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You are here: Home / Politics / Biden Administration in Action / Late Night Open Thread: Never Give Up, Never Surrender

Late Night Open Thread: Never Give Up, Never Surrender

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As a devout Cynic of the Eeyore school, let us never forget that this world and its bipedal inhabitants have been in a state of decay ever since the Big Bang. Our goal is live our best and truest possible lives, regardless of the morons and the haters. It ain’t easy, but easy is an overrated attribute!

And there is always snark to lift our spirits:

(I suspect I’m not the only aspiring agoraphobe who’s dreading the prospects of a Big Gathering Summer of hugs and crowds, either. It’s okay, we can manage, one masked-as-necessary step forward at a time… )

ETA: Just ran across this…

Reader Interactions

57Comments

  3. 3.

    Elizabelle

    Thank you for this minty fresh thread.

    Rich Lowry. It’s amazing what ends up editing and writing, alas.

  4. 4.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I’ve heard a lot of pundits say that Biden underpromises and overdelivers as if it’s a sneaky trick

  7. 7.

    Fair Economist

    Not only does Biden underpromise and overdeliver, he overdelivers in spades. Six months ago, it looked like *maybe* things would be getting normal again by fall. Nobody thought we’d be open enough to get decent turnout for movies in May, but here we are. California is being IMO sensibly cautious but even here we’ll get a full reopening by June, and it looks like a good decision.

    He’s doing a great job.

  8. 8.

    wenchacha

    Didn’t tfg say we’d all be together for Easter 2020? I think POTUS Joe Biden has it all over that other guy.

  9. 9.

    dmsilev

    @wenchacha: ‘Churches will be full’. Really stupid at the time; given what we know now about how the virus spreads, really really really stupid in retrospect.

  10. 10.

    Geoduck

    Not a slam on Biden, but in my SW Washington State county, sigh, the COVID numbers are creeping up. Not to astronomical numbers, but up nonetheless. I guess it’s because we’re opening back up and a lot of people still haven’t gotten vaccinated. Definitely have our share of the Derp Brigade here. On the positive side, a lot of people are still wearing masks in the supermarket, myself included, even though it’s no longer even technically mandatory.

  12. 12.

    feebog

    Uhh,, Rich?  I just got home from playing cards and eating tacos with friends.  And it’s still well over a month before the 4th of July.

  13. 13.

    Wag

    @Geoduck:   It is the anti-vax brigade that’ll get infected. The science followers have been vaccinated and will be just fine.

    Fuck the anti-Vader’s. Good riddance.

  15. 15.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Mary G: holy crap, I actually forgot about that

    ’m sure I’m not the only male in America who, when Palin dropped her first wink, sat up a little straighter on the couch and said, “Hey, I think she just winked at me.” And her smile. By the end, when she clearly knew she was doing well, it was so sparkling it was almost mesmerizing. It sent little starbursts through the screen and ricocheting around the living rooms of America. This is a quality that can’t be learned; it’s either something you have or you don’t, and man, she’s got it.

    I was gonna say: who woulda thunk Jonah “The Doughy Pantload” Goldberg would turn out to be the smarter NRO editor, but then… there’s that.

  17. 17.

    piratedan

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: and a political movement was created on a self-deluded premise that finally we had what America actually needed (in the eyes of doughy white pudgy Amurica), a political candidate who was mildly attractive who would not only blow you during ESPN SportsCenter, but would also make you a sammich and bring you a beer when done.

    apologies for the imagery, just sayin’ what they all imagined with the filters off.

  19. 19.

    Major Major Major Major

    As a devout Cynic of the Eeyore school, let us never forget that this world and its bipedal inhabitants have been in a state of decay ever since the Big Bang. Our goal is live our best and truest possible lives, regardless of the morons and the haters. It ain’t easy, but easy is an overrated attribute!

    That’s the spirit! So many things are getting better.

  20. 20.

    Honus

    @Roger Moore: yeah, does Lowry remember TFG’s aspirational prediction that keeping the Covid-19 death toll under 200,000 would be a “very good job”?

  21. 21.

    gwangung

    Just remember….black people.

    They’ve been slugging it out for ages, and getting even less in return than most of us non-black folks.

    Be like black folx…keep your eyes on the prize.

  23. 23.

