WPTV: “A West Palm Beach teacher whose husband sued a South Florida hospital after medical staff refused to treat her with ivermectin while she was admitted with COVID-19 has died. Tamara Drock died Friday, her husband confirmed to WPTV. Drock, 47, of Loxahatchee, had been a kindergarten teacher for 16 years, most recently at Egret Lake Elementary School. Her husband, Ryan Drock, recently filed a lawsuit alleging that the staff at Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center refused to treat his wife with ivermectin as he requested after she was admitted to the hospital’s intensive care unit in August and treated with the hospital’s COVID-19 protocol, which included Remdesivir, steroids and antibodies. Tamara Drock’s condition worsened in September, so she was sedated, intubated and placed on a ventilator. The lawsuit claimed that Tamara Drock’s condition ‘significantly worsened’ upon being admitted to the ICU and that the hospital refused to administer ivermectin to her ‘despite the minimal downside and side effects.'”

“One of the lawyers who helped Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat has reportedly landed a seat on federal Election Assistance Commission’s board of advisers. Attorney Cleta Mitchell was on the infamous January conference call between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger when the president demanded that Raffensperger ‘find 11,780 votes’ to reverse his defeat. After the recording of her backing Trump on that call was released, Mitchell resigned her position as a partner at her law firm. However, according to Jessica Huseman, the editorial director of Votebeat, Mitchell has now been named to the board of advisors for the Election Assistance Commission – a federal agency that supports election officials to make sure their elections are secure and accurate. In an ambiguous statement that didn’t name Mitchell, the EAC said it ‘does not make or approve appointments to the 35-member Board of Advisors… Board members are directly appointed by a wide variety of organizations'” the Daily Beast reports.

We had meant to report this yesterday but couldn’t find any sourcing whatsoever on who appointed this crone to the board. Also, not that it makes this right at all, but the EAC has no actual power regulating elections policy and is strictly an advisory resource for voting administrators.

“In the aftermath of the 2020 election, some of Donald Trump’s closest allies embarked on an unprecedented effort to get the Department of Defense to chase down outlandish voter fraud conspiracy theories in hopes of helping Trump retain power, ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl writes in his new book. In ‘Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show,’ scheduled to be released today, Karl reports that former national security adviser Michael Flynn and attorney Sidney Powell tried to enlist a Pentagon official to help overturn the election. According to the book, Flynn – who had just received an unconditional pardon from President Trump after pleading guilty in 2017 to lying to the FBI during the Russia probe – made a frantic phone call to a senior Trump intel official named Ezra Cohen-Watnick, who previously worked under Flynn at both the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and the National Security Council.”

“‘Where are you?’ Flynn asked the DoD official, who said he was traveling in the Middle East. ‘Flynn told him to cut his trip short and get back to the United States immediately because there were big things about to happen,’ according to the book. Karl writes that Flynn told Cohen, ‘We need you,’ and told the DoD official that ‘there was going to be an epic showdown over the election results.’ Flynn urged Cohen that ‘he needed to get orders signed, that ballots needed to be seized, and that extraordinary measures needed to be taken to stop Democrats from stealing the election.’ ‘As Flynn ranted about the election fight, [Cohen] felt his old boss sounded manic,’ Karl writes in the book. ‘He didn’t sound like the same guy he had worked for.’ ‘Sir, the election is over,’ Cohen told Flynn, according to the book. ‘It’s time to move on.’ Flynn, according to Karl, fired back: ‘You’re a quitter! This is not over! Don’t be a quitter!’ Karl writes that after a heated few minutes, Flynn hung up the phone – and that was the last time the two men talked” – ABC News.

Politico: “Donald Trump’s closest allies in Congress greeted the indictment of Steve Bannon with a warning: It’s payback time once we take back the House. But getting revenge won’t be so simple. Yet Bannon’s case may well have no bearing on the GOP enthusiasm for hauling in the Biden White House. Legal experts say the Bannon indictment stands apart from nearly any other contempt of Congress charge in memory – from the brazenness of his defiance to his weak claim of executive privilege, which is meant to protect presidential talks with top advisers, not a private citizen’s help for a former president trying to overturn the results of an election.”

