Saturday - Some Good News the Media is Ignoring

US Vaccine Data - We Have Now Administered 450 Million Shots  (Population 333 Million)

The last time we administered 2 million doses in a day was May 13.




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Tom Lehrer Responds to the Rittenhouse Verdicts

The law was very firm, it took away his permit
The worst punishment he ever endured.
He knew there was a reason
Protesters were out of season
And one of the victims rioters wasn't insured. 
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The Worst Thing About the Verdict





It Will Encourage More Vigilante Wanna-Be's

Following the acquittal, right-wing social media platform Gab sent out an email encouraging its users to “buy firearms and form Christian militias.” As NPR reports, celebratory online comments by members of the Proud Boys included a call for dead leftists to be “stacked up like cord wood,” further indicating that the Rittenhouse acquittal will be seen as license to carry out similar acts of violence disguised as “self-defense”:
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Covid: WHO says it is very worried about Europe surge

No comment from Pete Townsend


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Getting Vaccinated Is Quite a Racket

Unvaccinated players will not be allowed to compete at the 2022 Australian Open, says tournament director Craig Tiley.

There had been confusion over the issue in recent months with contradictory statements from leading Australian politicians.

Defending men's champion Novak Djokovic has said he does not want to reveal his vaccination status publicly.

"Novak knows he will have to be vaccinated to play," Tiley said.  "We would love to have him here."

Tiley also confirmed that the tournament, which runs from 17-30 January in Melbourne, would be played in front of capacity crowds.

Maybe This Will Net Some Newly-Vaccinated People
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He wants to say two words to you. Just two words. "No Plastics"

A new type of recyclable meat packaging tray designed by a Swansea University student could save thousands of tonnes in plastic waste.

Alaa Alaizoki, who is studying for an engineering doctorate, has created a meat tray without a separate piece of absorbent plastic padding underneath.

Mr Alaizoki said the technology could be used in other areas, like nappies.

Meat Promotion Wales said consumers wanted to know that food was made in an "environmentally responsible way".

About 800,000 tonnes of UK meat packaging plastic waste is produced each year,

Between 5% and 8% of this waste comes from the absorbent padding.


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Faster Than a Speeding Bullet!

Rolls-Royce believes its Spirit of Innovation plane could be the world's fastest all-electric aircraft.

The firm - whose aerospace headquarters are based in Derby - said the plane reached a top speed of 387.4 mph (623 km/h) during test runs at an experimental aircraft testing site.

It is thought to have set new World Records over three different distances.

The figures have been sent to the World Air Sports Federation for verification.



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No Blue Screen of Death, But ...

Tesla drivers say they have been locked out of their cars after an outage struck the carmaker's app.

Dozens of owners posted on social media about seeing an error message on the mobile app that was preventing them from connecting to their vehicles.

Tesla chief executive Elon Musk personally responded to one complaint from a driver in South Korea, saying on Twitter: "Checking."

Mr Musk later said the app was coming back online.

The Tesla app is used as a key by drivers to unlock and start their cars.

Owners posted a multitude of complaints online about not being able to use their vehicles.

Will Musk Hold a Twitter Poll to See How to Fix the Problem?
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And You Thought Your Parents Were Bad

Jordan Turpin was 17 years old when she found herself crawling out of a window of her family's home, hoping to save the lives of her 12 siblings.

For two years, she had been planning her escape after decades of unspeakable emotional and physical violence inflicted by her parents in their Perris, California home. Equipped with nothing but an old cellphone she found in the house, Jordan ran out and called 911.

"I was always terrified that if I called the cops or tried to escape, I would get caught, and then I knew I would die if I got caught," Jordan, now 21, told ABC News' Diane Sawyer in an exclusive interview Friday. "But at the end, when I saw all my younger siblings, I knew that's what I had to do."

During the chilling 911 call, she told police the house the family lived in smelled so badly that she could barely breathe, and she thought she and her siblings might need to go to the doctor.

When the first police officer arrived, she immediately showed him the phone, full of photos and videos she took of herself and her siblings to prove the abuse.

Her bold getaway in January 2018 led to the discovery of her siblings and uncovered what Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin described as one of the "worst, most aggravated child abuse cases" he has ever seen.

