pic.twitter.com/nkpCuTMrwn

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) November 22, 2021

Texas Tribune: “Electricity outages in Texas could occur this winter if the state experiences a cold snap that forces many power plants offline at the same time as demand for power is high, according to an analysis by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. The outages could occur despite better preparations by power plants to operate in cold weather. Heading into the winter, ERCOT considered five extreme scenarios in a risk assessment of the state’s power supply. The grid operator estimates both how much electricity Texans are expected to demand and how much electricity power plants are expected to produce ahead of each season.”

“Following the widespread February power outages that left millions without electricity for several days, ERCOT changed those assessments to calculate what would happen if extreme conditions occurred simultaneously – like what happened this year. The calculations show the power grid’s vulnerability to the cumulative impact of multiple pressures that could leave the system short of a significant amount of power. Power grids must keep supply and demand in balance at all times. When Texas’ grid falls below its safety margin of 2,300 megawatts of extra supply, ERCOT, the grid operator, starts taking additional precautions to avoid blackouts, such as asking residents to conserve power. The calculations for severe risk this winter show that it wouldn’t take a storm as bad as the one in February, when hundreds of people died, to take the grid offline.”

“Today, President Biden announced his intent to nominate Jerome Powell for a second term as Chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and to nominate Dr. Lael Brainard to serve as Vice Chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve” – White House statement.

“The Trump Organization owns an office building at 40 Wall Street in Manhattan. In 2012, when the company was listing its assets for potential lenders, it said the building was worth $527 million – which would make it among the most valuable in New York. But just a few months later, the Trump Organization told property tax officials that the entire 70-story building was worth less than a high-end Manhattan condo: just $16.7 million, according to newly released city records. That was less than one-thirtieth the amount it had claimed the year before.”

“That property is now under scrutiny from the Manhattan district attorney and New York attorney general, along with several others like it for which the Trump Organization gave vastly different value estimates, according to public records and people familiar with their investigations who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing inquiries” – Washington Post.

New York Times: “Chileans on Sunday gave the lead in the country’s presidential race to a far-right politician, a stunning development in a nation that has been rattled by political and social protest over inequality and the rising cost of living. With more than 88 percent of the vote counted, José Antonio Kast, a conservative lawyer and former lawmaker who promised to restore security and order and to dramatically reduce the size of the state, had carved out a three-point lead over his leftist rival, Gabriel Boric. The two will face off in a runoff on Dec. 19.”

“‘Today we took the first step to turn hope into reality,’ Mr. Kast told supporters Sunday night outside his campaign headquarters in an upscale Santiago neighborhood. “Chile deserves peace. Chile deserves liberty. The race followed an unusually turbulent period in the South American nation, which has been governed for decades by centrist parties and had, until recently, been regarded as one of the region’s most stable and prosperous democracies.”

“Evan Neumann of Mill Valley, California, who fled to Belarus in order to escape criminal charges for his part in the attempted insurrection on Jan 6, 2021, has given an exclusive interview to Russia’s state media outlet RT. In his previous appearance, which was on Belarusian state TV, Neuman inferred that Russia was his preferred destination, and Belarus simply happened to be closer. Now this man – on the run from the American justice system – seems to be courting refuge from Putin.”

“Neumann is wanted in the United States on six criminal charges related to the Capitol riot, including two felonies for assaulting an officer and participating in civil disorder. The U.S. fugitive’s comments to the notorious state media outlet seem like an attempt to ingratiate himself to the Kremlin and perhaps to land in Moscow at some point in the future. He provided RT with a tasty sound bite that is sure to play well in Russian propaganda circuits: ‘I don’t understand why Russia is our enemy today.’ During his earlier interview with Belarusian TV, Neumann condemned the U.S. sanctions against Russia and Belarus and described them as ‘a form of terrorism.’ In his appearance on RT that premiered over the weekend, Neumann complained about Trump being unjustly accused and hounded by the media. According to the criminal complaint filed in his case, Neumann was videotaped on January 6, 2021 assaulting and berating Capitol officers in the performance of their duties. He defied their demands to move away from the barricade by calling the officers ‘little bitches,’ ‘piece of shit’ and exclaiming: ‘You’re nothing.’ Neumann allegedly assailed officers and struck them with a metal barricade. He said: ‘I’m willing to die, are you?'” – Daily Beast

I'm running for the United States Senate to work for you, for Vermont, for our country, and for our imperiled democracy.

