"WA State GOP Senator Doug Ericsen is in "Bad Shape" with COVID-19".
Is it really true, Rich? Seriously? Suddenly I feel like an excited kid on Christmas morning, not knowing which package to open first. This news is truly a welcome gift.
Washington State's Most Useless of Fraudulent Obstructionist Fossil Fuel Industry Coddling Absentee RepubliKKKan Scumbags is in bad shape with COVID-19 and going down in flames? BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAH!!!!
Roast in Hell, Thuggie, roast in Hell! You can be bunkmates with Cathy McMorris-Rodgers and choke on those coals you claim to dig. Maybe ya shoulda stayed in Cambodia or El Salvador, you sick, self-serving Trumpian Death Cult pigfucker.
Here's clinking glasses to finally turning the 42nd District exponentially BLUE, properly serving its constituents at long last. It appears Santa made an early visit to Whatcom County, just in time to get the holiday season off to a good start.

@1 -- Bullshit. You quoted the article, and didn't even read it. We haven't reached herd immunity because not enough people nationwide (let alone worldwide) have been immunized. Not even close. That doesn't mean there isn't societal benefit from getting immunized:

Public health leaders would have been better served by framing their vaccination campaigns around the need for “community immunity,” she said. That would have gotten people to think in more local terms — the ones that really matter when it comes to a person’s risk of infection, she added.

In other words, this is America. We don't give a shit about other Americans. To put it another way, lots of Americans hate America. They talk shit about places like California, and New York. A patriotic appeal meant nothing to them. We would have been better talking about improving things in your community. Don't get vaccinated for America, get vaccinated for Coeur d'Alene.

Queer/Bar arsonist charged:

https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdwa/pr/sedro-woolley-washington-man-charged-arson-capitol-hill-nightclub

Is Erickson the mouth breather who claimed a cyclist emits more CO2 than an SUV? Or was that another Republican mouth breather?

One, good on Britney.

Two, thoughts and prayers, Senator, and bless your heart.

@5: I don't remember that particular claim, but it fits. I wouldn't be surprised if Doug the Thug Ericsen---RepubliKKKan Trumpian Death Cult leader said crap like that. He's a total climate change denier who can't wait to destroy the world for wont of a dishonest buck.

@6: Bullshit on "thoughts and prayers". How much is the GOP paying you? You wouldn't be saying that if you really knew Doug Ericsen. He's toxic waste at the expense of all Washington State taxpayers, and the sooner he and his ilk are gone, the better off we all are.

That's the GOP for ya--if filibuster stymied Democrats can't take 'em down, COVID eventually will.

@9: However, you can't negate the fact that an infected unvaccinated person will shed more of the virus than an infected vaccinated one, simply because the vaccinated person has fewer opportunities for the virus to replicate. Hence, unvaccinated folks are more infectious and not doing their part to control the spread.

In regard to previous comments, whenever anyone comes down with covid-19 it's a tragedy. While the tonic of retribution over a political advisory succumbing to severe disease may be satisfying for some, its extremely short lived for the family, friends, hospital staff and other "collateral damage".

For those of us, like me, who have one or more loved ones or family members who are still unvaccinated, and our pleadings do nothing, the emotional toll and stress is awful. We can't just throw them out of our lives.

Oh sure, it's easy for a lot of you who live in a bubble where these things aren't on your radar to celebrate your rage while preaching to the choir. Consider yourselves lucky.

They're not in my household, but still...

"wrote a letter to state House and Senate Republicans asking them to send monoclonal antibodies to his location in El Salvador, stat."

How bootstrappy of him

@11 raindrop When/if you find a successful argument or strategy for pleading, share it with me. Meanwhile, here's hoping your family and mine have good luck.

Wonderful to see Brittany free, good on her fans & the rest, looking on horrified that this sort of control over a young woman because of one mental health episode way back, has gone on & to a celebrity, says how much more needs to be done for women to be equal.

@7

I'm pretty sure you missed the subtle bird that @6 flipped the esteemed Senator.

@16 LavaGirl: Amen, sister!

@17 seatackled: I caught it and get @6's subtle bird-flipping gesture. I won't offer thoughts and prayers to Thug Ericsen, RepubliKKKan, Ferndale, or any of his family members, however. A lot of people in Bellingham and the surrounding communities agree with me. If Thuggie cashes in his chips in the ICU because PeaceHealth / St. Joseph and Home Depot suddenly ran out of ventilators, oh, well.