Some of the siblings, who ranged in age from 2 to 29, had been found shackled to beds with chains and padlocks. A few of the adults were so malnourished, they looked like young teenagers.
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First Notre Dame.  Now This

A large fire broke out in a building on boulevard des Capucines, near the Place de L'Opera square in central Paris on Saturday, sending clouds of smoke rising into the air.

"Firemen are intervening, avoid the area," the Prefecture de Police said in a statement on Twitter.

It was not immediately clear what caused the fire.
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How Much Gas Do People Use Driving to Get Cheaper Gas?

Gas prices are skyrocketing, and Americans want to save at the pump. That plays right into the hands of Costco, BJ's Wholesale Club and Sam's Club.

The national gas price average jumped to $3.41 a gallon Friday, according to AAA, 61% higher than the average at the same time last year. The Biden administration has called for an investigation into whether oil and gas companies acted illegally to push up prices.

The spike has pushed more shoppers to rely on these chains to fill up their tanks, say the companies, retail analysts, and fuel experts. Gas prices at warehouse clubs can be as much as 30 cents lower than traditional gas stations, and the chains offer members coupons to use in their stores when they fill up. Gasoline sales at the warehouse clubs are an important part of their business and draw customers inside.

"People are seeking out the clubs because of the gas," said Michael Baker, a retail analyst at D.A. Davidson. "It's US consumers' nature to go out of their way for lower gas prices."

There Is An Answer.  Not All Cars Use Gas.  (Not All Cars Start Every Time, But That is True of Gasoline Engines, Too.)
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Something is Rotten In Rotterdam

Police opened fire on anti-lockdown protesters in the Dutch city of Rotterdam Friday as several European cities braced for further demonstrations against new Covid restrictions over the weekend.

“On a number of occasions the police felt it necessary to draw their weapons to defend themselves,” Rotterdam Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb told reporters after protesters tore through the city’s central shopping district, setting fires in their wake.

Describing the scenes as "an orgy of violence," he added that “people were injured,” after officers "shot at protesters," although he could not provide information on the extent of their injuries.

At least seven people had been injured in the clashes, police said in a statement on Twitter, which added that officers had also been injured in the clashes. Several arrests had been made, police said.

But It Does Give Anti-Vaxers Two Ways to Die
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Is It Really Better Than Ivermectin?

Within a few weeks, perhaps before many Americans finish decorating for the holidays, the U.S. could have access to a new antiviral pill from Merck expected to alter the deadly trajectory of the covid-19 pandemic — with a second option from Pfizer to follow shortly after.

Now under federal review, both pills are being hailed by infectious disease doctors not prone to superlatives.

“This is truly a game changer,” said Dr. Daniel Griffin, an expert on infectious diseases and immunology at Columbia University. “This is up there with vaccines. It’s not a substitute for vaccines; we still want to get people vaccinated. But, boy, this is just another great tool to have.”

The new regimens, which require 30 or 40 pills to be taken over five days, have been shown to dramatically reduce hospitalizations and prevent deaths in adults with mild to moderate Covid who are at risk for severe disease because of age or underlying conditions. But experts say the success of the treatments would hinge on one uncertain factor: whether high-risk patients infected with Covid will be able to get tested — and then treated — fast enough to make a difference.

“Early, accessible testing and access to the results in a time frame that allows us to make a decision is really going to be key to these medications,” said Dr. Erica Johnson, who chairs the Infectious Disease Board of the American Board of Internal Medicine. “It puts the onus on our public health strategy to make these available.”
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Believe It

So, I can’t believe I have to say this, but …

It’s not okay for a man to grab a rifle, travel across state lines, and shoot three people—and then walk free.

It’s not okay for the judicial system to be blatantly and obviously stacked against people of color.

It’s not okay for there to be an entirely different set of rules for white people, but I don’t care about Kyle Rittenhouse. I don’t care about that racist judge. And I don’t care about how fucked up that jury must be.





Here's Why She Needs to Believe It

Of Course Kyle Rittenhouse Was Acquitted

It is one thing to argue that the jury reached a reasonable verdict based on the law, and another entirely to celebrate Rittenhouse’s actions.

In state after state, they have helped elect politicians who, in turn, have created a permissive legal regime for the carry and use of firearms, rules that go far beyond how courts originally understood the concept of self-defense.

