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You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 / Taking the W

Taking the W

by Betty Cracker|  March 1, 20222:35 pm| 246 Comments

This post is in: COVID-19, Open Threads, Politics, Republican Stupidity

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If there’s a sea of maskless faces in the SOTU audience tonight, maybe that’s on purpose. According to this NBC News report, elected Dems are mostly done with masks and ready to move on from COVID, following the science AND the political science:

After vanquishing Donald Trump by promising to get the virus under control, Democrats are now positioning themselves to declare victory against Covid ahead of a tough midterm election, amid recent polling data showing that Americans are less fearful of Covid-related illness and eager to return to normal life.

“We’ve beaten Covid. Time to take off the masks. Time to get back to life. Let’s open up our businesses. And let’s — everyone go back to having as normal a life as we can,” Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., said Friday on HBO’s “Real Time With Bill Maher.”

“It’s OK to succeed,” he said. “There are some people that are still afraid of doing that, but we can’t continue living this life.”

If it’s true that Rep. Gallego is expressing the caucus zeitgeist, that’s going to take the starch out of Republicans’ sheets since they’ve been running against mask oppression for a solid year and a half or so and seemed prepared to keep demagoguing the issue through November.

Really, it’s surreal to watch their antics from where I’m sitting. Virtually no one in my part of Florida wears masks anymore. If you go to a grocery store, you’ll see maybe 5% wearing masks. But if you listen to Republicans like Ron DeSantis, you’d think the ghost of Fidel Castro is still padlocking socialist masks onto Florida schoolchildren’s faces.

I’ve seen anti-mask demonstrations in Florida, which is like a temperance demonstration in Temple Square. You won, guys — you politicized COVID mitigation measures until it became impossible to contain the spread. Take the fucking W!

Well, maybe Dems can take that fucking W instead since Republicans are too attached to anti-mask demagoguery to move on. It could go something like this: Between the responsible people getting vaccinated and the dopes getting sick and dying or recovering, most people have some level of protection, at least for now.

Leaving mitigation mandates behind sucks for the immunocompromised and young kids who can’t get vaccinated. And it will suck for everyone if a dangerous new variant spreads like wildfire. But it looks like America is done with COVID, even if COVID isn’t done with us. So maybe Dems might as well take the W? Maybe that’s the rationale. I don’t know.

Open thread.

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Reader Interactions

246Comments

  1. 1.

    Kelly

    March 1, 2022 at 2:42 pm

    I just read President Biden has appointed Texas Guv Abbott to take down the Russian Power Grid

  2. 2.

    ian

    March 1, 2022 at 2:44 pm

    We are not the first society in human history that has convinced itself we have prayed the plague away.

  3. 3.

    bbleh

    March 1, 2022 at 2:44 pm

    @Kelly: Lol. America’s Secret Weapon: the Stoopid

  4. 4.

    gvg

    March 1, 2022 at 2:46 pm

    There are plenty of masks in my part of Florida, Gainesville. the few times I have ventured into stores, most people still have them. It’s never been complete, but the masks aren’t gone.

  5. 5.

    Gin & Tonic

    March 1, 2022 at 2:47 pm

    Ukraine’s Ambassador to the US will be Jill Biden’s guest at the SOTU.

  6. 6.

    cope

    March 1, 2022 at 2:48 pm

    I’m seeing different levels of maskage here in Central Florida depending on where I go and what time of day it is.  I’m always wearing mine in indoor public places but that’s just me.  I don’t enjoy wearing a mask any more than Ron Fucksantis does but come on asshole, take a step into the humane world.

    It would be nice if the masks had built-in scents, though.  Maybe spearmint or lavender or cinnamon.

  7. 7.

    NotMax

    March 1, 2022 at 2:49 pm

    Will Kavanaugh show up wearing a beer hat?

  8. 8.

    Redshift

    March 1, 2022 at 2:51 pm

    elected Dems are mostly done with masks and ready to move on from COVID, following the science AND the political science

    Elected Dems, not Dems or the general public. In every recent poll, a majority of Americans support continuing indoor mask requirements. And the only “science” I see in that NBC article is “The Covid-19 landscape is improving,” which is the same asinine “it’s going down, which is like gravity, not because of anything we’re doing, so if we stop doing it that will inevitably continue!”

    Politically, it may be the right thing to do, but it pisses me off because it’s absolutely not the right thing from a public health perspective.

  9. 9.

    bbleh

    March 1, 2022 at 2:52 pm

    …maybe Dems can take that fucking W instead …

    We can, and we should, and it would help with the Nervous Middle.

    As for the Reptiles, they’ll claim victory anyway, and their cult will believe it, but for them it doesn’t matter much: masks kept the Outrage Machine going for quite a while, and that’s really all that matters to the cult.  They don’t care about the substance; they care about being angry.  It’s what they live for.  For the Reps, there will be some other outrage.  Wokeness. Or Critical Race Theory — remember that?  ok never mind it’s very last year — Or the Squad.  Or the Supply Chain.  And of course always the terrible oppression of White men, who after all built this country with their own two hands.

  10. 10.

    janesays

    March 1, 2022 at 2:52 pm

    @gvg: Masks aren’t gone, but it’s slowly transitioning to an almost entirely voluntary thing that’s a matter of personal choice. Even very blue states like California are starting to lift their mandates now.

    But… we’ve been here before. Actually, it was around May or June of last year where I remember going out and seeing almost nobody wearing masks anymore in grocery stores, and all the mandates had been lifted.

  11. 11.

    lowtechcyclist

    March 1, 2022 at 2:53 pm

    We were in Plant City the weekend before last.  When I went into Walmart and Publix, hardly anyone besides me had a mask on.

    Anyway, I’m sure it’s just a matter of days before the GQPers either move on to a new grievance or recycle one of their old ones.

  12. 12.

    Redshift

    March 1, 2022 at 2:53 pm

    And this really pisses me off:

    There are some people that are still afraid

    If we’re going to “take the win,” we should goddamn well not doing it by adopting wingnut rhetoric that people opposed to opening up at any cost are just “afraid.”

  13. 13.

    Jeffro

    March 1, 2022 at 2:54 pm

    I wonder how the Republicans will move the goalposts after masks come off.

    Beat on Dems for mask and hand sanitizer surpluses?  “THOSE COULD HAVE BEEN MADE INTO CLOTHING FOR THE POOR, OR VODKA FOR THE PARTY PEOPLE, BUT NOOOOOO…”

    Move on to Rubella vaccinations?  “WHAT EVEN IS RUBELLA, ANYWAY?  WE HAVEN’T HAD A CASE OF RUBELLA IN OUR STATE IN YEARS!!  DOWN WITH FAUCI RUBELLA VAX POISON!!!”

    Truly, the mind boggles at the possibilities…

    (Media: “Democrats seem to have no answer as to why all of the nation’s excess hand sanitizer cannot be refined into grain punch for a nation ready to let its hair down.”)

  14. 14.

    Redshift

    March 1, 2022 at 2:55 pm

    @lowtechcyclist:

    Anyway, I’m sure it’s just a matter of days before the GQPers either move on to a new grievance or recycle one of their old ones. 

    They’re still protesting “lockdowns,” which we never had in any fashion in this country, so yeah.

  15. 15.

    Kelly

    March 1, 2022 at 2:55 pm

    Mask mandate in Oregon ends March 11th. To my surprise masking still runs about 80% in larger stores. Local small town auto parts, tires, hardware and feed stores have never followed the mandate  ;-)The mandates are more of a guideline than what you’d call actual rules

  16. 16.

    delk

    March 1, 2022 at 2:57 pm

    Which, or how many, assholes will shout let’s go Brandon during the sotu?

  17. 17.

    eachother

    March 1, 2022 at 3:00 pm

    I’ve read some science. The future  is difficult to predict.
    Mutations are an attribute of life.
    Is the pandemic over?  Anywhere?

  18. 18.

    mrmoshpotato

    March 1, 2022 at 3:00 pm

    @delk:

    Which, or how many, assholes will shout let’s go Brandon during the sotu? 

    My money’s on at least Shithead Ted.

  19. 19.

    Kay

    March 1, 2022 at 3:00 pm

    Republicans here do think it’s a win though. They think they beat the libs on covid and everything they were told and said was true and this just proves it.

    I can’t even imagine how bad the next pandemic will be. There’s not going to be any mitigation/intervention at all. I feel like we’re already at “heighten the contradictions” stage on infectious disease, that it will have to be catastrophic, immediately, or this same cast of characters will be back saying the same things and primed to react with instant fury.

  20. 20.

    Kay

    March 1, 2022 at 3:03 pm

    @Redshift:

    It turns out the whiny and self pitying use of the word “lockdowns” – the drama of that- was an indication of every hissy fit that would follow.

  21. 21.

    scav

    March 1, 2022 at 3:05 pm

    @Redshift: Masker ps are not afraid, they’re careful.  Does driving at less than 75per under all conditions mean they’re afraid of cars? Is drinking less than the full bottle of whiskey mean they’re afraid of alcohol?  Does wearing a hat mean they’re afraid of the sun?  Well, for the last, they are vampires so have good reason to be afraid of the sun.

  22. 22.

    Betty Cracker

    March 1, 2022 at 3:06 pm

    @gvg: & @cope: & @lowtechcyclist: I don’t get out of my deep red county very often, but in recent forays into Tampa, I noticed some masks in Publix (more than in our local Publix), a handful of masks in restaurants, bakeries, etc., but nothing like what it was last summer. I think it depends on the store vibe too. I went to Fresh Market in The Villages a while back, and almost everyone wore masks. The Villages!!!

  23. 23.

    The Dangerman

    March 1, 2022 at 3:07 pm

    @mrmoshpotato: I’m thinking a lot of blue and yellow clothing amongst Democrats. Republicans I’m guessing mostly red for their color choice, with the men wearing extra long ties. I don’t get the long tie thing. Sure, I understand the compensation for a micro package but why advertise it.

  24. 24.

    Jeffro

    March 1, 2022 at 3:07 pm

    @Kay: I can’t even imagine how bad the next pandemic will be. There’s not going to be any mitigation/intervention at all.

    Depends on who’s president when it hits, right?

    I wish the Dems would make more hay out of this – that it matters who’s in charge, example 1, trumpov in the WH when a global pandemic hit.  We had the orange moron downplaying the severity of the virus, mocking mask wearing, and holding super-spreader rallies for the whole first year.