@11: Obviously you gleefully attended Thuggie's little Orange Turd hate rally in Lynden in 2016. Ericsen was so proud of being Trump's self-proclaimed Washington campaign manager, all too happy to bring on the smoke and mirrors to his fellow haters.
No wonder you're hiding deep down inside your mother's dank, dark fruit cellar with the mice and spiders, afraid to come out and face the public. Schadenfreude suits you, Elmer.

Right wing cranks usually have such robust appreciation for poetic justice. What happened to that?

Anyhow, the question at hand isn't "science", its law. You're entitled to your opinion on the merits of the various vaccine mandates but the fact is that they are legal. If you don't like it, see you at the polls.

@20 Alden: Right wing cranks usually only have robust appreciation for poetic justice when it happens to someone else who likely got suckered into their rigged game and playing by their "rules". But I believe that was your point.
Under Webster's Dictionary under unscrupulous asshole, see "RepubliKKKan".

@14: Same to you. All I can say is being a good listener being strategic in questioning helps for having subsequent conversations, which is key. Some don't seem to have a clear cut reason other than being contrarian. It's maddening.

@22: Take a look in your bathroom mirror, Elmer.
You must be a hoot at parties.

Now you're really bullying grizelda, as well as digging your hole deeper with every one. But not as deep as your next one is sure to be.

These sure are very loopy times, but let’s just pause for a moment to celebrate that Brittany is Free.
that was one big violation of the rights of a human in a democracy.

@24 lol Awwwwwwwwwww... did I strike a nerve, Elmer?

@25 LavaGirl: Agreed and seconded. Yaay that Britney if free at last.

Of course you did, but I did too. So I guess we're even.

@28:..............yyyyyyyyYYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWNNNNNnnnnnnn......

Grizelda, I don’t know why you pick on raindrop, but it is bullying & that’s what caused trouble over at SL. Raindrop has the right to speak, and if their ideas are problematic , then speak to the ideas, and refute those.

Not that you caused any trouble @ SL, Grizelda.

@18

Sure doesn't sound like you did if you follow that up by calling her a GOP stooge, but whatever.

My 98 year old Aunt contracted Covid at her nursing home (she is fully vaccinated, but her age and medical conditions make her vulnerable).

She was given the monoclonal antibody treatment nd has made a full recovery, but according to my cousin (her daughter) it’s like a chemo session - it takes several hours to administer, and wipes you out.

If Senator Erickson is able to get the treatment, I don’t think it’s quite the slam dunk he thinks it is.

@1: You quote "but none [of the vaccines] has proved reliable at blocking transmission of the virus"

But you admit that it helps reduce transmission, no?

@30 LavaGirl, if you want to persistently defend a known troll, that's on you. Auntie is calling it as most people with half a brain see it - Raindrop is a disgusting human being whose enthusiastic support of Republican ideology (including extremists like Rush Limbaugh) has directly contributed to the death and suffering of millions of people. There are no discussions with trolls - he has relentlessly shown on a daily basis that he has absolutely nothing of value to say.

Thank you Pretty In Pink, @35. I don’t much read raindrop so I don’t know their bent. Scroll past is my go to if he’s not being banned.
As for grizelda, maybe I overstepped here, but she & I are mates & Dan Savage has just kicked us out of his room.. was it something I said?.. so I jumped over here to find a familiar format.

What I have noticed about raindrop is that they are polite in their delivery. Guess that’s why they are not banned. Easy to ignore rather than keep feeding them.
Politics can be discussed without abuse, hard as it is, because it’s such a slippery beast.

@30 LavaGirl: Why are you standing up for The Stranger's most notorious of MAGA trolls?

