Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Giving in to doom is how authoritarians win.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

If America since Jan 2025 hasn’t broken your heart, you haven’t loved her enough.

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

The fight for our country is always worth it. ~Kamala Harris

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

Washington Post Catch and Kill, not noticeably better than the Enquirer’s.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

Not loving this new fraud based economy.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Second rate reporter says what?

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

The willow is too close to the house.

The lights are all blinking red.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” was supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Open Thread: Biden Economic Impact of Covid

Reader Interactions

96Comments

  4. 4.

    Villago Delenda Est

    It’s the Trump Disease.  It’s the American vaccine for the Trump Disease.

     

    It’s so great that we’ll have adults in the White House again on January 20th.

  9. 9.

    geg6

    So, my BIL’s oldest brother died of COVID yesterday.  He contracted it a few weeks ago and has been hospitalized in MI, where he lives.  They put him on a ventilator a week or so ago and he never came out of it.  So sad, but totally predictable.  He was a Trumper, though not of the Q variety.  Just of the stubborn asshole variety.  Poor BIL has lost two brothers in 7 months (the first was non-COVID related, but another stubborn right winger who thought he didn’t need to listen to his doctors about his diabetes).  I will never understand these wingnuts.  Happily, BIL seems to have escaped contracting the prion disease from them.  But I’m very, very sad for my BIL.

  13. 13.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @geg6: Please pass my condolences on to the family.  What a tragic waste, all because Donald is too stupid to understand anything about contagious disease.

  15. 15.

    geg6

    @LuciaMia:

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    I will tell him.  Thanks so much.  Just too much horror this year, in every way.  I know 2021 will only be slightly better because of the time it will take for the vaccines to do their jobs, but I’d take slightly better any day.

  18. 18.

    geg6

    @Steeplejack:

    Thanks, I’ll pass it along.  He is aware of Balloon Juice, so it won’t be some long, crazy explanation I have to give about all my “online friends.”

  19. 19.

    J R in WV

    @Mary G:

    I dunno if that’s really the Biden folks, but whoever it is, it’s hilarious.

    “It was smol accident. I sorry!”

    . .           .            ;~)

  22. 22.

    J R in WV

    @geg6:

    So sorry to hear of your family’s loss. Even worse that had he worn a mask more, and been more careful, it may not have happened.

    Sad~!!~

    You take care out there working with the public students!!!

  23. 23.

    rikyrah

    There was a tweet yesterday that said..

    ‘ How come nobody is coming out saying..

    2021 is gonna be my year!’

     

    Folks were like..

    Mannnnn…we’re just trying to make it through these next 30 days ALIVE.

    Thinking about 2021 is too much to contemplate right now.

  24. 24.

    Elizabelle

    @geg6:   I am so sorry.

    May your BIL’s loss save some other lives.  As in, may some of his friends and associates may wise up before they’re on ventilators themselves.

  25. 25.

    Elizabelle

    I put up on an excerpt on previous thread.  Blood red Campbell County in SW Virginia wants to declare itself a “First Amendment Sanctuary” county.”

    No tyrant, like our Democratic governor (once an Army physician) is going to tell these God-fearing patriots to wear masks!

  26. 26.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @geg6: This is so sad. The daily statistics are horrifying, but I think it’s hard to grasp the impact until it comes down to hurting or killing people we know. Condolences to your BIL and the whole family.

  28. 28.

    Mike in NC

    The Washington Post put up an article speculating on whether Princess Ivanka will try her hand at politics after January. The comments thus far are about 6000 variations on “Die in a fire, bitch!”

  29. 29.

    Martin

    @Elizabelle: Reminds me of the town in New Hampshire that was  taken over by libertarians and then shortly thereafter by bears.

    Grappling with what to do about the bears, the Graftonites also wrestled with the arguments of certain libertarians who questioned whether they should do anything at all—especially since several of the town residents had taken to feeding the bears, more or less just because they could. One woman, who prudently chose to remain anonymous save for the sobriquet “Doughnut Lady,” revealed to Hongoltz-Hetling that she had taken to welcoming bears on her property for regular feasts of grain topped with sugared doughnuts. If those same bears showed up on someone else’s lawn expecting similar treatment, that wasn’t herproblem. The bears, for their part, were left to navigate the mixed messages sent by humans who alternately threw firecrackers and pastries at them. Such are the paradoxes of Freedom. Some people just “don’t get the responsibility side of being libertarians,” Rosalie Babiarz tells Hongoltz-Hetling, which is certainly one way of framing the problem.

