AP: “Russia’s daily coronavirus infections soared Thursday to their highest level so far this year as authorities have struggled to control a surge in new cases amid a slow pace in vaccinations and few restrictions in place. The daily coronavirus death toll topped 900 for a second straight day, with 924 new deaths reported Thursday — a day after reaching a record 929. Russia already has Europe’s highest death toll in the pandemic — topping 213,000 — and a conservative way of calculating the number suggests the actual number could be even higher. On Thursday, the government’s coronavirus task force reported 27,550 new confirmed cases, a nearly 10% rise from the previous day. New infections in Moscow soared by nearly 50% to 5,404 cases.”

“Mary Beeman, the campaign manager for the Guilford Republican school board candidates, commented, ‘helping kids of color to feel they belong has a negative effect on white, Christian, or conservative kids,’ during a UConn. virtual education forum. The forum was on how to teach race and critical race theory (CRT) in school. According to the American Barr Association, CRT is the practice of investigating the role of race and racism in society and how that role impacted the legal academy and other fields of scholarship.”

“When questioned about her comment, Beeman said, ‘The statement I made was poorly worded and shown out of context. Guilford students who may have staunch Judeo-Christian values, or simply are conservative thinkers, have been bullied into submission by their teachers and fellow students with left-leaning ideologies.’ Guilford Chairman Bill Bloss said, ‘exactly what context would that comment be positive in.’ Bloss, who has been on the school board for 20 years, said that Republicans falsely claim CRT has been taught in Guilford schools, without proof” – WFSB.

Daily Beast: “Last week, Donald Trump announced the exile of his confidant and former top campaign aide Corey Lewandowski, with advisers banishing him from leading a major pro-Trump super PAC, following sexual misconduct allegations against the loyalist from a big GOP donor. But Lewandowski, initially, wouldn’t go, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. What followed, the sources described, was what amounted to stages of denial and bargaining before ultimately being abandoned by the world he claimed to dominate. Lewandowski, at first privately and then publicly through a lawyer, denied the details of the alleged incident. When that didn’t work, he resisted leaving. Lewandowski then subsequently settled on pitching Trumpworld a not-so-modest proposal: in exchange for his resignation, the super PAC and the pro-Trump team would pay him a large sum of money to go away. Two of the knowledgeable sources said the former 2016 Trump campaign manager’s demand was for hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

“But even though that Lewandowski super PAC – called Make America Great Again Action – currently sits on $6.58 million, mostly from Trump megadonors, he didn’t have the leverage he seemed to think he had. His fellow Trump lieutenants gave him a hard no. One person who was keen on Lewandowski walking away empty-handed was none other than his ex-boss and pal: former President Trump. The twice-impeached ex-president didn’t want to see Lewandowski slinking away with any of that money – which Trump views as his money, despite the patina of distance that is legally required between candidates and super PACs. Shortly after Lewandowski made his request, Trump was briefed, according to two of the sources with knowledge of the matter, and scoffed at the idea of paying Lewandowski a large sum of cash to be ousted. Instead of grappling with the notoriously belligerent operative, however, his MAGA Action colleagues simply abandoned him.”

Conservative, conspiracy-laden television network OANN got a significant financial and business boost when they started up from telecom and entertainment giant AT&T, which was looking for a right-wing alternative to complement Fox News, a new report from Reuters details.

OANN owner Robert Herring Sr. testified in a 2019 court case that he decided to launch OANN (which stands for One America News Network) after listening to AT&T executives.  “They told us they wanted a conservative network,” Herring said during a 2019 deposition seen by Reuters. “They only had one, which was Fox News, and they had seven others on the other [leftwing] side. When they said that, I jumped to it and built one.”

According to the report, OANN gets about 90% of its revenue from home subscription fees paid to it by AT&T for providing the station to households via its DirecTV satellite service or its cable providers.  Herring own corporate accountant once said that if it weren’t for AT&T, the value of the network would be “zero.”

Marine Lt. Colonel Stuart Scheller, who shot to fame in conservative circles for a video he posted to social media in which he–in uniform–criticized senior Marine commanders for the deaths of 13 US military during the Afghanistan withdraw, will face six charges in an upcoming court martial, the Marine Corps Times reports.

In an agreement with the presiding officer, Sheller was also released from the brig, where he was held after making additional social media posts after being ordered not to by his chain of command.  Presumably, avoiding appearances in the media and limiting social media posts are part of the release agreement.

Scheller has been charged with Article 88 (contempt toward officials), Article 89 (disrespect toward superior commissioned officers), Article 90 (willfully disobeying a superior commissioned officer), Article 92 (dereliction in the performance of duties), Article 92 (failure to obey order or regulation) and Article 133 (conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman).

