Post by mhbruin on Nov 17, 2021 9:18:25 GMT -8
US Vaccine Data - We Have Now Administered 445 Million Shots (Population 333 Million)
*I have no idea why it went down. It looks like the CDC miscounted some fully vaccinated people as new ones.
70% of Adult Population Is Fully Vaccinated.
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In Today's Cage Match, It's Amazon Vs. VISA
Amazon will stop accepting Visa credit cards issued in the UK from 19 January, the online retail giant has said.
It said the move was due to high credit card transaction fees but said Visa debit cards would still be accepted.
Visa said it was "very disappointed that Amazon is threatening to restrict consumer choice in the future".
Amazon said: "The cost of accepting card payments continues to be an obstacle for businesses striving to provide the best prices for customers."
The online retailer said costs should be going down over time due to advances in technology, "but instead they continue to stay high or even rise".
An Amazon spokesperson said the dispute was to do with "pretty egregious" price rises from Visa over a number of years with no additional value to its service.
Amazon is offering £20 for Prime customers to switch from using Visa to an alternative payment method, and £10 for other customers.
VISA, It's Everywhere You Want to Be ... Except Amazon.
Some I Think It Is the Barristers Who Will Profit
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In the Cage Match Preliminary Bout, It's Morgan Vs. Musk
JP Morgan Chase is suing Tesla for $162 (£121m) over tweets in 2018 by boss Elon Musk that he could take the electric car maker private.
The bank accused Tesla of "flagrantly" breaching a deal it claims should have triggered payments to JP Morgan.
Mr Musk's notorious tweets that he had funding to take Tesla off the New York stock market sparked volatility in the share price.
He later abandoned the move and was fined by the US financial regulator.
JP Morgan's suit, filed in a Manhattan federal court, says the companies had an agreement signed in 2014 that allowed the bank to buy Tesla shares at a set price and date.
Under the deal, Tesla sold so-called warrants to JP Morgan allowing the bank to purchase shares if the "strike" price was below Tesla's share price when the warrants expired in June and July 2021.
In the Undercard, Wallace Vs. Christie
And Ted Cruz Vs. Everyone
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How More Quantum Can You Get? It's a Big Advance and It's Not a Big Advance
IBM has unveiled an advanced "quantum" processor that is part of an effort to build super-fast computers.
These machines could revolutionise computing, harnessing the strange world of quantum physics to solve problems beyond reach for even the most advanced "classical" ones.
But the hurdles in building practical, large-scale versions have kept quantum computers confined to the lab.
The new chip has 127 "qubits", twice as many as the previous IBM processor.
Qubits (quantum bits) are the most basic units of information in a quantum computer.
The company called its new Eagle processor "a key milestone on the path towards practical quantum computation".
But one quantum computing expert said more details were needed to assess whether it represented a significant advance.
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The Defense Lawyer in the Arbury Case Jumps the Shark...Or Tries To
Gough asked the court to consider the unintended consequences. He asked if we are going to try to arrest every police officer present at the scene of a malice murder. “That can’t be the law, your honor,” Gough said. “Just like on the street with the police officers, suicide by cop is not reasonably foreseeable, nor is suicide by citizen’s arrest.”
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You Don't Get Back to Normal By Acting Like It Is Normal
Biden and his allies need to disabuse themselves of the notion that we will see a return to “normalcy” anytime soon.
That means a re-calibration not only of his agenda, but his rhetoric, and the let’s-return-to-the-old-norms approach of his Justice Department. (Grand juries, anyone? Special Counsels?)
Perhaps Democrats could also take a break from their own internecine bloodletting long enough to make the case that the GOP has become an extremist, nihilistic, and reckless danger to the Republic.
If democracy really does face an existential crisis, perhaps the Administration and Congress should act like it.
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Who Can Explain the American Voter? You Do Popular Things and Become Unpopular.
I Can Explain It. They Aren't Paying Attention
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Treason in a Memo
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The Sky Isn't Falling, But It Looks a Little Shaky
Covid is surging in Europe. Experts say it’s a warning for the U.S.
U.S. states could look at Europe and take it as “a sign that the U.S. might still see resurgences, as well,” evolutionary biologist Tom Wenseleers said.
As Europe finds itself at the center of the Covid-19 pandemic once again, experts say it should serve as a warning to the U.S. and other countries about the coronavirus’s unremitting nature.
