Linked List: July 28, 2020

Tuesday, 28 July 2020

Trump Retweeted a Doctor Who Believes in Alien DNA, Demon Sperm, and Hydroxychloroquine as a COVID-19 Treatment 

Will Sommer, writing for The Daily Beast:

A Houston doctor who praises hydroxychloroquine and says that face masks aren’t necessary to stop transmission of the highly contagious coronavirus has become a star on the right-wing internet, garnering tens of millions of views on Facebook on Monday alone. Donald Trump Jr. declared the video of Stella Immanuel a “must watch,” while Donald Trump himself retweeted the video. […]

Immanuel, a pediatrician and a religious minister, has a history of making bizarre claims about medical topics and other issues. She has often claimed that gynecological problems like cysts and endometriosis are in fact caused by people having sex in their dreams with demons and witches. She alleges alien DNA is currently used in medical treatments, and that scientists are cooking up a vaccine to prevent people from being religious. And, despite appearing in Washington, D.C. to lobby Congress on Monday, she has said that the government is run in part not by humans but by “reptilians” and other aliens.

She’s an absolute kook, as nutty as a squirrel turd. And the president of the United States is promoting her “medical” advice for the worst pandemic in a century. Which means he is a mentally deranged kook. Yes, that’s terrifying, but it’s obviously true.

Tom Nichols:

If Obama or Clinton or Biden were up late tweeting out crackpot theories from a “sex with demons” doctor, the Republicans would be calling on the military to surround the White House and enforce the 25th amendment with nuclear weapons.

Two updates:

  • Just in case you think The Daily Beast took Stella Immanuel’s positions out of context, she tweeted to thank them for their summary. Spend a few minutes reading her own tweets — if anything, The Daily Beast underplayed just how bonkers she is. She should be getting medical help, not giving it.

  • When asked about Immanuel’s clearly insane positions at a press conference today, President Trump, rather than walk back his retweet, doubled down on it, saying “I thought her voice was an important voice, but I know nothing about her.” And then walked out of room. Watch for yourself. Either he’s OK with her nuttiness and therefore is himself unhinged from objective reality, or he knows she’s nuts but promoted and continues to stand by her hydroxychloroquine quackery anyway, in which case he’s a sociopath. I’d say the answer is both — that Trump has an at-best tenuous grasp on objective reality and he’s a narcissistic sociopath — but clearly at least one is true. This one incident is a small self-contained proof that he’s mentally unfit.

The Talk Show: ‘The Least Worst’ 

First-time special guest Christina Warren joins the show. Topics include the App Store and antitrust, the general crumminess of video streaming service UIs, and historical examples of when Apple gets something wrong.

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Ike on Leadership 

“The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office.”
—Dwight Eisenhower

Another Good Story for the Enough-About-Politics-and-Trump’s-Clear-Mental-Derangement-Let’s-Stick-to-Sports Readers Out There 

Katie Rogers and Noah Weiland, reporting for The New York Times:

An hour before Dr. Anthony S. Fauci threw the first pitch at the season opener between the New York Yankees and the Washington Nationals, President Trump stood on the briefing room stage at the White House and declared that he, too, had been invited to throw out his own opening pitch.

“Randy Levine is a great friend of mine from the Yankees,” Mr. Trump, referring to the president of the baseball team, told reporters on Thursday as Dr. Fauci was preparing to take the mound. “And he asked me to throw out the first pitch, and I think I’m doing that on Aug. 15 at Yankee Stadium.”

There was one problem: Mr. Trump had not actually been invited on that day by the Yankees, according to one person with knowledge of Mr. Trump’s schedule. His announcement surprised both Yankees officials and the White House staff.

But Mr. Trump had been so annoyed by Dr. Fauci’s turn in the limelight, an official familiar with his reaction said, that he had directed his aides to call Yankees officials and make good on a longtime standing offer from Mr. Levine to throw out an opening pitch. No date was ever finalized.

As a sidenote to a story that clearly shows Trump’s raging narcissism, compulsion to bullshit, and inability to read the room, the photo that accompanies the story is really quite a thing. The man, for one brief moment in this 4-years-and-counting hellish inferno, looks genuinely happy.

CES 2021 Will Be Digital-Only 

The CTA:

The Consumer Technology Association (CTA) today announced CES 2021 — January 6-9, 2021 — will be an all-digital experience connecting exhibitors, customers, thought leaders and media from around the world. […]

“Amid the pandemic and growing global health concerns about the spread of COVID-19, it’s just not possible to safely convene tens of thousands of people in Las Vegas in early January 2021 to meet and do business in person,” said Gary Shapiro, president and CEO, CTA.

Smart of them to make this decision early. But at this point I genuinely wonder if CES 2022 will be feasible in-person.