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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Friday Evening Open Thread: TGIF, Truly

Friday Evening Open Thread: TGIF, Truly

by Anne Laurie|  December 3, 20216:26 pm| 46 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, President Biden, Proud to Be A Democrat

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West Wing @Starbucks run! pic.twitter.com/W5Xb7mjrkE

— Jeremy Art (@cspanJeremy) December 3, 2021

President Biden has a cold, so you can safely ignore all the frantic/gleeful health rumors over the weekend:

The White House, very attuned to questions about the president’s health, releases a letter from his doctor on the “frog in one’s throat” and nasal congestion that’s been audible during this public appearances. He’s been tested for Covid-19, other coronaviruses, flu and strep. pic.twitter.com/lA9nAwUnXD

— Jennifer Epstein (@jeneps) December 3, 2021

Biden sounds pretty hoarse today but says he's "oK" and tested for Covid daily. "What I have is a 1.5 year old grandson who likes to kiss his pop," he says. "It's just a cold."

— Jennifer Epstein (@jeneps) December 3, 2021

Hope he’ll feel well enough to show up for the Kennedy Honors on Sunday:

In a return to tradition, the Bidens will attend Sunday’s Kennedy Center Honors. https://t.co/H9ru3ctMRA

— Peggy McGlone (@PeggyMcGlone) December 1, 2021

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Reader Interactions

46Comments

  1. 1.

    NotMax

    December 3, 2021 at 6:30 pm

    Joe’s just trying out his Morgan Freeman impression.

    :)

  2. 2.

    germy

    December 3, 2021 at 6:39 pm

    Whenever someone says the media is “liberal,” show them this. pic.twitter.com/I2ctefRK9K

    — No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) December 3, 2021

  3. 3.

    Benw

    December 3, 2021 at 6:40 pm

    TGIF!

    gonna get Chipotle for dinner, yum!

  4. 4.

    NotMax

    December 3, 2021 at 6:40 pm

    From the sounds coming from outside, all the rain we didn’t have for like the past two months is now being released from the sky all at once.

  5. 5.

    germy

    December 3, 2021 at 6:43 pm

    New: Mitch McConnell has told colleagues and donors Senate Republicans won't release a legislative agenda before next year's midterms, according to people who've attended private meetings with the minority leader. w @alaynatreene https://t.co/LeMvOBw4h0— Jonathan Swan (@jonathanvswan) December 3, 2021

    Really great that, for the second election in a row, one of the two major parties has an agenda so malicious, harmful, and incoherent, so utterly devoid of good ideas, that they refuse to put it in writing. https://t.co/wvasQdfE3X— Max Kennerly (@MaxKennerly) December 3, 2021

  6. 6.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    December 3, 2021 at 6:45 pm

    Season’s greetings! ?

    Guess who came in to receive his Concealed Handgun Permit today? ?

    Did you know the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office has issued 49,750 Concealed Handgun Permits with another 2,560 awaiting to be issued?

    For more info please visit our website: https://t.co/AbGrPigOUZ pic.twitter.com/ELmffXcfjA

    — EPCSheriff (@EPCSheriff) December 3, 2021

  7. 7.

    JPL

    December 3, 2021 at 6:46 pm

    @germy: thanks for that.   I photocopied it for future reference

    Can’t believe they are going to run on trump’s great economy.

  8. 8.

    mrmoshpotato

    December 3, 2021 at 6:46 pm

    @Benw:

    TGIF! 

    gonna get Chipotle for dinner, yum!

    Barbacoa?

  9. 9.

    NotMax

    December 3, 2021 at 6:47 pm

    Early weekend evening picker-upper: EIne Kleine Trainmusik.

    ;)

  10. 10.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    December 3, 2021 at 6:48 pm

    I wonder if JFK Jr will show up to the ceremony.

  11. 11.

    Anoniminous

    December 3, 2021 at 6:48 pm

    STARBUCKS?!?!?!?

    That’s it. Biden and the whole Democratic Party is dead.

    To me.

  12. 12.

    debbie

    December 3, 2021 at 6:50 pm

    @germy:

    Where on the list will they put “End Democracy”?

  13. 13.

    debbie

    December 3, 2021 at 6:51 pm

    @Steeplejack (phone):

    Hey, good luck next week.

  14. 14.

    debbie

    December 3, 2021 at 6:52 pm

    @Anoniminous:

    Bet those holiday cups didn’t have Baby Jesus on them!