    Splitting Image

    The galaxy’s worst hockey team lost tonight, yet another signpost on the return to normalcy. The Leafs only have to fail one more year to match the New York Rangers’ record for the longest gap between Stanley Cups.

    And they’ve lost 8 games in a row with a chance to win a playoff series. I don’t know what the record for that is, but that sounds pretty special even for them.

  24. 24.

    Wapiti

    @Geoduck: I hear you. I’m in King County, which looks ok, but the state as a whole seems to be lagging. And Pierce County (Tacoma for non-WA) seems to be getting an upswing.

  26. 26.

    Anne Laurie

    @Ascap_scab:I’m an OG Trekkie, yeah.

    Sometimes the best thing you can do is to grind out another episode of that dumb old series, because there are those who don’t have access to the Old Vic.

    (And you never know when a really accurate memory of the simulated warp drive’s mechanism might come in useful!)

  27. 27.

    HumboldtBlue

    I spent six wonderful hours with my friends yesterday, and as the youngest pointed out a half-dozen occasions, “we are mask-free” and it was just a damn fine afternoon and evening. Grilled meat and veggies, beer, the Lakers losing (host is a Lakers fan) seeing people I haven’t hugged and kissed in 18 months and it was surreal. We picked up where we had left off and yet the children are now straight up grown, the sweetest dog in the world is on her last walk and the task of understanding of just how much has changed has begun.

    So that was great for me.

    Then, there are these motherfuckers who decided for one guy it was great to make a jump from 25,000 feet without a parachute.

  31. 31.

    karen marie

    Here’s something to cheer you all up: a twitter thread of fav things from Trader Joe’s, some with prep recommendations.

    @CalTwerkeley The Apple Blossoms from Trader Joe’s + air fryer + cashew milk ice cream. Best thing ever.

  36. 36.

    karen marie

    @Geoduck: I’ve been really skeptical about all the “it’s over, yay!” It’s going to blow back hard when the reality hits because so many places have not come close to 50% vaccinated and death rates start to climb again.

  37. 37.

    Achrachno

    Our host’s governor appears not to be leading his best life.

    Business Insider:

    West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice is reportedly on the hook for $700 million in loans from Greensill, the collapsed financial firm.
    Justice personally guaranteed loans Greensill made to his coal companies, The Wall Street Journal reported.

  39. 39.

    Amir Khalid

    @Achrachno:
    I’d spare a thought for the coal-country people, in Appalachia and elsewhere, who have had presidential candidates lie to them for years about saving the coalminer’s way of life with “clean coal tech”. There’s no such thing — coal is an inherently dirty fuel, which is why people are moving away from it — and no good reason to waste resources developing it.

  40. 40.

    Chris T.

    @Wapiti: Pierce Co on Puget Sound, and pretty much the entire eastern half of WA, is far too Republican for sanity, safety, or health. The rest of us (I’m in Whatcom Co) are in better shape, though rural Whatcom definitely has its crazies too.

  41. 41.

    Spinoza Is My Co-pilot

    @opiejeanne: Since the internet decided a little bit ago to settle on that TLA for the vile and malignant buffoon, my brain has interpreted it as “this fucking guy”, which meme has been around for a while. Close enough.

  42. 42.

    Cermet

    @Geoduck:  Since many white, male, thugs refuse to get vaccinated they are getting sick. Those rates will continue till they all get it (and 1% or so die). Looks like it will take about a year for the majority to get ill – then due to most sane people being vaccinated, and the stupid gotten it, the rates should die down to a slow burn.

  44. 44.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Cermet: A lot of the more virulent variants seem to be able to infect people who got their immunity from a previous infection, more readily than they can get the vaccinated– so I think the endgame is some steady state of endemic COVID, not any permanent dying-down. There’s also the problem that the vaccinations will probably need to be re-upped regularly and not everyone will get that done.

  45. 45.

    Matt McIrvin

    Also, at some point the Republicans will be in power again and depending on how insane they are by then, I could see them trying to stop mass COVID vaccination or at least programs designed to boost access and make it free.

  46. 46.

    Honus

    @Amir Khalid: as one of those coal country people I could spare  a thought for them if they didn’t keep voting for the coal interests and spurning any alternatives for past fifty years.  Trump is by far the most popular politician of all time there, he’s even eclipsed Arch Moore

    I have five siblings, four of us have post graduate degrees. (Our parents had part of one semester of college between them).  All of us were born in West Virginia, in the same town as our parents.  Only one of us still lives in West Virginia. It’s not an atypical story.

