‘these embarrassments to my state’, ‘racist feckwit’, ‘mouthbreathing zombies’, ‘sheep-dip-for-brains’,’whiny morons’, ‘the mouthbreathers’, ‘thoughtless morons demanding their freedom to buy lawn fertilizer and visit their hair colorist right the fuck now’, ‘the persuadable and stupid’. Damn, that was a good read. Thanks Rayne.

to borrow a phrase,

“the gathering storm” :

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/17/far-right-coronavirus-protests-restrictions

”… The pattern of rightwing not-for-profits promoting public protests while still more radical groups use lockdown resistance as a platform for extreme rightwing causes looks set to continue in events advertised in other states over coming days…. ”

i have no doubt that these activities are being co-ordinated at the national level. they could easily be covertly associated with the trump campaign or with some of trump’s wealthy supporters.

the danger of this behavior is that it, very likely deliberately, sets a pattern for destructive protests later, when millions of desperate, out-of-work, out-of-a-home americans look for some way to express their rage at what they are having to endure.

as for michigan’s betty boop, our secretary of education:

“… On Wednesday in Lansing, Michigan, a protest put together by two Republican-connected not-for-profits was explicitly devised to cause gridlock in the city, and for a time blocked the entrance to a local hospital.

It was organized by the Michigan Conservative Coalition, which Michigan state corporate filings show has also operated under the name of Michigan Trump Republicans. It was also heavily promoted by the Michigan Freedom Fund, a group linked to Trump cabinet member Betsy DeVos…”

I would think the evangelicals would put out a memo to check the batteries in wands after a pastor who had proclaimed that God is bigger than the virus died on Easter from the virus.

From Jamelle Bouie in the NYTimes today:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/17/opinion/coronavirus-relief-trump.html

There’s no guarantee that Americans will respond to the pandemic and economic collapse with support for more and greater assistance from the federal government. But the possibility is there and it will become more apparent the longer this continues. If the rolling depressions of the late 19th century disrupted the social order enough to open the space for political radicalism — from the agrarian uprising of the Farmers’ Alliance to the militant agitation of the industrial labor movement — then the one-two punch of the Great Recession and the Pandemic Depression might do the same for us.

In which case, it makes all the sense in the world for Trump, the Republican Party and the conservative movement to push for the end of the lockdown, public health be damned. After years of single-minded devotion, the conservative movement is achingly close to dismantling the New Deal political order and turning the clock back to when capital could act without limits or restraints.

But in trying to destroy the administrative state — in trying to make government small enough to “drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub” — conservatives left the country vulnerable to a deadly disease that has undermined that project and galvanized its opponents.

And all of this is happening as one of the most progressive generations in history begins to take its place in our politics, its views informed by two decades of war and economic crisis.

Yes, nothing is set in stone and, yes, events still have to unfold. But at this moment in American life, it feels as if one movement, a reactionary one, is beginning to unravel and another, very different in its outlook, is beginning to take shape.

Can an energized Democratic Party in the context of a demoralized Fox Party pull off another Progressive Age ?

” It’s just not clear yet whether this was homegrown or if there was help from abroad.”

It’s almost always both. Plus whatever usual and unusual idiots want to get into the act.

It didn’t make sense that people would go out and demonstrate in the middle of a pandemic. They either don’t believe they will die or they are fighting for the right to die. But then if you’re not very sick why try to make your self ill so you qualify for an exit. These people simply don’t seem like the brightest or the best the US has to offer.

On the upside if they all die funeral homes will make money and there will be fewer Republicans voting. On the other hand they may infect their children and others who have no interest in dying.

As to who or what organized it. Perhaps over seas interests and white nationalists

Some may also have been sucked into this because they are desperate for money. Had there been financial assistance to the degree there has been in some EU countries and Canada people might not be so desperate. Canada has done a decent job of providing financial assistance to people and small business. The deficit has climbed but most politicians understand people need money to feed themselves and families and pay at least some of their bills

Right now those protesters look like idiots and at this rate the virus will not be contained. That may help trump and Russia

The TRUMP ADMINISTRATION and the CORONA GRIFT [another infinite series]
[via John Weaver]
https://twitter.com/JesseLehrich/status/1250595619397386245
9:23 PM · Apr 15, 2020

FEMA gave a $55,000,000 no-bid contract to a bankrupt company with no employees for N95 masks – which they don’t make or have – at 7x the cost others charge. [WaPo]

Everyone needs to see today’s “expose” in WaPo regarding the story about CDC’s development of the first RT-PCR tests for COVID-19. Very interesting. It was largely congruent with what Science magazine’s reporting was uncovering real time, but with more details.

Unfortunately I think the sources are still gaslighting the reporters. I have some suspicions about this story that I need to still track down.

Link