Case numbers have soared across the continent — more than 50 percent last month — and the worrying trend has continued this month as winter begins to bite.
Dr. Hans Kluge, the director of the World Health Organization’s Europe region, warned Nov. 4 that the region was "back at the epicenter of the pandemic," and his words proved prescient.
The WHO said Friday that nearly 2 million cases were reported across Europe in the previous week — the most the region has had in a single week since the pandemic began.
So Get Boosted!
I Think If I Drive to San Francisco, I Will Take the Coast Route
As infections rise, the San Joaquin Valley becomes the land of the eternal COVID surge
Over the last year and a half, the rural, agricultural San Joaquin Valley has been a perpetual hot spot for the virus — the land of the eternal COVID-19 surge.
Case numbers and hospitalizations plummeted across California, including in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area, after the height of the summer surge. But not in the San Joaquin Valley.
“We kind of have been feeling like the forgotten area of California as we read that, statewide, things are improving,” Gary Herbst, chief executive of Kaweah Health Medical Center in Visalia, told The Times. “It’s like we’re almost in a different country, even though we are right here in the middle of the state.”
The San Joaquin Valley this week has the state’s highest rate of COVID-19 hospitalizations. For every 100,000 residents, the region had 24 people hospitalized with COVID-19. Southern California, by comparison, had eight per 100,000 residents hospitalized with the virus. The San Francisco Bay Area had four.
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Somebody Needs to Tell Joe Manchin.
Rating agencies say Biden's spending plans will not add to inflationary pressure
The two pieces of legislation "should not have any real material impact on inflation", William Foster, vice president and senior credit officer (Sovereign Risk) at Moody's Investors Service, told Reuters.
The impact of the spending packages on the fiscal deficit will be rather small because they will be spread over a relatively long time horizon, Foster added.
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I Am Sure The Sacklers Are Very Proud
An estimated 100,000 Americans died of drug overdoses in one year, a never-before-seen milestone that health officials say is tied to the COVID-19 pandemic and a more dangerous drug supply.
Overdose deaths have been rising for more than two decades, accelerated in the past two years and, according to new data posted Wednesday, jumped nearly 30% in the latest year.
Experts believe the top drivers are the growing prevalence of deadly fentanyl in the illicit drug supply and the COVID-19 pandemic, which left many drug users socially isolated and unable to get treatment or other support.
The number is “devastating,” said Katherine Keyes, a Columbia University expert on drug abuse issues. “It’s a magnitude of overdose death that we haven’t seen in this country.”
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Wow! This Is the Most Impressed I Have Ever Been With Britney
Britney Spears has detailed how she wants to move forward now that she’s been freed from her conservatorship.
In a two-minute clip posted Tuesday on Twitter, the pop star said she was enjoying small freedoms since the restrictive legal arrangement was dissolved on Friday. It had controlled her life for more than 13 years.
She said she wanted her story to make a difference for people like her who are suffering under a “corrupt system” and thanked followers of the Free Britney movement for fighting for her freedom when “my voice was muted and threatened for so long.”
“I’m just grateful honestly for each day, and being able to have the keys to my car and being able to be independent, and feel like a woman, and owning an ATM card, seeing cash for the first time, being able to buy candles,” the singer, who turns 40 on Dec. 2, said.
“I’m not here to be a victim. ... I’m here to be an advocate for people with real disabilities and real illnesses,” she added. “I’m a very strong woman. So I can only imagine what the system has done to those people. ... Hopefully my story will make an impact and make some changes in the corrupt system.”
Spears’ case has brought international attention to conservatorships, often applied by family members to adults with mental illness, intellectual disability or cognitive impairments such as dementia.
An estimated 1.3 million adults in the U.S. are controlled by guardians or conservatorships in a system that advocates have described as ripe for abuse and financial exploitation.
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They Over/Under On When This Began Was 4 Days
After Democrats passed their COVID-19 relief legislation earlier this year, Republicans took credit for provisions in the popular bill even though they voted against it.
Now, Republican lawmakers are starting to do so again with the infrastructure bill President Joe Biden signed into law this week.
In a press release issued by his office on Monday, Alabama Rep. Gary Palmer touted funding in the bill aimed at connecting communities in the Appalachian region of the country to national interstate highways, something that will benefit his district, which encompasses the city of Birmingham.
