197 Comments
User's avatar
Mike Lew's avatar
2hEdited

Three thoughts about Food Services One...

Nothing says strength like having to be snuck out of a country in a catering container.

Without out their consent, using White House staff and the press pool as living decoys is pretty sick. They could have delayed the flight until the President landed in England and not risked those people's lives. Despicable.

I don't remember Weak Sleepy Joe Biden having to sneak out of a country.

Matt Bryant's avatar

I'll see your pretty sick, and raise you a downrght evil.

He literally used to the instance to joke with reporters about "if I go we all go"...

RichinPhoenix's avatar

I recall President Biden taking a long train ride back and forth to Kyiv during a war to meet Zelinsky and show support for Ukraine.

Justin Lee's avatar

I'm now envisioning Biden sneaking out of Ukraine disguised as a babushka.

Richard Kane's avatar

While noshing on a nice chocolate babka.

Robert Jaffee's avatar

Those were the tricks we used use in Russia and other Soviet states to get spy’s out and run decoys. How quaint, since Trump is most likely a spy—unfortunately, not for us!…:)

James Byham's avatar

No not for us .

Andrew Joyce's avatar

Oh, I bet OrangeMan was thrilled to be part of the subterfuge. I bet he had the inside of the catering cart painted in gold leaf. We are all just non-playing characters in his world.

Laura's avatar

He does seem to treat the Presidency as a reality show - no different from his heavily manipulated show The Apprentice.

James Byham's avatar

Every day a new episode .

Ray in the LA South Bay's avatar

Someone pointed out on social that Biden took an hours-long train ride to Ukraine.

rlritt's avatar

In fact Joe Biden often walked among people when he was president. He was very social and liked meeting people.

"Biden has often made surprise or casual stops in public areas, such as walking around Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia or greeting crowds near restaurants and local shops during trips to Delaware and Nantucket."

This however worried his secret service. So there is that.

Lisa Shampine's avatar

Everytime I hear about Biden mingling with the masses, I flash on that scene from The American President where POTUS decides he needs to stop at the florists. Michael J. Fox saying, "No hopping! There will be no hopping!" always makes me laugh.

rlritt's avatar

Ha ha. That was funny. Ill have to watch that again.

Linda Albert's avatar

I watch that movie every time it shows up. That's definitely a favorite scene.

Spencer $ Sally Jones's avatar

👏👏 We couldn’t say it better! Several reviving chuckles to start our morning. Thanks 😊😎

Tim Coffey's avatar

< Tim takes a deep breath >

Trump was clear during the 2024 campaign that RFK Jr. would play a role in his administration. 77 million Americans heard that and effectively said, "Sign me up, sir". When the anti-vaccine insanity reaches its inevitable endpoint, never forget it was the voters who brought us to that conclusion.

John's avatar

We are reaping the benefits of a broken political system. I think our society is crumbling also.

rlritt's avatar

Im sure Trump hated the wealthy Kennedy family who were wealthy and respected. Im sure he appointed Kennedy Jr because he knew it would tarnish the family name and he could boss around a Kennedy.

Robert Jaffee's avatar

RFK Jr. certainly didn’t need Trump to tarnish the Kennedy name—RFK Jr. did that all on his own—but point well taken. No sane person will work for Trump!…:)

Colleen Kochivar-Baker's avatar

Just a mild defense of the voters, no one had vaccines on the mind when they voted for Trump. It was the price of eggs closely followed by immigrants dining on our cats and dogs.

Plus, technically it was the utter idiots who call themselves Republican Senators that actually gave us RFK jr. Thank you Senator Cassidy, a doctor whose previous mission was getting kids in Louisiana vaccinated. So much for consistency among the MAGA elite.

Peter H.'s avatar

Beg to differ. While MAHA may not have been called that at the time, the overwhelmingly white, upper-middle class, and chronically online mommy crowd that is eternally "just asking questions" was all over this. No doubt in my mind it cuts political lines and has a significant horseshoe effect.

Colleen Kochivar-Baker's avatar

Post pandemic anger in Southern states was a bigger driver of the anti vax vote in 2024 than the MAHA crowd. Rand Paul isn't attacking Fauci because Paul is against the polio vaccine or thinks vaccines cause autism. He's attacking Fauci over covid vaccine mandates specifically. However, there is no question Trump's relentless campaigning on the covid vaccine mandates and Kennedy's notoriety and presidential campaing gave a huge boost in national prominence to the MAHA movement, which itself is about a whole lot more than vaccines.

