A review panel for the Food and Drug Administration approved the use of the new anti-viral medication molnupiravir, by Merck, to be used by people who have tested positive for coronavirus and are at high risk of developing a severe case of COVID, USA Today reports.

The FDA’s The Antimicrobial Drugs Advisory Committee voted 13-10 to approve the recommendation to people at severe risk for advanced COVID who have initially tested positive for coronavirus in the previous five days.  It is not recommended for use by people who are pregnant.

Molnupiravir is a five-day medication course, with two doses taken daily.  It is the first anti-viral medication approved for treatment of coronavirus, although conservatives have been touting ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine as COVID treatments; data suggests those two drugs are ineffective.

I want to congratulate my North Jersey constituent Dr. Oz on his run for US Senate in Pennsylvania. I’m sure this fully genuine candidacy will capture the hearts of Pennsylvanians. https://t.co/poMegBfBfC

— Bill Pascrell, Jr. (@PascrellforNJ) November 30, 2021

Via the conservative news outlet The Washington Examiner, Mehmet Oz, known as the television personality Dr. Oz, announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for the Pennsylvania Senate seat.

A vocal conservative, Oz’s profile rose in GOP circles as he pitched questionable practices to try to control the spread of the coronavirus.  Oz’s professional reputation has sputtered as his celebrity grew:  doctors and other medical and science professionals have challenged his advice about weight loss products, his support for gay conversion therapy and his fear mongering about arsenic in apple juice.  Oz hosted Donald Trump on his show to review Trump’s claimed health record, and Oz was laudatory about Trump’s health, including congratulatory comments on Trump reportedly weighing 237 pounds though he was clearly heavier.

Oz also saw ire from the medical community for promoting unproven therapies to treat coronavirus, including hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin, saying it was a patient’s right to choose treatments that are not approved or that show no documented progress at treating the virus.  Oz also promoted in the spring of 2020 reopening schools, claiming that a 2-3% fatality rate for students and staff would be an acceptable number of deaths to get children back in school.

Pray for the community around Oxford High. Evil is real but God will prevail.

'The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit' – Psalm 34:18

— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) November 30, 2021

Update 3:11 p.m. ET:  CBS News reports three killed and six wounded in the shooting.  NBC updated reports to state the individual taken into custody is a 15-year-old student at the school.

Original Post:  As many as six people were reportedly wounded when a gunman with a handgun opened fire at a suburban Detroit high school, and authorities say the shooter is in custody, NBC News reports.

At least four people were injured, with some sources saying six were hit during the incident at Oxford High School in Oakland County.  No information on the shooter has been released, and no fatalities have yet been reported.

Prosecutors have demanded Sidney “Kraken” Powell comply with a federal grand jury subpoena for the fundraising records of her “Defending the Republic” PAC, a slush fund created to power her doomed lawsuits to overturn the result of the 2020 election, the Washington Post reports.

Defending the Republic’s attorney Howard Kleinhendlder responded to an inquiry by the Post with the usual “over the target” bullshit “We have always known the more effective we are, the more the false attacks will intensify. Defending the Republic has and will continue to fight for #WeThePeople who make this country work. Defending the Republic and the PAC will not be diverted from their missions by lies, innuendo and other distractions. We believe in the law, the Rule of Law, and we intend to follow it and work to reinstate and preserve it” said the guy paid to say it.

The three judge DC Circuit Court of Appeals panel assessing the merits of Trump’s lawsuit attempting to assert privilege over materials sought by the House January 6th Select Committee already appears to be ready to kick the fat former president in the balls, Politico reports. “We have one president at a time under our constitution. That incumbent president… has made the judgment and is best positioned, as the Supreme Court has told us, to make that call as to the interests of the executive branch” said Judge Patricia Millet, an Obama appointee, during the hearing.

Millet also asked Trump attorney Justin Clark (not to be confused with fascist coup plotter dickbag former Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Clark, himself a target of committee subpoenas and likely headed for a criminal contempt referral) why Trump himself has not gone on the record to argue why he should be allowed to keep specific docs withheld from the committee. “The court itself is supposed to go through and make arguments that the former president hasn’t?” to which Clark tried say the very nature of the material itself would be a bell that could not be unrung. “There will be a line where you can’t go over, then the documents are just kind of out in public in terms of what they are,” said Clark, unintentionally conveying his client’s desperation to avoid disclosure.

Should he lose, Trump will find himself in a race to get either the entire DC Circuit Court or the Supreme Court to issue a stay before the documents can be delivered to the committee, whose staff better be standing outside the fucking door of the National Archives when the ruling is issued.

Larry Visoski, pilot of Jeffrey Epstein’s “Lolita Express”, testified in court at Ghislaine Maxwell’s trial that among his passengers were then-future President Trump, then-former President Bill Clinton, former pretend President who prefers teenage boys Kevin Spacey, Royal British diddler Prince Andrew, and billionaire nerd who turns out to be a pervert too Bill Gates, reports the Independent, which did not elaborate yet on whether this guy told the court he saw anything that would implicate any of the aforementioned personalities in sex crimes. Fingers crossed for Trump.