“Birmingham is currently one of the largest metropolitan areas in the country without a complete beltline around it. Completing the Northern Beltline will benefit the entire region and enhance economic development and employment opportunities,” Palmer said in a statement.
An accompanying tweet issued by the congressman also touted funding for the project, though it left out the fact that he voted against it.
Under Wins!
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Great Sports News!
Fire up the hot dog cannon — the Phillie Phanatic is back in Philadelphia.
Not that the mascot largely ― large as in that green, furry, bulbous belly — ever really went anywhere. But a legal dispute between the Philadelphia Phillies and the mascot’s creator forced the team to give baseball’s most beloved native of the Galapagos Islands an extreme makeover.
But the Phillies and Harrison/Erickson, the New York company that created the Phanatic, reached a settlement his week that allowed the more familiar version to return in 2022 to Citizens Bank Park.
“We welcome the original Phillie Phanatic back with open arms,” Phillies executive vice president David Buck said Tuesday. “We are so proud of the 44-year history of the Phanatic and what the character means to the organization, to the City of Philadelphia and to Phillies fans everywhere. Our goal throughout this process was to come to an amicable solution that guaranteed the Phanatic could continue to entertain future generations of fans.”
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I Can't Begin To Count All the Ways This is Wrong
Staples Center is getting a new name. Starting Christmas Day, it will be Crypto.com Arena.
The downtown Los Angeles home of the NBA's Lakers and Clippers, the NHL's Kings and the WNBA's Sparks will change its name after 22 years of operation, arena owner AEG announced Tuesday night.
A person with knowledge of the deal tells The Associated Press that Crypto.com is paying $700 million over 20 years to rename the building. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the parties aren't publicly announcing the terms of what’s believed to be the richest naming rights deal in sports history.
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Just Rename the Damn Thing!
Democrats are refocusing their message on President Joe Biden's Build Back Better bill in response to inflation concerns from voters and key centrist lawmakers as Congress moves closer to final votes on the massive spending package.
The White House and Democratic leaders have rebranded the legislation as an antidote to widespread price hikes, arguing that it would lower the cost of prescription drugs, child care and overall expenses related to raising families.
"Want to fight inflation? Support Build Back Better," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Tuesday.
But Don't Call It "The Crypto.Com Act"
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In Today's Cartoon News
The Democratic-controlled U.S. House of Representatives was poised to punish a Republican lawmaker on Wednesday over an anime video that depicted him killing progressive Democrat Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez and swinging two swords at President Joe Biden.
The House was slated to vote on a resolution to censure Representative Paul Gosar and strip him of two congressional committee assignments - a move likely to draw only a smattering of support from Republicans who have largely decried the Democrats' action as partisan politics.
Gosar posted an anime video this month that showed him killing Ocasio-Cortez. It was the latest instance of escalating violent rhetoric in Congress, 10 months after thousands of supporters of then-President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol as lawmakers prepared to certify his election defeat.
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When Will They Ever Learn?
A Florida teacher who drew national attention for trying to get a hospital to administer her ivermectin died from COVID-19 symptoms last Friday.
Tamara Drock, 47, of Loxahatchee, Florida, died 12 weeks after being admitted to Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center for treatment. Her husband, Ryan Drock, sued the hospital last month in an attempt to require it to administer ivermectin, a drug approved by the FDA only to treat conditions caused by parasitic worms but not COVID-19.
"I’m hoping they name a law after her so no one has to go through this," Ryan Drock told The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Network. “If she had walked out of the hospital, she could have had the medication.”
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No Sign of Wiley Coyote. Beep Beep!
A wayward roadrunner is on the mend in Maine after traveling across the country in a moving van.
The greater roadrunner, a species native to Southwestern states, hitched a ride in the storage area of a moving van from Las Vegas to Westbrook, Maine. Volunteers took the bird to Avian Haven, a bird rehabilitation facility in Maine.
Avian Haven representatives said that they took the call about the bird Nov. 13 and that it continued to rest Tuesday. They said in a Facebook post that the bird was in “remarkably good shape” for having been stuck in a van for four days but might have lost weight during the journey.
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The QOP Is NOT a Conservative Party
In its second formal rebuke of Wyoming Republican Liz Cheney, the state party passed a resolution this week to no longer recognize her as a member -- but Cheney, up for reelection in 2022, appears unconcerned.
