"Author Salman Rushdie was off a ventilator and able to speak despite the stabbing attack against him, his agent confirmed to The Associated Press on Saturday night… Rushdie, 75, was attacked Friday morning in Chautauqua, N.Y., by a man who rushed the stage where the author was to speak, New York State Police said. Rushdie was transported to a local hospital by helicopter with a stab wound to the neck and chest."
"The continental United States in July set a record for overnight warmth, providing little relief from the day’s sizzling heat for people, animals, plants and the electric grid, meteorologists said."
"Tumbling temperatures this weekend could be here to stay. Canadian air, combined with a rare nor'easter could keep it feeling like September in the Northeast into next week… Thanks to a new air mass moving southward from Canada, temperatures throughout this weekend in much of the Northeast are expected to be noticeably lower than during the first two weeks of August." Sigh. Yes, I'm sure a "rare" weather event will permanently alter the expected course of weather. Just like you never know if the Sun will come back up after it sets. But yes, it's the middle of August, we are on the downhill run to the equinox. Things should be, in general, cooling off for the Northern hemisphere.
"Laboratory tests following a mass die-off of fish in the Oder River detected high levels of salinity but no mercury poisoning its waters, Poland’s environment minister said Saturday as the mystery continued as to what killed tons of fish in Central Europe… Anna Moskwa, the minister of climate and environment, said analyses of river samples taken in both Poland and Germany revealed elevated salt levels. Comprehensive toxicology studies are still underway in Poland, she said."
"The CDC says that if you were exposed to COVID, 'instead of quarantining' you should wear a 'high-quality mask' for 10 days and get tested on day 5. If that test is negative, the CDC thinks you're good to go. And if you think you are sick and that it might be COVID-19, 'isolate' until you get test results. The CDC states: 'If your results are negative, you can end your isolation.'… The FDA, however, now says that one negative test isn't enough. Here's what the FDA advised in a 'safety communication' released on August 11: If you have symptoms, you should take another test 48 hours later. If you don't have symptoms, you should take three tests, each 48 hours apart. Only if all those tests are negative should you consider yourself to be COVID-free." Now extrapolate that into a healthcare setting and you get plenty of ED docs saying, "Well, he says his home test was negative, so we're not isolating this pt with flu-like symptoms." And yes, that's an actual thing.
"Newspaper publisher Gannett Co. confirmed Friday that it’s laying off some of its newsroom staff, part of a cost-cutting effort to lower expenses as its revenue crumbles amid a downturn in ad sales and customer subscriptions." The decimation of news outlets, particularly print, continues unabated.
"Whole Foods co-founder and CEO John Mackey fears that socialism is on the rise in the U.S.… 'My concern is that I feel like socialists are taking over,' Mackey, who is set to retire from the Amazon-owned grocery chain at the end of the month after 44 years at the company, said in a podcast this week with Reason Magazine… Socialists have 'taken over education. It looks like they've taken over a lot of the corporations. It looks like they've taken over the military. And it's just continuing — so I'm deeply concerned,' he added." This can be better summed up as, "Living in the C-Suite severs your ties to reality."
"Two Amazon-owned companies — Ring and Hollywood studio MGM — are teaming to create a TV show in the mold of 'America’s Funniest Home Videos' using viral footage from Ring’s doorbell and smart-home cameras." Ah the corporate "here's some shit we found on the floor, you interested?" mode of capitalism continues on.
"Weeks after followers of an influential cleric stormed parliament, Iraq’s political crisis shows no signs of abating, despite rising public anger over a debilitating gridlock that has further weakened the country’s caretaker government and its ability to provide basic services."
"A federal jury awarded Republican Roy Moore $8.2 million in damages Friday after finding a Democratic-aligned super PAC defamed him in a TV ad recounting sexual misconduct accusations during his failed 2017 U.S. Senate bid in Alabama."
"In a speech on the House floor, (House Minority Leader Kevin) McCarthy asked, “Is America better off today than they were two years ago?” which referenced a question Reagan asked during a 1980 presidential debate with then-President Jimmy Carter… Although McCarthy’s question was strictly a rhetorical device that he probably assumed would agitate Democrats, he probably wouldn’t like the answers Twitter users gave to his inquiry." As Forest Gump said, stupid is as stupid does.
"Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, the Arizona Democrat who single-handedly thwarted her party’s longtime goal of raising taxes on wealthy investors, received nearly $1 million over the past year from private equity professionals, hedge fund managers and venture capitalists whose taxes would have increased under the plan."
"A large Pew survey out this week shows just how bad it's gotten. (Pew interviewed 6,174 Americans. For context: most good national polls only interview about 1,000 people or so.)… The survey's biggest finding? Democrats and Republicans agree: they really don't like Republicans and Democrats." Gee, ya think?
"CLAIM: Former President Barack Obama took 30 million documents, many of them classified, to Chicago upon leaving the White House… AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. Obama administration records are exclusively held and maintained by the National Archives and Records Administration, the federal agency confirmed on Friday. Millions of unclassified documents were transferred after Obama left office to a NARA facility in Chicago, but neither Obama’s personal foundation nor the facility set to house his presidential memorabilia have control over those papers."
"For the first two centuries of U.S. history, outgoing presidents simply took their documents with them when they left the White House. The materials were considered their personal property… But for the past four decades, every presidential document — from notebook doodles to top-secret security plans — is supposed to go directly to the National Archives as the material is considered the property of the American people."
"Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said Sunday the Department of Justice will need to be transparent in proving the importance of the unprecedented search of Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago last week but also criticized the response from other Republicans who he said inflamed animus against law enforcement… 'And so, I was happy that they did come out and unseal the documents on the search,' Hogan said. 'I think it was a step in the right direction. But I think we still have a lot of unanswered questions and we're gonna continue until people understand more.'" Because it's always never enough for the right. This is the political form of sea lioning. Just keep barking and people will think there's a problem, and you waste the oppositions time and energy answering questions you have no real interest in knowing the answers to.
"An armed man clad in body armor who tried to breach the FBI’s Cincinnati office on Thursday was shot and killed by police after he fled the scene and engaged in an hourslong standoff in a rural part of the state, the Ohio State Highway Patrol said." We may need to launch a rocket to measure the whackaloon quotient these days.
"The director of the FBI had strong words Wednesday for supporters of former President Donald Trump who have been using violent rhetoric in the wake of his agency's search of Trump's Mar-a-Lago home… Christopher Wray, who was appointed as the agency's director in 2017 by Trump, called threats circulating online against federal agents and the Justice Department 'deplorable and dangerous.'"
"Armed Trump supporters gathered outside the Phoenix FBI office after what they call the "unlawful" search of Mar-a-Lago."
"A man drove into a barricade near the US Capitol in Washington DC on early Sunday morning, fired several shots into the air after his vehicle ignited, and then shot himself to death, according to police… Officials were quick to note they had not determined a motive for the man’s actions, though they did say there was no indication he was targeting any Congress members, who were in recess at the time."
"Donald Trump has hired a prominent Atlanta criminal defense attorney known for defending famous rappers to represent him in matters related to the special grand jury that’s investigating whether the former president illegally tried to interfere with the 2020 election in Georgia."
"Kansas’ elections director says the state will go along with a request for a hand recount of votes from every county after last week’s decisive statewide vote affirming abortion rights, even though there was a 165,000-vote difference and a recount won’t change the result." This will now happen every single time conservatives don't win. The good thing here is that Kansas (as well as other states) requires the complainant to file a bond to cover the costs of the recount first.
"Wisconsin’s Republican Assembly leader on Friday ended a 14-month, taxpayer-funded inquiry into the 2020 election by firing his hand-picked investigator. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos’ firing of Michael Gableman came just three days after the lawmaker narrowly survived a primary challenge from an opponent endorsed by former President Donald Trump and Gableman."
"Facing prison time and dire personal consequences for storming the U.S. Capitol, some Jan. 6 defendants are trying to profit from their participation in the deadly riot, using it as a platform to drum up cash, promote business endeavors and boost social media profiles."
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