In a newly discovered video, Congresswoman Lauren Boebert (Q-Colo), speaking at a September fundraiser in New York, repeats a number of the xenophobic, Islamophobic comments she made during a videotaped talk over the Thanksgiving break, calling into doubt Boebert’s claims that she doesn’t insult people based on their religions.

CNN reports that former Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows is cooperating with the House January 6th special committee, providing information and material to the committee and scheduling an appearance to answer members’ questions.

“Mr. Meadows has been engaging with the Select Committee through his attorney,” Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi who chairs the committee said in a statement. “He has produced records to the committee and will soon appear for an initial deposition. The Select Committee expects all witnesses, including Mr. Meadows, to provide all information requested and that the Select Committee is lawfully entitled to receive. The Committee will continue to assess his degree of compliance with our subpoena after the deposition.”

The committee and Meadows have created a way for Meadows to provide information to the committee, a break from other Trump loyalists who have resisted committee subpoenas and ignored requests for information as Trump continues his crusade to undermine the results of the 2020 election.

“Senator Joni Ernst of the Senate Small Business Committee seeks a Legislative Assistant to handle relevant committee work and related constituent matters. The position will also handle Appropriations and Budget Committee jurisdiction, as well as banking, insurance, financial services, housing, education, general trade, and taxes. Qualified candidates will possess strong writing, analytical, negotiation, and organizational skills; the ability to perform well under pressure; and sound political judgment. A law degree or a connection to the Small Business Committee in either the House or Senate is desirable. Iowa or Midwestern ties are preferred.”  –job posting on Daybook.  To apply, send your resume, cover letter and salary requirements to Senator Ernst’s office.

Despite favorable economic news such as record high job creation, record low unemployment claims, and increased consumer spending, American consumer confidence fell last month to a nine month low, the Associated Press reports.  The drop is largely due to consumer concerns relating to rising prices and lingering fears of the spread of the coronavirus.

On Tuesday, the Conference Board announced consumer confidence fell to 109.5 in November from 111.6 the previous month.  This compares to a measurement of 95.2 in February, just after President Joe Biden took office.  The survey used by the Conference Board incorporated data from a survey taken prior to November 19th, before the prospect of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus became widely known.

Other indices measured by the Conference Board also ticked down.  The present situation index, which measures consumers’ assessment of current business and labor conditions, fell to 142.5, down from 145.5 in October. The Board’s expectations index, based consumers’ outlook for income, business and labor market conditions, fell to 87.6 in November from 89.0 in October.

A screenshot of the item’s page reveals the supposed “#1 Best Seller in Books” on Amazon.com – newly listed on Tuesday – requires buyers to wait until early 2022 for delivery. The exact reason why the book, which being released on Tuesday comes approximately 13 months too late to make any difference politically and appears to be simply a summary of existing reporting on a spectacularly failed “October Surprise”, would take that long to be fulfilled for customers is unclear. For comparison’s sake, the top billed title on “Amazon Editor’s Picks” on the main storefront for the retailer’s book selections, a novel titled “Dava Shastri’s Last Day”, also newly released on Tuesday, would be delivered on Wednesday for buyers in the New York City area.

CBS News:  “Dutch health authorities announced on Tuesday that they found the new Omicron variant of the coronavirus in cases dating back as long as 11 days, indicating that it was already spreading in western Europe before the first cases were identified in southern Africa. The RIVM health institute said it found Omicron in samples dating from November 19 and 23. Those findings predate the positive cases found among passengers who came from South Africa last Friday and were tested at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport.

“‘It is not yet clear whether the people concerned [in the earlier cases] have also been to southern Africa,’ the RIVM said, adding that the individuals had been informed of their Omicron infections and that local health services had started contact tracing. ‘In the coming period, various studies will be conducted into the distribution of the Omicron variant in the Netherlands,’ the institute said, noting that it would also re-examine more samples from previous COVID test results.

“Belgium and Germany have also said that sample tests confirm the variant was in those countries before South African health officials alerted the world on November 24 to its existence. South African scientists have been praised for first detecting the new variant and alerting global health authorities to it last week. But Omicron has now spread to about 20 other countries, and amid mounting concern that it could be significantly easier to pass from person to person, and that it could have at least some resistance to current treatments and vaccines, many nations have imposed travel restrictions on passengers from southern African nations.”