Jean Jacoby's avatar

The post-pandemic anger in the Southern States? What drove that anger? Because they refused to believe that Covid existed? That so many died because stupid? My brother-in-law died of Covid while denying it existed. Maybe the Southern States should stop watching so much FOX entertainment channel. Oh, and the underlying embrace of Trump because he hit all those racist triggers, which nice people don't want to talk about.

ScottG's avatar

It has to do with the government telling them what they can and can't do. Nobody likes that. Even if it's correct (I'm not allowed to walk around spreading COVID, just as I'm not allowed to pour sewage into a creek that pollutes downstream).

The difference is cultural and comes down to: people in urban areas are used to having to co-exist. They understand that we can't all act like selfish A-holes and live in the same small space. People in more rural areas aren't like that, especially when they've been made more important all of their life as white people. They come across as inheriently selfish: it's the guy with the "don't tread on me" license plate that is the first in line to tread on someone else.

It's interesting that you don't hear a lot of anti-vax coming from the black community, even though they have every right to be the most suspicious, given the Tuskegee experiments and other dark periods in American health history.

Jean Jacoby's avatar

Excellent points. Re the black community not being so anti-vax, I guess they weren't watching FOX, and they mostly certainly weren't worshipping MAGA. My husband, who is from Kentucky and grew up in a lower middle-class home, has less sympathy for angry white faux-libertarians (like his brother and other relatives) than I do. What liberal Democrats typically do, is try to understand why some group embraces crazy/irrational/hateful/manifestly incorrect et al positions and convictions about things. That's a big waste of time, which is better spent fighting back against MAGA lies and distortions, as you said.

ScottG's avatar

I predicted this and then saw it happen in real time. Trump was in office and already it was the "Democrats/left" that were being blamed for COVID and the pandemic shutdown. In Red states controlled by the GOP. And somehow I knew someone would sell the narrative that it was the left's fault, and that people would buy it.

This is exactly what happened, but if I could see it happening, why weren't the Dems ready to counterpunch when they started getting blamed for COVID and it started dragging Biden down?

Colleen Kochivar-Baker's avatar

The Dems put way too much on the back burner during the very short 2024 Harris campaign.

ScottG's avatar

Sure, but I was talking about in 2020, while Trump was in office. You could already see the right wing machine in the summer moving the blame of the shutdown to the "left". It was completely predictable: the united front of "we're all in this together" in March 2020 doesn't satisfy the rage machine and doesn't sell ratings.

ScottG's avatar

I bet only 20% of MAGA voters are also MAHA. We live in a pretty MAGA upper class area and certainly there are some MAHA voters sprinkled in, but there is not a ton of crossover. Most still trust their pediatricians over non-trained MAHA influencers.

In talking to people, the much bigger driver of Trump votes is the fear of us white people living in $2.5M homes with nary a Hispanic neighbor for miles, being targets for illegal immigrants coming out of the woodwork to rape our daughters. Of course the guy who cuts my grass is just fine, as is the lady who cleans my house and sells me tamales, as is the handyman who I can hire to paint for $25/hour. But it's an article of faith that scary illegals are just waiting to jump our pretty blonde Lululemon-wearing daughters as they walk out to their customized Jeep Wranglers each morning.

I know this reads as sarcasm but I've heard it from multiple acquaintances, and not as sarcasm.

The Blockhead Chronicles's avatar

@Tim Coffey, I'm surprised you didn't let your answering machine do the talking today. Things never get less infuriating.

Tim Coffey's avatar

I thought about it, TBC, but whenever Trump does something horrible that was easily foreseen by people who aren't malevolent idiots, it's important to point that out. 🥴

Katherine B Barz's avatar

Just imagine a 77 million circular firing squad.

Katherine B Barz's avatar

The question to me is why? It’s beyond me why the Democrats want to take this route. What’s in their drinking water?

Laura's avatar

Yes. George Carlin was right. "If you have selfish, ignorant citizens, you're going to get selfish, ignorant leaders".

jpg's avatar

This all fits the “death cult” mold. The folks on “your side” adopting beliefs you spout that can have deadly consequences for them.

James Byham's avatar

I thought trumpy was just talking shit , RFK would ooze back under his rock and a semi normie would get the job . I misunderestimated the crazy .

Sophia's avatar

The way that Fauci is being vilified is a disgrace and a stain on our country. It makes me sick.

Katherine B Barz's avatar

Especially by that troika of evil.

James Byham's avatar

Larry , Moe and Curley ?

rlritt's avatar

Could somebody please tell me why congress has gone after Fauci? It makes no sense. He is not a politician. He was appointed and during his tenure a previously unknown world wide contagious disease spread like wild fire. Fauci didn't create it but had the job of trying to prevent the spread and come up with a prevention plan. He did that. I do not understand their problem. Is it because the leader of their party is a dangerously mentally ill old man who apparently needs constant proofs of loyalty?