    And then the people who badly wanted to kneecap President Biden – the people who understood strategically what would happen if the economy and public health came roaring right back under a Democratic administration would mean for 2022 and 2024 – started with their insane anti-vax and anti-mask shit.

    Who lied to you all through 2020, America?

    Which organizations and leaders went full-on anti-vax for the first time ever in 2021, America?

    Help ’em connect the dots.

  25. 25.

    Ken

    March 1, 2022 at 3:08 pm

    @lowtechcyclist:Anyway, I’m sure it’s just a matter of days before the GQPers either move on to a new grievance or recycle one of their old ones.

    Not that they set aside the old ones during the pandemic. They even found time to revive book-burning.  They also came up with new ones, though I must say “the green M&M should keep its sexy look” didn’t seem to have much staying power.

  26. 26.

    japa21

    March 1, 2022 at 3:09 pm

    Yesterday was the first day of the mask mandate being gone in Illinois as well as the proof of vaccination for restaurant dining in Cook County.

    I was trying to keep track well I was doing my demonstrating at the local Costco. All but 2 of my fellow demonstrators continued to wear a mask (including me) and roughly 60% of the shoppers were also masked. I also had to go to the post office which is continuing to require masks.

  27. 27.

    Betty Cracker

    March 1, 2022 at 3:10 pm

    @Kay: In my spare time, I worry about a COVID variant emerging that is particularly transmissible and deadlier than earlier variants. From what I understand, this is not necessarily probable but certainly not outside the realm of possibility! Well, if that happens, we are so screwed because people are not going to comply.

  28. 28.

    ...now I try to be amused

    March 1, 2022 at 3:12 pm

    Biden got me vaccinated in 2021. A second Trump administration would have continued farting around in their usual incompetent way and who knows when vaccines would have become available.

    As far as I’m concerned, Biden saved my life.

  29. 29.

    Ken B

    March 1, 2022 at 3:13 pm

    @cope: One of my masks fell on top of an open (not lit) scented candle.

    I didn’t notice until after I’d put it on.

    Smelled like strawberries for about five minutes, and then like burning hair for a couple more and then I got a new mask.

  30. 30.

    Kelly

    March 1, 2022 at 3:14 pm

    I know of about a dozen people that had breakthrough infections. None required hospitalization. Oldest in their 70’s. So we have that going for us. Virus might keep thinning the antivax herd. My feelings about the antivax is a mix of “fuck around and find out” and “dammit the neighbors are lighting a big fire after months of dry weather”

  31. 31.

    CaseyL

    March 1, 2022 at 3:15 pm

    I do wish Biden was less of an institutionalist, because tonight would be a great time for a barn-burning, steam-winding, NFLGT speech highlighting how Russia’s been funding the Right Wing and the GOP for years, and how at every turn, that espionage of willing tools has caused deep and lasting damage to America… and now endangers the entire world.

    Name names.  Announce bank balances.  Detail dates of transfer.

  32. 32.

    JoyceH

    March 1, 2022 at 3:16 pm

    @janesays: ​
     

    Masks aren’t gone, but it’s slowly transitioning to an almost entirely voluntary thing that’s a matter of personal choice.

    Early on, the premise was, “you wear a mask to protect me, and I’ll wear a mask to protect you.” Very kumbaya, no wonder the wingnuts hated it. Now it’s “I’m going to wear my high quality N95 mask to protect MYSELF because I no longer trust the selfish assholes around me to accept a minor inconvenience to prevent me from dying.” Well, that’s the Blue position. The Red position is “it was all a hoax, neener neener boo-boo… *cough wheeze*”.

  33. 33.

    NotMax

    March 1, 2022 at 3:18 pm

    @CaseyL

    It’s State of the Union, not Festivus.

    ;)

  34. 34.

    Peale

    March 1, 2022 at 3:18 pm

    @Redshift: In reality, I could have been going to Movies since last May, but I have not. There’s nothing to see worth sitting around sick people for. I think there’s a lot of restaurant owners pissed that even without a lockdown, many of us have decided that we don’t need to eat out while a pandemic is going on. I think they thought we loved them more and would do anything, anything, to have bottomless mac and cheese night.

  35. 35.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    March 1, 2022 at 3:18 pm

    @Jeffro:Truly, the mind boggles at the possibilities…

    “WHO NEEDS STOP LIGHTS???? WHEN IS THE LAST TIME YOU’VE SEEN A HEAD ON!!!”

  36. 36.

    Kay

    March 1, 2022 at 3:19 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    I am sure you know this, given where you live, but yesterday I had person in here who had three close family members die of covid. She doesn’t think it will be bad if she gets it.

    I don’t talk about it anymore. If they bring it up I listen, but if I weren’t at work I don’t think I’d even listen. They make choices and we’re all going to have to live with their choices.

  37. 37.

    Yarrow

    March 1, 2022 at 3:20 pm

    @cope:

    It would be nice if the masks had built-in scents, though. Maybe spearmint or lavender or cinnamon.

    Ugh. I can’t imagine anything worse. I’d end up with a headache.

  38. 38.

    Ken

    March 1, 2022 at 3:20 pm

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: “IT’S A PEDESTRIAN, IT KNOWS THE RISKS!”

    (Stolen from Good Omens, if I recall correctly.)

  39. 39.

    JoyceH

    March 1, 2022 at 3:20 pm

    @Betty Cracker: ​
     

    In my spare time, I worry about a COVID variant emerging that is particularly transmissible and deadlier than earlier variants. From what I understand, this is not necessarily probable but certainly not outside the realm of possibility! Well, if that happens, we are so screwed because people are not going to comply.

    The good news is that we know what to do now. It’s no longer early 2020 where you have to rely on your crafting friend to run up a little homemade cloth mask for you – really effective masks are widely available. So what’s going to happen is that once a new variant shows up, WE will go back into COVID protocols, mask and distance, etc, and THEY will go on their merry way, whistling a happy tune until they begin dying in droves… gee, I’m having trouble seeing a downside here.

  40. 40.

    Peale

    March 1, 2022 at 3:21 pm

    @Betty Cracker: Which is why I hope Ann Laurie continues to at least update us if there’s a new variant of concern. Because if that happens, I’m going into hard lockdown.  Sorry for those who can’t, but the public has decided that its willing to kill granny and gramps and I’m about that age.

  41. 41.

    Kay

    March 1, 2022 at 3:23 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    The day the pandemic hit I decided I was not going to “research” but instead would just follow the most mainstream advice. It has worked really well and is a lot less stressful than getting a half ass fake PhD on the internet. I know a lot about a few things. For everything else I either hire someone or take advice. Frees up time for hobbies :)

  42. 42.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    March 1, 2022 at 3:23 pm

    @Kay:

    I can’t even imagine how bad the next pandemic will be. There’s not going to be any mitigation/intervention at all.

    The mitigation will be limited and mostly concentrated in blue cities in blue states. MAGAts will still come into those areas and raise Hell about it, but it will get forcefully pushed back on, which they will not be expecting. There will be more unnecessary death and the essential workers will get less support, which will really suck. MAGAts will be at the front lines of experiencing the full effects of the pandemic. It will hit them much faster and much harder next time. In rural areas, BECAUSE people in cities took it seriously and implemented mitigation methods, COVID didn’t arrive for many months. Some of these people didn’t know a single person who had been infected until after the holidays.. nearly a year in. They felt the social and economic impacts of having to social distance without experiencing the risks of NOT doing it. By the time, it hit them and hit them hard, they were already dug in and hostile to any effort to save lives. Next time, it won’t be like that. They will throw themselves in the pathway of this thing, and it won’t be pretty.

  43. 43.

    geg6

    March 1, 2022 at 3:23 pm

    Fuck this noise.  I’m still wearing a mask indoors and will for the foreseeable future.  And it is entirely possible that I will never step foot inside a restaurant again.  I’ll happily dine outdoors, but being among the assholes around here without a mask indoors is a risk I am not willing to take.

    I seriously haven’t had a cold or even a touch of a flu or stomach virus since February 2020.  That’s a benefit of mask wearing that I like quite a bit.

  44. 44.

    JoyceH

    March 1, 2022 at 3:24 pm

    @Kelly:

    I know of about a dozen people that had breakthrough infections. None required hospitalization. Oldest in their 70’s. So we have that going for us.

    My brother and his wife (70s) got COVID late, probably Omicron, but they got monoclonal and it was pretty much a bad flu for them. On the other hand, my best friend’s brother, vaxxed but not boosted, got a breakthrough, and he’s been on a ventilator for a month and probably isn’t going to make it. But he has RA – I think anyone with any kind of lung compromise needs to continue to be very very careful.

  45. 45.

    CliosFanBoy

    March 1, 2022 at 3:25 pm

    All the students in my 8 am class had masks on (a couple misworn in the back row).  At 9 the administration lifted the mask requirement effective immediately. By 11 am only about half the students wore masks still.

     

    I will still, most of the time.

  46. 46.

    Betty Cracker

    March 1, 2022 at 3:29 pm

    This Politico gossip makes me happy:

    Mitch McConnell and Senate Republican leaders are warning Rick Scott that his agenda for the GOP could expose the party to unnecessary attacks this fall, a significant intraparty rebuke of the Floridian.

    The Senate minority leader, who has declined thus far to release a party agenda, advised Scott at a GOP leadership meeting on Monday afternoon that his 11-point proposal gave Democrats ammunition for millions of dollars of ads in the midterms, according to multiple people briefed on the exchange.

    Though he chairs Senate Republicans’ campaign arm, Scott defended himself by saying he released the agenda in his role as a rank-and-file senator, not as a statement of party plans. The meeting lasted nearly an hour, and Scott’s recess-week agenda introduction dominated the discussion.

    I hope Dems do make hay of Scott’s paranoid, hard-right manifesto. I hope it’s particularly useful to Val Demings as she tries to unseat Lil’ Marco, though increasingly I feel like I live in Alabama with a vastly expanded coastline and that non-feral Floridians either don’t care that the Republican Party has gone full feral or are simply outnumbered.

  47. 47.

    matt

    March 1, 2022 at 3:29 pm

    @CaseyL:  I’d like that too – naming names, pointing fingers at people right there in the room.

  48. 48.