Mark Middleton, a North Texas man charged with assaulting two DC Metro police officers during the January 6th riot, launched a primary campaign against Republican incumbent State Rep David Spiller in the 68th District on Monday, the Dallas Morning News reports. Middleton and his wife Jalise were indicted by a Washington, DC federal grand jury in May after having been identified from bodycam footage, helped by Mark’s own Facebook post which said, per an FBI affidavit:

“We are on the front lines. We helped push down the barriers. Jalise and I got pepper sprayed, clubbed, and tear gassed. We had to retreat, but more patriots pushed forward, and they’re taking back our house. They’ve got the giant flag up on the upper terrace up there. No more fooling around! Jalise and I gotta go back to the hotel and try to recoup and change, get dry clothes on.”

The “platform” page of Middleton4Texas.com also says he’s a straight up secessionist: “The Federal government has FAILED Texas. Austin has FAILED Texas. The US Constitutions gives the individual states authority to defend its own borders. We can and must protect Texas from this invasion on our Southern border. The Federal government has FAILED the states and continues to violate the Constitution. To the extent the Union can be saved we should work to that end. However, it is past time Texans start seriously exploring our exit from the Union. We must and can preserve the rights and sovereignty of all Texans” so yeah, we’ve got us a real patriot here.

The Daily Beast:  “After a holiday break where he didn’t receive a classified intelligence briefing, President Donald Trump was supposed to get one on Jan. 6, 2021—the day he incited a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol. It didn’t happen. And then he didn’t get one for the rest of his presidency.  That unusual stretch where the president didn’t receive a regular classified briefing is recounted in the latest version of a book published and regularly revised by the Central Intelligence Agency, which describes how spies update presidents on national security matters.

“The situation in the waning days of Trump’s presidency was so uncommon that it actually caused concern among some administration officials that Trump was losing touch with reality, as he was getting unhinged advice on domestic issues from Justice Department attorneys and outside counsel that openly advocated rejecting election results. ‘There was no certainty that he was getting objective, unbiased information in any other way,’ one source familiar with the matter told The Daily Beast. ‘You couldn’t trust that anybody around him was able to get that information to him in that period of time.’

“Unlike past presidents—who would read their daily intelligence report and occasionally get briefed by a CIA officer—Trump regularly refused to read the text, demanded ‘killer’ pictures, and preferred to get updated in person by his daily briefer. While past presidents took great interest in having the most up-to-date information on security challenges and foreign intelligence, the CIA book that was updated last month revealed that Trump spent two days a week receiving the latest sensitive information coming in from American spies all over the globe, in sessions running 45 minutes on average. That came to a halt in late 2020, however, according to the CIA’s ‘Getting to Know the President’ book, written by a revered former inspector general at the agency, John Helgerson.”

“If Democrats don’t immediately stop smash-and-grab robberies, which are taking place in their cities, the National Guard must be called out. There has never been such a thing that has happened in our Country. Large numbers of stores are leaving San Francisco and other cities. Some chains are closing most of their stores, it is all not even believable” says the fat former guy in a Tuesday morning rant about the kind of shit that actually did happen before, when he was president, except that the looters also burned down the stores, but he also blamed Democrats then.

In another statement referring to a challenge Trump made to a person or persons unspecified to face him in a televised “debate” about the 2020 election “fraud” – a challenge that we’re otherwise unaware of: “It’s really interesting, everybody wants me on television, I get the highest ratings by far, they need ratings to survive, and yet I put out a challenge to debate me about the massive election fraud, which took place in the 2020 Presidential Election, and there are no takers – think of it, zero takers for the so-called ‘ratings machine.’ The reason is, they know they can’t win. All I have to do is lay out the facts – they are irrefutable. I’ve supposedly won all my political debates, but this would be the easiest of them all! Swing state by swing state, they get decimated. This is the Hoax and the Scam and the Crime of the Century. Just remember, no takers!”

Separately, Guardian Congressional Correspondent Hugo Lowell reports Trump spokeswoman Liz Harrington disputed his potentially explosive report on phone calls the Donald made on January 6th seeking to stop the certification of the 2020 election: “‘This is totally false,’ Harrington said, without giving specifics” which unfortunately Lowell himself doesn’t give specifics as the denial does not appear in a statement from Trump himself or Harrington on her Twitter feed.

.@NancyMace is the trash in the GOP Conference.

Never attacked by Democrats or RINO’s (same thing) because she is not conservative, she’s pro-abort.

Mace you can back up off of @laurenboebert or just go hang with your real gal pals, the Jihad Squad.

Your out of your league.

— Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 (@mtgreenee) November 30, 2021

Russian President Vladimir Putin is not saying whether or not he’ll run again in 2024, per his comments to an investment forum in Moscow on Tuesday via Reuters. “Whether or not I do this is yet to be decided, but the very existence of this right (to run) is already stabilising the domestic political situation” said Putin, referring to the law passed last year which “reset the clock” on his term limits, preventing him from becoming a lame duck. Then again, Putin could just be planning on canceling the election and remain in power indefinitely, thereby also removing the need to “run” again for the office he’s held for the better part of the last two decades.