We have officially hit 100,000 COVID-19 deaths in this country.
And how did the leader of our country spend the weekend while the death toll ticked closer and closer to 100,000?
He golfed.
Nearly 100,000 lives have been lost, and tens of millions are out of work.
Meanwhile, the president spent his day golfing. pic.twitter.com/H1BVNtgVjA
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) May 24, 2020
President Thin Skin obviously took the bait dangled by Biden’s ad, addressing it in a tweet that took a swipe at President Obama for golfing after condemning the death of James Foley:
Some stories about the fact that in order to get outside and perhaps, even a little exercise, I played golf over the weekend. The Fake & Totally Corrupt News makes it sound like a mortal sin – I knew this would happen! What they don’t say is that it was my first golf in almost…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 25, 2020
….Hawaii in a big, fully loaded 747, to play. What did that do to the so-called Carbon Footprint? He also played moments after the brutal killing by ISIS of a wonderful young man. Totally inappropriate – and it was me who shattered 100% of the ISIS Caliphate. I was left a MESS!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 25, 2020
From CNN, which debunks President Didn’t Kill Osama’s lies: obviously he’s played way more golf than President Obama at this same point in his presidency. But what I thought was interesting was this nugget in the story:
“Obama did golf in 2014, while on vacation in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, minutes after condemning the murder of journalist James Foley. Obama conceded in an interview the next month that the golfing was a bad idea, saying, ‘I should’ve anticipated the optics.'”
So, here is President Reality TV Host criticizing the optics of President Obama golfing after making a statement about Foley’s death, while TOTALLY IGNORING the optics of himself golfing through a milestone in the COVID-19 crisis. Did no one around him suggest that the optics of him golfing this weekend would be less than optimal? Note that this was the first time President Sociopath golfed since the beginning of March. Which means he knew — HE KNEW — the optics of playing golf while Americans died by the tens of thousands weren’t good, at least he acknowledged it for three months there. So why did he choose to golf this weekend when he knew perfectly well this milestone was about to be met?
It’s just a theory on my part, but I think his golfing was deliberate and a way to desensitize the GOP, his supporters, and those people who are starting to waffle on their support of him to the horror of 100,000 deaths, and make it one more point in his culture war, just like his demand to reopen churches. I think he went golfing on this weekend, Memorial Day weekend, the weekend when this virus was going to take a symbolically important turn to force his supporters and the GOP as a whole to pick a side: either you accept, you internalize that 100,000 American deaths aren’t a big deal — it couldn’t be a big deal if the President of the United States played golf through it, right? Or you are on the other side, against him and against FREEDOM-LOVING AMERICANS and you cower in fear over a fake threat. It was a test of his followers, of conservative media, and Republicans in general.
Speaking of: this weekend, President Anti-Science paid tribute to fallen soldiers at Arlington Cemetery, and Vice President Biden did so at a veteran’s memorial in Delaware. Take a guess which one wore a mask.
And right on cue, Fox News’ Brit Hume mocked Biden for it:
This might help explain why Trump doesn’t like to wear a mask in public. Biden today. pic.twitter.com/9l1gw1ljBE
— Brit Hume (@brithume) May 25, 2020
Yep! Because that’s more ridiculous than this:
While this is clearly the preamble to President Mar-a-Lago moving the convention to Florida, I have an alternative suggestion: I happen to know there are a bunch of cruise ships docked right now that would probably be happy to host thousands of Republicans out at sea. There are on-site ballrooms, everyone could have their own rooms, and if anything were to go wrong and someone spread the infection, it would be easy enough to quarantine the whole mess. I think this solves many problems at once. Call me, Carnival. (You know how to get in touch.)
Finally, The Conspiracy-Theorist-in-Chief is also trying to distract from the COVID crisis by continuing to spread baseless and hurtful conspiracy theories about Joe Scarborough and the aide who died in his office. The widower of Lori Klausutis wrote a letter to Twitter, asking them to delete President Monster’s tweets, noting that they violate the terms and conditions of the site. Twitter has issued an apology but declines to remove the tweets because they are fucking cowards.