“‘If Ron Klain ever participates in a violent insurrection against the union, then I hope they would bring him in,’ said Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), a member of the Jan. 6 select committee. ‘What you have is a friend of a former president who is asserting an executive privilege that doesn’t apply to him. It’s absurd, and I would hope that our GOP colleagues understand that there is no legal basis for what Steve Bannon is saying.’ There’s another key issue that could frustrate Republicans’ big oversight plans for 2023: Biden will still be president. His authority to waive executive privilege – or uphold it, in the case of his own aides – carries significant legal weight until his term is up. ‘That is an apples and helicopters situation,’ said national security attorney Kel McClanahan of the GOP effort to compare Bannon’s situation to a future demand for testimony from Klain, Sullivan or others. ‘The person in power, whether they be Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians or Greens – when they own the White House, they own executive privilege, full stop.'”

“New York Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz expected anti-vaccine mandate protesters outside his office in the Bronx on Sunday. The Democrat even warned constituents to ‘please avoid the area’ if they were concerned about potential exposure to the coronavirus. But Dinowitz did not anticipate that some demonstrators would show up sporting antisemitic symbols. ‘The display of swastikas and yellow Stars of David outside my office today is repugnant and offensive,’ Dinowitz, who is Jewish, tweeted Sunday. The protest outside Dinowitz’s office was organized by Rob Astorino, a Republican and former Westchester County executive running for governor of New York.”

“The gathering was in response to a bill Dinowitz, who represents part of the Bronx in the state legislature, sponsored last month that would require children to receive covid vaccinations to attend school. Dinowitz helped pass vaccine mandate legislation in 2019, when he co-sponsored a bill that banned religious exemptions for school vaccine requirements following a measles outbreak largely centered in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn” – Washington Post.

“China on Tuesday hailed a virtual meeting between President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden, saying they had a candid and constructive exchange that sent a strong signal to the world. The positive description of the meeting came in sharp contrast to heated exchanges between the two nations earlier this year. The talks appeared to mark what both sides hoped would be a turnaround in relations, though major differences remain. ‘If China-U.S. relations cannot return to the past, they should face the future,’ Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said.”

“The video conference between the two leaders and their senior aides lasted more than three hours and was their first formal meeting since Biden took office in January. Facing domestic pressures at home, both Biden and Xi seemed determined to lower the temperature in what for both sides is their most significant – and frequently turbulent – relationship on the global stage. ‘As I’ve said before, it seems to me our responsibility as leaders of China and the United States is to ensure that the competition between our countries does not veer into conflict, whether intended or unintended,’ Biden told Xi at the start of their virtual meeting Monday. ‘Just simple, straightforward competition.’ The White House set low expectations for the meeting, and no major announcements or even a joint statement were delivered. Still, White House officials said the two leaders had a substantive exchange” – AP.

NBC News:  “An 18-year-old Texas State Guard member accused of lighting a fire at an Austin synagogue on Halloween faces a federal arson charge, according to a newly unsealed criminal complaint affidavit. The man, Franklin Barrett Sechriest, was arrested Wednesday and accused of lighting a fire near the doors of Congregation Beth Israel at 9 p.m. on Oct. 31, causing $25,000 in damage to the synagogue, according to the affidavit.

“After an investigation and witness interviews, officials ‘determined that the fire was intentionally set and thus an act of arson,’ the complaint says. The affidavit says Sechriest was recorded on the synagogue’s surveillance video getting out of his car, carrying a container similar to a fuel jug and a roll of toilet paper, then walking toward the temple’s administration office entrance on Oct. 31.

“Soon after the glow of fire was visible on video, Sechriest was seen jogging away and getting back into his vehicle, the affidavit claims. The FBI executed federal search warrants Wednesday at Sechriest’s home in San Marcos and found clothes consistent with what the person in the surveillance video was wearing, authorities said.”

CNBC:   “The U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Monday recommended that businesses implement President Joe Biden’s vaccine and testing requirements, despite a federal court order that has temporarily halted the rules.

“’Ultimately the courts are going to decide, but employers still need to take this as a live ETS until it is definitively shut down,’ Marc Freedman, the Chamber’s vice president of employment policy, said of the emergency temporary standard. ‘They should not bank on the preliminary actions of the 5th Circuit,’ he told CNBC in a statement.  The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which polices workplace safety for the Labor Department, issued the rules through a rarely used fast-track process.