  30. 30.

    NotMax

    @Elizabelle

    Just as freedom of speech is not a shield for shouting “Fire!” in a crowded theater, freedom of assembly does not include doing so to set fire to the theater.

    //

  31. 31.

    geg6

    @J R in WV:

    Students are all gone until end of January.  And I’m only going into the office one day a week until then, then back to two days a week.  I feel safer at work than I do at Walmart.

  32. 32.

    rikyrah

    I had written earlier about how 90% of our office had been out due to contact with COVID.

    I was feeling better because the three initial people were doing better.

    One was good enough to come back to work.

    One got out of the hospital. He’s a walking testimony that you can catch COVID again. He was in the hospital, but, from what it sounds, he’s going to be one of those with long-time lasting effects.

    The last was said to be doing better and waiting for the results of his second test so that he can come back to work.

    So, why do I hear this afternoon that someone else had gotten it from one of the first three. The only person who caught it from someone else. Everyone else had tested negative. And, she’s in ICU. I’m just…..

     

    Edited to add: did another push for laptops this morning. Was shot down again. Will continue to make the case.

  35. 35.

    trollhattan

    Our English house guest just left to fly home, interestingly, to the country that just rapid-approving the Pfizer vaccine and so her mum could get her jab as soon as next week. She’s a psychiatric nurse who will also be administering it. Told Emily, “Say, since you know somebody, maybe you can, you know….” using my best NJ mob accent.

    The county infection numbers here are ghastly high, nearly 2x last summer’s peak. They sync perfectly with Halloween and I’m leery of the two weeks following Thanksgiving, which are just now populating the graph. Hoping we don’t see Fauci’s “peak of the peak” happen here.

  36. 36.

    geg6

    Thanks all.  I will pass on all your condolences to my BIL.  It will help him to know that there are people out there thinking about him and his family.  It’s been a rough year for him, poor guy.

  38. 38.

    Martin

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: The ‘rugged individualist’ is pretty deeply entrenched in US culture, and the GOP having been brainwashed that any government is ‘big government’ (well, anything outside of the military and ICE) have gone all in on it. Every single one of them convinced that they are solely equipped to take on the zombie apocalypse.

    I’m in favor of relocating these idiots to northern Alaska where gun ownership is nearly mandatory, and where they can test out their theories. I’d worry about the environmental impact, but they’d certainly all die and corpses are an important component in the circle of life.

  42. 42.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @rikyrah: I imagine she thinks it’s like that “cute” lemonade stand story from her memoir. Daddy will send the servants, all those grubby people from the rallies.

    Who’s the spoiled girl from Willy Wonka? Veruca Salt?

  43. 43.

    Martin

    @geg6: Sorry to hear that. I learned this morning of another colleague to pass due to covid. That’s the 5th I know of. I wonder how many I don’t know of yet. All work in higher ed around the country.

    Stay safe.

  44. 44.

    Elizabelle

    @Martin:   Would take the pressure off seals, which are better creatures.

    Let the polar bears hunt the patriots (successfully, please).  I’d watch a pay per view of that.

  46. 46.

    Amir Khalid

    Trump is live on YouTube right now talking all kinds of crazy about the election. It’s billed as an address to the nation, but I don’t see coverage of it anywhere else.

  50. 50.

    Ramalama

    Thought B Juicers would appreciate a diversion.

    Today is William Wegman’s birthday.

    Not sure why I have his birthday on my calendar – I’m normally not organized like that at all. But I do! His Weimaraners are put into ridiculous poses and costumes and the result is something so enjoyable. I attended a show of his in Boston in maybe the 1990s – and I loved everything about it. He even made some videos of himself, sans les chiens, that are also really deadpan perfect.

    Fun things to read in case anyone needs a palette cleanser:

    Playing hockey on his rooftop in Manhattan (might be behind a paywall in WSJ)

    Pretty pictures in Architectural Digest.