Not everyone is buying the mask = weakness message the White House and its sycophants are selling. Here are a bunch of New Yorkers NOT HAVING IT with a woman who came into a store maskless:
Don’t fuck with New Yorkers, yo.
Governor Cuomo has lifted restrictions on team practices in New York State.
Theater producers and concert promoters are writing 2020 off altogether.
Meanwhile, the Venice Film Festival is still on.
As for TV production:
The state of California still has not released guidelines for restarting TV and film production, despite suggesting they were about to. The Industry-Wide Labor-Management Safety Committee task force is drafting a White Paper for government officials on how to reopen and is expected to be complete in a week or two.
And over in the U.K., strict quarantine measures have been put into place for people traveling from overseas, dashing any hopes for restarting any international productions, including series like The Witcher.
World of Dance had to film the finale without a studio audience thanks to the virus. It returns on NBC tonight.
BBC has ordered two COVID-19-related documentaries, Fighting The Virus and Keeping Britain Fed.
Former New York Knicks’ Patrick Ewing has tested positive.
Turner Sports broadcaster Ernie Johnson refused to be a part of an all-star golf tournament between a pair legendary golfers and NFL quarterbacks on Sunday, as his son has muscular dystrophy, and is at particular risk from this virus. Once more for those in the back: fuck those people who refuse to wear masks — or worse, mock those who do. Y’all don’t know who people are trying to protect.
Good News:
HBO is donating $1 million to COVID-19 relief aid, money that they would have otherwise spent on Emmy after parties and celebrations.
Fresh Off The Boat and Kim’s Convenience’s casts will be doing table reads to raise money for charity.
The casts of Avenue 5 (underrated, and worth your time, ESPECIALLY right now) will participate in a virtual Q&A.
All Other TV News
Saturday marked the 10th anniversary of the Lost finale (as I might have mentioned), so there were obviously a few think pieces about it:
Here’s a reminder of what the whole finale brou-ha-ha was about.
One writer rewatched season six and had some thoughts about it (I’m still surprised that the final shot of the 815 wreckage caused so much confusion but, OK).
And here are a bunch of facts about the show that you probably already knew.
And you can keep up with my effort to add my Lost recaps to Foolish here. It, like Lost, ain’t easy.
Along those lines, Title Max (?? that Title Max? YEP, that Title Max) has ranked 100 TV shows series finales, based on the ratings for the final episode and the ranking on IMDb, to determine the best series finales, which … I mean, I guess that’s one way of doing it.
FX has officially greenlit American Horror Stories, the spinoff of American Horror Story, which will tell self-contained horror stories each week. Yay! As for American Horror Story, it has officially been pushed back to 2021.
FX has also renewed It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia for season 15, making it the longest-running live-action comedy series on television, dethroning The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. FX also renewed Better Things for season 5. Good news all around!
FX announced The Old Man, A Teacher, and Y: The Last Man are scheduled for their 2020-2021 season. They also announced documentaries and docuseries, Hip Hop Untold, Hysterical, Pride, and A Wilderness of Error.
Rob McElhenney is one of the unfortunately rare creatives who is willing to admit the limits of his own knowledge and experience and actually try to do better. See guys? It’s just not that hard to listen to other voices who might have a different experience than you and improve your work.
In grimmer news, on CBS This Morning, Gayle King had an emotional and heartbreaking response to a disturbing number of racially charged stories in which black men have been targeted and killed.
“Once again I say thank goodness that there’s videotape,” said King after viewing the footage. “As the daughter of a black man and the mother of a black man, this is really too much for me today.”
“I’m still rattled by this last story and she’s practically strangling her dog to make these false accusations against another black man,” she continued, referencing the Minneapolis incident as well. “I’m still so upset by that last story where the man is handcuffed underneath a car where people are pleading he can’t breathe and we’re watching a man die.”
