the “Retreat” bugle, a military tradition that serves to honor soldiers and veterans.

The president was speaking to one of his strongest supporters in the American media, Fox News’ Sean Hannity, at the Air National Guard in Middletown, Pennsylvania.

Original DVD cover

Real Locker-room Talk

The title of this article from The Atlantic is titled Masculinity Done Well and Poorly:

In a shirtless locker-room interview yesterday, Miami Dolphins safety Michael Thomas was asked about Trump’s “son-of-a-bitch” condemnation of players protesting state violence.

Thomas first shot back a smile as if trying to brush it off.

Addressing Trump: “It just amazes me that with everything else going on in this world, especially involving the United States, that’s what you’re concerned about, my man?”

Original DVD cover

A Koch addiction is a pre-existing condition

From Esquire:

‘Repeal and Go Fuck Yourself’ Is in Full Effect

The Graham-Cassidy bill is earning the nickname.

Lindsey Graham has really good healthcare that he definitely won’t lose, even if the moral catastrophe he’s calling a “reform” bill passes the Senate. Graham has cosponsored an Obamacare Repeal and Replace Plan with the impressively mendacious Bill Cassidy and two other Republican heartthrobs. It is somehow worse than the previous plans.

The bill would usher a number of shocking cruelties into law, not least the possibility that as many as 32 million Americans could lose health coverage. That’s 10 percent of the population.

Original advertisement

Lindseypoo: Elusive Care Eunuch

From Michael Hiltzik at The Los Angeles Times:

The Republican effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act is back, a zombie again on the march weeks after it was declared dead. The newest incarnation is Cassidy-Graham, named after chief sponsors Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

Compared with its predecessors, the bill would increase the ranks of America’s medically uninsured more — by millions of people — cost state governments billions more and pave the way for the elimination of all protection for those with preexisting medical conditions.

Original DVD cover

A New Hen for the Fox House

From SALON:

During her very first day at Fox News, former contributor for TheBlaze (and current Obamacare beneficiary) Tomi Lahren inadvertently suggested that she and the network are persistent in covering the Hillary Clinton email non-scandal perhaps cynical reasons.

During an appearance on Sean Hannity’s show last, Lahren justified the network’s continuous coverage of a scandal — one that has had no newsworthy developments and pertains to a political figure who has been out of the spotlight for almost a year — by depicting it as retribution for covering President Donald Trump’s potential collusion with Russia during the 2016 election.

Original comic book cover