Yelling about the debt ceiling increase–an issue he never seemed to have a problem with when the previous administration did it–Fox News host (and guy who still doesn’t believe what they say about Rock Hudson) Sean Hannity decried Republican Senate Minority Mitch McConnell making an offer to save the US economy.  “In other words, Mitch McConnell, tonight, you need to stop being a swamp creature, and if you want to be a conservative leader, you need to start acting like one,” Hannity orders, “and if you can’t do that, you really do need to step aside.”

Federal judge Robert Lee Pitman of the Western District of Texas has issued a stay, blocking the implementation of the controversial Texas abortion law that makes abortions after the sixth week of pregnancy illegal and allows for vigilantes to sue every involved in providing the abortion, but the pregnant woman, for at least $10,000.

According to NBC News, Pitman, a 2014 appointee to the federal bench nominated by Barack Obama, granted a motion by the US Department of Justice in its lawsuit against the government of Texas.  Justice Department lawyers are suing to declare the Texas law unconstitutional.

The Supreme Court refused to issue a similar stay in the implementation of the law, which went into effect in September.

Griping about the Justice Department helping school districts protect against violent anti-maskers, Fox News host (and car dealership wind sock announcing “Deals for RAMtober”) Tucker Carlson attempted to mock the effort.  “There are no organized white supremacists forces in this country,” Carlson claims.  “We have a lot of problems; that’s not one of them.”

A Maryland man who killed three people, including his brother and sister-in-law, reportedly murdered his sibling because he was a pharmacist inoculating people with the coronavirus vaccine, something the murderer had told their mother, according to the Baltimore Sun.

Jeffrey Burnham killed 83-year-old Rebecca Reynolds, a friend of his mother’s since childhood, in Cumberland, Maryland to steal her car so he could drive to Ellicott City, about 120 miles away, to stop his brother, Brian Robinette, from administering the vaccine.  “Brian knows something,” Burnham told his mother, according to the charging documents.

The mother, Evelyn Burnham, had called Cumberland police twice in the previous week, relating to Burnham’s deteriorating mental health.  Aside from his ramblings about the vaccine, Jeffrey Burnham also claimed the FBI was after him, and they wanted to get his mother, too, he told her. 

KARE 11: “The Minnesota Supreme Court has denied former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin’s request for a public defender to represent him in his request to appeal his conviction and sentence in George Floyd’s murder. Chauvin was convicted earlier this year on state charges of second-degree manslaughter, second-degree murder and third-degree murder in Floyd’s death. He was sentenced to 22.5 years in prison and is currently being held in Minnesota’s only maximum security prison, Oak Park Heights. Last month, Chauvin filed an intent to appeal his conviction and sentence. According to court documents, Chauvin claimed he doesn’t have the money to retain private counsel for the appeal, but on Wednesday, the Supreme Court ruled that Chauvin ‘has not established that he is entitled to appointed representation at this time.'”

The Fat Orange Bastard’s federal lawsuit against YouTube was kicked out of the US District Court for Southern Florida to the Northern District of California after the judge determined that Trump had agreed to the “forum selection” clause in the YouTube TOS and, no, it does not matter if he used to be president, he still agreed to the terms, so tough shit, lol:

“The Court need not reach the issue of whether the United States or its officials can be bound by a forum-selection clause because, in this case, there is no federal agency or entity that is a party to this case. Plaintiffs assert that ‘[a]t all times relevant to this action, Plaintiff [Trump] was the sitting President of the United States, and used his social media accounts and YouTube’s services in that capacity as a public forum.’ Yet, that is plainly not the case because Plaintiff Trump agreed to the TOS in his individual capacity, has brought this suit in his individual capacity, and is seeking the restoration of his YouTube account in his individual capacity. Indeed, as recognized in the Amended Complaint, Plaintiff Trump is bringing this case not as the President of the United States, but as ‘a private citizen and is domiciled in Palm Beach, Florida.’ Plaintiff Trump’s status in this case as a private citizen is further confirmed by the fact that he is pursuing claims under FDUTPA – which provides no cause of action for the federal government or its officials. Thus, because Plaintiff Trump is not a party to this case in an official government capacity, the Court finds these arguments to be without merit.” Read more from the ruling here.

WUSA 9: “A right-wing activist who spoke at a ‘Stop the Steal’ rally before the Capitol riot pleaded guilty Wednesday to joining the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6. Brandon Straka, 43, appeared before U.S. District Judge Dabney L. Friedrich to enter his plea in the case. Straka was arrested in January on multiple charges, including impeding law enforcement during civil disorder – a felony which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. However, last month the Justice Department reduced that to one misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct in a Capitol building. In a short hearing Wednesday, Straka admitted he entered the Capitol with the intent to disrupt the certification of Electoral College votes and that he encouraged other rioters to steal police shields. His plea agreement includes an expectation of cooperation with the ongoing investigation into the Capitol riot, as well as giving law enforcement access to his social media.”