"It's laughable to suggest Liz is anything but a committed conservative Republican," said Jeremy Adler, Cheney's spokesperson. "She is bound by her oath to the Constitution. Sadly, a portion of the Wyoming GOP leadership has abandoned that fundamental principle, and instead allowed themselves to be held hostage to the lies of a dangerous and irrational man."
The resolution, which is symbolic and doesn't strip Cheney from any tangible power, cleared the Wyoming GOP Central Committee on Saturday by a narrow vote of 31-29.
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Like a Bridge Over All Our Highways, I Am Falling Down
More than 45,000 bridges across America have deteriorated so badly that the Federal Highway Administration listed them in poor condition in last year's National Bridge Inventory.
Help is likely on the way, with $40 billion allocated to bridge repair and replacement out of the $1.2 trillion in infrastructure spending Congress approved in early November. That money is to be spent over the next five years. The need is everywhere, according to the data.
The 45,000 bridges in poor condition add up to 7% of all bridges in the United States, according to a USA TODAY data analysis of the inventory. That's better than in 2010, when about 11% of bridges rated as "structurally deficient," an older term that a highway administration spokesperson said equates to today's "poor" condition.
Some of Those Bridges Span Troubled Waters, Too.
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It's An Easy Mistake to Make: Corgi. Covid. Five-letter Words Starting With "C".
The apparent killing of a pet dog by Chinese pandemic prevention workers has sparked widespread outrage in China. The incident has also launched debate on the lengths Chinese authorities will go to contain Covid-19’s spread.
Video footage captured on a home security camera by someone who said they were the dog's owner showed one of the two figures in hazmat suits hitting a corgi on the head with a rod. In the video posted on Weibo, the dog runs into another room, outside of the camera’s view. The workers later emerge from the room, one holding an object in a yellow plastic bag.
A hashtag responding to the video, “Don’t treat other people’s pets like animals,” has been viewed 230 million times and was included in posts on the platform 71,000 times by Tuesday.
NBC News tried to contact the dog’s owner via Weibo private messaging to verify that she had posted the video but she did not respond. She said in a subsequent post that she had received an anonymous threat to take down the original video.
According to Xizhou district officials, the duo had been sent to disinfect the residential building in the city of Shangrao in China’s southeastern Jiangxi province as part of the city’s anti-pandemic efforts amid a rise in delta variant infections across several provinces in recent weeks.
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*I have no idea why it went down. It looks like the CDC miscounted some fully vaccinated people as new ones.
Doses Administered 7-Day Average | Number of People Receiving 1 or More Doses | Number of People Fully Vaccinated | New Cases 7-Day Average | Deaths 7-Day Average | |
| Nov 17 | 1,811,047 | 228,175,638 | 195,612,365 | ||
| Nov 16 | 1,608,906 | 227,691,941 | 195,435,688 | 85,944 | 1,028 |
| Nov 15 | 1,582,519 | 227,133,617 | 195,275,904 | 83,671 | 1,029 |
| Nov 14 | 1,375,998 | 226,607,653 | 195,120,470 | 80,823 | 1,043 |
| Nov 13 | 1,370,279 | 226,157,226 | 194,951,106 | 80,590 | 1,049 |
| Nov 12 | 1,335,066 | 225,606,197 | 194,747,839 | 78,552 | 1,038 |
| Nov 11 | No Data | 73,218 | 999 | ||
| Nov 10 | 1,316,294 | 224,660,453 | 194,382,921 | 76,458 | 1,051 |
| Nov 9 | 1,316,228 | 224,257,467 | 194,168,611 | 74,584 | 1,078 |
| Nov 8 | 1,300,925 | 223,944,369 | 194,001,108 | 73,312 | 1,078 |
| Nov 7 | 1,265,361 | 223,629,671 | 193,832,584 | 71,867 | 1,068 |
| Nov 6 | 1,254,975 | 223,245,121 | 193,627,929 | 71,327 | 1,079 |
| Nov 5 | 1,283,684 | 222,902,939 | 193,425,862 | 71,517 | 1,071 |
