"At least five people have been killed and more than 40 injured after a car ploughed into a Christmas parade in the US state of Wisconsin, police say… School bands and a dance troupe of grannies were among those marching through the city of Waukesha when a red SUV came speeding down the road."
"Two mothers who died of herpes after giving birth could have been infected by a single surgeon, the BBC has found… The families, who were told there were no connections between the deaths, are calling for inquests to be opened."
"A month ago, new coronavirus cases in the United States were ticking steadily downward and the worst of a miserable summer surge fueled by the delta variant appeared to be over. But as Americans travel this week to meet far-flung relatives for Thanksgiving dinner, new virus cases are rising once more, especially in the Upper Midwest and Northeast."
"As Covid cases surged over the summer, Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian took action: Unvaccinated workers would have to pay an extra $200 a month for their health insurance, starting Nov. 1… It felt less onerous than the vaccine mandate imposed on workers by rival United Airlines. But still, it was audacious." Well, that's one way to do it.
"Republican lawmakers across the country look determined to take on the Biden administration's insistence that employers require their workers to get vaccinated against COVID-19." Remember the arguments for limiting both abortion and birth control access in healthcare plans? About how business owners should have a say in the health and medical care of their employees?
"White House health officials are set to announce on Monday that 95% of the federal workforce is in compliance with the Biden administration's vaccine mandate, a senior administration official said… Over 90% of workers have received at least one shot and the other 5% have submitted exception applications that were already approved or are pending."
"Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has criticised three nights of riots over anti-COVID measures, calling the unrest 'pure violence' by 'idiots' and vowed to prosecute those responsible… The riots in several cities around the country since Friday were 'violence under the guise of protest', the prime minister said. He added he would always defend the right to protest, but 'I will never accept is that idiots use pure violence against people … who keep this country safe,' he told Dutch media."
"Target will no longer open its stores on Thanksgiving Day, making permanent a shift to the unofficial start of the holiday season that was suspended during the pandemic." Good.
"Many homebuilders went out of business after the housing crash, and that has led to a historic housing shortage. And now investors large and small are jockeying to snap up homes as the tight supply keeps pushing prices higher… So big companies such as Redfin and Opendoor, countless individual speculators, real estate agents and some more predatory outfits have been contacting homeowners, just on the slim chance that they might be willing to sell to some random person calling on the phone."
"In recent years, Amazon.com Inc has killed or undermined privacy protections in more than three dozen bills across 25 states, as the e-commerce giant amassed a lucrative trove of personal data on millions of American consumers… Amazon executives and staffers detail these lobbying victories in confidential documents reviewed by Reuters."
"Missing Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai told Olympic officials in a video call from Beijing that she was safe and well, the International Olympic Committee said Sunday after Peng reappeared in public at a youth tournament in Beijing, according to photos released by the organizer."
"About 80 people rushed into a Nordstrom store near San Francisco on Saturday and stole merchandise in what authorities called an 'organized theft.'… Police in Walnut Creek said Sunday that they arrested three people in connection with the incident at the luxury department store, including one person allegedly in possession of a gun."
"More than a dozen people stormed a Louis Vuitton store in a Chicago suburb and were caught on surveillance footage grabbing bags and wiping shelves clear, according to police."
"The Transportation Security Administration said in a later statement that an individual had been undergoing a bag search at the airport's main security checkpoint when a TSA official opened a compartment carrying a gun… 'The passenger lunged into the bag and grabbed a firearm, at which point it discharged,' TSA said."
"Electric SUVs generally are among the least reliable vehicles on the road, but it’s not because of the batteries or electric motors that power them… Instead, it’s because of glitch-prone electronics including climate controls and power equipment, the annual auto reliability survey of subscribers by Consumer Reports found… In contrast, compact and plug-in gas-electric hybrids led by the Toyota Prius and Prius Prime and the Honda Insight were the most reliable category, said Jake Fisher, senior director of auto testing for Consumer Reports."
"Kyle Rittenhouse’s claim that he is 'not a racist person', made to Tucker Carlson, landed in an atmosphere of controversy and condemnation ahead of the interview airing in full on Fox News on Monday night… Rittenhouse, 18, was acquitted on Friday on charges stemming from killing two men and wounding one during unrest after the shooting of a Black man by a white police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last year. Rittenhouse is white, as were the men he shot."
"A notorious U.S. Capitol riot suspect and white supremacist livestreamer who goes by the alias 'Baked Alaska' faces new charges in Arizona after allegedly defacing a Hanukkah display at the state capitol." What a fucking tool. (Grokked from Jim Wright)
"Two longtime conservative Fox News commentators have resigned in protest of what they call a pattern of incendiary and fabricated claims by the network's opinion hosts in support of former President Donald Trump… In separate interviews with NPR, Stephen Hayes and Jonah Goldberg pointed to a breaking point earlier this month: network star Tucker Carlson's three-part series on the Jan. 6 siege of the U.S. Capitol that relied on fabrications and conspiracy theories to exonerate the Trump supporters who participated in the attack." No, I'm not congratulating them. They're just the rats leaving a sinking ship.
"Republicans in Georgia are set to approve a new congressional map that adds to their representation in the U.S. House even as they voted to trim their own majority in the state legislature." Gerrymandering as a regard action to losing popularity.
It's by David Brooks, so take that as it is… "Finally, there is something extremely off-putting about the NatCon public pose. In person, as I say, I find many of them charming, warm, and friendly. But their public posture is dominated by the psychology of threat and menace. If there was one expression of sympathy, kindness, or grace uttered from the podium in Orlando, I did not hear it. But I did hear callousness, invocations of combat, and whiffs of brutality." The extreme right is gearing for war and using the state to impose their will on the majority, but David thinks they're still good drinking companions instead of seeing them as the later-day Nazis they are.
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