  55. 55.

    MomSense

    @rikyrah:

    I’m so sorry and I’m furious.  You are trying to do the right thing and you should be supported and commended for it.  It feels like employers are just going with this deadly flow instead of trying to protect their employees.
    I was talking to my son about it because he had a confrontation with the owner/director of his firm because senior people were not wearing masks and were holding meetings without requiring masks.  He knew the support staff were upset so he said something.  It worked in his case but he said he used up all his social and political capital to do it and feels like he is sort of on the outside now.
    We shouldn’t be treated like complainers or trouble makers when lives are on the line.  It seems like the whole understanding of the common good and our obligations to each other have eroded beyond repair.

  59. 59.

    Elizabelle

    @TaMara (HFG):   And their self-description, per their twitter account:

    We’re The First Good Bois. We’re moving to the White House soon. Our hoomans have decided to get a cat, so they’re not all that perfect anymore.

  60. 60.

    Sm*t Cl*de

    @Mike in NC:

    The Washington Post put up an article speculating on whether Princess Ivanka will try her hand at politics after January. The comments thus far are about 6000 variations on “Die in a fire, bitch!”

    Have any of the maggots thought about the optics of trying to go into politics if their biggest life accomplishment is being pardoned by Daddy for unspecified criming?

  63. 63.

    Yarrow

    @Mike in NC:  None of the traitor tots have anything near Daddy’s charisma. Sure, he’s awful but he knows how to read the room and give his people what they want to hear. He’s a fantastic con man. The kids have none of that. They’ll go nowhere.

  66. 66.

    Yarrow

    @MomSense:  That sort of thing is so infuriating. One of the things I so appreciate about Biden is that he models good behavior as far as Covid precautions are concerned. He wears a mask unless speaking at a microphone. Everyone else does too. They are social distanced. When the leaders model good behavior the people down the ladder are more likely to do it too.

  67. 67.

    NotMax

    @Yarow

    She may have a future as third assistant emergency back-up hostess on the Home Shopping Network’s graveyard shift.

    //

  68. 68.

    trollhattan

    @Yarrow:

    But Don Jr. yelled at us real good during the RNC and even uttered the magic phrase, “radical Islamic terrorism” which gives him superpowers. Also Kimberly on coke.

  71. 71.

    Yarrow

    @NotMax:  She’s going to roll in her money from the Chinese patents until the lawsuits make that more difficult.

    @trollhattan: Can you imagine the oppo on Don Jr.? File’s gotta be a five feet thick.

    @The Thin Black Duke: Maybe. Mark Burnett may have something in mind. They’re all so dull, though. I don’t know if they’ve got the fans that Daddy. does.

  72. 72.

    trollhattan

    @Yarrow:

    Heh, yup. Dude’s not smart enough to cover his tracks, I suspect. Nevertheless, of all the Trump spawn he’s the one who gives off the most “I deserve to be elected” vibe. Ivanka wants to be rich and worshiped more than she wants to be in office and I suspect now knows the difference. Now Jared is another story.

  73. 73.

    Gin & Tonic

    @trollhattan: Didn’t somebody here (or elsewhere, I dunno) point out that the last POTUS to lose a second term went on to watch his son be inaugurated 8 years later? I’d bet real folding money that Don Jr is acutely aware of that factoid.

  75. 75.

    Dan B

    @geg6: Sorry about your BIL’s loss.  Among other emotions is he feeling regret like, What if I had done or said XYZ?  I’ve had that for 25 years about people I lost to AIDS.  I seems to be connected to seeing people die young and horribly.

    I hope he finds some measure of peace.

  76. 76.

    Yarrow

    @trollhattan:  Agree that Jr.’s got that swag. But he’s also lazy and not that bright and doesn’t have his dad’s con man touch. He’d never get the devoted following his dad has.

  77. 77.

    Dan B

    @germy: Lots of onions and dust in here all of a sudden.  Mark Kelly lifting Gabby’s spirit and desire for empathetic public service.

  78. 78.

    trollhattan

    Just learned our asshole Trump-loving gun-permit broadcasting county sheriff, the one who refuses to enforce the curfew mandate, has COVID.