| Nov 4 | 1,188,564 | 222,591,394 | 193,227,813 | 71,241 | 1,102 |
| Nov 3 | 1,068,184 | 222,268,786 | 192,931,486 | 70,431 | 1,109 |
| Nov 2 | 1,112,624 | 221,961,370 | 192,726,406 | 71,029 | 1,130 |
| Nov 1 | 1,243,313 | 221,760,691 | 192,586,927 | 74,798 | 1,190 |
| Oct 31 | 1,203,517 | 221,520,153 | 192,453,500 | 71,207 | 1,151 |
| Oct 30 | 1,114,502 | 221,221,467 | 192,244,927 | 71,690 | 1,156 |
| Oct 29 | 1,008,247 | 220,860,887* | 191,997,869 | 69,197 | 1,104 |
| Oct 28 | 1,086,543 | 221,348,530 | 191,242,432 | 68,177 | 1,086 |
| Oct 27 | 959,348 | 220,936,118 | 190,990,750 | 68,792 | 1,129 |
| Oct 26 | 796,148 | 220,648,845 | 190,793,100 | 68,151 | 1,098 |
| Oct 25 | 786,321 | 220,519,217 | 190,699,790 | 65,953 | 1,159 |
| Oct 24 | 768,503 | 220,351,217 | 190,578,704 | 59,129 | 1,122 |
| Oct 23 | 772,744 | 220,145,796 | 190,402,262 | 64,096 | 1,188 |
| Oct 22 | 770,307 | 219,900,525 | 190,179,553 | 70,153 | 1,277 |
| Oct 21 | 795,156 | 219,624,445 | 189,924,447 | 71,550 | 1,257 |
| Oct 20 | 831,213 | 219,381,466 | 189,709,710 | 73,966 | 1,257 |
| Oct 19 | 837,452 | 219,161,368 | 189,487,793 | 75,988 | 1,256 |
| Oct 18 | 745,874 | 218,973,123 | 189,292,559 | 75,571 | 1,260 |
| Oct 17 | 920,960 | 218,805,579 | 189,141,481 | 77,333 | 1,211 |
| Oct 16 | 803,960 | 218,562,924 | 188,902,483 | 79,715 | 1,227 |
| Oct 15 | 843,065 | 218,318,056 | 188,655,196 | 80,313 | 1,259 |
| Feb 16 | 1,716,311 | 39,670,551 | 15,015,434 | 78,292 |
70% of Adult Population Is Fully Vaccinated.
| At Least One Dose | Fully Vaccinated | |
| % of Total Population | 68.7% | 58.9% |
| % of Population 12+ | 79.8% | 68.9% |
| % of Population 18+ | 81.7% | 70.7% |
| % of Population 65+ | 99.5% | 86.2% |
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In Today's Cage Match, It's Amazon Vs. VISA
Amazon will stop accepting Visa credit cards issued in the UK from 19 January, the online retail giant has said.
It said the move was due to high credit card transaction fees but said Visa debit cards would still be accepted.
Visa said it was "very disappointed that Amazon is threatening to restrict consumer choice in the future".
Amazon said: "The cost of accepting card payments continues to be an obstacle for businesses striving to provide the best prices for customers."
The online retailer said costs should be going down over time due to advances in technology, "but instead they continue to stay high or even rise".
An Amazon spokesperson said the dispute was to do with "pretty egregious" price rises from Visa over a number of years with no additional value to its service.
Amazon is offering £20 for Prime customers to switch from using Visa to an alternative payment method, and £10 for other customers.
VISA, It's Everywhere You Want to Be ... Except Amazon.
Some I Think It Is the Barristers Who Will Profit
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In the Cage Match Preliminary Bout, It's Morgan Vs. Musk
JP Morgan Chase is suing Tesla for $162 (£121m) over tweets in 2018 by boss Elon Musk that he could take the electric car maker private.
The bank accused Tesla of "flagrantly" breaching a deal it claims should have triggered payments to JP Morgan.
Mr Musk's notorious tweets that he had funding to take Tesla off the New York stock market sparked volatility in the share price.
He later abandoned the move and was fined by the US financial regulator.
JP Morgan's suit, filed in a Manhattan federal court, says the companies had an agreement signed in 2014 that allowed the bank to buy Tesla shares at a set price and date.
Under the deal, Tesla sold so-called warrants to JP Morgan allowing the bank to purchase shares if the "strike" price was below Tesla's share price when the warrants expired in June and July 2021.
In the Undercard, Wallace Vs. Christie
And Ted Cruz Vs. Everyone
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How More Quantum Can You Get? It's a Big Advance and It's Not a Big Advance
IBM has unveiled an advanced "quantum" processor that is part of an effort to build super-fast computers.
