Well, goddammit. Mask-free was nice while it lasted. The CDC will update mask guidance today, and according to CNN, officials will urge “vaccinated people in certain areas of the country to resume wearing masks because of Covid-19.” That definitely includes the COVID hotspot where I live, so fuck you very much to all the oppositional defiant-disordered anti-vax assholes in Florida.
The CDC is also advising all K-12 students to wear masks in school when they return, so cue the deranged anti-maskers who shriek “child abuse” at parents who are trying to protect their kids. Fox News producers must be giddy because they’ll have something to talk about besides the insurrection hearing.
Speaking of which, I watched a good bit of today’s hearing. Wow. On a personal note, I was disturbed to realize I have the same exact eyeglasses as Liz Cheney. I hope she only wears that pair when she’s doing good rather than evil.
I got nothing else. Open thread!
Betsy
It’s so discouraging.
Time for the responsible folks to start treating the antivaxers like the disease-carrying imbeciles they are.
I see that French president Emmanuel Macron issued an order doing just that, and putting the burden back on those with oppositional defiant disorder. Very satisfying to see.
Scout211
And according to CNN, the CDC will also announce that vaccinated people can spread the virus.
Soprano2
You and me both, Betty, you and me both. I glared toward the general vicinity of the “Covid isolation room” when I walked through the ER to visit my mom last night. They’re the reason she spent more than 24 hours in a kind of room in the pediatric ER. At least it was kind of like a room; it had a door. The hospital she’s in just did a complete remodel of their ER, and one thing they did was add a pedes ER for kids. They’re using it mostly to hold adults now, though, at least until this latest idiocy is over. At least 15 people here died of Covid over the weekend; totally unnecessary deaths at this point.
Soprano2
deleted duplicate comment
Betsy
@Scout211: This, of course, will be quoted out of context and spread around on social media by the stupid and simplistic as “evidence” that vaccines don’t work, etc.
PsiFighter37
Guess I will need to teach my toddler daughter how to wear a mask after all. Ugh.
charluckles
Spouse and I were having a fury inducing discussion this morning about kids going back to school in masks…because a-holes refuse to get vaccinated. It’s a self-centered view given what is happening in the rest of the world, but we could have been largely done with this pandemic by the time school started. Another malignancy from the party of Trump that our systems and media seem incapable of or unwilling to deal with.
trollhattan
Be like Vermont. 68.3% vaccinated.
Do not be Alabama. 34.3%.
California rates “meh” at 53.3%. Considering we’re 1/9 of the US population we need to improve a ton.
mali muso
Been wearing a mask into public places like the grocery store, etc. even though I’m fully vaxxed. Guess I won’t be giving that up anytime soon.
MattF
One bad thing that hasn’t been much remarked on is that the rise of the highly infectious Delta variant means the fraction of vaccinated required for herd immunity is higher— maybe much higher. Don’t know how much higher, but I’ve seen 90% mentioned. Which is about as likely as rainbow-farting unicorns.
JPL
@PsiFighter37: I thought the guidelines were over two… Grand imp won’t be three until next year, and his school doesn’t require that he wear one. The older children do though.
Mike in NC
Last couple of trips to Publix had about 10% of customers still wearing masks, so they’re either not vaccinated or not taking chances.
PsiFighter37
@mali muso: I had stopped but am going back to wearing masks indoors in NYC now.
germy
A birb:
?BillinGlendaleCA
@trollhattan: LA County’s at 62% fully vaxed.
The Thin Black Duke
On the road to Virginia for my Mom’s funeral. Stopped at a Subway’s. Except for the poor, overworked woman making the sandwiches, nobody is masked. So it goes.
germy
Matt McIrvin
This is clearly correct and overdue. The only time I haven’t been wearing masks in indoor public spaces was for several days in late June when I was in Newburyport, where daily case counts at the time were consistently zero.
Cameron
@Mike in NC: About the same as I see at the Publix I go to. Unfortunately I live in Florida,so the maskless ones might be mostly morons.
Betty Cracker
Welp.
Matt McIrvin
@Cameron: Mask wearing has been almost gone in my area of Massachusetts and New Hampshire even as case counts creep up again. I’m one of the few.
Old School
@Mike in NC: I have my doubts that many people who are still wearing masks in stores are unvaccinated. My assumption is that it is those of us who are being extra careful while already having both shots.
Percysowner
I just started not putting my mask on last week. It’s no big deal to go back to putting it on. Fortunately I have a lot of disposable and non-disposable masks on hand.
The Thin Black Duke
@Betty Cracker: I stopped smoking years ago, but after watching that, I want a cigarette.
germy
@Betty Cracker:
“Infrastructure not Insurrection”
(A protester’s sign)
Ksmiami
@Betsy: exactly they’ll get nothing but scorn and shunning from me. Fucking plague rats…
gene108
I will never stop wearing a mask in public indoor spaces. I don’t care if COVID ends. I will still mask up. Masking cuts down on transmission of other air born stuff like the flu virus, and common cold.
brettvk
I’m in the SW MO hotspot that’s garnered so much national media attention, and I’ve withdrawn from public interaction as much as possible so am down to about what I had this winter. When I go out for grocery pickups I see about a third of people going into the store are masking, which is frankly more than I expected. I think the publicity is making a dent. I haven’t yet experienced any negative feedback from my own mask when I have to enter a public space
ETA: I have switched from a lesser mask to a N95. Yes, I’m a little paranoid.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Betty Cracker: Gaetz is having a tough week
Betty Cracker
@The Thin Black Duke: There are non-wingnut people on Twitter saying it wasn’t right to shout down the presser and chase the idiots off. Fuck that noise, I say. Greene, Gaetz, etc., manipulate the media to get outsized attention for their kooky crusades. I’m for any nonviolent intervention that removes their structural advantage.
Brachiator
I saw a news story about some restaurant in Huntington Beach, California putting up a sign that they would only serve the unvaccinated.
These are the fools making things worse.
Also, these are the kinds of people that political mischief makers hope come out for the California recall election in September.
gene108
@Old School:
I am close to 100% certain unvaccinated people are not wearing masks in public.
The only unvaccinated people that wear masks in public are probably people with underlying conditions that prevent them from wearing mask.
Everyone else wearing a mask are vaccinated people being extra careful.
germy
“Ladies and gentlemen, what you saw here was the intolerant left…”
Betty Cracker
I quit wearing a mask in mid-May (except for at the airport and on the airplane during a recent trip), so having to resume the practice really pisses me off. Especially since it’s 1000 degrees and humid as hell.
lowtechcyclist
@germy: A good piece, what I’ve read of it so far.
The IRS is capable of doing practically everyone’s taxes for them; they’ve already got the info. And they should, because unemployed people not filing any taxes because they don’t make enough income makes it hard for them to receive other assistance.
The IRS could send everyone a filled-out form and say, “if you need to make corrections, do so and return the corrected version; otherwise we’ll treat this as your return.”
The reason it doesn’t happen is that (a) the tax-prep folks are (big shock) strongly opposed to it, and (b) there’s not much of a push for it: it’s always about 93rd on people’s lists of things that need to be done to make this country be a better place.
Brachiator
@Betty Cracker:
Wow. That was fun.
Ruckus
@trollhattan:
A lot of that percentage depends upon the area of CA. Some are far higher and some far lower. I’ll leave it to your imagination as to the political generalities in which of those areas…..
zhena gogolia
@trollhattan:
My county is 75%. (CT)
Technocrat
The CDC’s “no-mask” guidance really was premature. Not because the vaxx isn’t amazing and effective, but because it wasn’t (and still isn’t) widely distributed enough. When they lifted the mandate two months ago (!) my wife still hadn’t scored an appointment for her second shot.