@32 seatackled re @6 westello: "Thoughts and prayers, Senator, and bless your heart" ?
Are you kidding?
I about threw up. Doug Ericsen has no heart. He's a totally evil piece of shit. Just ask current Bellingham mayor, Seth Fleetwood who grew up with him if you don't believe me.
Fleetwood once moved north of Bellingham to the 42nd District to try to unseat Ericsen in the 2014 Washington State senatorial race. Ericsen won a sixth term, bought and paid for by the fossil fuel industry and out-of-state GOP special interests, pushing for a shiny new coal terminal at Cherry Point under the big lie of "Good Jobs Now". Fortunately enough voters, myself included, local tribes and conservative groups managed to shoot down what would have been a major environmental and economic disaster for Whatcom County and the Salish Sea.
Ericsen, like Mitch McConnell, Joe Manchin, Krysten SInema, Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch, Amy Barrett, Samuel Alito, Jr., and Clarence Thomas ad nauseum have got to go. The media has got to stop putting Donald Jackass Trump on a pedestal and instead convict and sentence the Orange Turd to life in prison. Ericsen is no Senator--he doesn't even serve the people in his own district!--and Trump was no President but a globally threatening tyrant who has all but killed our democracy.

@33 Catalina Vel-DuRay: Thank you for sharing the good news about your aunt's amazing recovery, however physiologically exhausting. It is disheartening that nursing homes are where a lot of people are especially vulnerable to COVID.

@35 Pretty in Pink: Thank you. Agreed and seconded.

@36 & @37 LavaGirl: I honestly do not see how I was being abusive in this or any other comment thread. True abusers and bullies claim to be the victim, as often raindrop does. Do you see the pattern? How am I and others (such as PiP @35) bullying by rightly calling raindrop out on his consistent Mount Rainier sized pile of daily bullshit?
As for Dan's new DISQUS format for Savage Love it's anyone's guess to see how that goes. You and I are not the only ones who have left the SL commentariat.

@40 skidmark: "What kind of MAGAtroll laments the difficulty of convincing friends and family members to get vaccinated?"
The very kind who blindly cheers on Donald Trump who has the blood of over one million dead U.S citizens on his hands by calling COVID a hoax, and whose idea of a "cure" is to just 'try a little hydroxychloroquine'. Then, when DJT tests positive he arrogantly hops into the Air Force One Huey to Walter Reed, a VA hospital in New York City where he gets 5-star healthcare and his own private wing for free that actual U.S. military veterans could only just dream about. Then DJT returns home to show off to his admiring sheeple on the White House lawn. Just like DJT raindrop is nothing but smoke and mirrors.
Raindrop has been known to ape what misinformation Trump and its minions say, no matter what the damages are later. If raindrop is lamenting any inability to sway science-denying friends or family members to get their COVID vaccines it may be in part that he's recently lost a loved one and / or, oh gee!---he just might get fatally infected after all and should have gotten the shot sooner before it's too late in the ICU.

I am amazed that xina hasn't posted yet. She would ordinarily be all over this comment thread.
I hope xina is okay.

@42: I hope so too.

@43 I hope you're not taking these ravings seriously.

@44: Thank you Swiftness. Although seriously shocking (and hence fascinatingly illuminative) beyond what we typically see, no I'm not.

Not standing up for any trolls, Grizelda. Ignore them is my position. But you do you.

SwiftRess autocorrects to SwiftNess. I made a note of it.

Hi Catalina, great to see you & good news on your aunt. What a strong woman she must be @98.

Dan Savage cut us adrift, Grizelda. No by your leave or anything. A quick heads up the week before that he was confused about. Star now, he is. A bigger one.

@44: Which of you has top bunk tonight, Swifty, you or Elmer?

@45: You could roast weenies with all your gaslighting, Elmer.

@46 & @49 LavaGirl: It isn't just us exiting the Savage Love comment threads. I have had to cut Dan and Savage Love adrift, as well. His column has become overrun by trolls. Letters and comments have become tepid to insulting. Some of the most consistently spot on, kind, and supportive of the regular commenters along with some newbies have left as well. A number of people, myself included, have had trouble with registering and logging into DISQUS and have given up on the confusing and unfriendly new format altogether. Savage Love has lost its one-big-closeknit-happy-family feel that made it so popular after three decades and I think that's a shame. It's as if now that he's risen in status Dan doesn't care who his real fans are anymore.

@44, agreed and seconded. as Grizelda would say!

@51: You guys must all be having a sleepover at Swifty's.

Seems to be a few trolls about, Grizelda. Scuttling about like little mice.

@54 LavaGirl: Welcome to Whack-a-Troll.

So glad that Britney has been set free from her father’s conservatory clutches.

Now she can swing her tits and make money with abandon, and post video clips on TikTok, as Matt mentioned, which she is really good at.

You go girl!