These machines could revolutionise computing, harnessing the strange world of quantum physics to solve problems beyond reach for even the most advanced "classical" ones.
But the hurdles in building practical, large-scale versions have kept quantum computers confined to the lab.
The new chip has 127 "qubits", twice as many as the previous IBM processor.
Qubits (quantum bits) are the most basic units of information in a quantum computer.
The company called its new Eagle processor "a key milestone on the path towards practical quantum computation".
But one quantum computing expert said more details were needed to assess whether it represented a significant advance.
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The Defense Lawyer in the Arbury Case Jumps the Shark...Or Tries To
Gough asked the court to consider the unintended consequences. He asked if we are going to try to arrest every police officer present at the scene of a malice murder. “That can’t be the law, your honor,” Gough said. “Just like on the street with the police officers, suicide by cop is not reasonably foreseeable, nor is suicide by citizen’s arrest.”
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You Don't Get Back to Normal By Acting Like It Is Normal
Biden and his allies need to disabuse themselves of the notion that we will see a return to “normalcy” anytime soon.
That means a re-calibration not only of his agenda, but his rhetoric, and the let’s-return-to-the-old-norms approach of his Justice Department. (Grand juries, anyone? Special Counsels?)
Perhaps Democrats could also take a break from their own internecine bloodletting long enough to make the case that the GOP has become an extremist, nihilistic, and reckless danger to the Republic.
If democracy really does face an existential crisis, perhaps the Administration and Congress should act like it.
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Who Can Explain the American Voter? You Do Popular Things and Become Unpopular.
I Can Explain It. They Aren't Paying Attention
--------------
Treason in a Memo
--------------
The Sky Isn't Falling, But It Looks a Little Shaky
Covid is surging in Europe. Experts say it’s a warning for the U.S.
U.S. states could look at Europe and take it as “a sign that the U.S. might still see resurgences, as well,” evolutionary biologist Tom Wenseleers said.
As Europe finds itself at the center of the Covid-19 pandemic once again, experts say it should serve as a warning to the U.S. and other countries about the coronavirus’s unremitting nature.
Case numbers have soared across the continent — more than 50 percent last month — and the worrying trend has continued this month as winter begins to bite.
Dr. Hans Kluge, the director of the World Health Organization’s Europe region, warned Nov. 4 that the region was "back at the epicenter of the pandemic," and his words proved prescient.
The WHO said Friday that nearly 2 million cases were reported across Europe in the previous week — the most the region has had in a single week since the pandemic began.
So Get Boosted!
I Think If I Drive to San Francisco, I Will Take the Coast Route
As infections rise, the San Joaquin Valley becomes the land of the eternal COVID surge
Over the last year and a half, the rural, agricultural San Joaquin Valley has been a perpetual hot spot for the virus — the land of the eternal COVID-19 surge.
Case numbers and hospitalizations plummeted across California, including in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area, after the height of the summer surge. But not in the San Joaquin Valley.
“We kind of have been feeling like the forgotten area of California as we read that, statewide, things are improving,” Gary Herbst, chief executive of Kaweah Health Medical Center in Visalia, told The Times. “It’s like we’re almost in a different country, even though we are right here in the middle of the state.”
The San Joaquin Valley this week has the state’s highest rate of COVID-19 hospitalizations. For every 100,000 residents, the region had 24 people hospitalized with COVID-19. Southern California, by comparison, had eight per 100,000 residents hospitalized with the virus. The San Francisco Bay Area had four.
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Somebody Needs to Tell Joe Manchin.
Rating agencies say Biden's spending plans will not add to inflationary pressure
The two pieces of legislation "should not have any real material impact on inflation", William Foster, vice president and senior credit officer (Sovereign Risk) at Moody's Investors Service, told Reuters.
The impact of the spending packages on the fiscal deficit will be rather small because they will be spread over a relatively long time horizon, Foster added.
--------------
I Am Sure The Sacklers Are Very Proud
An estimated 100,000 Americans died of drug overdoses in one year, a never-before-seen milestone that health officials say is tied to the COVID-19 pandemic and a more dangerous drug supply.
Overdose deaths have been rising for more than two decades, accelerated in the past two years and, according to new data posted Wednesday, jumped nearly 30% in the latest year.
Experts believe the top drivers are the growing prevalence of deadly fentanyl in the illicit drug supply and the COVID-19 pandemic, which left many drug users socially isolated and unable to get treatment or other support.
