Dan Andrews is threatening an extension to the five-kilometre rule if people continue to “misbehave”. Do you think he’s just drunk on power now???? pic.twitter.com/ehHnezbvX4
— Evelyn Rae (@_evelynrae) October 5, 2020
Trump On The Mend, CNN Hardest Hit
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 4, 2020
@JackPosobiec – All of the anonymous sources just died
I have relatives in the hospitality/hotel industry. President Trump is the Ultimate Host. He enjoys making sure people are taken care of and having a good time. He just sent the people who there to support him outside Walter Reed about a hundred pizzas…while he's a patient. 😂
— Cari Kelemen (@KelemenCari) October 5, 2020
Update: HAHAHAHAHAHA
When The FBI Does It, That Means That It’s Not Illegal
Devin Nunes interview begins at the 20 minute mark, followed by Ric Grenell.
I Am Not Amused
"YOU HAD A CHOICE, SIR."
You had the chance to defund the CBC and you chose not to. I cannot believe I'm watching a man who had two majority governments and did nothing to rebalance the media playing field. https://t.co/qdRJpESPaM
— Katewerk (@katewerk) October 4, 2020
* It was one majority, my error. Point still stands.
White Men Can’t Jump
Things You’ll Never See On The CBC
In recent years, CBC has faced a significant decline in viewership and ad revenue. In 2019, only 0.8% of Canadians tuned into local CBC TV evening news broadcasts, with CBC only holding 5% of market share.
In a statement to True North, Senator Housako said that the government needs to reconsider the purpose of the CBC if the public consistently chooses other news sources.
I, Napoleon
The genius of the Babylon Bee…
A new California law requires businesses to provide separate restrooms for people who think they are Napoleon Bonaparte.
“Not providing a separate restroom for individuals who believe they are actually the 19th-century French emperor is hateful and wrong,” said Governor Gavin Newsom as he signed the bill into law Wednesday, flanked by several people dressed as Napoleon Bonaparte. “We will no longer allow these individuals to be discriminated against.”
It’s very clever. However do they think of these things?
h/t Bacardi Breezer
The Green Party, In Twelve Words
“Major federal party?”
I have more seats in my pickup than they have in parliament. https://t.co/2CDO5QyEgN
— 7 (@7uzidoesit) October 4, 2020
October 4, 2020: Reader Tips
Yes, my weekend has been busy with non-blogging work and activities, and it will continue that way until Tuesday. Your tips in the comments.
Social Disease
What changed, precisely? Facebook, Twitter And TikTok Say Wishing Trump’s Death From COVID-19 Is Not Allowed
Because it’s not like wanting Trump dead has been regarded as disqualifying activity in the past.
Walter Reed Update on POTUS
“…extremely happy with the progress he has made.”
First Assignment: Peter Pan
The Prime Minister's Office is hiring a storyteller. pic.twitter.com/ifvzFrxOxe
— Andrew Lawton (@AndrewLawton) October 2, 2020
Bob Gibson, 1935 – 2020
October 3, 2020: Reader Tips
Your tips in the comments, please.
President Trump And First Lady Positive For COVID-19
In the wee hours of Friday morning, President Donald Trump announced he and first Lady Melania Trump had tested positive for COVID-19.
“Tonight, [the first lady] and I tested positive for COVID-19. We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately. We will get through this TOGETHER!
Update — Trump has been taken to Walter Reed hospital, no sign yet of serious illness, but there’s obviously a lot of concern.
I’ve been away from the desk all day on a job site, you can drop your own updates in the comments, as I have to head back in a few minutes. Unfortunately my only feed there is CNN. It’s hard to believe this, but I’d forgotten what a bottom feeding, mind reading, no-speculation-too-wild crapfest that network is.
“I can’t believe you’re forcing me to vote for Trump”
Believe me when I tell you that the LAST THING I could POSSIBLY want would be to vote for Donald Trump. That’s why I am so stunned that you have taken it upon yourself to go to such lengths to FORCE me to vote for him! You sick, sick monster! I don’t even like him, not even one little bit. So I hope you’re happy with what YOU are making me do, which comes to me as a total surprise and is definitely not a foregone conclusion in any way.
Over the past four years, Trump’s ominous shadow has devoured everything that was precious about America, chewed on it and spat out only bones and gristle. This has slightly obscured the accomplishments of his administration, which include, if I am remembering right (DON’T TELL ME IF I’M NOT; THAT WILL MAKE ME ANGRY, AND YOU KNOW WHO ANGRY PEOPLE VOTE FOR), ending the budget deficit and doing whatever it was Abraham Lincoln did, but better and faster.