Join us: https://t.co/ReVLvWEM4T pic.twitter.com/lGKX7ZJJgP

— Peter Welch (@WelchForVT) November 22, 2021

Vermont’s at-large Congressman Democrat Pete Welch confirms he’s running to replace retiring Senator Patrick Leahy as had been reported last week.

“Democracy is deteriorating across the world, with countries notably taking undemocratic and unnecessary actions to contain the coronavirus pandemic, an intergovernmental body said in its new report Monday. ‘Many democratic governments are backsliding,’ the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, or International IDEA, said” the AP reports.

“The 34-nation organization added that as of August 2021, 64% of countries have taken an action to curb the pandemic that it considers ‘disproportionate, unnecessary or illegal.’ The Swedish-based body added that the situation is also getting worse in countries that are not democratic. Autocratic regimes have become ‘even more brazen in their repression,’ free speech has been restricted and the rule of law has been weakened, it said. In its flagship report on the state of democracy, International IDEA said the number of backsliding democracies has doubled in the past decade, and mentioned in particular the United States, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia. ‘This is the time for democracies to be bold, to innovate and revitalize themselves,’ International IDEA Secretary-General Kevin Casas-Zamora said in a statement.”

“Gasoline was $1.87.  That was a year ago!” Donald Trump stated without noting that there was a global recession and pandemic happening a year ago.  “And now, I guess, it just hit $7.50 in California, the rest to follow, and I predicted it.”

According to AAA, the average price of a gallon of gas in California is $4.70, with the high price around $5.48.

Associated Press:  “Kyle Rittenhouse, who was acquitted of charges stemming from killing two men and wounding another during the unrest that followed the shooting of a Black man by a white police officer, says in a new interview that he’s ‘not a racist person’ and supports the Black Lives Matter movement. ‘This case has nothing to do with race. It never had anything to do with race. It had to do with the right to self-defense,’ the 18-year-old tells Fox News host Tucker Carlson in an interview set to air Monday night.

“Rittenhouse was 17 last year when he traveled 20 miles from his home in Antioch, Illinois, to Kenosha, Wisconsin, which had been racked with protests in the wake of the Aug. 23 shooting of Jacob Blake. The incident and the response in Kenosha — protests that turned destructive — became part of the national reckoning over police use of force against Black people following George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis the previous May at the hands of police. Rittenhouse, armed with an AR-style semiautomatic rifle, joined others who said they were intent on protecting private property from potential damage on Aug. 25. During his trial, prosecutors argued that the teenager as a ‘wannabe soldier’ who went looking for trouble that night. Rittenhouse countered that he fired in self-defense after he was attacked and in fear for his life.

“The shootings quickly made Rittenhouse a rallying cry for supporters of Second Amendment rights and those angered by the sometimes violent protests seen in some American cities after Floyd’s death. Rittenhouse was photographed in a bar before the trial with apparent members of the far-right Proud Boys. Rittenhouse’s attorneys have said he is not a white supremacist. ‘I’m not a racist person. I support the BLM movement, I support peacefully demonstrating,’ Rittenhouse tells Carlson in excerpts of the interview released by Fox News ahead of its airing.”

Associated Press:  “The Australian government expects 200,000 vaccinated foreign students and skilled workers will soon return without quarantining when the country further relaxes pandemic restrictions next week. From Dec. 1, students, skilled workers and travelers on working vacations will be allowed to land at Sydney and Melbourne airports without needing to seek exemptions from a travel ban, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Monday.

“’The return of skilled workers and students to Australia is a major milestone in our pathway back, it’s a major milestone about what Australians have been able to achieve and enable us to do,’ Morrison said. The government expects 200,000 arrivals in the two categories by January, he said. Vaccinated citizens of Japan and South Korea will also be allowed in without quarantining, as well as people on humanitarian visas.

“But the government has yet to decide when general tourists will be allowed to return. ‘I think Australians are very keen to see us take this step-by-step approach,’ Morrison said. ‘They’ve been through a lot and they’ve sacrificed a lot to ensure that we can open safely so we can stay safely open,’ he added.”