Booger
@Mike in NC: I’m still defiantly wearing a mask so no one will confuse me for a MAGAT/Trump fondler.
zhena gogolia
I am still trying to recover from the courageous, moving, brilliant testimony of those four officers this morning.
Ksmiami
Parting shot… the Republican Party is the most serious terrorist threat the American people face. Start saying it like this..
trollhattan
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Sac County has yet to crack 50%. We evidently have lots of crack, though.
dr. bloor
@Matt McIrvin: You’re not getting the toothpaste back into the tube anytime soon in New England. The vaccine’s working too well to freak people into action.
hueyplong
@gene108: Let’s face it, the number of assholes who refuse to be vaxxed but also dutifully wear a mask in public is zero.
Betty Cracker
@Technocrat: At the time, the guidance was for vaccinated people only, and apparently the CDC didn’t believe vaccinated people would be disease vectors on a serious scale. Maybe that’s changed. I cut the CDC some slack because this is all so new and they are trying to balance a lot of different factors.
lowtechcyclist
@Betty Cracker:
We’ll be in Florida the last half of August (perfect time for it, I know), and if I have to run to the store, I’ll be wearing an N95 mask.
Speaking of airports, when our June flight home was canceled after we were already through security and we had to spend most of a day in Airside C at Tampa International, I found two places there where I didn’t have to wear a mask.
TPA has outdoor smoking areas on the air side of security (they’re fenced in on the sides and overhead as well, so you can’t use them to dodge security), and they have similarly situated service dog relief areas that are also outside. There was enough air flow at each one that secondhand smoke and doggie bathroom smells weren’t that much of a drawback when we needed a break from mask-wearing.
Booger
Fanone: “…representative (long pause) of the worst America has to offer.”
Silence.
Damn he’s good.
West of the Rockies
@trollhattan:
It’s largely (not exclusively) our damned rural counties: Butte, Glenn, Tehama, Shasta, etc.
bluefoot
Betty Cracker: Maybe the glasses are like Clark Kent/Superman. Liz Cheney wears them depending on which alter ego is predominant at the time.
I’ve seen mask wearing ticking back up here in my part of MA. My company just put out a notice saying our return to office date and policies may change depending on the delta variant and positive rates…so I should start shopping around for a new office chair for home….
germy
Nelle
@lowtechcyclist: That was how it was done when we lived in New Zealand. Coming back to the States was a stunner in terms of the extra paperwork, for taxes and health insurance/health care. How much time is wasted every year on that here? It really lowers the quality of life. I also note more and more of that sort of work is pushed off on the citizen/consumer that begins to be unpaid work. A wrongly decided insurance claim may take four or five months worth of regular calls to try to resolve (the last one was finally resolved when I called the CEO office suite of a hospital. I had a sullen person call me and say, the senior management is making me decide this in your favor just because we made a mistake and lied about it). I had threatened to bill them for the time that it took me to get it straightened out.
West of the Rockies
@Betty Cracker:
Delicious. But is there any forward movement on Gaetz being indicted? I sure hope that the planetoid-headed A-hole faces the music.
Technocrat
@Betty Cracker: I read their guidance the same way – vaccinated only. They were pretty explicit about it. The wild card was how many unvaccinated people would follow the implied honor system.
Easy to be an armchair CDC Director though.
Betty Cracker
@lowtechcyclist: I had no idea TPA still had smoking areas and never knew about the dog relief area either, though of course there would have to be one! The dogs can’t hold it forever! :)
Back when I still smoked and used to fly a lot more than I do now, TPA had this hideous fish tank-like enclosed glass smoking area. If you went in for even one second, you’d reek like an ashtray!
Maybe I’m a homer, but TPA is THE best airport, IMO. So much more convenient than any other I’ve used.
lowtechcyclist
@Ksmiami:
Yeppers. They’re Covid traitors, climate traitors, 1/6 traitors, and who knows what else.
Baud
@germy:
Technocrat
@germy: I assume she means the tragedy of the “normal tourist visit”?
West of the Rockies
@zhena gogolia:
Seems like a bad day for Repubs.
Brachiator
@lowtechcyclist:
I am not sure that what you say about unemployed people is entirely correct. Anyway, the IRS could not do this effectively without a significant budget increase. They are already having problems processing tax returns and they really screwed up processing returns that need to be adjusted because of the partial exclusion of unemployment compensation. They also have the extra work of handling stimulus payments and the advance child tax credit.
This is only partly true. Conservatives like Grover Norquist are on record saying that they want to make people file tax returns because it makes the process painful and feeds anti tax and anti government sentiment.
The IRS has a free file program. But it is not always easy to find out about it. Laws were passed to prevent the IRS from directly providing this service, so a few of the tax prep companies are contracted to provide the service. One of the biggest providers, the TurboTax people, is exiting the program in October. This is unfortunate because their product was easy to use.
Some of these products do not include state returns. Many do not handle returns for people making over $72,000.
Soprano2
@brettvk: Just pray you don’t have to go to the Mercy ER, it’s a nightmare. Cox is surely the same right now. The nurse told me they had 40 patients in the Mercy ER waiting for beds in the hospital.
Betty Cracker
I haven’t been following the news all that closely lately, so I didn’t realize today’s hearing was an opening act and that public testimony won’t resume until possibly after the August recess. Don’t know if that’s good or bad.
zhena gogolia
@Betty Cracker:
Oh, that’s too bad. They’ll lose the momentum.
dr. bloor
@Technocrat:
You couldn’t pay me enough to run the CDC in a country full of infants incapable of grasping “the vaccine is incredibly effective” and “you should still be masking up in public spaces” are not contradictory statements.
Kay
I really embraced mask wearing and treated it as an accessory, which frankly I think more people should have done.
I have a “favorite mask” – it’s black with a pleat.
Immanentize
@mali muso: You also have a sweet daughter at home who (I suspect?) is too young to be vaccinated?
trollhattan
@West of the Rockies:
The Central Valley cities seem to be the prime culprit, because coastal cities all have pretty high percentages.
Rural counties, to your point, are really lagging further, but don’t have enough people to drag the entire state significantly.
trollhattan
@dr. bloor:
But, you do get to smack Rand Paul around on live teevee, so better than being a county health officer. :-)
trollhattan
Watching the US-Japan softball gold metal game (recorded at dark o’clock) and they’re really slapping us around. Peaking at just the right moment.
Ken
But remember, humanity is working to increase the numerator, and covid to increase the numerator and decrease the denominator. So it might be reachable.
(Numerator = immune, denominator = total population, in case it’s not clear.)
martha
@The Thin Black Duke: You are in my thoughts and I wish you as much peace as you can muster. Lost my Dad last November and it’s just so strange to be parent-less.
mrmoshpotato
@Betty Cracker: Hahaha. I love how that woman is just straight asking that fathead if he’s a pedo.
Betty Cracker
This is good news:
Ken
@Betty Cracker: Tsk, tsk. Run off by a bunch of tourists, doing touristy things.
Immanentize
@The Thin Black Duke:
My Mom is still alive, but my Dad died a while back. It was expected (cancer); I wasn’t that young, I was an adult on my own on my way to marriage, but I still felt the barrier to my own mortality being stripped from me. Hang in there, friend.
lowtechcyclist
@Betty Cracker:
It’s the best airport I can recall having been in. Even the available food is very good.
And there are many times when our baggage has gotten to the carousel before we have! I can’t recall another airport where that’s EVER happened to me.
I know you aren’t affected by this, but the one thing they did screw up was the rental car facility. The old one was right across the street from the baggage claim, and it had several floors, but when you got off the elevator, the rental car counter was right there, and it was a short walk to your car.
