March 11, 2020

Rush Limbaugh on coronavirus: "Who cares if it's 10 times more lethal than the flu?"

RUSH LIMBAUGH (HOST): The very top headline on the Drudge page right now is this: “Top Doc: Virus 10 Times More Lethal Than the Flu.” Now, wait. That’s not the – they’re burying the lede. That headline is gonna scare people to death. It’s an outrageous headline. The headline comes

It’s not Drudge’s headline. The website is called The Week. “Coronavirus Is 10 Times More Lethal Than the Seasonal Flu, Trump’s Task Force Immunologist Says.” That’s not the point of the story. Do you know what’s really the point of the story? The fatality rate is just 1% from this disease! So who cares if it’s 10 times more lethal than the flu?

The fatality rate of the coronavirus is 1%. “Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told lawmakers during hearing on Wednesday that COVID-19 is probably about 10 times more lethal than the seasonal flu.

“At the same time, he clarified that 10 times figure actually brings the new fatality rate lower than official estimates, which hover around 3%. The flu has a mortality rate of about 0.1%, so Fauci places the new coronavirus lethality rate at somewhere around 1%.” That’s the story. It isn’t that it’s 10 times more lethal than the flu, and this is how this crap gets politicized!

Pardon my yelling, but this stuff is what ticks me off, and my instincts tell me this. I know this kind of trickery and monkeying around with stuff is going on in these things because I know the media, I know the left, I know the Democrat Party, and I know how they’re trying to scare everybody and now they’re using Fauci here. “This is Trump’s guy! Trump’s guy is saying it’s 10 times more lethal than the flu,” which means nothing.

Ten times more lethal? Lethal than what? What does lethal mean? Does lethal kill you? Does lethal infect you? Does lethal give you a temperature of 102 versus 100? What does it do to you? It’s a meaningless comparative. Ten times more lethal? The only thing worth knowing in this story is that Anthony Fauci says the fatality rate to coronavirus is much less than what they believed.

It is 1%. It is not between 3 and 6%, and that number 3% and 6% has been out there for a couple of weeks. So here comes a news story saying, “Guess what? The fatality rate’s only 1%,” and that’s not the headline. The headline is: “Coronavirus 10 Times More Lethal Than the Seasonal Flu, Trump’s Task Force Immunologist Says.”

Well, yeah, he may have said it, but it was a setup for the actual lede in the story, and you have to read to the last paragraph to get to the nut. “At the same time, Dr. Fauci did clarify that 10 times figure actually brings the coronavirus’ fatality rate lower than official estimates”

So what the hell is the point of a headline that says the coronavirus is 10 times more lethal than the flu, if what that means is the fatality rate is actually much less than we thought it was? It isn’t 3 to 6%. It’s 1% tops. So, no, I’m not apologizing for one damn way I’ve approached this today, and I’m not gonna apologize. Not that anybody’s demanding, anyway.

https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/rush-limbaugh-coronavirus-who-cares-if-its-10-times-more-lethal-flu

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient.

March 9, 2020

Matt Gaetz entering self-quarantine after exposure to coronavirus from CPAC attendee.

https://twitter.com/nomoregopbs/status/1237137972245319680

March 9, 2020

Driver pulled over with expired 1997 license plate tags. He says he's been busy.

(CNN) You might be too busy to go to the grocery store, visit your parents or eat a good breakfast.

But one Louisiana man told police he's been too busy to renew his tags -- for almost 23 years.

A Slidell Police Department officer pulled over a man for an expired license plate that hadn't been renewed since 1997, they said on Facebook.

When the officer asked the man why, the driver replied, "Sorry, officer. I've been busy lately and totally forgot to renew my vehicle registration. I will take care of it as soon as I get home," police said.

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/03/09/us/driver-expired-license-plate-tags-police-busy-trnd/index.html?__twitter_impression=true

I could believe that.

March 9, 2020

Twitler is at it again this morning.

Fuck the coronavirus situation, let’s get to the pressing issues facing America!

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1236980284744241154

March 4, 2020

Roy Moore only gains 6.8% in the Alabama Senate primary.

Former Sen. Jeff Sessions and onetime Auburn University football coach Tommy Tuberville were neck and neck in the Republican primary race for the Senate on Tuesday night and will face off in a runoff election later this month, NBC News projects.

Tuberville had 33.4 percent and Sessions took 31.6 percent, with 99 percent reporting.

"I will fight for Alabama every day, and we will win the Republican nomination on March 31," Sessions told a crowd of supporters Tuesday night. He argued that he was a proven and vetted supporter of President Donald Trump and said Tuberville would be further vetted during the next phase of the race.

They are trailed by three-term GOP Rep. Bradley Byrne, who had 27.3 percent of the vote, while 6.8 percent of voters had cast ballots for Roy Moore, the 2018 Republican candidate, who lost amid allegations that he'd had improper sexual contact with young girls. Moore won't make the runoff, NBC News projects.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/sessions-likely-headed-runoff-alabama-gop-senate-race-roy-moore-n1148956

Poor Roy, he was hoping to finish in the teens.

March 3, 2020

Man brings llama to his sister's wedding. She is not amused.

(CNN)With her crisp white dress and beautifully done hair, the bride arrived at the wedding hall ready to be married.

Then she saw her brother. And next to him, a llama.

Riva Weinstock was unamused, but she didn't need to say so -- her reaction to the well-dressed wedding crasher was caught on camera and seen around the world.
Her brother, Mendl, posted the photo on Reddit where it quickly blew up, receiving more than 150,000 upvotes. That made it the top overall post this week and the subject of much internet joy.

The gag started five years ago when Riva and Mendl were driving from their home in Ohio to Indiana with some friends.

"She was talking about her wedding, planning it, making plans almost as if it was going to happen the next day even though she wasn't dating anybody at the time," Mendl told CNN.

The nonstop talk between the three teenage girls got on Mendl's nerves. So as little brothers do, he blurted out something that he knew would get a good reaction out of her.

"I said, 'If you make me come to this wedding, I'm going to bring a llama with me," Mendl recalled. "It was just the first thing that popped into my head."

Naturally, Riva got upset and said that he was going to ruin her special day. But thinking that it was just a joke, she accepted the idea and said, "I give up. The llama is invited to the wedding."

Fast forward five years and Riva got engaged in October. She called Mendl with the happy news. Not even an hour later, she received a text that said his llama rental was confirmed.

"When my brother puts his mind to something, he gets it done. So at some point I had to accept it and decide that it was easier to get in on the joke than to fight it," Riva said.

Mendl rented a llama for $400 from a llama farm near Cleveland and even had a custom tuxedo made. While $400 is a lot to shell out for a 21-year-old college student, Mendl said it was worth every penny.

"It was so worth it. I mean it was worth it just to see her reaction, but it's been more worth it now that I've gotten all this internet fame," Mendl said.

The llama, named Shockey, stayed outside of the wedding hall on Sunday for about 30 minutes, taking pictures with guests. "I was not too thrilled. I think my face in the picture pretty much wraps it up," Riva said.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/03/us/llama-wedding-photo-trnd/index.html