Per multiple media reports, a person of interest has been taken into custody in relation to the SUV that plowed into a Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin.  Authorities report multiple fatalities, and at least 20 people taken to area hospitals.  USA Today reports the injured include 11 adults and 12 children.

Reuters:  “The United States had administered 451,453,834 doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the country as of Sunday morning and distributed 566,964,025 doses, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. Those figures are up from the 449,955,588 doses the CDC said had been administered as of Nov. 20.

“The agency said 230,298,744 people had received at least one dose while 196,284,442 people had been fully vaccinated as of 6:00 a.m. ET on Sunday. The CDC tally includes two-dose vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech as well as Johnson & Johnson’s  one-shot vaccine.

“About 35.4 million people have received a booster dose of either Pfizer, Moderna or Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine. Booster doses from Moderna and Johnson & Johnson were authorized by the U.S. health regulator on Oct. 20.”

New York Times:  “The trailer for Tucker Carlson’s special about the Jan. 6 mob at the Capitol landed online on Oct. 27, and that night Jonah Goldberg sent a text to his business partner, Stephen Hayes: ‘I’m tempted just to quit Fox over this.’

“‘I’m game,’ Mr. Hayes replied. ‘Totally outrageous. It will lead to violence. Not sure how we can stay.’

“The full special, ‘Patriot Purge,’ appeared on Fox’s online subscription streaming service days later. And last week, the two men, both paid Fox News contributors, finalized their resignations from the network. In some ways, their departures should not be surprising: It’s simply part of the new right’s mopping up operation in the corners of conservative institutions that still house pockets of resistance to Donald J. Trump’s control of the Republican Party. Mr. Goldberg, a former National Review writer, and Mr. Hayes, a former Weekly Standard writer, were stars of the pre-Trump conservative movement. They clearly staked out their positions in 2019 when they founded The Dispatch, an online publication that they described as “a place that thoughtful readers can come for conservative, fact-based news and commentary.” It now has nearly 30,000 paying subscribers.

“Their departures also mark the end of a lingering hope among some at Fox News — strange as this is for outsiders to understand — that the channel would at some point return to a pre-Trump reality that was also often hyperpartisan, but that kept some distance from Republican officials. Fox’s chairman, Rupert Murdoch, recently deplored Trumpism while acting as though — as Bloomberg’s Tim O’Brien noted — he didn’t run the company.”

“… and so I think this is very powerful.  You see every day with the New Federal State.  Remember the New Federal State’s only a year and a half old.  It’s only 18 months old and look, look as [sic] what’s happened.  Today, we’re commemorating the third anniversary of really the rule of law of the great presentation we had that day at the Pierre Hotel and look how much power that Rule of Law Foundation, Rule of Law Society, the whistleblower movement.  You’ve changed history.  Right here today, you can hear the protests in this city and the protest is about anti-vaccine, right?  And it’s not that people are anti-vax is that they’re vaccine hesitant, right?  And the reason that they’re vaccine hesitant is that the information hasn’t been put out about exactly what happened at the Wuhan lab, what is this virus really about and why therapeutics, prophylactic therapeutics like hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin or all these other attributes and what they can do and so the whole world right now is, is questioning, whether it is in Europe or in France or in Austria or in the United States is a big protest here today about, about American citizens who are, y’know, American born, right?, who are protesting these overreaching mandates to take your freedom away.  So I think if you look at the New Federal State and what it’s been able to accomplish in eighteen months and what the whistleblower movement and what Gnews and GTV and particularly the Rule of Law, just in three years–remember it was three years ago today, we’re at the Pierre Hotel with just an idea and a concept and you see how big it’s gotten today to actually be able with scientific proof and evidence and data to say, hey, are these vaccines really the solution and are these overreaching, overbearing mandates with mask mandates and mandates to vaccinate the kids?  Are they the proper thing to do?”

WDJT CBS-58 Milwaukee: “According to multiple witness reports, the Waukesha Holiday Parade area has been evacuated Sunday, Nov. 21, following reports of gunshots and a speeding vehicle in the zone of the parade route. Sources tell CBS 58 that the parade area is currently being evacuated following multiple gunshots have been fired.