“The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on Friday reaffirmed its decision to pause the requirements pending review, telling the Biden administration to refrain from implementation or enforcement until further notice. The appellate court is considered one of the most conservative in the nation.  The court-ordered pause, which the three-judge panel originally issued on Nov. 6, came in response to lawsuits by the Republican attorneys general of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Utah, as well as several private companies.”

Rolling Stone: “Steve Mnuchin and Mike Pompeo discussed a plan to remove Trump from office after the Jan. 6 insurrection, according to Jonathan Karl’s new book Betrayal, which chronicles the final days of the former president’s time in office.

“Then-Treasury Secretary Mnuchin reportedly called then-Secretary of State Pompeo on the evening of Jan. 6 to suggest using the 25th Amendment, which outlines the protocols for how to replace the president or vice president in the event of their death, removal from office, resignation, or incapacitation. ‘I learned that Mnuchin had several conversations about the 25th Amendment and, further, that Mike Pompeo actually asked for a legal analysis of the 25th Amendment and how it would work,’ Karl said during an appearance on MSNBC Monday morning.”

Thanks to Gomez and others for the tip.

CNN:  “The US strongly condemned a Russian anti-satellite test on Monday that forced crew members on the International Space Station to scramble into their spacecraft for safety, calling it ‘a reckless and dangerous act’ and saying that it ‘won’t tolerate’ behavior that puts international interests at risk.

“US Space Command said Russia tested a direct-ascent anti-satellite, or DA-ASAT missile, striking a Russian satellite and creating a debris field in low-Earth orbit of more than 1,500 pieces of trackable orbital debris that is also likely to generate hundreds of thousands of pieces of smaller orbital debris.

“US officials emphasized the long-term dangers and potential global economic fallout from the Russian test, which has created hazards for satellites that provide people around the world with phone and broadband service, weather forecasting, GPS systems which underpin aspects of the financial system, including bank machines, as well in-flight entertainment and satellite radio and television.

Orlando Sentinel:  “Federal prosecutors investigating the crimes of former Seminole County Tax Collector Joel Greenberg have charged two of Greenberg’s associates and accused them of a multimillion-dollar real-estate fraud scheme, according to an indictment unsealed Monday.  Authorities say Keith Ingersoll and James Adamczyk, working with other unnamed co-conspirators, bilked an Orlando-area investor out of over $12 million by persuading the investor to put up money for more than half a dozen fraudulent real-estate deals in Florida, other states and The Bahamas.

“Ingersoll and Adamcyzk claimed to the investor they needed money to cover deposits on contracts they signed to purchase various properties they planned to immediately flip to other buyers — at least some of whom were fabricated, according to the indictment.  They told the investor the money would be held in escrow. But they and the other co-conspirators instead spent the money ‘on themselves and for their own personal benefit, including for luxury cars, travel and adult entertainment,’ according to the indictment.

“The indictment charges both men with 40 federal crimes, including wire fraud, conspiracy and money laundering. If convicted, they could face decades in prison; the 20 counts of wire fraud on which they were indicted each carry up to 20 years behind bars.  Ingersoll is also charged with a 41st count: aggravated identity theft, for allegedly using the personal information of a victim identified only as ‘W.V.’ in August 2017 while committing wire fraud offenses.”

Exploiting & misusing the tragedy of Jews who were humiliated, marked with a yellow star, isolated in ghettos, dehumanized, and murdered during the Holocaust to argue against vaccination that saves human lives is a sad & appalling symptom of moral and intellectual decline. https://t.co/Jno7TzbTAn

— Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) November 15, 2021

New Zealand Herald:  “The iwi [tribal nation] connected to New Zealand’s most famous haka is calling on anti-vaxxers to stop using it at their protests immediately. Ngāti Toa has issued a strong notice to anyone who supports Covid anti-vaccination messages that they condemn the use of the Ka Mate haka at their protests.

“‘As the descendants of Te Rauparaha, we insist that protesters stop using our taonga immediately,’ one of the iwi’s leaders, Dr Taku Parai, said. ‘We do not support their position and we do not want our tupuna or our iwi associated with their messages.’ Te Rauparaha was a war leader for Ngāti Toa and is credited as composing the Ka Mate haka in the early 1800s.