The number is “devastating,” said Katherine Keyes, a Columbia University expert on drug abuse issues. “It’s a magnitude of overdose death that we haven’t seen in this country.”
--------------
Wow! This Is the Most Impressed I Have Ever Been With Britney
Britney Spears has detailed how she wants to move forward now that she’s been freed from her conservatorship.
In a two-minute clip posted Tuesday on Twitter, the pop star said she was enjoying small freedoms since the restrictive legal arrangement was dissolved on Friday. It had controlled her life for more than 13 years.
She said she wanted her story to make a difference for people like her who are suffering under a “corrupt system” and thanked followers of the Free Britney movement for fighting for her freedom when “my voice was muted and threatened for so long.”
“I’m just grateful honestly for each day, and being able to have the keys to my car and being able to be independent, and feel like a woman, and owning an ATM card, seeing cash for the first time, being able to buy candles,” the singer, who turns 40 on Dec. 2, said.
“I’m not here to be a victim. ... I’m here to be an advocate for people with real disabilities and real illnesses,” she added. “I’m a very strong woman. So I can only imagine what the system has done to those people. ... Hopefully my story will make an impact and make some changes in the corrupt system.”
Spears’ case has brought international attention to conservatorships, often applied by family members to adults with mental illness, intellectual disability or cognitive impairments such as dementia.
An estimated 1.3 million adults in the U.S. are controlled by guardians or conservatorships in a system that advocates have described as ripe for abuse and financial exploitation.
--------------
They Over/Under On When This Began Was 4 Days
After Democrats passed their COVID-19 relief legislation earlier this year, Republicans took credit for provisions in the popular bill even though they voted against it.
Now, Republican lawmakers are starting to do so again with the infrastructure bill President Joe Biden signed into law this week.
In a press release issued by his office on Monday, Alabama Rep. Gary Palmer touted funding in the bill aimed at connecting communities in the Appalachian region of the country to national interstate highways, something that will benefit his district, which encompasses the city of Birmingham.
“Birmingham is currently one of the largest metropolitan areas in the country without a complete beltline around it. Completing the Northern Beltline will benefit the entire region and enhance economic development and employment opportunities,” Palmer said in a statement.
An accompanying tweet issued by the congressman also touted funding for the project, though it left out the fact that he voted against it.
Under Wins!
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Great Sports News!
Fire up the hot dog cannon — the Phillie Phanatic is back in Philadelphia.
Not that the mascot largely ― large as in that green, furry, bulbous belly — ever really went anywhere. But a legal dispute between the Philadelphia Phillies and the mascot’s creator forced the team to give baseball’s most beloved native of the Galapagos Islands an extreme makeover.
But the Phillies and Harrison/Erickson, the New York company that created the Phanatic, reached a settlement his week that allowed the more familiar version to return in 2022 to Citizens Bank Park.
“We welcome the original Phillie Phanatic back with open arms,” Phillies executive vice president David Buck said Tuesday. “We are so proud of the 44-year history of the Phanatic and what the character means to the organization, to the City of Philadelphia and to Phillies fans everywhere. Our goal throughout this process was to come to an amicable solution that guaranteed the Phanatic could continue to entertain future generations of fans.”
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I Can't Begin To Count All the Ways This is Wrong
Staples Center is getting a new name. Starting Christmas Day, it will be Crypto.com Arena.
The downtown Los Angeles home of the NBA's Lakers and Clippers, the NHL's Kings and the WNBA's Sparks will change its name after 22 years of operation, arena owner AEG announced Tuesday night.
A person with knowledge of the deal tells The Associated Press that Crypto.com is paying $700 million over 20 years to rename the building. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the parties aren't publicly announcing the terms of what’s believed to be the richest naming rights deal in sports history.
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Just Rename the Damn Thing!
Democrats are refocusing their message on President Joe Biden's Build Back Better bill in response to inflation concerns from voters and key centrist lawmakers as Congress moves closer to final votes on the massive spending package.
The White House and Democratic leaders have rebranded the legislation as an antidote to widespread price hikes, arguing that it would lower the cost of prescription drugs, child care and overall expenses related to raising families.
"Want to fight inflation? Support Build Back Better," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Tuesday.