  15. 15.

    Benw

    December 3, 2021 at 6:52 pm

    @mrmoshpotato: sofritas!!

  16. 16.

    mrmoshpotato

    December 3, 2021 at 6:53 pm

    @NotMax: Dino Zug theme

    ? DINOSAUR TRAIN! DINOSAUR TRAIN!?

  17. 17.

    mrmoshpotato

    December 3, 2021 at 6:54 pm

    @Benw: Sorry.  I must boo that.  Booooo!

  18. 18.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    December 3, 2021 at 6:55 pm

    @debbie:

    Thanks!

  19. 19.

    divF

    December 3, 2021 at 6:58 pm

    @Anoniminous: No excuses for them. There’s a Peet’s Coffee at 17th and Penn. Or if you want to be really Old School, you go to the Swing’s Coffee at 17th and G.

  20. 20.

    Percysowner

    December 3, 2021 at 7:11 pm

    Well Dana Millbank over at WaPo finally noticedThe media treats Biden as badly as — or worse than — Trump. Here’s proof.

  21. 21.

    scav

    December 3, 2021 at 7:13 pm

    Imagine the army requiting ad.  Join the Army! Open Doors!

    (it could be misinterpreted)

  22. 22.

    Kelly

    December 3, 2021 at 7:14 pm

    @scav: He’s a Marine

  23. 23.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 3, 2021 at 7:15 pm

    @scav: That’s a marine.

  24. 24.

    Sure Lurkalot

    December 3, 2021 at 7:16 pm

    @Benw: Tofu stir fry on tap here! Go team tofu!

  25. 25.

    scav

    December 3, 2021 at 7:17 pm

    @Kelly: Well, then, I apologize to the army.  Add a badly lip-synced correction to the ad.  I’m equally rubbish at recognizing car models, for the record.

  26. 26.

    Mike in NC

    December 3, 2021 at 7:23 pm

    The Trump Klan boycotted the Kennedy Center Honors for four years because they are a bunch of crude slobs.

  27. 27.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    December 3, 2021 at 7:24 pm

    @scav: The Marines would probably be the most offended.

  28. 28.

    sab

    December 3, 2021 at 7:26 pm

    I know a guy whose white RWNJ son lives in Texas and had a concealed carry permit. He got rid of it and the gun a couple of years later because the one traffic stop he had scared him so badly. The cop was really jittery when he found out about the concealed carry and gun.

  29. 29.

    trollhattan

    December 3, 2021 at 7:33 pm

    Thank God for decent people to lead us and inspire us.

  30. 30.

    mrmoshpotato

    December 3, 2021 at 7:34 pm

    @Mike in NC: Damn right.  Glad they didn’t disgrace the Kennedy Center with their disgustingness.

  31. 31.

    trollhattan

    December 3, 2021 at 7:35 pm

    @Mike in NC: Trump was doubtless pissed to learn he, Trump, did not pick out the “winners.” Can you imagine? “For the third year running, Ted Nugent receives his Kennedy Center honor!”

  32. 32.

    Geminid

    December 3, 2021 at 7:36 pm

    @sab: I think one provision of the permitless concealed carry law Republicans are trying to push through the Ohio legislature would  eliminate the requirement that a person inform a cop that he is carrying a concealed weapon. That may be one reason that law has not yet been voted on. It’s a terrible idea. Even when Republicans and the NRA had the upper hand in Virginia ten years ago, they never tried to pass permitless concealed carry.

  33. 33.

    NotMax

    December 3, 2021 at 7:37 pm

    @Mike in NC

    If there’s anyplace JFK and Junior are gonna materialize, wouldn’t that be high on the list?

    //

  34. 34.

    trollhattan

    December 3, 2021 at 7:38 pm

    @Percysowner: “as badly as — or worse”

    Stop the fuck right there, Milbank, did reporting Trump’s daily, hourly actual acts and behavior constitute “bad” treatment? How about after they became weary of the routine and stopped altogether? Bad, or worse?

  35. 35.

    MagdaInBlack

    December 3, 2021 at 7:51 pm

    @NotMax: Um….I read something about you guys getting snow??

  36. 36.

    Ruckus

    December 3, 2021 at 8:17 pm

    @NotMax:

    You bracing for the HI snowstorms?