    Yarrow

    March 1, 2022 at 3:30 pm

    I really wish the pandemic had helped usher in a new era of clean indoor air. Cleaning the air and increasing ventilation makes a huge difference to virus transmission – pretty much all viruses. It’s like clean air has just vanished from the entire discusion.

  49. 49.

    Ksmiami

    March 1, 2022 at 3:32 pm

    @CaseyL: I want him to craft a narrative that those who have sidled up to Putin are responsible for the tragedy in Ukraine.

  50. 50.

    matt

    March 1, 2022 at 3:32 pm

    @Betty Cracker: This really makes sense. I was thinking how would the Youngkin strategy work if people are putting out heavy-metal documents like the Rick Scott platform?

  51. 51.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    March 1, 2022 at 3:33 pm

    How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb Plague

  52. 52.

    WV Blondie

    March 1, 2022 at 3:33 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: YAY!!! I’ve been saying that for DAYS!!!

    Can’t wait to see whether any Putin-loving GQPers refuse to stand …

  53. 53.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    March 1, 2022 at 3:33 pm

    @The Dangerman: I always wear yellow and blue.

  54. 54.

    pajaro

    March 1, 2022 at 3:36 pm

    Maryland is one of the best states in the country and (majority  African-American) Prince George’s County is the best county in Maryland.  (2.5 positivity, Moderate transmission).  The county  lifted the mandate yesterday, although my local supermarket has kept its requirement and everyone I saw in the store this am was masked.  We are continuing the mandate for county schools.  I assume that the gyms and restaurant owners are incredibly happy, but most of the rest of the people I know wouldn’t have minded if they had waited a bit longer, because, for most of us, it’s just no big deal to put on a mask.  The local movie theater has both a vaccine and mask requirement, and I doubt if they will change immediately.

    We had a tough start, but we’ve done well.

  55. 55.

    GoBlueInOak

    March 1, 2022 at 3:37 pm

    I don’t know what its like in Crackerville, but here in the inner Bay Area, masking in public indoor spaces is still near universal.

  56. 56.

    Matt McIrvin

    March 1, 2022 at 3:37 pm

    One thing that’s changed is that our masks are better, or at least we can get good ones. With the cloth ones we were wearing in 2020, they were mostly for source control, and everyone has to wear them or they’re basically not doing anything. If I have a tight-fitting N95 on, I’ve actually got significant protection even if nobody else is playing along. Not perfect, but it’s quite a bit. That reduces the brain-twisting Prisoner’s Dilemma aspect of it. I also don’t have as much of a leg to stand on badgering other people to wear masks, though, but I care less than I used to.

  57. 57.

    Kelly

    March 1, 2022 at 3:37 pm

    @JoyceH: I have an old friend with COPD and a brother in law that had a triple bypass. Very vulnerable even if they are careful. Their politics are, umm, not helpful in understanding the plague mitigation measures. It may get them yet and I’ll greave them if it does.

  58. 58.

    Redshift

    March 1, 2022 at 3:38 pm

    @Yarrow: Agree completely.

  59. 59.

    Betty Cracker

    March 1, 2022 at 3:38 pm

    @Kay: I mostly did the same — followed the CDC guidance. When they said masks were no longer necessary for vaccinated people, I quit wearing a mask. When they said oops, vaccinated people should wear masks indoors, I followed that advice. Epidemiology is one of the many fields in which I am not an expert. The CDC isn’t perfect, but I think they’re trying to be reasonably protective without undermining compliance, which is what I’m trying to do, so our goals match.

  60. 60.

    Martin

    March 1, 2022 at 3:38 pm

    So, we’ll see what tonights messaging is, but so far the WHs messaging of the changing covid approach has been pretty bad. Newsom was much clearer – the ‘W’ here isn’t that we beat Covid, it’s that Covid has mutated to the point where we can’t beat it, but we can manage it. People will still die, people still need to protect themselves, but we have vaccines and boosters and masks and you should use them. And if you don’t, we have enough ICU beds.

    Adapting to the situation isn’t an L. And given the state of things Biden was handed in 2021, it’s probably the best W we can get. The preconditions for a better result were all cast in 2020, and we failed on them. My son got a breakthrough infection, it was a bit worse than mild, I went up to care for him, and managed to avoid catching it from him despite sharing a 1 BR apartment with him for a week. This *can* be managed. That doesn’t mean we can’t still be pissed at the antivaxers. CA is keeping their vaccine mandates. Where I live most people are still masked and I imagine will remain masked for some time, mandate or not. Our school district will keep the masking despite the state lifting it. My daughter’s college requires she be masked. And Newsom stated as much – if we see climbing cases in a county or city, expect to see a localized (rather than statewide) response. That’s okay, that’s what we do for every other disease. We’re currently spraying for mosquitoes because we keep getting resurgences of West Nile and other mosquito-borne diseases.

  61. 61.

    HumboldtBlue

    March 1, 2022 at 3:40 pm

    @JoyceH: 

    Now it’s “I’m going to wear my high quality N95 mask to protect MYSELF because I no longer trust the selfish assholes around me to accept a minor inconvenience to prevent me from dying.”

    Yup.

  62. 62.

    narya

    March 1, 2022 at 3:40 pm

    I see no reason to stop wearing masks indoors. When the running series starts up, I expect it’ll be like last year–lots of outdoor spaces, lots of mask-wearing indoors. And if it’s not? If lots of folks don’t wear them? I don’t care. One of the advantages of being an Old(ish) is that I have NFLTG. The first event is May 1, which I suspect will give us a chance to see how the relaxation of masks/etc. is going. One thing I’m a bit concerned about, though, is the Indy 500. Yes, it’s outdoors, but it’s a CROWD.

  63. 63.

    japa21

    March 1, 2022 at 3:40 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: ​
      Been meaning to ask you this. Have you heard anything further from your nephew? You may have mentioned something since you talked about the picture you saw, but if so I missed it.

  64. 64.

    Soprano2

    March 1, 2022 at 3:41 pm

    @Kay: that it will have to be catastrophic, immediately, or this same cast of characters will be back saying the same things and primed to react with instant fury.

    It’ll depend on who it’s killing. If it’s killing the same people this one did, you’re right. If it’s killing mostly kids, or mostly white people, then expect a different reaction. The minute I saw the first story in mid-April of 2020 that so far the people who were dying were mostly elderly and not white, I knew there would be a problem, and unfortunately I was right. Up until then everyone was taking Covid seriously, but once rural white people thought it was only “those people in the cities” who were dying they decided they didn’t need to worry about Covid. I heard it here, that it wouldn’t come here because we’re more rural so it wouldn’t be that bad for us.

  65. 65.

    trollhattan

    March 1, 2022 at 3:41 pm

    Our CA county lifted most mask mandates last weekend, and going out and about, it has had an immediate effect on how many are masked. Some servers and checkers wear them and if they do, that’s my cue to do the same.

    Breakthrough cases (among fully vaccinated) are a pretty high, a quarter of total cases.
    Of positive tests in breakthrough cases, just one in ten is symptomatic, putting that one-in-four case rate in perspective.
    Fully vaccinated deaths are eight percent of all deaths.
    We’re at 65% fully vaccinated, still dragging well behind the state average. But better than Alabama!
    Ukraine has drowned out international Covid news and besides Hong Kong’s blowup, I have heard nothing about new variants. We’re not out of the woods yet, and there will be others.

  66. 66.

    Old Man Shadow

    March 1, 2022 at 3:41 pm

    I’m not happy about the mask mandates ending.

    But America has never really given a fuck about human life, have we?

  67. 67.

    Professor Bigfoot

    March 1, 2022 at 3:42 pm

    Damnedest thing… I’ve often castigated my Congresscritter, The Odious Bob Gibbs, on the Book o’Faces; and had fun mocking the various trolls that come out to defend and support him.

    I noticed today that his posts are remarkably un-commented upon… and ALL of those comments are dragging his sorry ass.

    I think I’m seeing a side effect of cutting off the Russian money flow, and I am very much here for it.

  68. 68.

    Redshift

    March 1, 2022 at 3:43 pm

    @JoyceH:

    So what’s going to happen is that once a new variant shows up, WE will go back into COVID protocols, mask and distance, etc, and THEY will go on their merry way, whistling a happy tune until they begin dying in droves… gee, I’m having trouble seeing a downside here. 

    The downside is that there aren’t red states and blue states, we’re mostly mixed together. So in mostly blue areas THEY will make a lot of public spaces uninhabitable for us again, and in mostly red areas a lot of WE won’t be able to protect ourselves with anything more than a mask and will be dying alongside them (though in lower numbers.)

    And unless a new pandemic is a lot more lethal (something not to be wished for in any scenario), they won’t be dying in droves, they’ll be dying more, but not enough to shift anything.

  69. 69.

    trollhattan

    March 1, 2022 at 3:44 pm

    @Soprano2: I heard it here, that it wouldn’t come here because we’re more rural so it wouldn’t be that bad for us.

    “Seriously, it won’t be anywhere near falling into a vat of Roundup.”

  70. 70.

    Kay

    March 1, 2022 at 3:44 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    It’s hard for me to listen to because I know these people and never once before did any of them do any “research” on medical recommendations. There’s a reason places like this were the epicenter of the opiate crisis. Not asking a lot of questions on the 15th ‘pain pill’ refill!

    Just don’t try to tell me this while you’re puffing away on your homemade vape juice! If they had just said “it’s liberal so I hate it” I would have appreciated that and I wouldn’t have to listen to all those boring theories.

  71. 71.

    Soprano2

    March 1, 2022 at 3:45 pm

    @Betty Cracker: People who know it’s serious will wear the KN-95 masks, which will protect them. I can’t say what everyone else will do, I guess it’ll depend on whether or not people are literally falling down dead on the sidewalk (something else I’ve heard quite a few times would make them take it seriously).

  72. 72.

    Jeffro

    March 1, 2022 at 3:45 pm

    @Ken: yup

    everybody for themselves!  So that we the already rich and powerful can take even bigger advantage of you!!

  73. 73.

    NotMax

    March 1, 2022 at 3:46 pm

    The benefit of being last.

    Gov. David Ige said Friday that Hawaii will not be following the new CDC guidance on masks ― and will keep its indoor mask requirement in place for now.

    Hawaii stands alone in the nation in sticking with a statewide mandate. Source

    Trivially speaking am passingly curious what impact masking has had on sales of lipstick.