Lisa Shampine's avatar

Because if Fauci can be blamed for all the "suffering" we experienced in the US during Covid, it lets Trump off the hook. That's the only thing I've been able to come up with.

Well, that and the obvious; Rand Paul and Ron Johnson are both idiots.

ktb8402799's avatar

Because in their minds, and the minds of their unhinged supporters, it lets Trump's disastrous mishandling of the pandemic completely off the hook if Fauci can be blamed for anything and everything related to Covid. Its sheer and utter nonsense and always will be of course, but they are fully committed to pretending otherwise and will disparage and smear a noble public servant and undermine public trust in the scientific process and public health officials writ large if it gives cover to the dangerous, unqualified, incompetent they elevated to the presidency.

V J's avatar

clean up on aisle 9 for trump and several others. r keldic or Keldec, Robert, was maybe the guy who supervised the loading a one or more planes with 17.3 or 17.8 tons of gowns, masks, gloves, and respirator on feb 6, 2020 after stupid trumpy got a call from XI, bet he was like a little girl puppy, when she had to pee, that was why medical persons had ONE good mask.

James Richardson's avatar

Fauci is old enough there's a fair chance he won't fight back. (Sue the hell out of them)

max skinner's avatar

It's time to recast 2020 as an evil time in which the president had an election stolen from him and the people had to confront a disease and lost some freedom of movement for a while. All anger must be focused on a stolen election and Fauci now because the election is 3 months away.

James Byham's avatar

Their wacko base demands this nonsense .

Justin Lee's avatar

Today's Cheap Shot is an instant classic.

Which gives me an idea: Maybe at the end of the year, the Morning Shots team could do a bracket system for us to vote on the best Cheap Shot of 2026, where each round of voting narrows down the pool until we pick the winner.

Andrew Egger's avatar

You've given us a lot to think about ...

Justin Lee's avatar

You could send the winner a free Bulwark hat and a pocket hose!

Richard Kane's avatar

Morning Shots Madness you say? I like it!

Ray in the LA South Bay's avatar

Sounds like a Webby nominee. 👍

Katherine B Barz's avatar

Love it. Bring it on.

CLR's avatar

"“I’ve seen proof of where they have a vaccination thing that looks like the size of a bottle of soda and pour it into a little child’s body,” the president said, describing a real vaccine process that definitely, actually, totally happens.""

Those proofs are presumably on the same newsreel that shows the vandalism of the reflecting pool and the millions of non-citizen voters.

Fortunately, vaccination policy rests with the states, not the idiot in the White House.

Ray in the LA South Bay's avatar

Problem is there are idiots in charge in certain states.

Jeri in Tx's avatar

I live in one of them. Half of my siblings are Orange Idiot supporters so they shun the vaccines.

My Mother, rest in peace, was a pediatric nurse for 40 years. We didn't have much growing up but we had all of our childhood vaccinations. She didn't mess around, gave them to us herself. For health reasons, and because she couldn't afford to miss work if we were sick. Dear old dad was not a reliable provider.

Her ethics were instilled in me over 50 years ago. Her ashes are be spinning in her urn at this.

Ray in the LA South Bay's avatar

Thank you for sharing this.

CLR's avatar

Remember Darwin....

Julia's avatar

Unless the debate descends from the clouds and reaches us peons on the ground in terms average people can understand, public opinion will always be at the mercy of conspiracy theorists whose sole purpose in life is to confuse, mislead and con the ignorant using lurid, spurious assertions in order to maintain power. This is the engine that drives gossip: the need of the powerless to feel powerful, in possession of "secret" knowledge, the untold truth that is being withheld. Is it surprising that Trumpian policies are attacking our educational system from preschool to the university level??

James Byham's avatar

Paul , Johnson et al KNOW their target audience .

Suz Stiles's avatar

I heard it was David Hearn forcing that bottle of soda of vaccines into those poor kids. /s

The Blockhead Chronicles's avatar

I'm 61. I had my MMR vaccines in the '60s. When RFK Jr. was appointed, I got a booster. (Doctor signed off, and apparently it's fine. I haven't grown another head or anything.)

Because apparently we're not done with measles, thanks to RFK Jr. and his ilk. And I suspect it's going to get a lot worse.

Dave's avatar

Same. I read that a booster is recommended for anyone who got an MMR shot prior to something like 1965. Took care of it, no big deal.

