Memorial Day 2021: This Year Maybe The Summer Won’t Suck

Throw something on the grill and enjoy!

Memorial Day honors military personnel who have died in the service to the United States. It's not a time when you'd dare take a knee during the National Anthem or kiss up to the troops just days after blocking an investigation into a domestic attack on the Capitol. But Republicans are gonna do the last one anyway because they all had their shame removed on an outpatient basis.

House Rep. Conor Lamb from Pennsylvania preemptively suggested that the GOP sedition caucus go stuff it.

Monday is Memorial Day. As a veteran, I’d like to ask that these 35 Senators just stay home. No more BS speeches… https: //t.co/glBFzHrR5f

— Conor Lamb (@Conor Lamb) 1622221746.0 

Monday is Memorial Day. As a veteran, I'd like to ask that these 35 Senators just stay home. No more BS speeches about those who gave their lives.

The mother of a veteran who gave his life just begged for your vote, & you turned your back on her & all of us.

 More than a year has passed since the start of the pandemic, and this Memorial Day, we can leave the house and share the same air as other sensibly vaccinated people. But we shouldn't forget the almost 600,000 people who've died from COVID-19. They weren't in uniform, but they were drafted into this invisible war so Americans could remain free from science, mask mandates, and the most basic societal obligations to others.

During a speech in March in recognition of the pandemic's first anniversary (traditionally commemorated with paper), President Joe Biden suggested that if we all do our part together, as a nation, we might be able to safely gather outside with our loved ones and even our family members for a Fourth of July cookout or barbecue.   National Review editor Rick Lowry couldn't resist gloating over how Uncle Joe had failed the country by delivering on his promise a month early. Maybe Lowry is the one who's old and confused.

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Vaccination rates are up and new COVID-19 cases are down, despite the best efforts of rightwing conspiracy theorists who host Fox News programs or serve in Congress, so last week, Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, gave the thumb's up for a more laidback Memorial Day.

"If you're vaccinated, go enjoy your Memorial Day weekend. Certainly you — we've all been longing for some time away, some time to do the things we love with the people we love," Walensky said at an event with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Thursday.

"And if you're not vaccinated, give yourself a gift this holiday weekend and get vaccinated so you can protect yourself, your family and your entire community."

Walensky sounds pretty excited about the holiday. You just know she's going to show up at the cookout with the good pasta salad, like this one my girl Alison Roman makes.

That's right. She put capers in that motherfucker. I love Alison Roman.

There's gotta be some bad news, Republicans are likely wondering. Well, gas prices are the highest they've been since 2014, and while that's likely a result of increased demand because we can travel again, Republicans are already declaring this the Summer of Jimmy Carter. They're desperate for every Democratic president to wind up like Carter, a respected humanitarian who doesn't incite attacks on the US Capitol. Gas prices could rise as as high as $3.25 per gallon during the summer, which is still better than they were in 2012 when my wife and I took our big cross-country road trip.

Tom Kloza, global head of energy analysis at the Oil Price Information Service, anticipates that gas prices will hover around $3 per gallon until the Fourth of July. In the mean time, if filling up the tank is too expensive, you can always stay home and binge watch movies. Good Housekeeping has a list of the 25 Best Memorial Day movies to watch over the holiday. They include Apocalypse Now , some garbage from John Wayne, and Top Gun . I suppose we all mourned when Goose died.

[ ABC News ]

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