Then they moved it away from the terminal, so there’s now a shuttle train between the terminal and the rental car facility. Which is fine, but when you get there, you find yourself at one end of this vast concourse, and the garage with your rental car is down past the other end of the concourse. (Are there moving walkways to make it easier? Nope.) And then once you’re there, it’s almost always a much further walk to your rental car. We have to do more walking in the rental car facility than we do in the terminal itself.
I can handle the distances just fine, but for my wife with the permanently bum ankle, it’s the difference between being able to manage OK on foot and really needing a wheelchair. Pisses me off.
Ruckus
@germy:
That twitter thread is a fucking cesspool. Most of the responders are deep into denial of everything and spouting the company line of the right. Many seem to think that an insurrection is perfectly normal and necessary part of a government.
I believe I am on the brink of hating at least a third of humanity. Maybe it’s just the third of humanity that believes the lie that they are the only acceptable human beings.
hueyplong
@Ken: Maybe Gaetz can testify as to whether anyone attempted to blind him or beat him with a flagpole.
Looked like a trotting perp walk to me. Hope to see several more of them.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: I had to wear a mask on a plane for six hours each way recently. I brought some Combos and M&Ms to snack on during the flight, and I thought about pouring the snacks into my mask like a horse’s feedbag so I could just munch on them without moving the mask up and down. But I didn’t want to alarm/appall my seatmates.
Cameron
@Betty Cracker: Only been to TPA once, so I didn’t see much of it. SRQ is nice for a smaller airport;I like PHI,but prefer SRQ.
Martin
@MattF: The best math on this I’ve seen is that it’s damn near 100%.
That said, it’s a problem when the infection is still endemic, but get the cases down near zero and increase your monitoring and that’s tolerable.
So, step 1: Get the cases near zero – vax + mask + testing. Don’t lift restrictions until your case rates are *at* zero. Not 1% test positivity. Zero cases.
Step 2: Drop mask, etc. but keep some form of testing. As soon as 1 infection shows up, put all the restrictions back on, contact trace that case, identify everyone until you can contain it. Once contained, lift restrictions.
Step 3: Repeat. Do this at whatever scale your public health infrastructure permits – places of employment, cities, counties, etc.
China locks down cities at one case now. Think of it like the fires in the west – if you can put the fire out the moment it ignites, when it’s small, then you do that. But that might requires banning fireworks and campfires to reduce the number of new fires starting. But if you have this huge blaze threatening towns, you can’t do any of that because you now have all of your assets just doing damage mitigation, rather than early containment.
Martin
@Betty Cracker: I would have given a thumbs up to that baller move. Everyone dreams of the feedbag of M&Ms, but you’d be living that dream.
CaseyL
@Betty Cracker:
Hmph. It could be good if they spend any time reviewing what was said today, and crafting some follow-up based on it. It could be bad if that means the MSM decides not to carry the hearings, since “people lost interest.”
I think, on balance, it will average out OK. I trust the Democrats to know what they’re doing here.
Jinchi
California’s vaccination rate varies dramatically from county to county. One of the local news networks has a map at the zip-code level: https://dig.abclocal.go.com/kabc/ca-vaccine-tracker/SoCal_vax_zip_map.html
TLDR: If you’re visiting SF, virtually everyone you see is vaccinated. If you’re traveling through Lassen, virtually no-one is.
Ken
@Martin: Interesting analogy. It needs some equivalent to the anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers; perhaps people who wander through the tinder-dry forests, holding pyrotechnic gender-reveal parties.
Jinchi
@Martin: Any advice for people traveling with children too young to be vaccinated in this environment?
Scout211
@Jinchi:
Oh my. Thank you for this. I knew things were bad out here but not this bad. My zip code in Calaveras county:
Kent
I have a SHITLOAD of anti-vax MAGA relatives. There is not a single one who is anti-vax but pro-mask. The Venn diagram of people who are anti-vax and pro-mask is two non-overlapping circles.
Citizen Alan
@Ksmiami: And has been for a while. Because I am 100% convinced that 9/11 would have been averted by a Gore Administration.
Kent
Don’t know about TPA but PDX (Portland) is a pretty damn nice and convenient airport. By far the best airport of all the ones I have ever used on a regular basis. I would not trade my PDX for any other.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
I admit I like how it covers my face a little bit. Like a bandit.
I need a hat with a veil. Later. I’ll save that for when I’m in my eighties.
Jinchi
That’s absolutely my experience. I’m fortunate enough to live in an area where the vast majority are vaccinated and no-one has trouble putting on a mask when required.
On the other hand, it serves as a pretty good risk indicator.
Betty Cracker
@Kent: Among my MAGA relatives, all the older ones have gotten vaccinated, but the younger ones eschew masks and vaccinations. It’s almost like the older ones realize they are personally vulnerable and behave accordingly!
CaseyL
I went to the Ballard Farmer’s Market yesterday, and didn’t consistently mask up – 90% of the people there also weren’t masked. It was all outdoors, but there were a LOT of people. It’s Seattle, so just about everyone was probably vaccinated. But I’m still cursing myself for not staying masked, and will be anxiously waiting out the next 10 days or so.
I’m fully vaxxed – but my vaccination was back in January, so I’m also anxious about whether-when boosters will be recommended and available. Particularly since I’m planning to travel – by air – in September. Unless things go thoroughly to hell by then, in which case the trip will have to be cancelled, which will REALLY upset me.
Roger Moore
@Mike in NC:
I’m gonna go with not taking chances. I find it much more likely that someone who is vaccinated decided to play it safe than that someone who has refused to get vaccinated actually followed the masking requirements.
ETA: People don’t say it, but this is the main reason mask requirements are coming back. It’s not to protect vaccinated people; it’s to deny unvaccinated people the opportunity to lie and claim they’re OK not wearing a mask because they’re vaccinated.
germy
mali muso
@Immanentize:
Yes, I have a 4 year old daughter that is still too young to be vaccinated. The moment they release the vaccines for her age group, we will be first in line.
germy
cmorenc
@Betty Cracker: speaking of the mask requirement in airports/flights, the major loophole that flying anti-maskers use to cheat is to constantly be nibbling on snacks / sipping on a beverage in-flight, since temporarily lowering your mask to eat or drink is a permitted exception to the airport/flight mask requirements.
Saw this phenomena for myself during a 3 hr flight yesterday.
Kent
This is actually good for international softball. One reason they originally canceled it before was because the US was so dominant previously. For example, in the 2004 Olympic tourney the US went 9-0 with 51 runs scored compared to only 1 allowed (in the gold medal game, a 5-1 win over Australia).
germy
mrmoshpotato
@Betty Cracker:
Mmmm feedbag of Combos.
Kay
The school kids in this very Trumpy county were real troopers about the masks. I hope they haven’t been infected with the extreme babyishness of their parents over summer break and keep up that stoic attitude.
I was told “they’ll never wear them! they’ll be so burdened!” but they just rolled with it like they do with all the other school rules. Did us all proud as far as I’m concerned.
Betty Cracker
@Kent: I drove through Portland the other day and was shocked and thrilled to discover there’s a giant volcano looming over the city! It’s so beautiful! I did not avail myself of PDX because I hate taking off and landing so much that I took the nearest direct flight, which was to Seattle.
I was completely unfamiliar with the terrain of Oregon, so I had many shocking and thrilling experiences as I drove almost the entire length of the coast and a good bit of the middle section. There are mountains — wow! — lots! And terrifying curvy roads with no guardrails and steep drop-offs. Florida is much more idiot proof. It has to be!
bluefish
My fear is that these irresponsible fools will bring that fourth wave. Already happening. Anyone with a tabloid and Google can educate themselves on the matter of past pandemics, going back centuries. The thought that those of us who have lived the way we have since early March of 2020 may be having to relive this does things to my very brain. What is left of it.