However, I never had a smallpox shot because of severe allergies and it was deemed a very low risk of getting the disease. I am keeping an eye out for the disease to take root again.

Tracey Henley's avatar

Me too, but I just walked into CVS and asked for one.

Heidi Richman's avatar

Reminder that states control the rules for who has to get which vaccines- for school, daycare, health‑care employment, etc. (10th Amendment/states/public health) while the fed gov funds, issues approvals and *nonbinding* recommendations.

Definitely a time to live in a blue state if you believe in science and vaccine efficacy. The blue state vaccine alliances that formed during COVID- West Coast and Northeast- have been updated as ongoing, designed to give residents stable, science-oriented recommendations even if federal policy becomes more restrictive or politicized.

Daphne McHugh's avatar

I would just add that anybody over age 60 should ask when taking regular blood levels if they can be checked for measles immunity. I have an idea that measles in older adults is really bad. Can’t help wondering if RFK would like to bring back the now extinct small pox virus. I think he cares about extinct species.

max skinner's avatar

In one of the many "now that you're 60" "now that you're 65" conversations that happen in annual physicals my doctor said don't need the blood test, just get boosted for MMR because vaccines given in the early 1960's wear off.

Suz Stiles's avatar

they can do a blood test to check your immunization level. I too got the vaccine in the early 60s but have enough immunization that I didn't need a booster. NOw I just need to get the shingles vaccine scheduled...

J AZ's avatar

Block - “haven't grown another head” …yet 🤔

Tracey Henley's avatar

I so hope Dr Fauci sues Mike Lee for defamation and cites that particular tweet. What a despicable human being Lee is.

Marvin Brooklyn's avatar

I am shocked, shocked that the Republicans are doubling down on supporting an accused wife and child beater.

And who can be surprised that the MAGA geniuses who have helped China become the leading country advancing medical science keep trying to keep Americans from getting vaccines proven to prevent diseases?

Julia's avatar

Just as with crippling Headstart, literacy programs, anything that gives lower income families a decent living, the anti-vax crusade is malice aforethought. Disguised as law-and-order and a campaign against "waste, fraud and abuse," these policies are aimed at creating a caste system in America, trying to make the less fortunate disappear. Trump and his ilk would be fine with people dying in the streets, as they do in other failed states. The wealthy high-and-mighty can just step over the bodies.

Katherine B Barz's avatar

Then they sit back and denounce those other people as bringing it on themselves because they are lazy. The poor get shot in the foot by Republicans and then get slammed because they don’t dance.

Suzanne Clancy's avatar

Honestly, I doubt there is that degree of forethought behind it. RFK really believes this shit and fancies himself an intellectual; Trump knew this nonsense was popular enough to help him get elected.

James Byham's avatar

Right ,trumpy really understands a large segment of the population .

rlritt's avatar

Ironically, most of these people are their voters.

rlritt's avatar

But Fausci.....

Don Gates's avatar

'“I’ve seen proof of where they have a vaccination thing that looks like the size of a bottle of soda and pour it into a little child’s body,” the president said, describing a real vaccine process that definitely, actually, totally happens.'

Unless it's bleach, no child should be having that much liquid injected into them. God bless you Donald Trump!

ANN VANDYKE's avatar

If I recall correctly, unvaccinated pregnant women were dying of Covid or else very sick. Not good for preventing fetal deaths. All this talk of prosecuting Fauci would fall apart very quickly in a court room because the facts don't support it. It's all about harassing him because some people are still pissed off about vaccine mandates.Once again if's about their right to make bad decisions, i.e. not take the shot. For some, "freedom" trumps all.

Dave's avatar

Yes. This is all about misdirection and getting the voter base up in arms prior to the mid-terms. Same story, different time.

Colleen Kochivar-Baker's avatar

Deaths from covid in pregnant women weren't significantly different from non pregnant adults. Nor were miscarriages. But, one serious concern of Ob/GYN's was the possibility of miscarriage from a cytokine storm, exactly what Fauci brought up about the vaccines. In neither case was it any kind of major issue. I wish somebody would ask Rand Paul why we didn't have pregnant women miscarrying at an 80% rate from actually getting covid.

ANN VANDYKE's avatar

But perhaps the more tragic given the circumstances?

V J's avatar

R Paul is so sucked into his own ego right now, wonder if his own wife will someday tell us more.

James Byham's avatar

It's spelled " Freedumb " , sorry to have to mansplain . 😁

Merrill's avatar

Everyday, Trump and his ghoulish colleagues come up with new ways to distract and infuriate America. Don't be distracted. We MUST throw these bastards out of power.

