A.) I don’t have covid, just some other gack that has been keeping me in bed for five days.
B.) Republicans are actually going to try to impeach Biden, which will be awesome.
I am going back to bed.
Good News
by John Cole| 60 Comments
This post is in: John Cole Presents "This Fucking Old House"
Baud
I don’t want to read about your bad news.
Dangerman
They won’t have the votes; the breakup begins.
Who gets the glassware and who gets the dog?
Origuy
@Dangerman: They broke all the glassware throwing it at each other and the dog ran away.
Dan B
Trump set up a binding law that impeachment must be voted on by the entire House, not a committee. It looks like impeaching Biden is a non-starter.
Dangerman
I predicted a day or 2 or 3 ago that the GOP is going WWE; luckily, I don’t think they have folding chairs in the House.
Baud
My comment in the post that AL pulled:
I wonder if they’ll have subpoena power if they’re skipping the whole House vote part of the process.
Ruckus
@Origuy:
Smart dog.
Alison Rose
@Origuy: Sounds like a country song.
Wag
Has anyone considered the idea that Speaker Kevin is playing 11th dimension chess against the MAGA GQP, and knows that impeachment will blow up in their faces and will cause them to lose all power, freeing him to make a deal with Biden to solve all the world’s problems?
Yeah, me neither.
moonbat
@Dan B: Could you share the source for that information? I’d like to read up on it.
MazeDancer
And even more good news: the updated COVID vaccines are here!
Book your appointment now: vaccines.gov
cain
@MazeDancer: woot! thanks – I think I want it!
evap
@MazeDancer: Just booked appointments for me and the spousal unit! Not exactly looking forward to it, but I will be glad when it’s done.
sab
@MazeDancer: I try to be supportive but the booking or even the information software sucks donkeyballs ( sorry, donkeys.)
I want Covid vax now. I want RSV soon, couple of weeks? I want flu a couple of weeks at least before fall holidays. I am Christian. Turkey day is our next big holiday. Jewish folks want to vax two weeks before High Holidays, already in September.
Everyone has a different but urgent time schedule.
Percysowner
@MazeDancer:
My store is awaiting delivery of the updated vaccines, but I’m hoping to get it this weekend.
Percysowner
@sab:Have you asked your doctor about the RSV vaccine? I talked to mine and even though I’m 70 he felt that there are drawbacks to getting it. His big argument was that it only lasts a year or so and getting it again doesn’t do get your immunity back. He’s usually completely pro-vaccine, so I trust him on this. If your doctor says yes, then do it, but you mighty want to check first.
Danielx
May have had Covid, seems to be on the rise hereabouts. Or not – didn’t feel as sick or fatigued as before. Does that rule me out for vaccine any time soon?
wjca
As a general rule, when writing fantasy fiction, it helps provide realism if the characters behave consistently. Or, if they are going to evolve, there be some clue early on that they might. This flight of fancy regarding McCarthy fails totally. (As you noted.)
At best, McCarthy “negotiates” with Biden, possibly covertly. Biden gives him detailed directions (using short pithy sentences and words of few syllables). Which he somehow manages to follow well enough to keep the lights on.
Dangerman
@sab: Had the flu shot; will get the new CoVid booster as soon as it is available to me (I have my alternative methods and, no, it’s not sold by some Dude out of the trunk of his car; let’s just say I have atypical access). Finished my two shot Hep B regimen. Bring it all on.
Mr. Bemused Senior
A snake oil salesman in Rebecca Williams game The Princeless Bride extolled his product, “it has so much pure hooey, it won’t just suspend your disbelief, it’ll have it floating in mid air.”
I think this might require a double dose.
Jackie
@wjca: Deja vu. Biden and Kevin’s meetings to avert the Debt crisis were conducted that way. The FY Budget resolutions can be handed the same way. More Dems will vote “yes” than the GQP MAGA. The bill will fly through the Senate.
And Kevin’s screwed again.
Gvg
@MazeDancer: That seems to say only one bivalent vaccination for most people, in other words the one we already got last year. It doesn’t say we can get an updated one this year unless we are over 65 or immune compromised.
bbleh
@Dangerman: @Origuy: Gaetz and MTG each grabbed part of the dog and began frantically chewing on it while simultaneously trying to kick the other away. The dog — who had much bigger teeth — explained what a bad idea that was. They refused medical care because vaccines or something, and their wounds went septic. They blamed it on Fauci and their fundraising spiked.
@Dangerman: The GOP has been WWE for years now. Trump IS WWE. He is a WWE ringmaster, and both the rubes and the media eat it up.
bbleh
@Dan B: @moonbat: I read that it was an OLC opinion during his administration, which unless Biden reversed it (hahahaha) is still binding on executive agencies.
bbleh
@Wag: @wjca: @Mr. Bemused Senior: does anyone know for a fact that Squeaker Qevin can even count to 11?
