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riversedge's JournalSouth Africa Finds New Variant Of COVID-19 With 'Constellation Of Mutations'
Source: huff post
The United Kingdom temporarily barred flights from six African nations amid fears over the new coronavirus strain.
11/25/2021 10:52pm EST
A new variant of the coronavirus has been found in South Africa, troubling scientists who say the strain has a high number of mutations and is likely already sparking a jump in new cases around Johannesburg.
The variant, which is being referred to as the B1.1.529 variant until the World Health Organization decides to assign it a letter of the Greek alphabet, is linked to 22 positive cases in South Africa so far, as well as cases in Hong Kong and Botswana among travelers from the country.
“You can be rest assured that as people move in the next coming weeks, this [variant] will be all over,” Dr. Joe Phaahla, South Africa’s health minister, said at a media briefing on Thursday. “Over the last four or five days, there has been more of an exponential rise [in cases].”
Several variants of COVID-19 have been cause for concern as the virus mutates, including the highly transmissible delta strain. Mutations are a prime fear among health officials, who worry new strains of the coronavirus could bypass the effectiveness of vaccines that have aided the reopening of society and limited severe illness and death among inoculated people................................
Read more: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/south-africa-covid-19-variant-mutations_n_61a04a18e4b0451e55057dce
#NuVariant
It took the Delta variant almost 100 days to become the dominate strain of Covid19 in 90% of all cases. B.1.1.529 has reached that same level in less than 3 weeks.
https://twitter.com/davegreenidge57/status/1464169500690075654?s=20
https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1464119235655970819?s=20
'Nothing about this is normal': RNC payments to Trump attorneys irk GOP officials
Source: CNN
Updated 5:21 PM ET, Wed November 24, 2021
RNC continues to pay Trump's bills as a sign of loyalty
(CNN)A pair of payments the Republican National Committee made to a law firm representing former President Donald Trump is raising questions among former and current GOP officials about the party's priorities in a critical election year and its ability to remain neutral -- as long-standing RNC rules require -- in the 2024 presidential primary.
The separate payments to Fischetti and Malgieri LLP totalling $121,670, listed in the committee's latest filing to the Federal Election Commission, were first reported on Monday. Ronald Fischetti, a partner at the New York-based firm, was hired by the Trump Organization in April amid ongoing investigations into the real estate company's financial practices by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. and state Attorney General Letitia James.
A spokesperson for the RNC said the party's executive committee recently "approved paying for certain legal expenses that relate to politically motivated legal proceedings waged against President Trump," and defended the payments as "entirely appropriate" as the party "continue[s] assisting in fighting back against the Democrats' never ending witch hunt and attacks on [Trump]."
However, some RNC members and donors accused the party of running afoul of its own neutrality rules and misplacing its priorities. Some of these same officials who spoke to CNN also questioned why the party would foot the legal bills of a self-professed billionaire who was sitting on a $102 million war chest as recently as July and has previously used his various political committees to cover legal costs. According to FEC filings from August, the former President's Make America Great Again committee has paid Jones Day more than $37,000 since the beginning of the year, while his Make America Great Again super PAC has paid a combined $7.8 million to attorneys handling his lawsuits related to the 2020 election. .......................................
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/24/politics/trump-rnc-payments/index.html
Cheap Trump.
https://twitter.com/RawStory/status/1463548809569570819?s=20
NY prosecutors zero in on Trump's alleged 'pattern of fraud' as investigation enters 'critical pha
Source: raw story
John Wright November 24, 2021
New York prosecutors are focusing on whether former president Donald Trump artificially inflated the value of his company's assets in seeking loans from financial institutions, as their investigation enters a "critical phase," according to a new report from the New York Times.
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr., who has overseen the investigation for more than three years, will leave office at the end of the year. Vance previously said he wanted to decide whether to charge Trump before his term expires, but now it appears the case may be left to his successor, Alvin Bragg.
According to the Times, Vance's prosecutors have recently issued subpoenas for records about the Trump Organization's hotels, golf clubs and office buildings.
"They recently interviewed a banker employed by Deutsche Bank, Mr. Trump's top lender," the Times reports. "And earlier this month, they told a top Trump executive who had been under scrutiny, Matthew Calamari, that they did not currently plan to indict him in the purported tax-evasion scheme that led to charges against Mr. Trump's company and its chief financial officer." ...............
Read more: https://www.rawstory.com/manhattan-da-trump-2655793691/
https://twitter.com/debv219/status/1463648193837682704?s=20
U.S. Recovery Accelerates on Spending, Labor Market Growth
Source: WSJ
Personal spending rose 1.3% in October, while income increased 0.5%
Updated Nov. 24, 2021 3:14 pm ET
The U.S. economy showed broad-based signs of acceleration heading into the end of the year, with consumers ramping up spending, businesses stepping up investment and jobless claims falling to historic lows.
