Today's News (2020/5/10): Republican Sabotage Edition

UPDATED: If you see fewer than 13 stories, refresh this page.
This section of the update is only about Republican and other fascist efforts to sabotage and/or discredit efforts to contain COVID-19, as I outlined back on April 21st.

I am assuming you have already heard about the anti-vax propaganda video Plandemic, which says all this is intentional, COVID-19 isn't real, vaccines in general and against it in particular are bad, and so on and so forth. That pseudo-documentary is being leveraged heavily by Trump and Trump-aligned groups to attack attempts to control the viral outbreak. One America News (OAN) has leaned particularly in with a 'story' amalgamating 30-60 years of conspiracy theories into one big "Only Trump can Save Us from the Communist Chinese Democrats Population Control Dictatorshop" propaganda exhibition, and it is really out to lunch. But Donkeyballs Donald continues to promote the network, of course, because it's supporting him and his re-election.

Also of interest are how the Washington State and Oregon Republican parties, having briefly flirted with sanity, are jerking hard to the Trumpist mainstream. The GOP are opening more lawsuits to try to shut down disease control efforts, and their paramilitaries - the Three Percenters in particular - are threatening violence against people reporting businesses not complying with health measures.

It's only going to keep getting this year, kids. The Conservative Movement is a death cult, and there is no United States government, only a Republican government, by and for them - and, mostly, their donors. Cascadia Now.

1. Churches sue Gov. Brown over Oregon coronavirus restrictions
2. At a Republican candidate forum for Washington governor, the coronavirus barely exists
3. Reports: Deep State, China use COVID-19 for population control
4. Timeline: Tracking Trump's rising coronavirus death toll estimates
5. Sioux tribe rejects South Dakota governor request to remove Covid-19 checkpoints
6. Column: America’s tolerance for mass murder is the coronavirus’ best friend
7. Washington residents threatened after naming open businesses, as protesters gather at Capitol to assail coronavirus closures
8. Selah mayor: City won't enforce Gov. Inslee's stay-at-home order
9. Federal judge halts Kentucky temporary ban on church mass gatherings
10. They Are Giving You Death and Calling It Liberty
11. In Yakima County, tensions grow as some want life back to normal while agricultural workers want more protection amid coronavirus
12. Trump wants America to ‘normalize’ coronavirus deaths. It’s the media’s job not to play along.
13. Multiple White House Staffers Diagnosed With COVID-19 as Trump, Pence Hold Photo-Ops With the Elderly

( The articles. )

Today's News (2020/5/10): Donkeyballs Incompetence (and other news) Edition

I'm pretty much thinking that the Obama commentary in this update - commentary not intended for public consumption, but it came out anyway - is what led to this weekend's "OBAMAGATE" tweet by Donkeyballs Donald and the resulting twitterstorm by bots, conspiracy theorists, fascists, and all the other usual Republican crowd. If you can get through all the bot tweets just repeating the hashtag, it's kind of an important look inside, to see how there's just nothing in it news-wise? But lots of calls for mass arrests of Obama administration officials, along with lots and lots of quoting Plandemic and QAnon and OAN and all of that delusional nonsense.

I mean, obviously, they always have that shit queued up. But I think the Obama commentary is what made Donkeyballs pull this particular trigger.

And, as always, Cascadia Now.

1. Scoop: Trump officials' dysfunction harms delivery of coronavirus drug
2. In the early days of the pandemic, the U.S. government turned down an offer to manufacture millions of N95 masks in America
3. 'It makes no sense': Feds consider relaxing infection control in US nursing homes [EDITOR: This is not included in the sabotage edition because it was queued up a a rules change before the pandemic.]
4. White House adviser Hassett: 'It's scary to go to work'
5. The four men responsible for America's COVID-19 test disaster
6. Obama says end to Michael Flynn case puts rule of law at risk, calls covid-19 response a ‘disaster’
7. Small businesses band together to sue insurers over coronavirus damage
8. GOP Senate Candidate Wants To Ban Chinese Students From American Universities
9. Doctors keep discovering new ways coronavirus attacks body

( The articles )

After going to post

This happened.

Link is to Trump's official Instagram. It's one of his favourite photos and is captioned "HOPE YOU ENJOYED INVESTIGATING ME / NOW IT'S MY TURN." It's widely being interpreted by QAnon and rightists generically as the beginning of at very least a round-up of Democratic Party leaders, most particularly from the Obama administration, who are, of course, responsible for everything bad, including COVID-19, and who are all guilty of treason. The attempt to investigate the Russian interference is a "soft coup." Dinesh D'Souza is one of the better-known neofascists calling for Obama's immediate arrest.

You're also seeing a revival of all the conspiracy theories during the Obama administration, including that he's secretly gay/Michelle is secretly a man, that he was never an American and not eligible for office, that everything about the Obama presidency will be undone full stop, and so on.

Really, it's the Flynn travesty at the Justice Department - which to them "proves" that Russian interference was a hoax and that it was being run by Obama personally - primed them for this. QAnon in particular is flipping out, saying "it's really happening!!!" as they have many times before.

Christ, this absolute idiocy is depressing. Moreso when you realise how much they mean it.

Cascadia Now.