But Don't Call It "The Crypto.Com Act"
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In Today's Cartoon News
The Democratic-controlled U.S. House of Representatives was poised to punish a Republican lawmaker on Wednesday over an anime video that depicted him killing progressive Democrat Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez and swinging two swords at President Joe Biden.
The House was slated to vote on a resolution to censure Representative Paul Gosar and strip him of two congressional committee assignments - a move likely to draw only a smattering of support from Republicans who have largely decried the Democrats' action as partisan politics.
Gosar posted an anime video this month that showed him killing Ocasio-Cortez. It was the latest instance of escalating violent rhetoric in Congress, 10 months after thousands of supporters of then-President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol as lawmakers prepared to certify his election defeat.
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When Will They Ever Learn?
A Florida teacher who drew national attention for trying to get a hospital to administer her ivermectin died from COVID-19 symptoms last Friday.
Tamara Drock, 47, of Loxahatchee, Florida, died 12 weeks after being admitted to Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center for treatment. Her husband, Ryan Drock, sued the hospital last month in an attempt to require it to administer ivermectin, a drug approved by the FDA only to treat conditions caused by parasitic worms but not COVID-19.
"I’m hoping they name a law after her so no one has to go through this," Ryan Drock told The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Network. “If she had walked out of the hospital, she could have had the medication.”
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No Sign of Wiley Coyote. Beep Beep!
A wayward roadrunner is on the mend in Maine after traveling across the country in a moving van.
The greater roadrunner, a species native to Southwestern states, hitched a ride in the storage area of a moving van from Las Vegas to Westbrook, Maine. Volunteers took the bird to Avian Haven, a bird rehabilitation facility in Maine.
Avian Haven representatives said that they took the call about the bird Nov. 13 and that it continued to rest Tuesday. They said in a Facebook post that the bird was in “remarkably good shape” for having been stuck in a van for four days but might have lost weight during the journey.
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The QOP Is NOT a Conservative Party
In its second formal rebuke of Wyoming Republican Liz Cheney, the state party passed a resolution this week to no longer recognize her as a member -- but Cheney, up for reelection in 2022, appears unconcerned.
"It's laughable to suggest Liz is anything but a committed conservative Republican," said Jeremy Adler, Cheney's spokesperson. "She is bound by her oath to the Constitution. Sadly, a portion of the Wyoming GOP leadership has abandoned that fundamental principle, and instead allowed themselves to be held hostage to the lies of a dangerous and irrational man."
The resolution, which is symbolic and doesn't strip Cheney from any tangible power, cleared the Wyoming GOP Central Committee on Saturday by a narrow vote of 31-29.
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Like a Bridge Over All Our Highways, I Am Falling Down
More than 45,000 bridges across America have deteriorated so badly that the Federal Highway Administration listed them in poor condition in last year's National Bridge Inventory.
Help is likely on the way, with $40 billion allocated to bridge repair and replacement out of the $1.2 trillion in infrastructure spending Congress approved in early November. That money is to be spent over the next five years. The need is everywhere, according to the data.
The 45,000 bridges in poor condition add up to 7% of all bridges in the United States, according to a USA TODAY data analysis of the inventory. That's better than in 2010, when about 11% of bridges rated as "structurally deficient," an older term that a highway administration spokesperson said equates to today's "poor" condition.
Some of Those Bridges Span Troubled Waters, Too.
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It's An Easy Mistake to Make: Corgi. Covid. Five-letter Words Starting With "C".
The apparent killing of a pet dog by Chinese pandemic prevention workers has sparked widespread outrage in China. The incident has also launched debate on the lengths Chinese authorities will go to contain Covid-19’s spread.
Video footage captured on a home security camera by someone who said they were the dog's owner showed one of the two figures in hazmat suits hitting a corgi on the head with a rod. In the video posted on Weibo, the dog runs into another room, outside of the camera’s view. The workers later emerge from the room, one holding an object in a yellow plastic bag.
A hashtag responding to the video, “Don’t treat other people’s pets like animals,” has been viewed 230 million times and was included in posts on the platform 71,000 times by Tuesday.
NBC News tried to contact the dog’s owner via Weibo private messaging to verify that she had posted the video but she did not respond. She said in a subsequent post that she had received an anonymous threat to take down the original video.
According to Xizhou district officials, the duo had been sent to disinfect the residential building in the city of Shangrao in China’s southeastern Jiangxi province as part of the city’s anti-pandemic efforts amid a rise in delta variant infections across several provinces in recent weeks.
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