“So we go from that story to this story, where she falsely accuses a black man on television,” continued King. “I don’t even know what to do or how to handle this at this particular time. I know that this is … I am speechless. I am really, really speechless about what we’re seeing in television this morning. It feels to me like an open season and it’s not sometimes a safe place to be in this country for black men and today it’s too much for me.”
Meanwhile, Jimmy Fallon is trending on Twitter for a 20-year-old Saturday Night Live sketch in which he performed in blackface in an impersonation of Chris Rock.
We now know definitively that yes, Cersei was pregnant. It doesn’t change a damn thing.
Here, Legendary judge Jameela Jamil and host Dashaun Wesley explain ballroom for those who are unfamiliar. Basically, it’s Pose, the reality competition and I can not wait. Legendary debuts tomorrow on HBO Max. A reminder for how you can access HBO Max for free if you’re already an HBO subscriber.
Bachelorette Rachel Lindsay is disappointed in Bachelorette Hannah Brown’s decision to issue a statement about her dropping the N-word on Instagram, and not apologizing in an Instagram Live video which she told Rachel she was going to do.
This imaginary cast of the upcoming miniseries based on The View is trash. Give me Cheri Oteri as Barbara Walters, and Leslie Jones as Whoopi or don’t bother.
OANN’s bullshit lawsuit against Rachel Maddow has been tossed out of court because of course it was.
Renewals
- What We Do in the Shadows has been renewed for a third season on FX.
Cancellations
In Development
- Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng has been bought by Annapurna Television.
Casting News
- Walton Goggins is narrating NASA & SpaceX: Journey to the Future, a documentary for Discovery and Science Channel.
- Yovanna Momplaisir is returning to The Real Housewives of Atlanta.
Mark Your Calendars
- Dark returns on Netflix on June 27.
- Royalties will debut on Quibi on June 1.
- I May Destroy You will premiere on HBO on June 7.
- Zenimation is now streaming on Disney+.
- Selling Sunset season two is on Netflix, and a third season will premiere on August 7.
- Uncut Gems is now streaming on Netflix.
- Chasing the Sun will return on Ovation on June 7.
- Hollywood Game Night will return on NBC on June 7.
R.I.P.
Hana Kimura, Japanese wrestler and star of the Netflix series, Terrace House: Tokyo
Bill Small, Former CBS News Washington Bureau Chief
Jimmy Cobb, Jazz drummer
WATCH THIS
America’s Got Talent: Welcome new judge, Sofia Vergara. As for how the live shows are going to go this summer … Season premiere. 7 p.m., NBC
World of Dance: DANCING. Season premiere. 9 p.m., NBC
Our New Reality: A Diane Sawyer Special: Diane Sawyer and the ABC News team explore how COVID-19 has upended our lives and where we go next. 7 p.m., ABC
The Genetic Detective: In this new series, a genetic genealogist and her team use familial DNA to solve crimes. (For you murderinos out there: think Golden State Killer.) Series premiere. 9 p.m., ABC
Hannah Gadsby: Douglas: The New Zealand comedian is back and wishing she had saved some of her trauma material. Netflix
Late Night:
- Jimmy Kimmel Live: Lisa Kudrow, Jacob Collier with Ty Dolla $ign & Mahalia
| TUES. | 7:00 | 7:30 | 8:00 | 8:30 | 9:00 | 9:30 |
| ABC | Our New Reality: A Diane Sawyer Special (new) |
The Genetic Detective (new) |
| CBS | NCIS (repeat) |
FBI (repeat) |
FBI: Most Wanted (repeat) |
| CW | Stargirl (new) |
DC’s Legends of Tomorrow (new) |
Local |
| FOX | Hell’s Kitchen (repeat) |
Gordon Ramsay’s 24 Hours to Hell and Back (repeat) |
News/Local |
| NBC | America’s Got Talent (new) |
World of Dance (new) |