  74. 74.

    trollhattan

    March 1, 2022 at 3:46 pm

    @narya: Running running? We’re going to the kid’s first track meet of the season Saturday, outdoors. We don’t have indoor track here but that season is having its championships right now (with lots of records falling).

    Can’t wait!

  75. 75.

    Matt McIrvin

    March 1, 2022 at 3:46 pm

    The messaging on masks is one thing, but I really wish we’d done better on boosters, because those probably actually do even more than mask mandates to control spread. Massachusetts is way up there in vaccination but less than 40% of the population of MA got a booster

    At any rate, my county just went yellow on covidactnow, so we’re in a situation we haven’t seen since early August. Dire news or no, I’d like to go out and do stuff this spring and it looks like I will get an opportunity.

  76. 76.

    Jeffro

    March 1, 2022 at 3:47 pm

    @geg6: same here re: wearing masks in indoor spaces and dining outdoors

    my target date to reevaluate that is, oh, July 1

    not saying which year ?

  77. 77.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 1, 2022 at 3:47 pm

    Idly wondering who has been named as “designated survivor” tonight. Did a quick Google, and while several articles popped up giving the history of and rationale for naming a DS, none of them that I saw named the lucky (?) individual. Does the collective jackal mind know?

  78. 78.

    trollhattan

    March 1, 2022 at 3:49 pm

    @Matt McIrvin:

    Half of my county’s fully vaccinated are also boosted, but as a % of the eligible population it’s not an impressive total.

  79. 79.

    citizen dave

    March 1, 2022 at 3:49 pm

    On mobile, just learned there is an internet script movie database.  Anyway, the end  of Burn After Reading comes to mind:

    What did we learn, Palmer.

    I don’t know, sir.

    I don’t fucking know either.  I guess we learned not to do it again

    Yes sir.

    Although I’m fucked if I know what we did.

    Yes sir.   Hard to say.

  80. 80.

    citizen dave

    March 1, 2022 at 3:50 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: I’d support Obama as the designated survivor.

  81. 81.

    Kay

    March 1, 2022 at 3:50 pm

     

    The anti-vaxxers won, but sadly what they won is that is more likely they will contract and die from this disease. Which is no longer “our” problem but is now “their” problem. A lot of people who are a lot nicer than I am here tried and they weren’t having any of it. It’s not the fault of the people who tried. Our local public health authorities did a bang up job, but they can relax now because their assistance has been refused.

  82. 82.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 1, 2022 at 3:51 pm

    @citizen dave:

    Oooh, fun! Do you have a link to the script db?

  83. 83.

    Matt McIrvin

    March 1, 2022 at 3:51 pm

    @citizen dave: “I have learned from my mistakes, and I am sure that I can repeat them exactly.” –Peter Cook

  84. 84.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 1, 2022 at 3:52 pm

    @citizen dave:

    Nice idea, but I’m pretty sure he isn’t in the Presidential line of succession. Besides, Michelle would probably say no.

  85. 85.

    tam1MI

    March 1, 2022 at 3:52 pm

    @Betty Cracker: I hope Dems do make hay of Scott’s paranoid, hard-right manifesto.

    They have a perfect comeback for the “it was just one guy, he doesn’t speak for all of us” dodge: “Has he been censured yet? No? Well, then, clearly, you are in agreement with him.”

  86. 86.

    narya

    March 1, 2022 at 3:53 pm

    @trollhattan: Yes! The Brewery Running Series (in multiple states). 5k run, not a closed course, beer at a local brewery at the end–just my speed (though using “speed” in the context of MY running is a misnomer). I’m aiming to be walking outdoors this week, at least around the block, but I suspect actual running might be a few weeks away. This is my fifth year of participating–it has kept me active (along with a virtual series last year and this), which I’m hoping makes my recovery a little faster and easier. And the people are just really great, plus it’s a chance to sample good beers from breweries I might not otherwise seek out.

  87. 87.

    Matt McIrvin

    March 1, 2022 at 3:54 pm

    @trollhattan: I particularly wonder about New York City–unusually good on vaccine and mask mandates, high vax levels, but not very many of them are boosted. Maybe the mitigation measures engendered complacency? They got hit really hard and early by Omicron, though.

  88. 88.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    March 1, 2022 at 3:54 pm

    I walked to the dentist’s today–about a 20 minute walk. As I was leaving, I was putting on my coat and taking off my mask for the walk home, and an unmasked guy came in. The receptionist asked how he was and he said he was great. He was too tough for the virus. He worked with two people in a small space and they both had all their shots and got sick. He had no shots and didn’t get sick. I couldn’t run out of there fast enough.

  89. 89.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    March 1, 2022 at 3:57 pm

    @Kay: SNL did a skit about masking and other covid precautions this week. At the end, they’re all confessing their mixed feelings about things. And John Mulaney’s character said it made him happy when an anti-vaxxer died. I had some sympathy. Not proud of it, but you know.

  90. 90.

    rikyrah

    March 1, 2022 at 3:58 pm

    @…now I try to be amused:

     

    Biden got me vaccinated in 2021. A second Trump administration would have continued farting around in their usual incompetent way and who knows when vaccines would have become available.

    As far as I’m concerned, Biden saved my life.

     

    This is truly how I feel.

    I was a Dead Underlying Condition Walking, pre-vaccine.

    I believe 46 saved my life too.

    At the very least, gave me and both of my immunocompromised sisters a fighting chance.

  91. 91.

    azlib

    March 1, 2022 at 3:59 pm

    I plan to wear a mask into the indefinite future indoors.  It was nice not getting my usual seasonal cold or flu for the past two years. Why be miserable for a few days when you can wear a mask indoors and lessen the probability of getting some other airborne viral disease?

  92. 92.

    Redshift

    March 1, 2022 at 3:59 pm

    @Martin: Part of the problem is that we all got the impression early on (from actual experts, not from TFG’s clowns) that we could probably eliminate COVID, like SARS. I’m not blaming anyone, they probably didn’t say that, but starting with a lot of “we really don’t know” and that being true for a lot of diseases, I feel like that was a widespread impression, and it makes anything less that “it’s over” not feel like winning.

    I don’t know what could have been done better on that front (other than a law banning pundits from opining on public health matters.)

  93. 93.

    catclub

    March 1, 2022 at 4:01 pm

    @janesays: Masks aren’t gone, but it’s slowly transitioning to an almost entirely voluntary thing that’s a matter of personal choice. Even very blue states like California are starting to lift their mandates now.

     

    We will really know when the mask requirement is dropped on airplanes. I suspect that will take a while.

  94. 94.

    trollhattan

    March 1, 2022 at 4:02 pm

    @narya:

    Good on ya! My running now is 100% as an observer and have fond memories of actually, you know, running. Ankles say “nyet.”

    Still can cycle and that will have to do.

    Good luck out there, beer is the best carrot of all.

  95. 95.

    John S.

    March 1, 2022 at 4:02 pm

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    He was probably asymptomatic and infected his coworkers.

  96. 96.

    Boris Rasputin (the evil twin)

    March 1, 2022 at 4:05 pm

    @Old Man Shadow: Only for the unborn – after they’re born, they’re moochers. Remember, life begins when the parents are introduced, and ends when the umbilical cord is cut.

  97. 97.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    March 1, 2022 at 4:05 pm

    @John S.: I had that same thought

  98. 98.

    sherparick

    March 1, 2022 at 4:06 pm

    @Redshift: There are still 2,000 people dying a day from COVID-19. I do think reach out, particularly to the vaccine hesitant in minority communities, would be a good move. Also, continue providing free KN-95 & N-95 masks so that people who feel exposed can get some protection.

  99. 99.

    Mike in NC

    March 1, 2022 at 4:06 pm

    Just gave ACTBLUE $50 towards Ukrainian Refugee Relief.

  100. 100.

    Benw

    March 1, 2022 at 4:06 pm

    @trollhattan: fun fun! I’m all about the local race season starting up here. We lost the 2020 season obvs, and 2021 only got a handful of races in (mostly reschedules of races people had already signed up for in 2020) with various changes in rules. I’ve already got a couple in April that I need to get signed up!

  101. 101.

    trollhattan

    March 1, 2022 at 4:07 pm

    @rikyrah: +2

    Last February was jab #1 and I felt a wave of relief like I hadn’t experienced in decades. Then in March jab #2, and I suddenly (and inappropriately, but whatevs) felt cocky. That didn’t last until the whole family was able to do the same.

    And for all that I thank Biden and Newsom. Was really happy when my kid’s foreign college buddies were able to get their jabs here in California with zero fuss or fees. For just a second it seemed like Europe.

  102. 102.

    Baud

    March 1, 2022 at 4:08 pm

    @rikyrah:

    ?

    The idea that Biden is responsible for two variants and antivaxxers is about the dumbest I’ve come across in politics, and that saying something.

  103. 103.

    Matt McIrvin

    March 1, 2022 at 4:09 pm

    @…now I try to be amused: It somehow generally went down the memory hole that while Trump’s administration funded a vigorous program of vaccine development, Trump had zero interest in actually distributing the vaccine–possibly because that was all during the lame-duck period when he was laser-focused on trying to reverse the election results and the vaccine had arrived too late to benefit him politically, so it could go to hell. They made promises of vaccine distribution that they came nowhere close to meeting, and it really fell to Biden’s administration to start doing it.

  104. 104.

    Miss Bianca

    March 1, 2022 at 4:10 pm

    If I were Gallegos, I think I would have phrased it as, “Democrats at the SOTU address have little to fear – we are all vaccinated according to current guidelines. The Republicans who politicized mask usage and vaccination status to the point where they are the ones at risk of dying can go straight to Hell where they belong.”

    And see, kiddies, this is why he’s a US Rep and I am not.

  105. 105.

    Boris Rasputin (the evil twin)

    March 1, 2022 at 4:10 pm

    @Kay: Sometimes, the thing to do is stand back, let them go about their business, and and work on what you’re going to say to the first responders.  It works better if you omit phrases like “the dumb S.O.B.” or “the damned stupid bastard.”

  106. 106.

    Matt McIrvin

    March 1, 2022 at 4:11 pm

    @Baud: Sabotaging the administration’s efforts and then blaming them for not stopping you is a time-honored Republican tactic during Democratic times, though.

  107. 107.