Household spending rose 1.3% in October from a month earlier, while personal income increased 0.5% last month, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. Consumers are benefiting from a strong labor market. And they are spending at a faster pace than inflation, which recently hit a three-decade high.
Jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs, fell to 199,000 last week, the lowest weekly level in 52 years, the Labor Department separately said. The sharp decline in unemployment claims suggests rising wages and bountiful job openings could continue to buttress consumer spending—the economy’s main engine—despite fading government stimulus and dwindling savings.
“Consumer demand remains quite strong,” said Gregory Daco, chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics. “People are looking to travel. They’re still looking to eat out. They’re still looking to make purchases for the end-of-the-year holidays.”
Elevated inflation, stoked by strong demand and limited goods and labor supply, poses a risk to the economy, though.......................................................
Read more: https://www.wsj.com/articles/consumer-spending-personal-income-inflation-october-2021-11637710533?st=yyvpm3dmc937hmr&reflink=desktopwebshare_twitter
This IS good news. Yet, groceries sure have gone up.
https://twitter.com/tbluvoter/status/1463626769429196804?s=20
Strong consumer demand for items including apparel is supporting sales at several of the biggest U.S. retailers.
Trump poll tests his 2024 comeback map
Trump poll tests his 2024 comeback map
The former president is targeting five swing states that are pivotal to his hopes of winning back the White House.
Donald Trump speaks at a rally.
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/11/23/trump-2024-map-523230
11/23/2021 04:30 AM EST
As Donald Trump builds out a presidential-campaign-in-waiting, his team is focusing on an electoral strategy that relies on recapturing the five states that flipped to Joe Biden in 2020.
The five states — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — delivered a total of 73 electoral votes in 2020, enough to produce a decisive Electoral College victory for Biden. Since then, Trump has held four rallies, endorsed dozens of candidates and played a key role in shaping contests that could put his allies in top offices in those states in 2024.
Trump’s shadow campaign also recently polled Trump-Biden matchups in the five states, all of which were decided in 2020 by fewer than 3 percentage points. According to the poll, a memo of which was obtained by POLITICO, the former president led Biden in Arizona by 8 percentage points, Georgia by 3 points, Michigan by 12 points, Pennsylvania by 6 points and Wisconsin by 10 points.
The poll numbers send a message to those who think Trump’s grip on the Republican Party is loosening, said Tony Fabrizio, a top GOP pollster who conducted the surveys for Trump’s super PAC, “Make America Great Again, Again!”
Trump's influence keeps haunting Washington, explained
“Poll after poll clearly demonstrates that former President Donald Trump is still the 800-pound gorilla in the GOP and would be its 2024 nominee should he run,” said Fabrizio, who confirmed the numbers for POLITICO but did not provide them. “This new data clearly shows that today the voters in these five key states would be happy to return Trump to the White House and send Biden packing.”
In another sign that Trump is gearing up for a White House bid, his super PAC is holding its biggest planned fundraiser to date on Dec. 2, when the nation’s top Republican donors are expected to gather at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Fla......................................
4,262 new cases of COVID-19 were reported today by Wisconsin health officials-the highest single day
I mask up when I go into a store. Every time! I see so few folks with masks.
4,262 new cases of COVID-19 were reported today by Wisconsin health officials -- the highest single-day number since early December before vaccines were available.
The state's seven-day average is about where we were in mid-December.
https://twitter.com/MollyBeck/status/1463252057679347718?s=20
https://twitter.com/italianmama2/status/1463261692117327878?s=20
Jen Psaki turns the tables on Peter Doocy after he asks if Biden will apologize to Kyle Rittenhou
Source: raw story
November 23, 2021
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During Tuesday's press briefing, Doocy pointed out that Biden linked Rittenhouse to white supremacists in remarks he made during the 2020 presidential campaign and he asked if Biden would apologize to Rittenhouse.
"This is about a campaign video released last year that used President Trump's own words during a debate as he refused to condemn white supremacists and militia groups," she replied. "And President Trump, as you know... didn't just refuse to condemn militia groups on the debate stage, he actively encouraged them throughout his presidency."
Psaki said then linked Rittenhouse's decision to travel to Kenosha armed with an AR-15 to Trump's encouragement of militias and vigilantes.
"What we've seen are the tragic consequences of that, when people think it's OK to take the law into their own hands," she said.
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Read more: https://www.rawstory.com/jen-psaki-peter-doocy-2655784752/
The idiot never learns.
https://twitter.com/RawStory/status/1463252636342362120?s=20
Judge declines Florida request to immediately block Biden HHS vaccine rule for health care workers
Good news--[from yesterday]---for now.