On another front, but not really cuz it’s all a big fabric of dysfunction, craziness, denial, and the disgusting, who knew that these four brave men this morning would be the ones to bring it? Astonishing.
I have watched hearings for decades. The Watergate hearings happened when I was 18 going into 19. My family was riveted. I was still into things like college and boys. But, Good Lord, now almost 66 I was frozen in my tracks watching today.
It is all of a piece. We must find a way out. These four men have me some hope. Sing it, bring it. Make the lies stop. Breaker Morant levels of no more ba. Bless every single one of them.
Kent
I have a bunch of late-80s MAGA relatives who still refuse. I’m waiting for the first one to catch covid and die. They are in wacky evangelical Trump families with kids who have all sorts of stupid insane views that go way beyond Covid. Like homeopathy.
Maybe it is a west coast thing. But we seen to go more extreme in this “alternative” medicine bullshit out here I think. I have a cousin my age (late 50s) who is a chiropractor in suburban Seattle (Lynwood area for those who know Seattle) and has his whole entire family completely anti-vax for all vaccines. Unbelievable right-wing dipshit.
Booger
@Scout211: Somehow I read that as Cadaverous county.
zhena gogolia
@bluefish:
Yeah. It was amazing.
Craig
@Betty Cracker: Yes!
Roger Moore
@Betty Cracker:
The problem isn’t with vaccinated people being vectors. The problem is with non-vaccinated people taking advantage of the situation to take off their masks. This was a foreseeable- and widely foreseen- problem. It’s CDC’s fault for not recognizing it.
Our problem hasn’t been a lack of good scientific guidance for our rules. The problem has been lack of compliance. There are too many assholes in the country who don’t think the rules apply to them.
bluefish
@bluefish: I note that folks will comment on why they edited. I tried to cuz I thought I’d made an error and am a strange, emotional lurker who only comments when I feel like I’m drowning. Send a hug. I loved Walter. You all are all so tight. Hug a lurker. We may have started day drinking cuz this morning was intense beyond. Peace out. And thank you. G’damn, it’s a lot.
Matt McIrvin
@dr. bloor: We’re going to have a UK-like vertical spike here within the next couple of weeks. Not many deaths. Many cases. Some (mostly unvaccinated) people getting really sick.
The Provincetown situation seems to have people on the Cape a bit freaked already.
JWR
Once this morning]s hearing was over, ABC’s Terry Moran said that it was hard to see what the committee could possibly accomplish, because after all, Nancy Pelosi had booted two of McCarthy’s picks, (oh my!), by which I think he meant it was no longer bipartisan, which I would guess is one of the reasons the other networks didn’t bother carrying it. They didn’t expect fireworks from a non-partisan hearing, but fireworks there were, even if they weren’t of the sort Jim Jordan would’ve launched, and I hope they regret the error, because more eyeballs should’ve seen today’s testimony.
cmorenc
@Citizen Alan:
…and even if it had occurred, a Gore Administration would likely have limited the Afghanistan incursion to a severely enough punitive action to convince the Taliban that harboring Al Quaeda is against their best interests. Gore would have understood the Afghan history of chewing up and spitting out any would-be long term foreign conquerors or sponsored surrogates, and he most certainly would not have countermanded and frustrated or undermined American forces on the ground from capturing Bin Laden when they had him hopelessly cornered for several hours in the mountains – Dick Cheney played a big role in that fiasco because they preferred to keep him alive to indefinitely prolong public fear support for the war on terror and further militry adventures..
Dorothy A. Winsor
The residents in my building are 100% vaccinated. I’m so accustomed to not wearing a mask, that it’s no longer habit to pick one up from the table in the front hall. I guess that’s going to have to change.
I’m going to Iowa for a few days on Thursday. Their numbers are not good
Scout211
@Betty Cracker:
My sister and BIL visited a few years ago and we took a road trip from NorCal through Oregon and Washington and back. My BIL, who insists on being the driver on road trips has lived on Orlando his whole life. We had to tell him he wasn’t allowed to drive because he couldn’t even handle driving on I-5 as the elevation started rising past a few hundred feet. He just had no idea that driving in Central Florida wasn’t the same as driving over mountain passes in the PNW.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Jinchi: Glendale is still lagging at 60% for the first shot, a segment of our population has never taken COVID seriously(masking, vax, etc).
Matt McIrvin
@Roger Moore: The CDC specifically mentioned vaccinated people being vectors, I believe. Whether that is a fig leaf for their true intentions or they continue to act as if people will be honest, I don’t know.
bluefish
@zhena gogolia: Huh? Mind blowing in it’s so needed directness. So needed, so long coming, and one feels the trauma thru the screen. Trauma meet trauma. Small but significant trauma meet battles out of ancient empire trauma. Game changer, I hope and pray.
Bill Arnold
@MattF:
With other non-pharmaceutical precautions such as masks indoors (especially low-leakage masks) the percentage (which should include recent natural infections) will be lower, perhaps much lower.
The dose -> (probability of infection) response is non-linear and has not been adequately characterized yet and certainly not for Delta, and the related fluid/airflow dynamics models need to be reworked slightly for Delta if they haven’t already been reworked.
Kathleen
@The Thin Black Duke: My deepest condolences.
germy
Roger Moore
@Ruckus:
This should be unsurprising. The right has been talking about rebellion against the government as an essential step in preserving freedom since forever. Their whole take on the 2nd Amendment- that private citizens need firearms to rebel against a tyrannical government- is just the most obvious example.
Ksmiami
@Citizen Alan: agreed -The Republicans want most Americans dead..
zhena gogolia
@bluefish:
The media will do their best to yawn at it. I wish it could reach every American unfiltered.
Kent
@Betty Cracker: I’ve flown about 100x out of both PDX and SEA and trust me, PDX is by far the superior airport. But glad you had a good time in OR. It is a beautiful state. We actually live right across the Columbia in the town of Camas, WA but are only about 20 min from downtown Portland when traffic is light. So essentially part of the Portland metro area.
Matt McIrvin
@Roger Moore: Of course, if anyone who isn’t a right-wing white person starts acting rebellious, the response is to legalize running ’em over with an F350.
Kathleen
@zhena gogolia: I didn’t get to see it because I was working. I turned TV on about for coverage and MSNBROC and CNN were not doing any recap coverage.
Kathleen
@West of the Rockies: Republicans can never have days that are bad enough.
Betty Cracker
@Scout211: It really is an entirely different driving experience, so have pity for us poor flatlanders! :) I’m okay going uphill, but I do get antsy going down steep grades, and if there had been an experienced mountain driver to whom I could have relinquished the wheel, I’d have gladly done so!
I blame my fear of downhill driving on an experience in the Blue Ridge when the brakes on my mom’s old RV failed on a downgrade. I was driving because she refused to drive the damn thing even 10 feet from a gas pump to a parking spot, so I did all the driving. Sweet Jeebus, that was scary.
Flanders Other Neighbor
@Kent: Yeah, the chiropractor. The one I know only got vaxxed to stay in business as clients demand it. Blow my mind, but I supposed they have their own little bubble they inhabit.
CaseyL
@Betty Cracker: Next time you’re in the PNW for a while, I suggest riding (not driving; let a local do so!) on the Northern Cascades Highway, aka Highway 20.