    Gravenstone

    March 1, 2022 at 4:11 pm

    @mrmoshpotato: The most likely suspects will probably absent themselves from the proceedings as “protest”. Probably best for all concerned if that happens.

  108. 108.

    Patricia Kayden

    March 1, 2022 at 4:12 pm

    Notice how Biden is not on social media demanding praise for uniting NATO.— Covie (@covie_93) March 1, 2022

  109. 109.

    Sure Lurkalot

    March 1, 2022 at 4:12 pm

    @Matt McIrvin: Colorado went yellow for a day, now back to red.

    Mask wearing in the grocery stores has declined but does vary from about 25 to 75 percent. I guess it depends on where and when.

    My PhD in Biology BIL told me I should have no problem traveling, dining out, etc. now that the mask mandates are gone when frankly, it’s quite the opposite. I will continue to wear them indoors because it’s just no big deal. Not sure when I will eat indoors at a restaurant.

  110. 110.

    Martin

    March 1, 2022 at 4:12 pm

    @Redshift: Early on, that was a possibility. In fact, so far China has achieved that.

    But it’s a collective effort. You can’t eradicate a disease without everyone getting on board, and the GOP opposed that. Broader parts of Congress opposed that. The private sector in some ways opposed that. Courts opposed that. And Covid mutated and took away whatever window of opportunity we had. China didn’t abuse that window. The US did.

    So the original objective is lost. And it was lost before Trump left office. The cultural alignment that was needed to get everyone on board was completely undermined by Trump. There was no putting it back together again. It’s only now that we’re admitting it. Newsom was the first elected official to state this, and just last month.

    So, we set a new objective. Was it a failure? Yeah. But that’s no excuse to not set a new realistic objective. That’s no excuse to continue to chase a goal that is impossible to meet. And it doesn’t mean there wasn’t some success – there was. You can go about your life and stay healthy, you can get masks, test, get vaccinated, boosted, etc. They’re all wins. The loss is that you can’t stop doing that.

    Did you survive lung cancer? Yeah. Can you go back to smoking? No. That’s not a loss, that’s reality. That’s just how it is.

  111. 111.

    Matt McIrvin

    March 1, 2022 at 4:16 pm

    The other local thing is, I tend to think of northeastern Massachusetts, the NH seacoast and southern coastal Maine as all one region, and it’s weird to see the stark differences in how COVID has gone across the state borders. Essex County, MA followed the Northeast megalopolis pattern of a ginormous Omicron peak followed by a rapid decline in cases; NH has gone down a lot slower, more like the previous COVID waves, and things in even southern Maine are just weird and crazy, a belated and drawn-out wave with lots of wild fluctuations in case numbers. I suppose you could say conditions flattened the curve there.

  112. 112.

    NeenerNeener

    March 1, 2022 at 4:18 pm

    We’re still masking up here in Almost Canada for just about everything.The medical establishments are still masking and distancing, for example:

    The labs for blood work open at 7 am and a dozen or more masked people are lined up outside every morning to get their blood work done so they can have breakfast. Only 3 or 4 are allowed into the buildings at a time and everyone else has to sit in their cars after they register with the nurse at the door. It’s pretty unpleasant because the mornings temps around here are in the teens. I have to have fasting blood work done this week and I can’t handle standing in line in frigid temps so I’ll have to eat late the night before and skip breakfast and lunch for an afternoon appointment.

    I’m having a 4th Moderna shot this weekend so I can go unmasked in an MRI machine in about 3 weeks.

    No discernible change in overall procedures from last year yet.

  113. 113.

    citizen dave

    March 1, 2022 at 4:18 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: I can’t because on my phone, but google should bring it up

  114. 114.

    Almost Retired

    March 1, 2022 at 4:20 pm

    Los Angeles County is going to revisit the mask mandate later this week.  At least in Coastal LA County, indoor masking seems virtually universal.  I’m going to keep wearing a mask indoors for awhile because:

    (1) I have really enjoyed not getting my annual November head cold;

    (2) my wife has really enjoyed not having to listen to me whine about my annual November head cold; and

    (3) virtue signalling.

  115. 115.

    The Dangerman

    March 1, 2022 at 4:20 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: … and you’ll NEVER see me in red.

  116. 116.

    Baud

    March 1, 2022 at 4:21 pm

    @Almost Retired:

    (3) virtue signalling.

    I will enjoy owning the cons.

  117. 117.

    Soprano2

    March 1, 2022 at 4:25 pm

    @Peale: I think there’s a lot of restaurant owners pissed that even without a lockdown, many of us have decided that we don’t need to eat out while a pandemic is going on. I think they thought we loved them more and would do anything, anything, to have bottomless mac and cheese night.

    Nope, they’ve got more business than they can handle with the help they’ve got. The last thing they’re doing is thinking about you not going to a restaurant.

  118. 118.

    Kay

    March 1, 2022 at 4:25 pm

    @Boris Rasputin (the evil twin):

    I used to pick it apart, but no more. It’s easier. “I can’t see my children’s faces in the masks” – are they wearing them in your house? Take them off!

    Now I sit there and ponder my next nail polish color. Coral-ish for spring? Maybe!

  119. 119.

    Gravenstone

    March 1, 2022 at 4:25 pm

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Nice close call escaping Typhoid Larry, there.

  120. 120.

    Soprano2

    March 1, 2022 at 4:26 pm

    @Kay: That’s an amazing level of denial and magical thinking. Is it that she takes vitamins, or isn’t overweight so she thinks it can’t get her?

  121. 121.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    March 1, 2022 at 4:27 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    Mitch McConnell and Senate Republican leaders are warning Rick Scott that his agenda for the GOP could expose the party to unnecessary attacks this fall, a significant intraparty rebuke of the Floridian.

    Mitch McConnell has no redeeming moral qualities but he has strong political instincts. I don’t think this is 11D chess

  122. 122.

    Soprano2

    March 1, 2022 at 4:28 pm

    @Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: They felt the social and economic impacts of having to social distance without experiencing the risks of NOT doing it. By the time, it hit them and hit them hard, they were already dug in and hostile to any effort to save lives.

    I think there is validity to this. The other thing is that it hit us hard when it did get here because of this.

  123. 123.

    Baud

    March 1, 2022 at 4:31 pm

    If we do get a break before the next variant, I hope they put in place a process for rapid delivery or masks and tests, especially for urban areas that want them.  We’ve been playing catchup since the beginning thanks to TFG.

  124. 124.

    Matt McIrvin

    March 1, 2022 at 4:31 pm

    @Soprano2: Yeah, a similar thing I’ve been watching is the amusement park industry. Since they were allowed to reopen, theme parks have been slammed. There’s been no problem getting people to come in, even when some parks were running mask mandates (and in the US those are mostly gone or going away now); they’ve got more demand than they can service and the biggest problem is labor. A lot of their seasonal immigrant contract labor force is gone, and it’s harder to recruit kids too. There was a rash of alarming ride accidents in 2021 and it’s pretty clear the underlying cause is that the maintenance and operation staff are all stretched to the breaking point.

    My local park, Canobie Lake, just announced their schedule for 2022–they’re keeping to a somewhat reduced pandemic schedule and requiring advance reservations to enter the park, and I’m pretty sure it has nothing to do with social distancing, it’s mostly that they’re trying to keep whatever staff they can hire from being overwhelmed.

  125. 125.

    Almost Retired

    March 1, 2022 at 4:37 pm

    @Baud: That’s a super good point.  Next time, hopefully they can target the urban flare ups without enacting state-wide mandates.

    At some level, I sort of understand the resentment of rural Californians in the more-sheep-than-people Counties who are forced to mask up by statewide mandate because of outbreaks in San Francisco and Los Angeles – the two cities between which they believe Satan divides his time.

  126. 126.

    Matt McIrvin

    March 1, 2022 at 4:39 pm

    @Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony:

    Some of these people didn’t know a single person who had been infected until after the holidays.. nearly a year in.

    I remember people implying that the whole pandemic was a hoax because they didn’t know anyone who had gotten it.

  127. 127.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 1, 2022 at 4:41 pm

    @citizen dave:

    It did, thanks very much.

  128. 128.

    Betty Cracker

    March 1, 2022 at 4:44 pm

    Just got a CNN phone alert that says:

    The new COVID-19 plan: A new strategy that involves fewer disruptions to daily life while preparing for unpredictable variants is set to come from the White House tomorrow.

    Innnnnteresting…

  129. 129.

    Geoduck

    March 1, 2022 at 4:46 pm

    @japa21: What specifically were you demonstrating about?

  130. 130.

    Leto

    March 1, 2022 at 4:47 pm

    Trump Judges Are Now a Threat to America’s National Security The 5th Circuit let a lone judge order the deployment of unvaccinated SEALs. High-ranking officers say the decision puts the world at risk.

    On Monday, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stunning decision transferring control over the Navy’s special operations forces from the commander-in-chief to a single federal judge in Texas. The 5th Circuit’s decision marks an astonishing infringement of President Joe Biden’s constitutional authority over the nation’s armed forces, directing him to follow the instructions of an unelected judge—rather than his own admirals—in deploying SEALs. High-ranking military personnel have testified under oath that this power grab constitutes a direct threat to the Navy’s operational abilities. As Russia invades Ukraine and declares a nuclear alert, Donald Trump’s judges are actively threatening America’s national security.

  131. 131.

    rikyrah

    March 1, 2022 at 4:49 pm

    @JoyceH:

    Now it’s “I’m going to wear my high quality N95 mask to protect MYSELF because I no longer trust the selfish assholes around me to accept a minor inconvenience to prevent me from dying.” Well, that’s the Blue position.

     

    No lie told

  132. 132.

    UncleEbeneezer

    March 1, 2022 at 4:51 pm

    @Almost Retired: Having recently visited Kern, Mono and Inyo counties I’d ask: “forced” how?  Most of those counties are letting people go unmasked pretty much wherever/whenever they want.  Police aren’t (and never have) enforced mask mandates.  And businesses are at most still keeping a sign up on the door and maybe offering a mask to people who don’t have one.  Aside from maybe in hospitals, public transportation and schools, people have been free not to wear masks for a long time now, especially in those rural/Red areas.

  133. 133.

    rikyrah

    March 1, 2022 at 4:51 pm

    @Kay:

     

    The day the pandemic hit I decided I was not going to “research” but instead would just follow the most mainstream advice.