No telling how much misery these exploitive conservatorships cause for the victims, who are at the mercy of the legal system and traditional white male dominance.

Where there’s wealth there’s fraud, as we saw with the Mary’s Place scam.
Hopefully the FBI will nail those suckers.

Sorry about Senator Erickson’s predicament, which proves there is a God and he or she wants you to get vaccinated so you don’t spread this deadly COVID time bomb.

Hopefully Nayib Bukele or one of his operatives will sneak into Senator Erickson’s hospital bed and cornhole him as an act of retribution for his disregard for public health mandates and international carpetbagging.

Sheriff Ed Troyer should be drummed out of office for his hostile transgressions against innocent citizenry, the same way King County Sheriff Dave Reichert was sent packing by angry voters who tired of his oppressive mediocrity.

This horrendous example of police brutality verifies the legitimacy of the Black Lives Matter mission to protect minorities from law-enforcement harassment.

The thought of a corpulent Governor Chris Christie running for public office once again is a clear and present danger, like global warming.

This scenario is even more terrifying, like “War of the Gargantua's” when you throw in Trump, the flatulent, obese green-orange howler-monkey who represents the primitive urge of rural crackers to flatline on moonshine and follow their deathward drift to the middle-ages.

Imagine those two redneck fatties duking it out on the world stage, farting and hurling obscenities at each other, or relenting and performing fellatio, as Trump puts fat-buttock Christie on his doomed Republican electoral trip to Hades.

With any luck, Steve Bannon will get cornholed repeatedly in federal prison for contempt of Congress and being a right-wing grifter and committing mail fraud and money laundering.

Certainly, he deserves two-penis anal justice, and should get a decent haircut and shave while he serves penance, so he doesn’t look like flipping degenerate Republican, although he is.

Let’s pray that President Biden can cajole the Chinese into hopping onboard with the International Climate Accord, or else we are all toast, including coral reefs.

Thanks to the Industrial Revolution we are burning fossil fuels at an accelerated exponential rate.

Petroleum deposits that took eons for Mother Earth to create are being burned up overnight, in the grand scheme of earth’s timeline, and destroying the biosphere in the process.

To quote the late Marvin Gaye: “…How much more abuse from man can she stand?

This anti-vaxxer movement is nonsense, and the courts should stand behind the Biden Administration and make these inoculations mandatory.

This is like the Great Depression or WWII in terms of urgency to act, and if necessary, people who resist should be given the COVID vaccine even if they are non-compliant for the greater good.

If they are paranoid of needles give them a suppository or some sort of workaround.

@56 pollysexual: Well said and summarized. I mostly agree with you on the majority of your comments with one exception: I will never feel sorry for Doug Ericsen. Ever.
People complaining about Washington State legislature not passing enough critical laws to curb human made fossil fuel consumption, properly taxing the rich already, and flattening the curve on COVID can look at Ericsen's abysmal record of willful obstruction in Olympia. His fate as a Washington State GOP Senator was sealed from the day he blocked state senate bills for reducing carbon emissions with plenty of unscrupulous outside help, rallied his haters in Lynden for the Orange Turd in 2016, claimed to be "Ambassador of Cambodia", and finally fled to El Salvador to study dictatorship. I consider it poetic justice if Ericsen dies of COVID curled up alone in a fetal position, provided he isn't offed by a drug cartel in San Salvador first.

Agreed and seconded auntie grizelda, here’s hoping Senator Erickson gets captured and cornholed by a primitive tribe in El Salvador, like those hopeless miscreants who became the daily special in “Cannibal Holocaust”.

It would be nice to eliminate all these boneheaded Republican troglodytes like Ericksen and McMorris-Rodgers, like an electoral bowel-movement that gets fitfully flushed.

Let’s keep Herrera-Beutler because she has nice tits and began to migrate toward the left when she called for Trump’s head on a platter after the D.C. capital invasion.

Your postings make me want to shave my balls and run around naked, even in this chilly weather.

@58 pollysexual: Spot on, agreed, and seconded right back and amen. Like U.S Capitol-bound soon-to-be former Washington State Secretary Kim Wyman, Jaime Herrera-Beutler is indeed a rare and welcome exception to the Party of Orange Turd. I'm surprised they haven't changed their political affiliations--at least to Independent if not Democrat.
When the Orange Turd and its minions go down the celebrating will be global.