It wends and winds its way through the Cascade Mountains. Lots of hairpin turns and, certain times of year, lots of rain, fog, and some snow. I drove back from a trip to Central Washington via Highway 20, because it’s so scenic and I had taken the less-scenic freeway route to Central Washington. This was in June 2020.
One of the prettiest drives you’ll ever be on – and, if you’re driving, one of the scariest :)
Roger Moore
@Matt McIrvin:
It’s true. Vaccinated people who get sick can act as vectors, though the CDC does mention they tend to spread less than unvaccinated people. But the main real-world advantage of requiring masks is that it doesn’t let the unvaccinated get away without wearing theirs.
Kathleen
@Betty Cracker: You must have not had Progressive Life Coach Dr. Rick on your flight:
https://www.ispot.tv/ad/OaWA/progressive-dr-rick-airport
dr. bloor
@Matt McIrvin: I would guess hospitalizations are going to be key to a good bit of policy-making at the state level, which aren’t increasing at anything close to the case rate. Masking mandates are of a magnitude easier to implement than shut downs, but Dan McKee isn’t going to do anything to hurt his re-election chances in NotProvidence unless absolutely forced to do so, and I would guess Charlie Baker is of a similar mind.
Parenthetically, I’m in Wellfleet at the moment, and not seeing much in the way of freaking out about P-town. It needs to be attended to, of course, but when you multiply the population of a small spit of land by a factor of twenty and cram them into small bistros and art spaces for hours on end, you’ve pretty much set up your “how far can we go before we break it?” test.
mrmoshpotato
@JWR: WTF? Testimony about fascist trash attacking the US Capitol building and looking to murder government officials wasn’t exciting enough for this asshole?
Kent
Don’t get my wife started. They “study” at some chiropractor school that is in a nondescript strip mall in suburban Orange County and then expect everyone to call them Doctor just like they graduated from an actual med school.
As my wife (a primary care doctor) describes it. About 10% of what they do is legitimate physical therapy. But no one can make an actual living just doing physical therapy referrals. So they invent an enormous mountain of bullshit to fill out the other 90% of their practice so they can actually make a living. Plus here on the west coast there are a bazillion chiropractors so that makes the bullshit even more extreme.
Bill Arnold
@JWR:
McCarthy blocked three of McCarthy’s picks.
Kathleen
@zhena gogolia: Eric Boehlert did his usual masterful analysis/beatdown of media’s attitudes/behaviors regarding these hearings. He publishes Press Run on Substack and it is free though he appreciates subscriptions.
Roger Moore
@Betty Cracker:
That sounds scary. I had an experience kind of like that as a passenger on an overloaded school bus. We were on I-70 driving from Eisenhower Tunnel toward Denver, which is a very steep grade. The bus had two busloads of kids on it because we started the trip with two buses and the other one had blown out its transmission on the trip. It’s brakes were barely enough to handle that downgrade when it had a normal load, and they just couldn’t keep up with that many kids. The driver knew we were having problems and tried to take an off-ramp, but it was one that went down from the Interstate, and the bus just wouldn’t even slow down. He just hit the horn when we got to the crossroad and went straight up the connecting on-ramp. I’m not sure how they managed to get the brakes to cool off enough to stop us, but they did.
NCSteve
No one wants to say it plainly: for some people, the vaccine keeps you from getting sick but you can become an asymptomatic spreader. Which wouldn’t matter except for the antivax morons.
So basically, the vaccinated are being asked to mask up to protect the antivax and antimask morons from themselves and from us if we get an asymptomatic case.
And the kids and immune compromised, of course. Guess I’ll do it for them. But I’ve ceased giving a flying fuck about the right to die of stupidity activists.
zhena gogolia
@NCSteve:
It’s infuriating.
gvg
@Matt McIrvin: My sister has seen one case. She is a doctor in a Florida VA hospital. When she first mentioned it (2 weeks ago) I was alarmed. Saturday I got some more details and I don’t know if I should be alarmed or laugh. It was 3 guys (either coworkers or neighbors) who hung out together for hours every day to smoke together. Now Florida banned indoor smoking in public buildings years ago and doesn’t even allow smoking areas outside for a lot of public places. The ban was predicted to cause restaurants and bars to lose money, but in practice their business increased. There are a lot fewer smokers around, but the ones left are really dedicated. Supposedly all were vaccinated.
But it wasn’t a few minutes, so I think I am less alarmed than when I first heard about it.
FelonyGovt
@The Thin Black Duke: My condolences on the loss of your mom.
debbie
@PsiFighter37:
Did you know there are places that make cute kid-sized masks? That might help.
Sure Lurkalot
@Roger Moore:
I realize the CDC was in a bind, but going with “you don’t have to wear a mask if vaccinated” to try to get the vaccination rate up was not a great idea. As has been pointed out by many, the anti-vax crowd = anti-mask crowd.
I never stopped wearing a mask indoors. My indoor excursions are short shopping trips. I might have considered going to a museum a month ago but it’s not so attractive now even though my area isn’t doing too badly. Dining indoors is not appealing at all now and there are options.
Brachiator
@Roger Moore:
It’s typical that these dopes proceed from the assumption that democracy is flawed by definition and government can only be reformed by goons with guns.
Betty Cracker
@Roger Moore: Holy shit, that sounds scary! Thank dog the bus drivers figured it out!
Our RV incident was my fault because I was riding the brakes downhill like a Floridiot. I didn’t know that if the temp got to a certain point, there would be no brakes. I found that out when I went to brake and my foot hit the floor as we were hurtling downhill. I almost shat myself!
I managed to pull over and stop (with an assist from the parking brake) when we were on more level ground, and we waited until the brake fluid cooled. I’ve disliked steep downhill runs ever since, but I can do it. Now I know not to ride the brakes.
rattlemullet
I to live in Florida. Governator Ron DeShituponus is a classic tRump stooge. How do so many ignorant malevolent people graduate from Yale and Harvard. I thought they were institutions of higher learning not unlearning. Seriously they seemed to have unleashed educated ignorant zombies upon us, or do they all just show up in politics?
VeniceRiley
@Brachiator: Basilico’s Pasta E Vino. You should see the trolling on their FB. I may have participated. Haven’t checked Yelp yet.
RaflW
@Betsy: Back when seatbelt mandates started, there was a cottage industry of people who all ‘knew’ a relative who evaded a fiery death because they — thank g-d! — were ejected from the car. They’d have died if they had a seat belt on! (so wen’t the ‘logic’).
Never mind that a) the car was probably old and had an unsafe gas tank that shoulda also been regulated better and b) that person was an anecdote passed around ad nauseam and c) counterfactual can’t be known since a belted person may well have also escaped the car before the fire.
What it all boils down to is this, sadly: What were dumb stories shared at the dinner table in the 80s have become the top shared FB posts of the 2020s. I really think we’d not be able to pass a seat belt law in this decade. Or eradicate polio if it were novel now.
A Ghost to Most
At least you’re not in Florida. Oh, wait …
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Good news
bad news, if I remember correctly, that’s about the advantage the quants said Dems need to be effectively tied given the Rs’ various structural advantages
JWR
@mrmoshpotato:
Apparently not. But it was the way he emphasized the role Pelosi played in setting up the committee, and then messing it all up by booting the bomb throwers, that seemed to ruin it for him. Too frickin’ bad, moron Moran.
Suzanne
Can we just call all Republicans PLAGUE RATS now?! The GCP?! Psychotics?
I’m infuriated.
RaflW
@NCSteve: Unfortunately, even we who vaccinate can get sick. It is still a very small percentage.
But people with risk factors (and I mean common ones: hypertension, diabetes, etc) are not as well protected by the vax. Few fully inoculated will die, but some will get pretty ill, some will get intubated, some will suffer from long Covid.