     

    I know that I’m not alone, but, BJ has been invaluable.

     

    AL’s posts have been wonderful.

  134. 134.

    rikyrah

    March 1, 2022 at 4:53 pm

    I spoke with a couple of college friends last night via zoom.

    One lives in DC, the other Colombia.

     

    My friend in DC will be going back to the literal office on April 4th. First time since March 2020.

     

    My friend in Colombia has just finished having COVID. She was fully vaxxed and boosted, as was her husband, but, his was a more severe case. Hers was like a mild cold.

  135. 135.

    japa21

    March 1, 2022 at 4:55 pm

    @Geoduck: Not that kind of demonstrating.  I work for the company that handles food and product demonstrations for Costco.

  136. 136.

    Matt McIrvin

    March 1, 2022 at 4:56 pm

    @Kay: I keep periodically hearing people argue about when and whether you should get another booster shot, slinging all kinds of preprint data around, and wondering how to finagle one, and my position has always been: when the FDA and CDC tell me to get a shot, I go out and get that shot ASAP. It seems to work pretty well.

    My mask-wearing has generally gone beyond their recommendations depending on the case numbers I can find, though. I did not throw away my masks when they said vaccinated people could go without them. Though I did do some eating out in restaurants.

  137. 137.

    PST

    March 1, 2022 at 4:56 pm

    @japa21: Speaking of Cook County, I just got back from my local grocery in the West Loop. I would say 90 percent of customers were masked, at least, and all of the employees. My experience in Costco has been that mask use was quite high even during those periods when it was not compulsory. I suspect that I will fall into the habit of doing whatever most other people are doing. That may not make sense, but it’s human nature for most of us.

  138. 138.

    Dan B

    March 1, 2022 at 4:59 pm

    @Leto: Horrible news.  When do they revoke all power of the executive?  A judicial coup!

  139. 139.

    rikyrah

    March 1, 2022 at 5:00 pm

    @Dan B:

    absolutely ridiculous

  140. 140.

    NotMax

    March 1, 2022 at 5:02 pm

    @japa21

    I call it Costco dim sum.

    ;)

  141. 141.

    Almost Retired

    March 1, 2022 at 5:02 pm

    @UncleEbeneezer: Good point — I think the better phrasing on my part would have focused on them resenting the mandate, even if they ignored it.

  142. 142.

    Omnes Omnibus

    March 1, 2022 at 5:03 pm

    @Leto: I anticipate a quick en banc reversal.

  143. 143.

    hueyplong

    March 1, 2022 at 5:03 pm

    My triple vax daughter tested positive this past weekend so my sense of humor about the anti-vax/anti-mask assholes is somewhat diminished.

  144. 144.

    Baud

    March 1, 2022 at 5:04 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: You think they’ll go en banc in the Fifth Circuit.  I think they go straight up.

    ETA: Unless the injunction is stayed pending review.

  145. 145.

    janesays

    March 1, 2022 at 5:04 pm

    @Betty Cracker: Last summer, all the masks came off. Before the Delta wave hit, we all started to think that maybe we were at the beginning of the end of the pandemic.

  146. 146.

    dervy scram

    March 1, 2022 at 5:10 pm

    @NotMax: GOP/RU boycotting Brandon. Will follow MTG to local Klanbake

  147. 147.

    Baud

    March 1, 2022 at 5:10 pm

    @hueyplong: How are her symptoms?

  148. 148.

    trollhattan

    March 1, 2022 at 5:10 pm

    @Baud: My four complementary Biden Tests expire this spring. Hoping not to need another set, but who knows?

  149. 149.

    Geminid

    March 1, 2022 at 5:11 pm

    @PST: I live in a rural/exurban county in central Virginia. When I visit the Stanardsville Great Value grocery, I am one of the 20% of customers and staff wearing a mask. When I shop at my favorite Kroger’s in Charlottesville 80% of customers and 100% of staff are masked.

    I haven’t seen anyone give anyone else grief about masking, with one exception. At one point last spring the staff at a little country store near me started wearing masks (I guess someone had gotten a bad covid case). I was there when a young smartass was running his mouth: “you know you don’t have to wear them, you know masks are against the law” etc. They just shrugged him off. They knew him, or at least knew the type.

  150. 150.

    Leto

    March 1, 2022 at 5:11 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: hoping so, though it sounds like the Navy is having to follow the judges orders? Am I reading that right or is everything paused still awaiting rulings?

    @Dan B: remember how Republicans used to scream about “AcTIVisT JuDGes!!!111!!”? Yeah, that was always bullshit. As much as I hate the judges, hate the service members more. Fuck the oath breakers.

  151. 151.

    Leto

    March 1, 2022 at 5:12 pm

    @trollhattan: we just received ours yesterday. We ordered them the first day that website became available. Guess I should look at the expiration date…

  152. 152.

    evodevo

    March 1, 2022 at 5:13 pm

    @catclub: As often as I have been sick on vacations following an airplane ride, I will probably NEVER stop mask wearing there lol

  153. 153.

    Baud

    March 1, 2022 at 5:14 pm

    @evodevo: Same.  I always used to get sick on planes.

  154. 154.

    dervy scram

    March 1, 2022 at 5:16 pm

    @Miss Bianca: nah, he framed it like a damn MAGAt, like he’s some kinda big honkin’ alpha male

  155. 155.

    hueyplong

    March 1, 2022 at 5:16 pm

    @Baud: Not too bad so far.  Has some congestion but not bad at this point, and she started out with body aches (which led to getting tested).  The aches could have been anything because she had just flown from Iceland to Seattle

    ETA: We’re probably lucky she didn’t test positive before getting on the return flight.

  156. 156.

    Matt McIrvin

    March 1, 2022 at 5:18 pm

    @Leto: the unitary executive theory applies only to the Strong Daddy Party.

  157. 157.

    Baud

    March 1, 2022 at 5:18 pm

    @hueyplong:

    ??

  158. 158.

    Citizen Alan

    March 1, 2022 at 5:19 pm

    @…now I try to be amused: I am absolutely certain that if the Republicans win in 2024, they will literally ban all vaccines and even voluntary mask-wearing. Death cults gotta death cult.

  159. 159.

    CaseyL

    March 1, 2022 at 5:19 pm

    @evodevo:

    @Baud:

    For me, it’s cruises.  Never failed to catch a little something on a cruise, even using the Purell dispensers they have everywhere.  Mind you, Post-Covid, if I take a cruise at all it’s likely to be one of the tiny explorer ships with fewer than 50 passengers!

  160. 160.

    Baud

    March 1, 2022 at 5:20 pm

    @CaseyL:

    I’ve been good with cruises.  I think I’ve gotten head colds twice, and one of those times I caught it on the plane.

  161. 161.

    Dan B

    March 1, 2022 at 5:21 pm

    Word is that a Kadyrov assassination attempt against Zelensky was foiled and the members eliminated.

  162. 162.

    Citizen Alan

    March 1, 2022 at 5:21 pm

    @Kelly: My sister and brother-in-law just got over break-thru infections. For her, it was just a head-ache that lasted for 4 days. For him, it was 3 days of vomiting.

  163. 163.

    Baud

    March 1, 2022 at 5:21 pm

    @Dan B:

    ?

  164. 164.

    Gin & Tonic

    March 1, 2022 at 5:24 pm

    @Dan B: Link?

  165. 165.

    JPL

    March 1, 2022 at 5:27 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: I haven’t read it yet, but by way of google

    Ukrainian official: We foiled a Chechen attempt to assassinate Zelensky | Israel National News – Arutz Sheva

  166. 166.

    Old School

    March 1, 2022 at 5:28 pm

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Google turns up mainly U.K. papers.

    Here’s one version but there is a paywall.

  167. 167.

    trollhattan

    March 1, 2022 at 5:29 pm

    Tim Apple, acts.

    Apple pauses sales in Russia

    We’ve news of more action being taken by Apple. The tech giant has paused sales of its products in Russia, the company has announced.
    The company has also limited its payments system, Apple Pay, and other services including live-traffic tracking, according to the Reuters news agency.
    The BBC’s Ukrainian service reports that consumers in Russia attempting to buy an iPhone, watch or MacBook on the company’s website are greeted with a message saying that delivery of the goods is impossible.
    The move by Apple comes after Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov disclosed earlier this week that he had sent a letter to the company’s chairman Tim Cook asking that Apple be blocked from Russia.

    -BBC

  168. 168.

    prostratedragon

    March 1, 2022 at 5:31 pm

    Elsewhere,

    Grambling State Tigers Marching Band in the Krewe Zulu parade

    Zulu was Louis Armstrong’s krewe.

  169. 169.

    Lyrebird

    March 1, 2022 at 5:33 pm

    @Kelly:

    Virus might keep thinning the antivax herd.

    True, though I have more concern for children under 5 and their families.

  170. 170.

    Dan B

    March 1, 2022 at 5:34 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: It was a commenter to an unrelated post on JoeMyGod blog.  There was no link so….  We will see if it is a rumor.

    And a couple people seem to have found links.

  171. 171.

    Steeplejack

    March 1, 2022 at 5:36 pm

    @Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony:

    Some of these people didn’t know a single person who had been infected until after the holidays . . . nearly a year in. They felt the social and economic impacts of having to social distance without experiencing the risks of NOT doing it. By the time it hit them, and hit them hard, they were already dug in and hostile to any effort to save lives. Next time, it won’t be like that.

    Good point.

    One thing that has become crystal clear to me is that isolation is my best defense. I have the luxury—and it is a luxury—of being able to stay home and to limit my excursions outside and my contact with other people (including family). And I have a temperament where that isn’t unbearable. (Far from it!) It sucks, in many ways, and it didn’t have to be this way, but we are where we are because of the choices people made, and wishing things back to “normal” isn’t going to work.

  172. 172.

    Kelly

    March 1, 2022 at 5:41 pm

    @Leto: Got ours last week. Expire late July.

  173. 173.

    Geminid

    March 1, 2022 at 5:42 pm

    @Dan B: The Times of Israel just put up an article about Russian infiltrators in a northern suburb of Kyiv. Ukrainian soldiers described how they had cadres embedded in various neighborhoods ready to act on the locals’ alerts. Some were tipped off to a car with four strangers in it.  The four had two maps of Ukraine, and each had both a new and an old Ukrainian passport. They were taken away by security forces.