Hildebrand
Will the new Covid vaccine be free, or will there be a cost for this one?
Mr. Bemused Senior
@bbleh: oh sure, they taught him to count all the way to fifteen. Maybe he has blocked that out though.
VOR
@wjca: Mark Twain said something about the reason truth is stranger than fiction is because fiction has to make sense.
The Republicans have two superpowers. First, their utter lack of any shame whatsoever. You can pull up quotes by McCarthy saying the exact opposite thing in 2019 and he won’t be fazed at all. Second, they benefit from the hermetically sealed information landscape provided by Fox News and similar vessels of disinformation. Their base simply will not be told about anything exculpatory. They are never asked to produce evidence of mis-deeds as Fox will let them keep making wild claims. The Dominion settlement did not change Fox’s behavior that much.
RevRick
Oh, a Republican impeachment of President Biden would be glorious. Republicans in the Senate would be looking for ways to hide under their desks, and the House impeachment managers would show the whole world how utterly unfit the GOP is to govern. And those defending the President would shred their pathetic arguments and make them look like the complete fools they are.
That wouldn’t convince the MAGA fascists, but the persuadable middle would see how repulsive the GOP is. The attack ads practically write themselves.
sab
We stole a neighbors lovely cat because she is young and innocent and shouldn’t be eaten by coyotes in the flower of her youth. ( She is an adorable cutie. Soft fur . Pure black. Orange eyes.) Ringtail. (Cat-tail that curls like a huskies. I had a Norwegian elkhound. My brother in law had a pomeranian.) Ringtails are perfectly normal. Extremely cute but very normal.
Neighbors are lovely sweet people. Toss your cat outside at 5 am because you have to go to work but your naive cat thinks it is safer outside than in with the dogs.
Our adjecent park has at least 10 hungry coyotes.
Neighbor cat grew up with dogs and doesn’t understand not all dogs are friendly. She smacks our pitmix in the face daily with her claws out. Pitmix is shocked and hurt and intimidated. Other dogs would be offended and kill the uppity cat.
@Percysowner: Mine thought get it, but that was a while ago. I might have family hereditary ataxia.We get very wobbly on our feet a bit before our sixties. Mom had it Grandma had it. I thought I had missed it, but was I extremely wobbly today on my feet doing a basic household chore. Gets worse as you get older. Difficulty walking Difficulty standing. Difficulty talking. Can’t do basic househould chores your family has expected you to do for decades.
I thought I had dodged that bullet, but why am I dragging myself around doing basic housekeeping? Why on some days is it so hard to just stand up.
The other stuff I said later was just me whining that I deleted.
Scout211
@Gvg: The CDC press release:
Jackie
@Hildebrand: Medicare covers it, so your insurance should.
bbleh
@Mr. Bemused Senior: really? I mean, are we sure they didn’t say “no no Mr. Speaker, this really IS number 10! You wouldn’t want it to take more than 10, right? Okay, it’s 10.”
(“Whew,” says Qevin to himself. “I know what 10 is. 10 is good. That was a movie I think…”)
Scout211
@Hildebrand: CDC press release
Mr. Bemused Senior
@bbleh: let’s go to the tape…
[ETA: FAKE NEWS!]
bbleh
@Hildebrand: @Jackie: I would strongly suspect — although I don’t know — that it will be like a flu shot. And indeed I suspect it will be that way going forward, at least until they combine them.
ETA: ah Scout211 at 31 with actual hard information.
Hildebrand
@Jackie: @Scout211:
My thank for the info and link
Princess
@Gvg: yeah, I’m reading what you are reading.
stinger
@sab: I read your comment before you edited it. Everybody’s entitled to whine–and online strangers like me are entitled to feel a little concerned! I don’t know anything about ataxia — what does your doctor say?
Princess
@Scout211: But by updated vaccine, they seem to be referring to any bivalent vaccine including the one from last year. This is from the website posted above. If I’m wrong and they do want everyone to get another bivalent shot, they have explained this in the most confusing way possible:
Updated (Bivalent) and Original (Monovalent) COVID-19 Vaccines
Updated vaccines, sometimes called “bivalent” vaccines
The updated vaccines are called “updated” because they protect against both the original virus that causes COVID-19 and the Omicron variant BA.4 and BA.5. Two COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers, Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, have developed updated COVID-19 vaccines.
Scout211
@Princess: Most places that are administering the new booster aren’t making appointments yet. That is older information on that site. Please see my link at #31 for the CDC press release from today. We will likely need to wait a few days to get appointments for the new booster.
ETA :The new press release is from today. September 12, 2023. CDC
RevRick
@Scout211: I recently had a head cold that ended in a few days with a dry, hacking cough. And that cough triggered a bout of sciatica so excruciating that I couldn’t get off the toilet, and my wife called 911, and I was taken to the ER and given a referral to the spine center ( plus a lidocaine patch and a scrip for a muscle relaxant). About 36 hours later, I had another excruciating bout, which led to a couple of burly EMT guys carrying me downstairs. Later that morning, I saw the doctor and had some x-rays, which revealed some arthritis in the lower spine. Offhandedly, the doctor mentioned that they had seen a huge uptick in such conditions following COVID, and can be triggered by any viral infection. I had had a mild case of Covid in December 2021 with symptoms of aches around my torso and back.