Judge declines Florida request to immediately block Biden HHS vaccine rule for health care workers
https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/22/politics/florida-biden-hhs-vaccine-mandate/?hpt=ob_blogfooterold
Updated 1:29 PM ET, Mon November 22, 2021
Governor slams Biden's vaccine mandate. Here are the vaccines required in her state
Governor slams Biden's vaccine mandate. Here are the vaccines required in her state 04:12
(CNN)A federal judge said this weekend that she would not block the Biden administration's vaccine mandate for health care workers while a Florida lawsuit challenging the mandate moves forward.
In her decision declining Florida's request for preliminary order blocking the health care worker mandate, US District Judge Casey Rodgers said that Florida had not shown "that irreparable injury will occur " if the court did not block the mandate before it starts to take effect next month.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, has been a prominent opponent of President Joe Biden's efforts to mandate vaccines. The state is involved in other lawsuits challenging the Biden administration's mandate for federal contractors, as well as the vaccine rules issued by Occupational Safety and Health Administration. At DeSantis' urging, Florida's GOP-controlled legislature also passed last week bills that would impose fines on companies that require vaccines as a condition of employment.
"The affidavits in support of the motion include assertions of how the various agencies and institutions anticipate they may be adversely impacted by the mandate," the judge, a George W. Bush-appointee, wrote in an order issued Saturday.
"In particular, the affidavits express opinions of agency heads who 'estimate' that they 'may' lose a certain percentage or a number of employees, or speculate as to the consequences they will suffer 'if widespread resignations were to occur,'" Rodgers wrote. "However, such opinions, absent supporting factual evidence, remain speculative and may be disregarded as conclusory."
The Biden administration health care worker policy, which is being implemented by the Department of Health and Human Services, requires that health care workers at certain providers that participate in Medicaid and Medicare be vaccinated against Covid-19, with the deadline for the first shot set for December 6. Florida filed a lawsuit in the Northern District of Florida challenging the policy earlier this month and had asked the court to block the HHS rule while the lawsuit proceeded. In its filings, the state claimed that Florida health care facilities were at risk for either losing federal funding or see staffing shortfalls due to employees' refusal to get vaccinated.....................................
Suspect in Waukesha Christmas Parade incident has been identified as Darrell Brooks Jr.
Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
9:25 a. m. Nov. 22, 2021
Ashley Luthern Daniel Bice Molly Beck
The full scope of tragedy in Waukesha continued to unfold Monday morning, as authorities confirmed five people had been killed and more than 40 others injured after a driver sped through the annual holiday parade Sunday evening.
A 39-year-old Milwaukee man with an open court case related to domestic violence has been taken into custody, according to a law enforcement source with firsthand knowledge of the situation. The Associated Press also confirmed the man's identity Monday morning.
Darrell Brooks Jr., the man suspected of being the driver, has been charged three times in less than two years with recklessly endangering the safety of others, most recently on Nov. 5 as part of a domestic abuse incident for which he was also charged with resisting or obstructing an officer.
Brooks was released from jail on Friday after posting bond in the recent incident, according to court records. He also was charged in July 2020 with two felony counts of second-degree recklessly endangering the safety of others using a dangerous weapon. Both cases are ongoing.
Authorities have have not publicly disclosed what they believe was the man's motivation. One law enforcement source told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel the man had been involved in an earlier incident on Sunday, possibly also related to domestic abuse, just before the parade carnage occurred.
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Read more: https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/crime/2021/11/22/suspect-waukesha-parade-incident-identified-darrell-brooks-jr/8717524002/?csp=chromepush
whow. to say this man is troubled is to say the least.
Beloved 'dancing grannies' among those killed after driver plows through Wisconsin Christmas parade
Source: msn.com
Jennifer Hassan - 1h ago
The only requirement for joining the Milwaukee Dancing Grannies is to be a grandmother. Each year, the award-winning group performs in more than 20 parades, shuffling through streets and shaking their pompoms which are sometimes silver, sometimes gold.
The grannies say their mission is to entertain audiences, which is what brought them to Waukesha’s Christmas parade — before a driver in an SUV plowed through the parade, killing at least five people and injuring 40.
Some grannies were killed in the chaos, the group said in a statement shared to Facebook Monday, although it was not immediately clear how many had lost their lives.
5 dead, more than 40 injured after SUV plows into crowd at Christmas parade in Wisconsin
The group said it was “devastated” by the incident that took place about 20 miles west of Milwaukee. Police have not provided a motive for the crash.
“Waukesha here we come!!!” read a post published by the grannies to their Facebook, page just hours before the casualties were reported.
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Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/beloved-dancing-grannies-among-those-killed-after-driver-plows-through-wisconsin-christmas-parade/ar-AAR01iu?cvid=ced4915ebda840adafa6db1775cf771f&ocid=winp1taskbar
I saw them in a parade a few years back. So horrible for them and their fans and families--and all impacted by this senseless scene.
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