If this was only about preventing willfully unvax’d adults from getting the rona, I’d not give a fig. But I am not sanguine about my own safety as Delta proves to be much more aggressive and nasty.
Patricia Kayden
I will wear a mask for the rest of my life if it means staying safe from Covid. I don’t see the big deal although it’s not something I enjoy. It’s amazing in to see grown people whining about something so simple.
lowtechcyclist
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Which basically means the Senate Dems need to pass voting rights legislation to take away some of those advantages.
I can understand why they aren’t trying to tackle it now, since they don’t want that fight to get in the way of shepherding the reconciliation bill through. But once that’s done, voting rights (very definitely including anti-gerrymandering) has to be front and center.
WhatsMyNym
@Betty Cracker:
You have to downshift, even with an automatic transmission, and keep your speed down. It will sound louder but let the engine compression slow you down.
frosty
@lowtechcyclist:
The IRS sent me a refund for more than I filed. I haven’t gotten a letter of explanation. I also got the stimulus payment when it was pretty clear in TurboTax that it was supposed to be part of my refund.
I don’t have any idea what to do, except maybe pay a tax person for a half hour of time to explain it. I feel like calling the IRS would be a waste of my time.
Immanentize
@Patricia Kayden: But are they really his kids?
frosty
@lowtechcyclist:
Where did you get the N95 mask? Was it NIOSH approved?
narya
@Kent: I once got out of jury duty by saying that I thought that not all illness was caused by subluxations of the spine. The plaintiff’s lawyer (it was personal injury) got rid of me right away.
raven
@WhatsMyNym: There was a gas station in Monteagle, Tenn that had tons of pictures of wrecks goin down the mountain! It was the first place I saw runaway truck ramps.
Just One More Canuck
@Scout211: I grew up on Vancouver Island but now live in Toronto. I was telling a friend who was going to visit Tofino that if you drive too fast, the last thing you’ll ever see is the grill of a logging truck
raven
@WhatsMyNym:
One of my favorites! I named my second dog Henry!
And now he’s rolling down the mountain
Going fast, fast, fast
And if he blows it this one’s gonna be his last
Run to Acapulco to turn the golden keys
Henry keep the brakes on for this corner if you please
Immanentize
@raven: There is still one runaway truck ramp on I-90 in western Massachusetts going east. I have seen at least 3 trucks up it over the years and more times I’ve seen truck tracks (but no truck). My bowels are not strong enough for that maneuver.
ETA 30,000 pounds of bananas! Also on route 81 hill going south into Scranton, PA.
Harry Chapin
narya
@frosty: They’ll eventually ‘splain it; same thing happened to me.
Ruckus
@Roger Moore:
Government has the possibility of being the cause and the rationale for not rebelling, it really depends on how the government is set up and how it operates, along with the desire of the people to be governed. I don’t think that rich people have ever gotten the concept of reasonable governance, it too often interferes with their enrichment beyond all need and realistic values. Add in conservatism, in its current form, and it amazes me that government works at all.
WhatsMyNym
@raven:
I’ve seen a truck use one on I-5. Scary to even watch, but they had no problem with it and must have chosen to do it as a precaution.
raven
@Immanentize: They would be if you had to.
raven
@WhatsMyNym: I bet that was cool! Oohh, six videos one on the grapevine !
narya
I’ve been reasonably consistent w/ masking indoors–always at the grocery store, less than always at bars after beer runs, always double-masked on public transportation, always masked in other stores, even if their signs say I don’t need to be. And the beer runs are taking a month-long summer break. But we’re going to a beer event in a couple of weeks–half the normal tickets were sold (on purpose), and it’s outdoors, but I’m still a little nervous.
James E Powell
@Kay:
At my school, about 90% of the students took this approach. They are so creative when we encourage & allow it.
trollhattan
@Betty Cracker:
Landscape of my yoot and I do miss it so. Grew up in Seattle and when the cloud parted (much more common lately, for some reason) and “the mountain is out” was part of every conversation, it was hard not to just look at Rainier all day. Mountains and water and forests, not bad company.
WhatsMyNym
@frosty:
Try your hardware stores, even the 3M ones are more available.
Scout211
@frosty:
They now have several on Amazon, NIOSH approved (3M brand too, that I recently purchased) and also you can buy them directly from this seller:
https://bonafidemasks.com/face-masks/
https://bonafidemasks.com/face-masks/N95-Respirator-Face-Masks/
I had mentioned that I liked the powecom KN95 masks here and had purchased them from Amazon. A jackal let me know that bonafidemasks was the official US distributor for the powecom masks and sold them for much less. They now have NIOSH approved N95 masks as well.
ETA: link to the N95
mrmoshpotato
@Suzanne:
You mean you haven’t been? ?
mrmoshpotato
@Patricia Kayden:
Such insight, Ben!
rikyrah
@gene108:
Protect yourself from the lying unvaccinated.
Immanentize
@narya: I got rocks.
James E Powell
@Kathleen:
I didn’t see it because I was up till 4AM for the random reasons that occasionally prevent me from sleeping.
Here are the opening statements of the officers on youtube.
Martin
@Jinchi: I wouldn’t travel, tbh.
VFX Lurker
Not sure if the Los Angeles Times needs to update its vaccine tracker, but it says Los Angeles County has 53.5% fully vaccinated residents and 61.1% with at least one dose.
That’s all ages, though, not those eligible for vaccination. The Washington Post says that 53% of all residents in Los Angeles County are fully vaccinated, 64% of residents age 18+ are fully vaccinated, and 73% of folks age 65+ are fully vaccinated. Hoping our vaccination numbers get higher. ??
mrmoshpotato
@Immanentize: And not a bone amongst those 300,000 pounds of bananas!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Patricia Kayden:
My understanding is the recommendation is to wear masks in public spaces, not at home, but whatevs, Ben
rikyrah
They’ve been having mask sales.
I have been stocking up.
Immanentize
@mrmoshpotato: Chapin could write a line:
“And he blue crossed seven people.”
When I was a kid I loved that song. Then, I hated it. Now it makes me smile — having grown up about 1 hour north of Scranton.
frosty
@Betty Cracker:
In April we came down the Panamint Range with our trailer on the way into Death Valley, white knuckling all the way – switchbacks and 6-8% grades. At the top of the next range there was a brake check so we stopped (first time ever). Jeep brakes warm, trailer brakes cold. We found out a couple weeks later in Utah when we had an RV tech out to look at something else that the tow package *doesn’t* include a trailer brake controller. Got one installed ASAP before we had to cross the Rockies.
JMG
On my part of the Cape, I have noticed more folks wearing masks in the supermarket. Not in restaurants, though. Of course, it’s the season for people to be outdoors as much as they can here. Fully vaxxed rate in the town is 90 percent. As for Terry Moran, no network news reporter is ever, ever going to say any Republican elected official supports treasonous insurrection, even though many do. They’d be fired before the show left the air.
NotMax
@RaflW
Sorry it took me so long to respond in some detail to your question about George you-know-who yesterday. Lifestuff intervened.
VFX Lurker
Teeny-tiny ray of hope from the Washington Post vaccine tracker: more current(?) data. According to the WaPo tracker, Calaveras county has these vaccination rates for different age groups:
hueyplong
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Shapiro can only fight straw men. Even then, the Vegas line is usually on the scarecrow.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I’d bet it’s way more than half.
Part of me says, “Are people really attacking Simone Biles?”; the larger part of me says, “Of course they fucking are”
JWR
There’s one of those runaway truck ramps on the Angeles Crest Highway, (hwy 2), as it runs into La Cañada Flintridge, though it’s apparently called a “Runaway Vehicle Escape Median” because, well, it’s in the middle of traffic lanes. Giant sand pits is what I call ’em.