Long COVID effects? Perhaps.
NotMax
Admit to a bit of cautious worry in the back of the mind during the recent NYC trip regarding COVID, which included visiting someone (non-COVID patient) post-surgery in a very large hospital.
Did not have meals in any restaurants, Mom and I ordered take-out and brought it home. Wedding we went to was open air, as was cocktail reception afterwards, and the dinner held underneath a large open-sided tent, with pedestal fans providing constant exchange of air. Place even provided a smoking area inside the tent, off the dining floor, adjacent to the restrooms. Two people assigned to our table at the wedding did not show up so we could spread out and weren’t seated cheek to jowl.
Attended two plays in Manhattan while there and in both cases things fortuitously fell into place such that I was the only person seated in the entire row.
Enough time has passed since returning to Maui that can affirm I remain COVID-free, as has been the case all along (knock wood). Have gotten a booster every six months since the second initial shot; next one will be in November.
bbleh
@sab: IANAD, but dragging/tiredness is much more general than ataxia. Could be low BP, due to any number of things. Could be a nutrition or hydration issue. I would suggest starting with the simple stuff — make sure you’re hydrated, find out about any lab results that might suggest a nutrition issue — and get a BP cuff and monitor that for several days several times a day. Then talk to your doc. Don’t jump to (scary) conclusions.
Princess
@Scout211: yes, but what I posted above was the definition of “updated” from the same site. I’m not saying you’re wrong! I’m just saying they couldn’t be more confusing if they tried.
wjca
Couldn’t happen to a more deserving guy.
Scout211
Yes, you are right about that. It takes awhile for the sites to be updated to the new information. The director is saying the vaccines should be available by the end of the week. Vaccine.gov will be updated soon, I would think. We get our vaccines at CVS and it usually takes several days before they get set up to be able to make appointments for any newly approved vaccinations. I don’t plan to even try to set up an appointment until at least this weekend.
But yes, the website people should have added a “coming soon” banner for the new booster so it’s not so confusing.
Scout211
@RevRick: Yikes! That sounds horrible. Are you feeling any better now? What an awful ordeal. ☹️
Betty
Fetterman again had the best response to a Fox News question on the impeachment. Fake horror followed by abundant laughter and cries of no, no!
Pennsylvanian
No covid is good covid? Waiting on news of where the new boosters will be available here (in Maine, not PA). And they didn’t have flu shots yet 10-12 days ago when I was doing routine doctoring. Kind of bummed because I heard there might be a hybrid flu/covid booster and I love a combo!
@Dangerman: Glassware? This will surely come down to the S&P shakers and it will be epic. I can’t take sides, so I’m just rooting for injuries.
And as ever, my sympathies are extended to Betty Cracker. I loathe your reports on DeSantistan, but you bearing witness for us all must be its own torture and it does not go unrecognized.
The birding/swamp pictures are awesome. Thank you!
Betty
@RevRick: Thank you. I have been waiting for confirmation of this. Although I had minor back issues in the past, it wasn’t until after I had Covid that I developed a severe problem with surgery recommended. Hearing that Covid may well have exacerbated my problem is reaffirming. Doctors I consulted at the time dismissed the idea out of hand.
ema
@Princess:
The just approved booster is monovalent, targeting omicron subvariant XBB 1.5. It also showed good results against BA.2.86 (Pirola), the latest variant (a very mutated omicron subvariant):
rikyrah
Feel better, Cole🤗
HeartlandLiberal
Sometimes lately I, also, feel like going back to bed, and then pulling the covers over my head to shut out the world.
AM in NC
That is good news, John. I got COVID (for the first time) starting two weeks ago today, and I am STILL far from being back to (my) normal. As in, I trail run 3 miles as my normal exercise, and I am now exhausted from going upstairs or making the bed. Plus massive head congestion. This virus is nothing to mess around with. I mean I knew that, but now I KNOW it. Hope you feel better soon.
RevRick
@Scout211: Much, thank you. But, yes, it was no fun while it was happening.
RevRick
@Betty: Correlation is not necessarily causation, but it does make you wonder. I’ve also heard that there’s been a significant increase in autoimmune diseases since COVID.
Paul in KY
Glad you don’t have the Rona.
brantl
@moonbat: Stumpy can’t make a law, it’s a DOJ opinion.
brantl
@bbleh: OLC opinions aren’t actually binding on anybody; if you want to know if they are worth the paper they’re printed on, take them to court. John Mitchell’s bullshit opinion that a sitting president can’t be indicted, is only that, an opinion, it’s never been tested.