“CBS 58 News is working to confirm several reports of injuries. Waukesha police tell CBS 58 that they’re asking the public to avoid the downtown area. A family reunification site has been established at the Metro Transit Center by Bank Street.  Our news crew is on the way to the scene of the incident and will report the latest as the situation as develops.”

Thanks to SconnieBob for the tip.

Associated Press:  “Two of 17 members of a missionary group who were kidnapped more than a month ago have been freed in Haiti and are safe, ‘in good spirits and being cared for,’ their Ohio-based church organization announced Sunday.  Christian Aid Ministries issued a statement saying it could not give the names of those released, why they were freed or other information.

“’While we rejoice at this release, our hearts are with the 15 people who are still being held,’ the group said.  The spokesman for Haiti’s National Police, Gary Desrosiers, confirmed to The Associated Press that two hostages were released on Sunday.  The missionaries were kidnapped by the 400 Mawozo gang on Oct. 16. There are five children in the group of 16 U.S. citizens and one Canadian, including an 8-month-old. Their Haitian driver also was abducted, according to a local human rights organization.

“The leader of the 400 Mawozo gang has threatened to kill the hostages unless his demands are met. Authorities have said the gang was demanding $1 million per person, although it wasn’t immediately clear that included the children in the group.  The release comes as Haiti struggles with a spike in gang-related violence and kidnappings, with the U.S. government recently urging U.S. citizens to leave Haiti amid deepening insecurity and a severe lack of fuel blamed on gangs blocking gas distribution terminals. On Friday, Canada announced it was pulling all but essential personnel from its embassy.  The fuel shortage has forced hospitals to turn away patients and paralyzed public transportation, with some schools closing and businesses shortening their work hours.”

“Is there anything you’d like to say about Kamala Harris?  She was given the role of acting president when Joe Biden got his colonoscopy last week,” Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo declares, even though the duty of the Vice President is to ascend temporarily to the presidency when the President is unavailable.

“Yes, and I, I, I think when you look at what she has-a done, she has failed at every task she’s been given,” Republican Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn states without any evidence.  “That’s why there are many in the White House who are frustrated with her.  It’s going to be interest to see, interesting to see who they push forward to take her place.”

As you’ll note, the GOP is stuck between two separate lines of messaging:  the first, that Harris will be running for the presidency in 2024 because Biden isn’t running (even though he has told allies he intends to run for reelection) and the second, that Biden is sure to replace her, either immediately or during a reelection campaign.  And who the hell in the White House would be calling Marsha freakin’ Blackburn to voice frustration with the vice president?  (Answer:  nobody.)

Daily Kos:  “U.S. Capitol insurrection suspect, white supremacist online presence, and all-around douchebag Anthime Gionet, also known as ‘Baked Alaska,’ is facing new charges added by authorities in Arizona. The two misdemeanor charges for criminal damage and attempted criminal damage stem from a video shot by Baked Alaska himself, which shows him defacing a Hanukkah exhibit. The video was from the middle of December 2020, and little ‘Timmy’ Gionet’s crime—the one he captured and broadcast himself—complicates his legal woes even further.

“You see, Baked Alaska broadcasted himself from Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office during the Capitol building riots on Jan. 6. On top of the fact he was not supposed to be there because of the breaking and the entering and the trespassing and the treason, Gionet was not supposed to have been outside of the state of Arizona at the time of the insurgency. Mr. Baked Alaska had been arrested for macing a bouncer In Scottsdale, Arizona, back in early December 2020. Gionet had been released in that case with the agreement that he would not leave the state pending a hearing.”

“A member of the House select committee investigating the January 6 attack told CNN Saturday many of the more than 200 witnesses they have interviewed are former officials from the Trump administration who came forward voluntarily. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat, said some others have also volunteered testimony, but needed a subpoena for ‘cover.’ Lofgren remained relatively tight-lipped, however, and wouldn’t say whether they were members of the Trump White House, the Trump campaign, or former Vice President Mike Pence’s staff,” reports CNN.

“She told CNN earlier this week [that] in addition to the hundreds of witness interviews, the committee received nearly 25,000 documents and got more than 200 tips from its tip line. Lofgren on Saturday dismissed former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows’ executive privilege claim. She reiterated the committee has questions for Meadows that do not concern his conversations with former President Donald Trump, including whether Meadows used a private cell phone to communicate on January 6 and where his text messages from that day are.”