ColoradoGuy
Good to see the Capitol call the murderous rioters “fascist terrorists”. That’s precisely what they were … all 9600 of them. All the hand-wringing in the media about their precious feelings and the exact nature of their delusions … nobody talked about the “feelings” of the 9/11 hijackers, did they?
NotMax
@Jim, Foolish Literalist
Mask ain’t gonna be enough in your case, Benny. Put a sock in it.
//
CaseyL
@rikyrah: I was feeling sorry for the many small clothing companies who’ve been keeping their heads above water by making and selling masks online. Now it looks like I don’t need to worry about them quite as much.
I ordered a box of N95s from Home Depot, since they’re more easily available, and I feel maybe more effective against Delta than the cottage industry variety.
The Pale Scot
@Betty Cracker:
I’ve disliked steep downhill runs ever since, but I can do it. Now I know not to ride the brakes.
Manual gearboxes are our friends.
Bluegirlfromwyo
After the posts here about fake vaccine cards and braying stupidity about HIPAA, I’ve assumed that the unmasked are the lying unvaccinated and acted accordingly. And y’all know Ben Shapiro is lying like the whiny doormat he is.
Mike S
Newsom is starting to piss me off as he loses ground to the Confederacy of National Socialists in CA. People are tired of covid restrictions and if he had even a third rate campaign he would stop just pointing out that the recall is a Republican thing and point out instead that at every turn Republicans have made covid worse. Every action that has made things better in CA has been fought against by Republicans. Start pointing that out knucklehead.
StringOnAStick
@Betty Cracker: Oregon roads even have one lane bridges in some of the least populated coast range mountains; we drove over a group of 4 recently. The last time I saw a one lane bridge was on Kauai.
And it’s been raining today! Glorious, unpredicted rain! I’ve had low level anxiety since fire season began here in central OR. It will take years of above normal precipitation to get back to normal, but this has to help. I’ve got all the windows open and it’s getting cold in here!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Feels like this is snow-balling
VFX Lurker
@The Thin Black Duke: My condolences. ❤ Thinking of you. ❤
Matt McIrvin
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: All federal employees AND CONTRACTORS? That’s more than I expected.
Uncle Cosmo
Amen to that, boychik – I got an e-mail today from my tax preparer, who has been trying to contact an IRS staffer he knows in KCMO about some residual issues re my tax refund:
He continues to try, but… Things are pretty FUBAR by the Infernal Revenooers theze daze.
Patricia Kayden
CaseyL
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: This could be an interesting way of finding out how many GQP/Trumpists still work for the Federal Govt.
ETA – I guess elected officials aren’t considered “employees and contractors”?
Amir Khalid
I’ve had both my Sinovac jabs. But the Klang Valley, where I live, is an epicentre of Covid-19 infection, being the most urbanised and most densely populated part of Malaysia. I aways go out double-masked.
Matt McIrvin
@RaflW: It took decades to normalize seat belts and de-normalize drunk driving and ubiquitous indoor smoking, and in all cases what finally did it was coercive laws, not gentle moral instruction.
RaflW
@Patricia Kayden: Ben is just full of shit anyway. Masks inside the home isn’t a thing. But of course he’s set up a fake claim to be outraged about.
patrick II
As I was going into a store yesterday and putting on my mask yesterday, a mailman drove by and through his open door yelled “take off that damn mask!”. I missed getting his truck number to reort him, but still can hardly believe the utter stupidity and arrogance.
NotMax
@CaseyL
Indoor mandatory masking never paused here (yet) so have acquired a modest variety of types and styles. The ones I still end up using the most are DIY, whipped up at home from more than affordably priced satin yarmulkes found on Amazon in early 2020 when the price of any kind of ready made masks had shot up orbit high (if one could find them at all).
Peale
@RaflW: What the NaziDems gonna dew bout it. Knock down my doors with their jock booted thugs and arrest me?
Matt McIrvin
@RaflW: Is he trying to set up some kind of reductio ad absurdum? “If you need to mask indoors then they should make you mask in your own home with your family, but nobody does that, checkmate libs!”
I recall one study from somewhere in East Asia saying that household transmission could be cut down a great deal if everyone actually did mask in their own home, but getting people to actually do it would be too much of a non-starter.
Betty Cracker
@StringOnAStick: Yay rain! I read a lot about the huge fire in Oregon but was many miles from it. I absolutely FROZE on the Oregon coast last week. It never even got to 70! But I saw some really cool birds. ;-)
RaflW
@NotMax: No prob. Interesting to note!
Kind of amazing how these people do the scrub-a-dub. Ronna Romney McDaniel certainly comes to mind.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
It’s always a process. You start with moral instruction and then get coercive when you have a critical mass.
NotMax
@Betty Cracker
More intestinal fortitude than I. Again this year no way am going to even consider the extended flight(s) to NY from Hawaii to cool my heels at Mom’s.
StringOnAStick
@The Pale Scot: Our Outback is an automatic but has +and – paddle shifters on the steering wheel that work when you shift to M. Best of both worlds and I think it’s becoming a common feature, at least on all wheel drive vehicles. It’s been handy on steep downhill grades, especially in snow and ice.
Craig
As far as great airports I love DCA, Washington National(it’ll never be Reagan National).
VeniceRiley
@StringOnAStick: My 2017 Camry has those. Very fun at times. I imagine it would be handy on a trip to Vegas… Were I inclined to go to Covidtown (I am not.)
Baud
NotMax
@Craig
Many years ago one of the three best restaurants in town was inside the old cozy air terminal on Maui. Same held true for the Reading, PA airport. People would make the trek to the airport just to eat.
Peale
@NotMax: My partner wants me to go to Hawaii in September. Or to Europe. Ha! No way I’m getting on a plane for the remainder of 2021 unless I need to attend to an emergency with my Mom. He’ll have to settle for another 17 hour road trip to Wisconsin if he wants to go anywhere. He’s free to go, however. As long as he masks up around me for 2 weeks when he gets back.
Steeplejack (phone)
Jane Coaston: “Tommy having issues with an SEC offense yet again.”
Viva BrisVegas
@RaflW: Ben Shapiro is a performance artist. It doesn’t matter what he says, so long as he maintains the rage.
Although somebody should let him know that at this stage of the pandemic his advice is killing far more Republicans than Democrats.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Watching MNSBC, an expensive-looking ad for NYC tourism.
sab
@patrick II: My mailperson has finally started wearing a gaiter, so I always put on my mask when I talk to her outside.
MattF
Alexandra Petri gets serious about Republican lack of seriousness on 1/6.
NotMax
@Peale
Thank you; come sit hologramatically by me. With all the talk of folks jetting hither and yon I sometimes feel like a stodgy outlier (more than usual, at any rate).
sab
@Amir Khalid: If you can mask in toasty warm and humid Malaysia, we can mask in most of the USA (exception for Betty Cracker in toasty warm humid inland Florida. She must mask, but complaints and whining allowed.)
StringOnAStick
@Patricia Kayden: I have a relative in the administration side of the dept of corrections in a low population western state. The department can barely get any new officers because the pay is lousy and the towns with the prisons are miserable places no one wants to live. Mandatory overtime is so overused that people are quitting and replacement numbers aren’t keeping up, so they are apparently growing lax about what used to be disqualifying indicators, such as suspicion that applicants are white supremacists. It’s a powderkeg.
leeleeFL
@mali muso: Me, as well! Nobody says anything, but I get a few looks. Fuckem! Might start wearing one at work again. I would be sad if I made someone sick. Unlike the assholes who DO NOT CARE ABOUT ANYTHING BUT THEMSELVES AND THEIR FREEDUMB.
dr. bloor
@Immanentize:
I pass that ramp maybe a half-dozen times a year, and every time I go by I have to fight off a compulsive urge to find out how close to the top I could get my Jetta Sportwagen.