“It is arguably the most famous and well-known haka around the world; performed by the All Blacks at rugby test matches and by members of the public at various events and special occasions.
Parai said the iwi’s move to call on protesters to stop using the haka came after seeing it being used at several anti-vaccination protests during the current Covid outbreak.”

The Ka Mate haka:

NBC News:  “Rep. Nancy Mace, a first-term Republican lawmaker from South Carolina, introduced a bill Monday to decriminalize cannabis at the federal level that she’s hoping will garner more GOP support for the legalization movement.  ‘This legislation, I believe, has something good for everyone, whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican,’ Mace told reporters outside the Capitol, where she introduced her States Reform Act.

“Despite being fully legal in 18 states, with medical use permissible in 37 states, marijuana is still illegal under federal law.  Mace’s bill would strip cannabis of its classification as a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act, which makes possession of marijuana a criminal offense. Her office said the legislation aims to end criminalization ‘in a manner consistent with the rights of states to determine what level of cannabis reform or legalization each state wants to regulate, or not.’

“The measure also would allow for expungement of federal convictions in non-violent cases, and would provide a framework for federal regulation and enforcement in states that allow the sale of marijuana.  Sales would be prohibited to people under 21, Mace said, adding that her bill would establish cannabis regulations similar to restrictions on alcohol.  The legislation further calls for a 3 percent federal excise tax on marijuana, lower than the level in the Democratic bill that’s making its way through the House.”

Congressman Peter Welch, age 74, the Democratic at-large representative for Vermont in the US House, has indicated he’ll run to replace the 81-year-old retiring Senator Patrick Leahy in 2022, Axios reported Monday. While we often suck at simple arithmetic, if Welch is 74 in November of 2021 he will be 75 in November of 2022, and thus 81 by the time he would run for a second six-year term in the Senate in 2028, should he win the election in 2022, the same age Patrick Leahy is now.

The word “gerontocracy” gets tossed around an awful lot these days but it’s probably better to look at it in sheer numbers: The average age of the US Senate is 64.3 years, just shy of the retirement age for most professions – and that’s probably weighted down by at least 3 or 4 years owing to the fact that the youngest US Senator, Jon Ossoff, who at 34 is 7 years younger than the second-youngest US Senator, Josh Hawley, age 41. The House is a bit younger, but not much, at 58.7 years. The two oldest US Presidents at the time of their inauguration were the last two presidents, Joe Biden at 78 in January 2021 and Donald Trump at 70 in January 2017 (Number 3 is Reagan. Number 4 is William Henry Harrison, who got sick at his inauguration and died a month later in 1841).

We could use some younger leadership. We could also use more Senators who had cameos in Batman movies, because we’ll be at zero once Patrick Leahy rides off into the sunset. Leahy appeared in Batman Forever in 1995, Batman & Robin in 1998, The Dark Knight in 2008, The Dark Knight Rises in 2012, and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice in 2016, the last of which as a Senator who was blown up in a terrorist attack on the Capitol by Lex Luthor. If we spoiled that for you don’t worry, you probably weren’t going to see that one anyway. Wasn’t that good.

Associated Press:  “Film industry crew members have narrowly voted to approve a pair of contracts with Hollywood producers after a standoff that came within days of a strike that would have halted productions across the U.S., union leaders said Monday. The agreements passed 56% to 44% among delegates from the 36 local unions of the International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees in the voting system that resembles the U.S. Electoral College.

“But in the popular vote, 50.3% said yes and 49.7% no to the two contracts combined of the 45,000 members who cast a ballot in voting held from Friday through Sunday. And the larger of the two contracts, which primarily covers film and TV production on the West Coast, actually lost the popular vote by a narrow margin. The razor-thin totals stood in contrast to the last vote from union members, in which 98% approved giving union leaders the authority to call a strike.

“‘We were very fired up, that really gassed up the membership, we were ready to strike,’ said Brandy Tannahill, who works as a grip setting up lighting equipment on sets. A victorious ‘no’ vote would have reopened negotiations and brought back the possibility of a work stoppage.”