Name On Request's avatar

From this morning’s Bible reading, out of the book of Ecclesiastes (9:15-16):

15 Now there lived in that city a man poor but wise, and he saved the city by his wisdom. But nobody remembered that poor man. 16 So I said, “Wisdom is better than strength.” But the poor man’s wisdom is despised, and his words are no longer heeded.

As that book also tells us, there is nothing new under the sun.

Richard Kane's avatar

So what you're saying is a Biblical "Same ol', same ol'.

Al Keim's avatar

I would go to see Trump's presidential lieberry if the catering container had Madam Tussauds touch.

Linda Oliver's avatar

“Lieberry”- I like that; there sure won’t be any books in it.

orbit's avatar

I'm wondering what he sat on in there.

Maybe a milk crate...

Al Keim's avatar

The vision of a bussing cart has appeal.

V J's avatar

I too, thought about that, in the rear ( I used to drive one and they can vary. the bulk of the truck is on the sides, heat on one and chill on the other, the rear would have room for a folding chair, but I would suspect he stood, he was not there very long, If I had to I would brace myself and stand, I'm pretty sure they drove very slowly and straight.

James Byham's avatar

Was JV Dunce with him ?

Ray in the LA South Bay's avatar

I see what you did there. 😀

Kevin M's avatar

Too bad Paul, Johnson and Lee weren't victims of miscarriage.

The Blockhead Chronicles's avatar

Johnson is fortunate that Tommy Tuberville is in the Senate, so he's no longer the dumbest member of that august body. Paul and Lee are just grifters.

Linda Oliver's avatar

I think of Johnson & Tuberville as twins, Tweedle-Dee & Tweedle-Dumber (with a B!).

CLR's avatar

Don't forget trump and RFK Jr.

Garvin's avatar

I have long suspected that some people are miscarriages that lived. I am beginning to believe it more and more.

DK's avatar

Well we’ve certainly seen an inordinate volume of miscarriage of justice over the past decade so you may have a point there

Steve Alleman's avatar

"So they surreptitiously swapped him to a different flight, so secretly that his traveling press pool and even some White House staff on Air Force One didn’t know Trump wasn’t aboard."

So the press pool and WH staff were involuntary decoys? The Secret Service knew there was a credible threat that Iran could shoot down the plane, but they didn't tell the people who would have been collateral damage?

Ray in the LA South Bay's avatar

And then they threw him a dinner to be insulted by him.

Linda Oliver's avatar

Why would they do that?

Amy in Jersey's avatar

The changes to vaccine recommendations and the Fauci public assault are two things that make me absolutely irate. I understand that people see babies getting vaccines and it seems like “a lot of liquid”. I understand that people who do not have medical training, or advanced scientific backgrounds may have questions, fears, or misunderstandings about how vaccines work and what unintended consequences they might have. It’s our natural protective instinct to want to know exactly what is being put into the bodies of babies and small children. Really—I get it.

Here is what I don’t get, and will NEVER get. We have *decades* of solid scientific research that has an answer for every question. Every one. People may not be able to learn the fine points of the immune system, and vaccine science, and public health during the course of a doctor visit. That does NOT mean that there aren’t people who know these things inside and out. Who can give you answers translated into layman’s terms, that can give you peace of mind that while YOU may not understand it all, the doctor administering the vaccine DOES know it all. That is why doctors take national board exams. That is why researchers spend years writing dissertations, it’s why we get licenses to practice—so we can say, here is my degree, here is my license, I have proven to a board of experts that I understand what I am telling you and you can believe me. And if I lie to you, you can have my license suspended. You can sue me.

And now I’m going to go watch the Bulwark Live Morning Shots while I climb down off my soapbox.

Andrew Egger's avatar

I'm laughing at the idea of you trying to cool off from your (righteous) anger about this by going over to Morning Shots Live, which ended up being 90 percent me ranting about this very thing. Sorry!

ktb8402799's avatar

What I don't get, and will never get is given everything you just said and all the information, data, and expertise available to us regarding the efficacy and safety of childhood vaccinations, so many people are willing to bypass the legitimate expertise available to them, and rely on a narcissistic whackjob former heroin addict with zero qualifications or expertise like RFK, Jr. for their medical advice and guidance. That's what I truly don't get.

James Byham's avatar

You're too smart to get it , drop 75 IQ points and all will make perfect sense .

max skinner's avatar

I would add that in the decades since the widespread use of vaccines against "childhood" diseases we lay people could see that no one around us caught polio, measles, whopping cough, etc. in our childhoods or in that of our children. Gee something must have prevented that.

James Byham's avatar

Bleach in our wash made us immune to everything .