    Thoughts & prayers.

  79. 79.

    trollhattan

    @Yarrow:

    Donny Jr. has the personality of  a 5# tub of lard. I doubt any of the spawn has “The One” tattooed on them. Here’s hoping, anyway.

  80. 80.

    Brachiator

    @Martin:

    The ‘rugged individualist’ is pretty deeply entrenched in US culture

    The myth of it, anyway.

    I’ve recently been reading about homesteaders who came out West. No one would have made it five yards from their former homes without scouts, the Army and all kinds of support infrastructure.

  84. 84.

    germy

    Trump putting the "most important speech he's ever made" directly on Facebook sure reveals how important he sees their role in destroying democracy.

    — Schooley (@Rschooley) December 2, 2020

  85. 85.

    Leto

    @Brachiator:  The first couple of chapters of Rick Perlstein’s book, “Before the Storm” (about Goldwater), talks about the same thing. All of the help the federal government provided to everyone out there including, perhaps most importantly, water rights and access to water. They love to talk about just how rugged they are, how it was all their own grit and fortitude, but as with most myths, it’s a lie.

  88. 88.

    The Moar You Know

    It feels like employers are just going with this deadly flow instead of trying to protect their employees.

    @MomSense: Owners of my company are hardcore Trumpers and high risk.  And I’ll say this for them; if you decide to show up and “stand on your rights” and not wear a mask, you’re fired.  If you show up sick, you are fired.  And they’ve made it very clear that is the case in both our East Coast offices as well.

    And we’re doing the preliminary discussions but we’ve already cleared it with our California HR lawyers and are waiting for the East Coast; when a vaccine is available, if you choose, for whatever reason, not to get vaccinated, you will be fired.  And if you have a medical exemption, we cannot accommodate that and we can back that up 100% in court (I can’t get into why without talking about what it is we do, which I won’t go any further than “military”) and you will no longer have a job.

    Our CEO is an asshole and Trumper, but she’s also a former nurse.  She’s not willing to fuck around with this.  And she’s old enough that if she got this, she would die.  Which is helpful

    We are an exception and for that, I am truly grateful.   My wife is a schoolteacher and the new board wants to end distance learning and send her back in five days a week.  She’s got three years to retirement.  So she’s going to be taking a full leave of absence.  It is appalling that they’re even being asked to do that, given that six months from now we’ll have a vaccine.  What exactly is the rush?

  89. 89.

    debbie

    @rikyrah: 

    A lot of companies have had surprising (to them) success with switching to remote working. You might find something in the WSJ or similar about this and pass it along to the stubborn cahoots in your organization.

  90. 90.

    trollhattan

    @Leto: I’ve delayed reading the others in the Perlstein…tetrology? to start with “Before the Storm” and am not sorry to be investing the time. Joe McCarthy? Check. Daddy Koch? Present. John Birch Society? Right there. Brent Fucking Bozell? Had no idea he wormed his way so deeply into The Movement.

    So far it’s an education. How little I once knew–I thought the crazy stuff just dropped from the sky.

  92. 92.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Yarrow:  Agree that Jr.’s got that swag. But he’s also lazy and not that bright and doesn’t have his dad’s con man touch.

    also, unlike the elder generation/s, Fredo’s status as a trust fund baby is too well known for him to pass himself off as a “self-made man”, a fictional part trump plays even better than Rodney Dangerfield, if the audience is limited to people who found Caddyshack too highbrow and complicated (and I am not dissing Caddyshack, like most of my cohort, I can quote it extensively, even though I probably haven’t watched it in twenty years)

  93. 93.

    Brachiator

    @trollhattan:

    Just learned our asshole Trump-loving gun-permit broadcasting county sheriff, the one who refuses to enforce the curfew mandate, has COVID.

    Thoughts & prayers.

    Oh yeah, I got some thoughts for him.

  95. 95.

    rikyrah

    @MomSense: 
    I have decided to continue to prepare for the worst case scenario. Going to continue to get the work scanned. Getting it all done.
    I look at the trends. I don’t think that our Governor will have a choice. He is going to have to shut us down. We will probably be scrambling to get the laptops for staff, but the work will be ready for them

Comments are closed.