    Locals also described Russian paratroopers lurking in the woods. Sometimes they break into apartments and steal civilian clothing, and food.

  174. 174.

    trollhattan

    March 1, 2022 at 5:46 pm

    @Steeplejack:

    Strictly anecdotal, the number of folks I know who got covid from Christmas though Presidents Day outnumbered the entire pandemic, before. Omicron was a real bastard.

  175. 175.

    Geminid

    March 1, 2022 at 5:47 pm

    @Steeplejack: When this pandemic began, I told my friends that I was considering a career as a Social Isolation Coach. They agreed that I was qualified.

  176. 176.

    Steeplejack

    March 1, 2022 at 5:49 pm

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    He worked with two people in a small space and they both had all their shots and got sick. He had no shots and didn’t get sick.

    “Typhoid Marty.”

  177. 177.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 1, 2022 at 5:51 pm

    @rikyrah:

    I know that I’m not alone, but, BJ has been invaluable.

    AL’s posts have been wonderful.

    QFT, Rikyrah. On more than one occasion over the past couple of years, I’ve been able to refute utter RWNJ stupidity by paraphrasing and/or linking to something Anne Laurie unearthed. I wish there were a prestigious and lucrative award to honour the work she’s done.

  178. 178.

    Leto

    March 1, 2022 at 5:51 pm

    @Geminid:

    Video: Russian soldiers are looting Ukrainian grocery stores because they have effectively no supply lines

    Russian soldiers stealing a Ukrainian ATM machine

  179. 179.

    Peale

    March 1, 2022 at 5:55 pm

    @Leto: Yep. I’ve about had it. At some point the Democrats in office need to take this seriously and not pretend that its some left wing conspiracy nuttery to note that these judges need curtailing.

  180. 180.

    Miss Bianca

    March 1, 2022 at 5:57 pm

    @Leto: Is this usual for soldiers during wartime? Seems to me that “forage off the land” would be an outmoded and uncertain model for feeding your troops. Is it a monumental fuck-up? Or just another way for Putin to try to fuck with the Ukrainians?

  181. 181.

    Chief Oshkosh

    March 1, 2022 at 5:58 pm

    @Ksmiami: Yes, something like “Many people, some even in this hall, to this very day have relationships with Russian leaders that they have yet to explain to the American people.”

  182. 182.

    Patricia Kayden

    March 1, 2022 at 6:00 pm

    ⚡️Canada closes ports, territorial waters to Russian ships. The new ban will become part of the sanctions introduced by Canada over Russia’s all-out attack on Ukraine.— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) March 1, 2022

  183. 183.

    Peale

    March 1, 2022 at 6:03 pm

    @Miss Bianca: Or, if you want your soldiers to commit crimes against civilians, you don’t feed them or pay them.

    Its dumb though because soldiers out looking for food aren’t where they are supposed to be.

  184. 184.

    catclub

    March 1, 2022 at 6:04 pm

    @Leto: Russian soldiers stealing a Ukrainian ATM machine

     

    this cannot stand.  Russian soldiers stealing a Ukrainian ATM.

  185. 185.

    Mallard Filmore

    March 1, 2022 at 6:05 pm

    @Dan B: I Googled “Kadyrov” and got this:

    https://www.wionews.com/world/ukraine-wipes-out-bloodthirsty-chechen-special-forces-sent-to-zelensky-457107

    which Google says is 2 days old.  But still good news.

  186. 186.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    March 1, 2022 at 6:06 pm

    @catclub: anyway they would need PIN numbers to work those ATM machines

  187. 187.

    Uncle Cosmo

    March 1, 2022 at 6:08 pm

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: “WHO NEEDS STOP LIGHTS???? WHEN IS THE LAST TIME YOU’VE SEEN A HEAD ON!!!”

    A propos of nothing in particular, but 10 years ago come Memorial Day afternoon I was driving through an intersection in uptown Baltimore when a joker came flying down the cross street through the red light at full speed (~35 MPH). As I swerved trying to avoid him hit me in the driver’s door. Not zackly a head-on, but the impact spun my machine completely around and my rear crashed into a parked car hard enough to smack that car into the next one along the curb.

    Witnesses came running shouting are you OK through the greenish-yellow shade that strangely enough was covering my open window (the airbag), expecting the worst. In fact my only injuries were a bruise on my hip where the seat belt was latched, and a bump on my knee as I scrambled across the console & out the passenger-side door when informed that there was gasoline spilling onto the pavement. Tough little car, that 2008 Kia Spectra…

  188. 188.

    catclub

    March 1, 2022 at 6:09 pm

    @Baud: I hope they put in place a process for rapid delivery or masks and tests, especially for urban areas that want them.

     

    But you really need a system that will motivate folks to want to get tested. if you are not going on an airplane, or into a restricted indoors area, you are unmotivated.

  189. 189.

    catclub

    March 1, 2022 at 6:11 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: ​
     the extra digit should make them fail

  190. 190.

    schrodingers_cat

    March 1, 2022 at 6:15 pm

    @Mallard Filmore: This is a BJP propaganda channel funded by a Modi bhakt.

  191. 191.

    Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)

    March 1, 2022 at 6:15 pm

    @catclub:  The people who need to test are people who don’t feel well. Is it COVID or a COLD  is the question although as was said above I don’t want either!

  192. 192.

    Gin & Tonic

    March 1, 2022 at 6:16 pm

    @Geminid: Locals can tell Russians apart by accent, just like you can do with Americans in the US.

  193. 193.

    Gin & Tonic

    March 1, 2022 at 6:17 pm

    @Dan B: Thanks. Sorry to have been abrupt, but there’s a lot of dis- and mis-information out there.

  194. 194.

    Ruckus

    March 1, 2022 at 6:17 pm

    @gvg:

    It is still unusual here in SoCal to see someone with no mask of any kind in a store. It isn’t/wasn’t unusual to see someone with only their mouth fully protected but I suspect those are all mouth breathers anyway. Outside it’s likely about 50-60% at least have a mask near their faces while the rest of us actually use them as intended. I will be using a mask for the foreseeable future, as I like living.

  195. 195.

    Patricia Kayden

    March 1, 2022 at 6:18 pm

    I’m not a praying man, but if I were, I would be on my hands and knees thanking the Almighty that during the worst crisis in Europe since 1945, the United States is led by Joe Biden, not Donald Trump. https://t.co/FBLyXYHh3n— Max Boot (@MaxBoot) March 1, 2022

  196. 196.

    Baud

    March 1, 2022 at 6:19 pm

    @Patricia Kayden:

    ?

  197. 197.

    Geminid

    March 1, 2022 at 6:21 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: I used to be able tell the non-local Americans from the locals. That’s gotten hard now since so many Yankees moved here.

    Actually, I’m one of them.

  198. 198.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 1, 2022 at 6:21 pm

    @Patricia Kayden:

    Ditto, and bravo.

  199. 199.

    CaseyL

    March 1, 2022 at 6:22 pm

    I’m feeling very torn about listening to the SOTU tonight, because I just know the GOP has some ghastly disruption planned.

  200. 200.

    Baud

    March 1, 2022 at 6:24 pm

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Yeah, I don’t know if it’s the Russians or regular internet trolls or what, but the online info about what’s going on seems to be getting less trustworthy.

  201. 201.

    Baud

    March 1, 2022 at 6:24 pm

    @CaseyL:

    I will skip it in adherence to the normie creed.

  202. 202.

    Ruckus

    March 1, 2022 at 6:24 pm

    @Jeffro:

    Help ’em connect the dots.

    Sure, a necessary process but at some point the connection has to be in their brain. That pea sized cornucopia of everything wrong with the world that floats around in a sea of who the hell knows, fueled by racism, stupid and the assurance that they know everything, see everything and believe anything that requires no knowledge past the 15th century.

  203. 203.

    schrodingers_cat

    March 1, 2022 at 6:25 pm

    @Baud: Since when did you become a normie?

  204. 204.

    Baud

    March 1, 2022 at 6:27 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:

    After the inauguration.

  205. 205.

    Dan B

    March 1, 2022 at 6:27 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: No need to apologize.  I was hoping to get more info.  It’s disturbing that Kadyrov is trying to kill Zelensky.  It sounds like they got close but Kyiv’s residents were prepared.

    Reports of Putin’s plans to go scorched earth are as well.  If I were a Russian soldier I’d want to escape.  Friendly fire matters none to Putin.

  206. 206.

    Steeplejack

    March 1, 2022 at 6:28 pm

    Here’s another thing that has flown under the radar with the Ukraine crisis. (I’m not quite caught up with the threads here, but I haven’t seen it so far.) Washington Post:

    The Senate on Monday blocked consideration of a bill to protect the right to abortion nationwide, an election-year measure pushed by Democrats as the Supreme Court decides the fate of the landmark decision guaranteeing access to abortion.
    Republicans and Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-WV) voted against moving ahead on the legislation. The Senate fell 14 votes short of the 60 necessary to begin debate on a vote of 46 to 48.
    The Women’s Health Protection Act, which was introduced in 2013, would enshrine the right to abortion in federal law, while blocking many of the abortion restrictions that have passed in several states. The House passed the bill last September, largely along party lines.

    This apparently means the bill will not even be discussed in the Senate.​

  207. 207.

    Spanky

    March 1, 2022 at 6:28 pm

    @catclub:

    this cannot stand.  Russian soldiers stealing a Ukrainian ATM.

    Joke’s on them. Full of Russian rubles.

  208. 208.

    Gin & Tonic

    March 1, 2022 at 6:32 pm

    I see that Subaru Diane was here earlier, hope she returns. Last night the Metropolitan Opera opened its performance with a moment of silence followed by the chorus singing the Ukrainian national anthem. Video here.

    I’ve attempted to watch it four times already, and can’t get more than 30 seconds in, due to emotional overload. What amazes me no end is that they had what, like 3 days to learn it? In a language I presume none of them know? Yes, they’re professionals, and it looks easy the way watching Roger Federer play tennis looks like it’s easy. But man, that performance….

  209. 209.

    Kelly

    March 1, 2022 at 6:35 pm

    @CaseyL: I’m feeling very torn about listening to the SOTU tonight, because I just know the GOP has some ghastly disruption planned.

    It will be feeble and you’ll enjoy the snark more if you witnessed it.

  210. 210.