  37. 37.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    December 3, 2021 at 8:19 pm

    @MagdaInBlack: The City of Los Angeles gets snow every year.

  38. 38.

    prostratedragon

    December 3, 2021 at 8:26 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:  Thank you for pointing that out.

  39. 39.

    MagdaInBlack

    December 3, 2021 at 8:29 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: I guess I just never thought of Hawaii getting snow. But then I remembered I’ve seen pics of snow in L.A.

    I learned something today ?

  40. 40.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    December 3, 2021 at 8:37 pm

    @MagdaInBlack: The Big Island has two pretty tall peaks(Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa), one is almost a 14’er, so snow is not uncommon at the higher elevations.  The place in LA that gets snow every year is Mt. Lukins at about 5,000′.

    It also sometimes snows near the summit of Haleakala on NotMax’s rock(aka Maui).

  41. 41.

    MagdaInBlack

    December 3, 2021 at 8:46 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Midwest farm kids like me think Hawaii and think beaches palm trees etc. I’m kinda embarrassed I didn’t think past that image ?

  42. 42.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    December 3, 2021 at 8:56 pm

    @MagdaInBlack: Fun fact, in LA, you can ski in the morning and go for a suntan at the beach in the afternoon.  Of course, if there’s traffic, could be a problem

    Our mountains can be pretty close to the coast and the temperature difference can be extreme.

  43. 43.

    Skippy-san

    December 3, 2021 at 9:00 pm

    At least it is nice to have an honest ( and drug-free) White House Physician.

  44. 44.

    MagdaInBlack

    December 3, 2021 at 9:00 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Chicago: sunny and 60 in the morning, crappy slushy snow for the evening drive.  ?

  45. 45.

    Gin & Tonic

    December 3, 2021 at 9:42 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: I have a friend who moved to the area for precisely that reason – he can ski and surf in the same day.

  46. 46.

    Another Scott

    December 3, 2021 at 10:58 pm

    Meanwhile, … STATNews:

    Minnesota is hardly alone. The fractured nature of U.S. health care means that when someone is swabbed for SARS-CoV-2 in a hospital or clinic, the majority of those samples go to one of the large private testing providers like LabCorp and Quest. Some subset of those samples will then be set aside to be sent to county or state public health labs, which either do their own sequencing, or send the samples off to academic labs or other industry partners to decode the genomes of the viruses inside.

    “In a perfect world, we would have a much stronger health system that is more integrated with our public health agencies so we could have testing and sequencing being done within the same network,” Warmbrod said.

    All that form-filling and ferrying about can take days to weeks. Sequencing itself can be as fast as a 24- to 48-hour turnaround. It’s the logistics of moving samples around that’s the real bottleneck.

    “It’s really just stupid stuff,” said Amy Mathers, associate director of clinical microbiology at University of Virginia Health, whose lab team sequences positive coronavirus samples for the state of Virginia. Currently, they receive up to 300 samples a week, delivered in shipments once or twice weekly via courier from the state public health lab in Richmond. And if the public health department flags some samples that are suspicious because of travel history or contact tracing data, they’ll push them to the front of the line.

    “We’re more integrated into the health system than we ever were before the pandemic,” said Mathers. But the data they pull off the sequencer isn’t reflective of real-time infections. Typically it shows what was circulating in the state 10 to 14 days earlier. Right now they’re running samples from mid-November.

    “We tried to and are still lobbying for a system where people can send us positive samples directly,” said Mathers. “But the problem was it was hard to find a way to log them into the public health system. The forms were just too confusing for the hospitals.”

    Her team has yet to find any cases of the Omicron variant, either in their sequence database or in any new samples, including ones taken from travelers and rushed to the front of the line. Mathers said her lab is sequencing every sample that tests positive in her area.

    During the summer Delta surge, the backlog stretched back even further. And in the end, all that sequencing wasn’t that helpful, she said. In the month of September, her team sequenced over 1,000 samples. Every single one of them was the Delta variant. But now, it’s more important than ever to sequence every last vial of virus in the state. “As these new variants emerge we have to do heavy sampling to capture the one Omicron that’s lurking,” she said. “So I know that if someone comes to Charlottesville with Omicron, we’ll find it. But it’s not the same everywhere.”

    Two weeks to know what’s going on in a pandemic is too long. Exponential increases are deadly…

    :-(

    Cheers,
    Scott.

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