Betsy
@RaflW: Oh yes. I recall certain dupes repeating that canard.
leeleeFL
@The Thin Black Duke: Sorry about your Mom!
StringOnAStick
@Betty Cracker: Yeah the coast isn’t that warm here; did you dip a toe in the water? It’s cold! Great for looking at, not so much for swimming plus rip currents are common. We’re headed over that way this week for my birthday and I’m going to fly my new stunt kite on the beach.
The last time we were on the coast there was a bald eagle in a snag by the shore.
leeleeFL
@The Thin Black Duke: Very satisfying, for certain!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@VFX Lurker: I’m getting my numbers from the LA County Health Dept website.
Craig
@NotMax: that’s cool. There’s a dinner in the tiny little San Carlos airstrip just south of SFO that’s great. I try to go there if I’m down that way.
chopper
@Betty Cracker:
plus we all know how you get when you’re feeling your oats
NotMax
This word “freedom” that you use….
TriassicSands
Mask-free was nice while it lasted. — Betty Cracker
I usually agree with Betty but not here. The CDC ‘s loosening of restrictions was always doomed. Walensky, et al., “followed the science” but ignored the behavior of millions of Americans. The current surge was as predictable as the next lie from Old What’s His Name. The CDC has been wrong about masks from the beginning and while I’d hoped its performance would improve dramatically under “new management,” I’ve been disappointed.
For the millions of people who probably got limited or no protection from being vaccinated, telling vaccinated people they could go without masks, when translated into RWNJ came out as, “You aren’t vaccinated, but now you can pretend you are and go everywhere without a mask and without the slightest concern for others.” More cases. More death.
Breakthrough infections may not kill most vaccinated individuals, but they still give the virus additional opportunities to mutate into something far worse. What we need most are vaccine mandates. But…
Ruckus
@rikyrah:
I have found a place on line for good masks – they are a manufacturer of surgical masks and other types, a Chinese company with a factory in I believe TX, Well-Before. Good prices, a variety of masks, their N95 masks are listed on the federal approved list. I have some and am rather satisfied, both in price and service.
MattF
@NotMax: Note that this proposal takes power away from McCarthy, not Pelosi.
Ruckus
@TriassicSands:
Can we get vaccines for political stupidity? Because that’s what we really need.
NotMax
Note – not drawn, carved.
TriassicSands
@Betty Cracker:
Oh, Betty! I live in Western Washington and the summers (July and August) are the best imaginable (unless you’re crazy¹ and like hot — humid? — weather). I’ve lived on both coasts and both north-south borders and the best summers, hands down, are right where I am now.
Rain? We get about the same amount of annual precipitation as LA.
I’m pretty sure you’d get accustomed to the joy of highs in the seventies — you just need a few more red blood cells.
¹ One person’s crazy is another person’s…?
PS Those four days in June were not fun.
Almost Retired
@Kent: Drove through there two days ago. We were in Portland for a funeral and are currently driving to St. Louis for a wedding – I call it our reverse Lewis & Clark trip, with my wife playing the part of Sacajawea and me being Lewis or Clark, whichever one was more heroic. Drove along the north shore of the Columbia for a change, and passed through your beautiful hometown. Great place!
sab
A year and a half ago I was madly chopping up extra fabric, and tearing elastic out of old sheets to make masks for family members.
I am perfectly happy to have everyone still have to saunter off to stores to buy masks they ought to wear. I encourage them to wear them.
mrmoshpotato
@Ruckus:
If we could, the GOP would-be toast overnight!
The Fat Kate Middleton
My beautiful 11-year-old grandaughter curled up next to me to tell me she was sad because her classmate JoJo told her she was going to Hell because she didn’t go to church – and that wearing masks was “stupid”. JoJo then proceeded to pull down her mask (required at her school) and spit in my baby’s face. Have you ever wanted to kill an 11 year old?
zhena gogolia
@The Fat Kate Middleton:
I don’t blame you.
MagdaInBlack
@The Fat Kate Middleton: I’d like to have a go at the parents who taught that child that sh*t.
satby
@The Fat Kate Middleton: yes, like right now. Sorry to your granddaughter for going through that.
NotMax
@The Fat Kate Middleton
As someone who worked (either full- or part-time) for nearly two decades at a summer camp, I plead the Fifth.
;)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I hope they interview him on video, outside of the committee, the way they did for witnesses in the Clenis Trial. Don’t give him the chance to start screaming
H-Bob
@Mike in NC: Are any voluntarily (i.e., not kids or immuno-compromised) unvaccinated people actually wearing masks ? Maybe the MSM can resume their Cletus safaris (same demographic) and discover if there any “responsible” voluntarily unvaccinated people;.
NotMax
@H-Bob
Binders of hot from the diner reporting on
ecovaxonomic anxiety.//
Patricia Kayden
Ksmiami
@NotMax: and you guys think this won’t end in more violence…? Again we are battling terrorist foes, not a political party in any normative sense of the word
MomSense
Fucking glenn greenwald.
NotMax
@MomSense
Direct to DVD sequel to Waiting for Guffman?
:)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Rooting for injuries over here
Who’s “us”? Does Madame live in Herself’s district?
Geminid
@Almost Retired: William Clark was the practical one. Meriweather Lewis was kind of an airhead.
Geminid
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Former Ohio Governor Ted Strickland endorsed Shontel Brown today.
James E Powell
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I used to wonder what had gone wrong with people like Sarandon; now I don’t care. They are as lost to us as the Trumpiest of the Trumpsters.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
The trumpist right and the Bernie “left” come together once again to attack Democrats.
What interest would Republicans have in boosting Nina Turner….?
MomSense
@NotMax:
HAhahahahaha!
Just One More Canuck
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: it’s David Sirota, so take it with a pound of salt
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Just One More Canuck: oh, god, it’s actually worse than Sirota, it’s Walker Fucking Braggman!
zhena gogolia
Kathleen
@James E Powell: Thank you so much!
Geminid
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I like Mr. Lobster. Besides being a damn good commentator himself, his retweets introduced me to other good ones like Sasha Beauloux, Cris “Not Cap__n America” Evans, Mangy Jay, and Xeni Jardin.
And I like Lobster’s earthy sense of humor. I still laugh when I remember him saying, “That Lord Sugar’s a salty bitch I’m tellin’ ya.”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Geminid: yup, he’s a great aggregator for the pragmatists on twitter dot com
sab
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Because Democrats would have a hard time voting for her. Nina Turner nomination depresses Dem vote. Good to get it out of the way in s very off year.
Matt McIrvin
@H-Bob:
The alt-med-ish vaccine refuser I occasionally argue with on Facebook insists he’s doing nobody any harm because he always wears a mask. For what it’s worth.
Kayla Rudbek
@Betty Cracker: that reminds me of my honeymoon trip. Mr. Rudbek and I rode a fully loaded tandem bicycle in Glacier National Park, on Going-to-the-Sun Road. We had to stop several times on the downhill side in order to let our tire rims cool off, so that we wouldn’t blow the tires off the rims. I am willing to go back to the park for an anniversary, but he can ride his single bike on that road if we go…
and somewhere we have an article where two crazy dudes decided to ride a tandem bicycle with glued-on tires (tubulars) on some long and mountainous ride (might have been the Davis Double Century) and the glue melted off as they were braking downhill.