    Dan B

    March 1, 2022 at 6:37 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: Quite amazing.  I hope you manage to listen all the way through.

  211. 211.

    zhena gogolia

    March 1, 2022 at 6:37 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: Spine-chilling.

    One of them already knew the words . . .

    They look dressed for Don Carlo.

    ETA: They are the some of the best choral singers in the world.

  212. 212.

    Omnes Omnibus

    March 1, 2022 at 6:40 pm

    @Leto: I just read the decision.  It is a denial of a stay pending appeal.  It means that the Navy can’t take any adverse action against the sailors while the appeal is in progress.  The district court’s decision was asinine, but this decision isn’t what Slate says it was.  Stern is an unreliable analyst IMO; it’s not the first time I have seen him go for sensationalism over accuracy.

  213. 213.

    Baud

    March 1, 2022 at 6:41 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Thank you.

  214. 214.

    Matt McIrvin

    March 1, 2022 at 6:42 pm

    @Leto: I honestly don’t understand this now. Putin is having them invade a literally neighboring country, bordering territory he controls, and he can’t manage their supply lines?

  215. 215.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 1, 2022 at 6:42 pm

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Oh, thanks, G&T. Yes, I’ve seen that clip a number of times today. You’re right, it’s just immensely moving. Brought me to tears as well.

    Donald Palumbo, the Met’s choral director, is extraordinary — as is every member of the Met Chorus. As you say, they are professionals (and handsomely compensated, I might add), but it still amazes me how much music, how many languages, how much blocking and choreography they all have to master in any given season.

    And on a personal note, you and your extended family in Ukraine continue to be front and centre in my thoughts. if you have any way to communicate with them, please let them know that distant and anonymous jackals hold them dear.

  216. 216.

    Martin

    March 1, 2022 at 6:42 pm

    @trollhattan: Russia is about a $3B/yr market for Apple. Not nothing. Also not crippling to Apple by any means. Allows them to unwind a bunch of other Russian bullshit they didn’t want to go along with.

  217. 217.

    Steeplejack

    March 1, 2022 at 6:44 pm

    @Gin & Tonic:

    “Greetings, fellow Kyivans!”

  218. 218.

    Geminid

    March 1, 2022 at 6:49 pm

    @Dan B: The Jerusalem Post put up article today titled “Pro-Putin Chechen general who led ‘gay purge” killed in Ukraine:

    “Ukrainian forces killed Chechen general Magomed Tushayev Saturday at the Antonev International Airport northwest of Kyiv. Tushayev is responsible for the tortures and murders of LGBTQ+ individuals in the largely Muslim region of Chechenya in Russia.

    The article details Tushayev’s heinous past.

  219. 219.

    Subsole

    March 1, 2022 at 6:51 pm

    @Professor Bigfoot:

    I am starting to wonder if maybe the Beltway Bobbleheads will start connecting dots…

    I mean, the journaliars seem to have outsourced their thought processes wholesale to the Twitter shillgorithm. Maybe if all the comments on twitter are overwhelmingly liberal, they’ll start to realize who’s the ACTUAL majority in this country.

    I hope and pray.

  220. 220.

    Gin & Tonic

    March 1, 2022 at 6:53 pm

    @Steeplejack: Pretty much, yeah.

  221. 221.

    Gin & Tonic

    March 1, 2022 at 7:00 pm

    @Geminid: I laughed and laughed about Tushayev. I was thinking back to a day or two after the explosion of that volcano in Iceland that I can’t spell, when I was in Lviv, and had a flight reservation later that week, I went to the LOT (Polish airline) office and said “Um, I have a flight reservation for Thursday” and the woman I was talking to responded so nonchalantly “so, you’ll be staying a while?” I just wish somebody had said that to Tushayev before he died.

    I’ll do penance tomorrow.

  222. 222.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 1, 2022 at 7:03 pm

    @Gin & Tonic:

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Should have mentioned that one of the things I found so moving was that everyone in the audience stood for the Anthem. I don’t know how to say it in Ukrainian, but there is a palpable, global sense that We are all Ukrainians now!

  223. 223.

    Ruckus

    March 1, 2022 at 7:04 pm

    @narya:

    I walk 2 1/4 miles every day. My MPH is slower than it was but then I’m in my eighth decade so there you go. I wear a mask because I never know who I’m going to walk by. I wear a mask indoors or within 20 feet of anyone else because while I’d prefer that most of them don’t die, I’m rather indifferent about some of them. I lack indifference about me living. I still have people to annoy.

  224. 224.

    japa21

    March 1, 2022 at 7:07 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: That was beautiful.  I am assuming that one member of the chorus is Ukrainian because he already knew the words but had his hand over his heart.  I don’t know if that is a thing they do in Ukraine.  Also, as someone else mentioned, the entire audience stood.

  225. 225.

    Subsole

    March 1, 2022 at 7:10 pm

     

     

    @Steeplejack: Maaaaaan….can we PLEASE make that fucker irrelevant this year? He’s really starting to chap my teeth.

  226. 226.

    Omnes Omnibus

    March 1, 2022 at 7:12 pm

    Here’s your heartwarming story in the time of war, you sentimental bastards.

  227. 227.

    Subsole

    March 1, 2022 at 7:12 pm

    @Spanky: That would be a good Guy Ritchie flick…

  228. 228.

    Martin

    March 1, 2022 at 7:25 pm

    Maersk suspending all shipment to Russia.

    I have to assume the US and EU state departments are running 24/7 now, but this is a remarkable set of events. Russia is surprisingly quickly being isolated as badly as North Korea. If you have a Visa/MC from a Russian bank, you are off of payment networks. Apple and Google shut down their payment systems, which are pretty tightly integrated into things like the Moscow metro.

    Russia might have prepared for a small run on banks, but bit by bit cash is about the only way to operate in Russia now, and that run is going to be huge. Ford is pulling out of the market. Apple has pulled out. There are basically no flights into or out of Russia because of airspace restrictions. Their athletes are banned. All of the studios have pulled Russian film releases. Netflix is out.

    Some folks are doing a masterful job of building this alliance.

  229. 229.

    Butter Emails!

    March 1, 2022 at 7:29 pm

    @Subsole: he’ll be irrelevant one way or the other.

  230. 230.

    El-Man

    March 1, 2022 at 7:32 pm

    We’re in the middle of a huge COVID surge here in NZ. We managed to keep the Omicron variant down for a while, but it was only a matter of time. There is still a huge anti-vaccine protest happening outside Parliament in Wellington. And some of these morons were waving Trump flags. ?

  231. 231.

    Anyway

    March 1, 2022 at 7:32 pm

    @japa21:

    Beautiful and very moving. On a tangential note the place looked *packed*. NY opera-goers are back…

  232. 232.

    Anyway

    March 1, 2022 at 7:40 pm

    @Baud:

    Wishful thinking? :-)

  233. 233.

    Subsole

    March 1, 2022 at 7:42 pm

    @Butter Emails!: Yeah. Fair point. I’m gonna be foolishly optimistic and hope against all hope that we do it by adding enough adults to the Senate.

  234. 234.

    Eolirin

    March 1, 2022 at 7:45 pm

    @Butter Emails!: It’s maybe possible that we somehow hold the house and don’t make enough gains in the senate without losing anything, in which case we’re still stuck where we are.

    Probably the least likely outcome though.

  235. 235.

    debbie

    March 1, 2022 at 7:49 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Very sweet, thanks.

  236. 236.

    debbie

    March 1, 2022 at 7:53 pm

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Beautiful anthem.

  237. 237.

    J R in WV

    March 1, 2022 at 7:55 pm

    @CliosFanBoy: ​
     

    At 9 the administration lifted the mask requirement effective immediately. By 11 am only about half the students wore masks still.

    If I was teaching a class, those attending the class would have one option — wear a mask or get the fuck out. If the administration could guarantee, in writing, that none of the student body has Covid, I might be swayed, but they won’t do that. They can’t be sure.

    I’m wearing a mask pretty much all the time now when I’m off the premises, out of the house.

  238. 238.

    debbie

    March 1, 2022 at 7:57 pm

    @Leto:

    I think we’re losing America…

  239. 239.

    Immanentize

    March 1, 2022 at 8:04 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: i think of you and your family many times every day.

  240. 240.

    Steeplejack

    March 1, 2022 at 8:07 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    That’s a good story.

  241. 241.

    Gin & Tonic

    March 1, 2022 at 8:08 pm

    @debbie: During the time of Stalin, singing that would get you sent to the Gulag.

    ETA: That chorus could sing a recipe for banana bread and make it sound beautiful.

  242. 242.

    Gin & Tonic

    March 1, 2022 at 8:11 pm

    @Immanentize: Thank you.

  243. 243.

    Steeplejack

    March 1, 2022 at 8:18 pm

    Zelensky gets news from the E.U.

  244. 244.

    J R in WV

    March 1, 2022 at 9:01 pm

    @Leto: ​

    Because federal judges are totally more qualified to manage SEALs and their ability fight in war, compared to Admirals. We are so fucked… Thanks Mr TFG — Shit for Brains.

  245. 245.

    OGLiberal

    March 1, 2022 at 10:44 pm

    We were careful as fuck. Some asshole wasn’t. One asshole – a neighbor, not anybody close to us. It led to a Chrohn’s flareup in my son – a bad one. He’s now on steroids to get it under control and has to go back on maintenance medicine after about 9 years of remission, the last 2 of which he wasn’t on any maintenance meds because we isolated very effectively. We’re fully vaxxed but kids only became eligible for booster several days after they got Covid.

    So, nope, I am not fucking over this. Yeah, we’re in the minority but he’s my fucking kid.

    I am not blaming folks here but some people just couldn’t be bothered to put on a mask when going in public. And the asshole who gave it to us knew she was sick and still went maskless, even after getting a confirming test. You know what, dickwads – you should have a responsibility to care about the fellow humans around you and not just “mah freedom!” Read an article today that vaxxed kids were much more susceptible to Omicron than expected. Now, many didn’t end up in a hospital but that still is not good. There is so much we still don’t know but, fuck it, I’m bored and tired after 2-years so let me sneeze on some folks.

    I’ve had it.

  246. 246.

    Steeplejack

    March 2, 2022 at 1:44 am

    @OGLiberal:

    Sorry to hear that. It’s rage-inducing, even at a distance. I hope your son gets well quickly.

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