The University of Austin, a newly-established and currently online-only “non-woke” institution led by New York Times washout Bari Weiss – well, actually calling it online-only is a stretch too since the non-matriculating courses haven’t even started yet – is already hitting a rough patch as two of its top advisers, Harvard psychology professor Steven Pinker and former University of Chicago Chancellor Robert Zimmer, the “university” confirmed in a statement Monday.

“The University of Austin is just one week old and has thus far succeeded in generating huge public interest. Yet, as is often the case with fast-moving start-ups, there were some missteps. In particular, our website initially failed to make clear the distinction between the Founding Trustees and the Advisory Board. Although we moved swiftly to correct this mistake, it conflated advisors, who were aligned in general with the project but not necessarily in agreement with all its actions and statements, and those who had originated the project and bear responsibility for those things. This led to unnecessary complications for several members of the advisory board, including Robert Zimmer and Steven Pinker, for which we are deeply sorry. We fully understand their decisions to step down as advisors” says the statement full of other bullshit about “mission” and “values”.

What the statement does not impart an understanding of however, is that building a “non-woke” but also secular Ivory Tower is all but certainly a doomed effort and they should all just quit.

Nexstar News: “Move over pumpkin pie. Hershey’s has unveiled your new favorite dessert for Thanksgiving. The company is selling a giant 9-inch Reese’s Thanksgiving Pie. The largest Reese’s Peanut Butter cup ever weighs in at a whopping 3.25 pounds of peanut butter and chocolate. “When you bring together friends and family for Thanksgiving dinner, no table spread is complete without dessert,” said Bo Jones, senior associate brand manager at Reese’s. “At Reese’s, we wanted to create a dessert that everyone wants a piece of. You can thank us later.” The box says the pie is meant to be served in 48 slices at 160 calories each. That works out to a total of 7,680 calories if you’re thinking of eating the whole thing yourself. Only 3,000 pies will be sold online for $44.99 plus tax while supplies last.”

“The Wyoming Republican Party will no longer recognize Liz Cheney as a member of the GOP in its second formal rebuke for her criticism of former President Donald Trump. The 31-29 vote Saturday in Buffalo, Wyoming, by the state party central committee followed votes by local GOP officials in about one-third of Wyoming’s 23 counties to no longer recognize Cheney as a Republican. In February, the Wyoming GOP central committee voted overwhelmingly to censure Cheney, Wyoming’s lone U.S. representative, for voting to impeach Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. Cheney has described her vote to impeach Trump as an act of conscience. Trump ‘incited the mob’ and ‘lit the flame’ Cheney said after the attack” the AP reports.

The problem the Wyoming GOP has here is two-fold: First, they plainly have nothing better to do with their time than claw at the walls and shriek in agony that they can’t just beat Cheney in a primary already. Second, since they already censured her and she obviously didn’t give a shit, they can’t just censure her again and look weak, so they decide to “not recognize her as Republican” which is objectively fucking weaker than a secondary censure for the same reason. They must’ve been pissed that she didn’t vote for the bipartisan infrastructure bill, then they’d at least have something to work with. Lastly, why not just troll a little bit and declare that Cheney is now actually a Democrat to them? That would actually be kind of funny – or “based” as the fanboys say.

NBC News:  “A woman in Argentina has become only the second documented person whose own immune system may have cured her of HIV. Researchers have dubbed the 30-year-old mother, who was first diagnosed with HIV in 2013, the ‘Esperanza patient,’ after the town in Argentina where she lives. In English, ‘esperanza’ means ‘hope.’

“’I enjoy being healthy,’ the Esperanza patient, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the stigma associated with the virus, told NBC News in Spanish over email. ‘I have a healthy family. I don’t have to medicate, and I live as though nothing has happened. This already is a privilege.’ The co-authors of the study, which was published Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine, said they believe their findings will indeed bring hope to the estimated 38 million people globally living with the virus and to the ever-expanding HIV-cure research field. The case serves as one of two proofs of concept that a so-called sterilizing cure of the virus is apparently possible through natural immunity.

“’This is really the miracle of the human immune system that did it,’ said Dr. Xu Yu, a viral immunologist at the Ragon Institute in Boston, who in partnership with Dr. Natalia Laufer, a physician scientist at INBIRS Institute in Buenos Aries, Argentina, led the exhaustive search for any viable HIV in the woman’s body.”