  51. 51.

    Sherparick

    @Geoduck: I know I am failing big time in Christian Charity, but if the maskless & unvacinnated want to gather in their churches & make themselves sick, perhaps even unto death, I say Darwin bless them.

  53. 53.

    Just Chuck

    @Sherparick: They also infect people who can’t get vaccinated, such as people with auto-immune disorders or transplants.  It’d be nice if the disease selected solely for MAGAts, but alas.

  54. 54.

    Dan B

    @Matt McIrvin: The University of Washington tested 20 people who had been vaccinated and got Covid.  They found 20 “variants of concern”.  The CDC ended the testing program.  Are there TFG holdovers sabotaging programs like these?

  56. 56.

    Another Scott

    @Dan B: It might be related to this: CDC.gov (from May 25):

    […]

    A total of 10,262 SARS-CoV-2 vaccine breakthrough infections had been reported from 46 U.S. states and territories as of April 30, 2021. Among these cases, 6,446 (63%) occurred in females, and the median patient age was 58 years (interquartile range = 40–74 years). Based on preliminary data, 2,725 (27%) vaccine breakthrough infections were asymptomatic, 995 (10%) patients were known to be hospitalized, and 160 (2%) patients died. Among the 995 hospitalized patients, 289 (29%) were asymptomatic or hospitalized for a reason unrelated to COVID-19. The median age of patients who died was 82 years (interquartile range = 71–89 years); 28 (18%) decedents were asymptomatic or died from a cause unrelated to COVID-19. Sequence data were available from 555 (5%) reported cases, 356 (64%) of which were identified as SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern,§ including B.1.1.7 (199; 56%), B.1.429 (88; 25%), B.1.427 (28; 8%), P.1 (28; 8%), and B.1.351 (13; 4%).

    As of April 30, 2021, approximately 101 million persons in the United States had been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.¶ However, during the surveillance period, SARS-CoV-2 transmission continued at high levels in many parts of the country, with approximately 355,000 COVID-19 cases reported nationally during the week of April 24–30, 2021.** Even though FDA-authorized vaccines are highly effective, breakthrough cases are expected, especially before population immunity reaches sufficient levels to further decrease transmission. However, vaccine breakthrough infections occur in only a small fraction of all vaccinated persons and account for a small percentage of all COVID-19 cases (5–8). The number of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths that will be prevented among vaccinated persons will far exceed the number of vaccine breakthrough cases. To date, the age and sex distribution of reported vaccine breakthrough infections reflects the fully vaccinated U.S. population.†† The proportion of reported vaccine breakthrough infections attributed to variants of concern has also been similar to the proportion of these variants circulating throughout the United States. During March 28–April 10, 2021, the aforementioned variants of concern accounted for 70% of the weighted estimates of SARS-CoV-2 lineages submitted to CDC’s national genomic surveillance.§§

    The findings in this report are subject to at least two limitations. First, the number of reported COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough cases is likely a substantial undercount of all SARS-CoV-2 infections among fully vaccinated persons. The national surveillance system relies on passive and voluntary reporting, and data might not be complete or representative. Many persons with vaccine breakthrough infections, especially those who are asymptomatic or who experience mild illness, might not seek testing. Second, SARS-CoV-2 sequence data are available for only a small proportion of the reported cases.

    Beginning May 1, 2021, CDC transitioned from monitoring all reported COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough infections to investigating only those among patients who are hospitalized or die, thereby focusing on the cases of highest clinical and public health significance. CDC will continue to lead studies in multiple U.S. sites to evaluate vaccine effectiveness and collect information on all COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough infections regardless of clinical status. Additional information and resources to help public health departments and laboratories investigate and report COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough cases are available at https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-19/health-departments/breakthrough-cases.html.

    […]

    (Emphasis added.)

    We need more testing and sequencing, but before that we need to crush community spread. Vaccines help with that (as does traditional public health advice).

    tl;dr – I don’t think it’s anything more than lack of resources and the fact that we’re not doing enough sequencing yet because community spread is still too high.

    My $0.02.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

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