“Disorderly conduct in a Capitol building is a Class ‘B’ misdemeanor that carries a maximum sentence of 6 months in prison. He will be back in court on December 17 to learn what, if any, time he will spend behind bars. Straka is one of dozens individuals named in a records request by the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack. His name appears in a section targeting documents and communications related to the ‘recruitment, planning, coordination, and other preparations’ for the ‘Stop the Steal’ rallies leading up to January 6.”

UCHealth, the Aurora, Colorado operator of scores of facilities in the state, announced that it will not conduct transplant operations on most patients who are unvaccinated because of an increased likelihood that the patients will die of coronavirus, CBS News reports.

Unvaccinated transplant patients who contract COVID have a 20% to 30% mortality rate, the hospital states, posing an unwarranted threat to the health of the patient.  “This shows the extreme risk that COVID-19 poses to transplant recipients after their surgeries,” the company said in a statement.

According to CBS, Jaimee Fougner, who is donating a kidney to Leilani Lutali, a patient with stage 5 renal failure, said she hasn’t received the vaccine for religious reasons.  Lutali said she hasn’t gotten the vaccine because there are too many unknowns. The women, who met in Bible study, didn’t know about the need for vaccines before surgery until last week.

“Looks like Mitch McConnell is folding to the Democrats, again. He’s got all of the cards with the debt ceiling, it’s time to play the hand. Don’t let them destroy the country!”says the renowned government spending expert in response to reports Mitch is caving to the Dems.

The National Hockey League has opened an investigation into a claim that San Jose Shark forward Evander Kane submitted a counterfeit vaccination card as proof that he received the coronavirus vaccine, the Associated Press reports.

Kane, a native of Vancouver, British Columbia, allegedly provided the fake card to team officials to comply with the league’s vaccination policies.  Presenting a fake vaccination card is illegal in both the US and Canada, where NHL teams play.  The league requires players to provide proof of vaccination to facilitate travel between the two countries for scheduled games.

The 30-year-old Kane is in the middle of a seven-year, $49 million dollar contract with the Sharks.  He’s also being investigated for accusations of spousal abuse made by his estranged wife.  He was cleared in a betting scandal earlier this year.

The attorneys for Kyle Rittenhouse, facing trial for killing two men and wounding another during unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin last August, told the judge overseeing the case that although Rittenhouse was legally too young to own the AR-15-style assault rifle, he was legally allowed to carry it in the streets of Kenosha because of Wisconsin’s hunting laws.

NBC News reports that Rittenhouse’s attorneys claim that because state hunting laws bar anyone 12 or under from carrying a weapon during hunting season, and other laws only prevent minors from openly carrying short-barrel rifles and shotguns, Rittenhouse was within his rights to have the assault-style rifle.

Rittenhouse was 17-years-old when he had a friend illegally purchase the weapon for him in Wisconsin.  He picked up the weapon from his friend and went on a vigilante operation to, he claims, protect businesses from crowds protesting the shooting of Jacob Blake, an unarmed Black man shot in the back by a Kenosha police officer.  While in Kenosha, he shot three men, killing two.

Erik Wasson at Bloomberg:  “Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell floated a short-term debt limit increase through November, according to a person familiar with the matter.  The idea would be a ill to increase the ceiling by a dollar amount that would be sufficient to tide the Treasure over until December, the person said.  McConnell’s comments were reported earlier by Punchbowl, which cited remarks he made to the Republican caucus.”

The staff at the Auschwitz memorial and museum discovered antisemitic slurs spraypainted on nine of the barracks buildings at the Auschwitz II-Birkenau site in Poland Monday, USA Today reports.

Auschwitz was a complex of more than 40 individual camps.  Birkenau was the location where many of the execution chambers were located in the Auschwitz complex, where more than one million people were killed between 1940 and 1945.  The graffiti stated that the Holocaust was faked.

“Such an incident – an offense against the Memorial Site – is, above all, an outrageous attack on the symbol of one of the great tragedies in human history and an extremely painful blow to the memory of all the victims of the German Nazi Auschwitz-Birkenau camp,” the museum said in a statement.

KXAS NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth:  “Multiple people are wounded after a shooting at Timberview High School in Arlington, police confirm.  The Mansfield ISD has confirmed in a letter to parents that police are investigating an active shooter situation at the high school.

“The letter goes on to add that students and staff are currently locked in their classrooms/offices and no visitors are being permitted at this time.  NBC 5 crews have seen officers with long guns running from the parking lot and into the school.

“The school is currently on lockdown.  Timberview High School is a part of the Mansfield Independent School District.”

Payroll company ADP found private employment increased by 568,000 new jobs in September, exceeding the 425,000 predicted by Dow Jones and continuing a streak of job growth under President Joe Biden, CNBC reports.

The leisure and hospitality industry picked up 226,000 new positions; the industry now has 800,000 more jobs than it had a year ago, after the first major wave of the pandemic.  Larger companies, with more than 500 employees on payroll, added 390,000 jobs.

“The labor market recovery continues to make progress despite a marked slowdown from the 748,000-job pace in the second quarter,” ADP Chief Economist Nela Richardson said.