These laws have made it difficult to convict any gun owner who knowingly puts themselves in circumstances where they are likely to use their weapon—that is, anyone who goes looking for a fight. It should come as no surprise then, that Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted of all charges after shooting three men in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in 2020, killing two of them. Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber were killed; Gaige Grosskreutz was injured but survived to testify against Rittenhouse at his trial.
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The Media Seems to Be Ignoring This Story

Joe Biden Is Succeeding

The Biden $1.9 trillion stimulus package passed and has been tremendously successful. It heated the overall economy. The Conference Board projects that real G.D.P. growth will be about 5 percent this quarter. The unemployment rate is falling. Retail sales are surging. About two-thirds of Americans feel their household’s financial situation is good.

But the best part is that the benefits are flowing to those down the educational and income ladder. In just the first month of payments, the expanded child tax credit piece of the stimulus bill kept three million American children out of poverty. Pay for hourly workers in the leisure and hospitality sector jumped 13 percent in August compared to the previous year. By June, there were more nonfarm job openings than there had been at any other time in American history. Workers have tremendous power these days.

And ...

What Disarray? Democrats Are Getting Stuff Done

House approval of the party’s big climate and spending bill shows that the messy public squabbling over its particulars has actually been constructive negotiation.

The finish line is still weeks away; the Senate is expected to make significant changes, after which the bill will return to the House for what should be final passage. Still, the vote amounted to more vindication of the two-bill strategy the Democrats adopted, which has already produced an infrastructure bill signed into law with bipartisan support. It’s unlikely that either the most liberal or more moderate House Democrats would have voted for the bill on Friday without reasonable confidence that all 50 Democratic senators are willing to go along.

And ...

“What supply chain crisis?” say Target, Walmart and Home Depot

“I wouldn’t expect to see any glaring shortages of product,” said Liz Suzuki, a retail analyst with Bank of America.

She said big-box retailers learned a lesson from Black Friday 2020, when they actually wanted fewer customers in stores and more online.

Or Is It the Best Week?




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It's Deja Vu, All Over Again





Those Who Don't Learn From History (or Science) Are Doomed to Repeat It
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Don't Think Twice.  It's Another Week for You and Me in Paradise




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We're About To Find Out how Good a Con Artist She Is

In a surprise move, Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes took the stand in her own defense on Friday during a fraud trial that has held Silicon Valley in its grip.

The former CEO of the blood-testing company is charged with deceiving investors and customers about a supposedly revolutionary device that could perform hundreds of tests using just a drop of blood. She faces 11 counts of fraud and up to 20 years in prison.

Holmes’s testimony came just hours after prosecutors rested their case, as the trial approached the end of its 11th week. The unexpected decision to have Holmes testify so early in her defense was a bombshell development that carries considerable risk.

If You Have HBO, Check Out The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley, Which Tells the Story
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China Seems Determined to Screw Up Their Economy

Chinese tech giants including Alibaba Group and Tencent Holdings were fined Saturday for failing to report corporate acquisitions, adding to an anti-monopoly crackdown by the ruling Communist Party.

The companies failed to report 43 acquisitions that occurred up to eight years ago under rules on “operating concentration,” according to the State Administration for Market Regulation. Each violation carried a penalty of 500,000 yuan ($80,000), it said.

Beijing has launched anti-monopoly, data security and other crackdowns on tech companies since late 2020. The ruling party worries the companies have too much control over their industries and has warned them not to use their dominance to gouge consumers or block entry to new competitors.
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There Were No Dali Masks or People Singing "Bella Ciao"

Drivers scrambled to grab cash Friday morning after bags of money fell out of an armored truck on a Southern California freeway, authorities said.

The incident occurred shortly before 9:15 a.m. on Interstate 5 in Carlsbad as the truck was heading from San Diego to an office of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., authorities said.

“One of the doors popped open and bags of cash fell out,” California Highway Patrol Sgt. Curtis Martin said.

Several bags broke open, spreading money — mainly $1 and $20 bills — all over the lanes and bringing the freeway to a chaotic halt, Martin said.

Video posted online showed some people laughing and leaping as they held wads of cash.

Two people were arrested at the scene, and Martin warned that any others who are found to have taken the money could face criminal charges. He noted there was plenty of video taken by bystanders at the scene and that the CHP and FBI were investigating.

Anyone who took money was urged to bring it to the CHP office in Vista.  

If You Don't Understand the Headline and You Have Netflix, You Should Watch Money Heist
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