Do I think Trump has the attributes necessary for governing? Absolutely not! He is a dangerous man, and every day we spend under his leadership is a day we lose a precious share of the world’s respect that we may never regain. There’s definitely not a “But!” coming after such a strong and overwhelming condemnation of his leadership.
But! (You MONSTER! I can’t BELIEVE you put a “BUT” right here in my otherwise full-throated condemnation! That is the only explanation for how it could have gotten there; I know I would not have put it there.) I am more afraid that Joe Biden is the unwitting puppet of dangerous socialists, something you forced me to think using a mind ray. God! You’re even more disgusting than I imagined.
It is also bizarre and, frankly, counterproductive of you to insist that I not read any of Biden’s policy positions on anything, or how you have expended all this effort to make me baselessly paranoid that some shadowy, unseen figure is pulling his strings — something I would not think on my own! Can’t believe you’ve pushed me to this point.
I should also note that, much as I hold deep, principled reservations about Trump’s leadership, I just want to say that if anyone makes me feel the least bit uncomfortable about the legacy of racism in this country or urges me to learn one particle of history that I would not like to learn, I will panic, and when I panic, I vote for Trump (which is, I admit, weird given that I have ZERO desire to do so).
Also, I am sick of media bias. Journalists never quote the president saying anything that makes him look good or sound competent. But just statistically a person must sometimes sound at least kind of competent. Like the monkey-typewriter-Shakespeare thing! So if I see anywhere that the president said something that makes him look bad, malicious or incompetent, you know what that means: I’m going to have to vote for him. Twist my arm, why don’t you!
I am not worried about any dictatorial tendencies from Trump. Yes, he says all the time now that he deserves a third term and that his first one should not be counted, and he constantly implies that he will not accept the results of the election as legitimate if they involve the counting of mailed-in ballots. He also loves nothing better than to embrace creepy strongmen abroad! But (whoa, another “but”! You must be really messed up) I just kind of don’t think he really will follow through on any of it? And what if Biden, whom I have no reason to believe would do any of these things, were secretly planning something much, much worse?
Are there people on the right as bad as the people on the left who are really what is wrong with America? Yes, I think? You made me frame that very confusingly. Sure, it’s bad that the president is giving aid and cover to white supremacists, but — I can’t BELIEVE you would make me put another “but” here! This isn’t a sentence that should have a “but” in it! Though while we’re here, I guess I would say, since you’ve forced me to — but how much do we really need to care about that? You’ve given me no choice but to vote for Trump.
Is there anything any of you could say or do that would make me not vote for him? Wow, it’s condescending questions like this that have really forced my hand.
So I am going to hold my nose and vote for Donald Trump. It would be a real shame for the country, I think, but then again, it might not be such a shame. It almost feels like you WANT me to do it. Okay, I’ll do it.
Who Are The “Proud Boys”?
h/t Warren Zoell
Your Moral And Intellectual Superiors
From the same New York Times that fired an editor over a column by Sen. Tom Cotton.
The New York Times on Thursday published an opinion column authored by Regina Ip, a Hong Kong official the paper once described as “Beijing’s enforcer” in the city, calling for Hong Kong to accept its relationship with China as “destiny.”
“No amount of outcry, condemnation or sanctions over the Chinese government’s purported encroachment in Hong Kong’s affairs will alter the fact that Hong Kong is part of China and that its destiny is intertwined with the mainland’s,” Ip wrote. Noting Hong Kong “has been rocked” by protests, Ip said, China was right to pass a “national security” law in June allowing the government to impose life sentences on dissidents convicted of subverting state power. “Something had to be done, and the Chinese authorities did it.” […]
Ip, a member of the Executive Council and the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, is a long-time proponent of the Chinese Communist Party. A 2003 report by The Times’ Keith Bradsher noted Ip resigned that year as Hong Kong’s secretary of security, in part, because she was “widely seen as Beijing’s enforcer, sending police and immigration officers to perform sometimes politically controversial raids.”
The column came just months after The Times quietly removed advertorials placed by the state-backed China Daily. That issue became the subject of scrutiny after reporting from the Washington Free Beacon found The Times and other publications — including The Washington Post and Wall Street Journal — were running the ads, which were favorable to China’s government. Disclosures filed under the Foreign Agents Registration Act revealed The Times took $50,000 for the ads in 2018 alone.
Punch Back Twice As Hard
Nick Sandman, trailblazer: Court rules Nick Sandmann’s lawsuits against NYT, ABC, CBS, Rolling Stone can proceed
What Would We Do Without Peer Review?
It sounds absurd that an obscure US company with a hastily constructed website could have driven international health policy and brought major clinical trials to a halt within the span of a few weeks. Yet that’s what happened earlier this year, when Illinois-based Surgisphere Corporation began a publishing spree that would trigger one of the largest scientific scandals of the COVID-19 pandemic to date.