Monday - Embid Hit Hard By That Jawn

US Vaccine Data - We Have Now Administered 459 Million Shots  (Population 333 Million)

CDC doesn't do a good job of reporting around hoidays.




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The Best Headline Yet About Omicron

Waiting is excruciating, but it doesn't help to speculate about Omicron

It will take weeks to understand what these new mutations mean or, more importantly, the combination of so many mutations. Keep in mind that the number of mutations does NOT always equal more severe. While these important lab studies are under way, we can watch carefully what’s happening in the “real world”.

Here's What We Know

"This new variant ... seems to spread very quick!" Tulio de Oliveira, director of South Africa's Center for Epidemic Response & Innovation, and a genetics researcher at Stellenbosch University, said on Twitter.  (He should quickLY learn proper grammar.)

Also, genetic sequencing showed it carried a large number of troubling mutations on the spike protein -- the knoblike structure on the surface of the virus that it uses to grapple onto the cells it infects.

Some of those mutations were already recognized from other variants and were known to make them more dangerous, including one called E484K that can make the virus less recognizable to some antibodies -- immune system proteins that are a frontline defense against infection and that form the basis of monoclonal antibody treatments.

It also carries a mutation called N501Y, which gave both the Alpha and Gamma variants their increased transmissibility. Just last week, Scott Weaver of the University of Texas Medical Branch and colleagues reported in the journal Nature that this particular mutation made the virus better at replicating in the upper airway -- think in the nose and throat -- and likely makes it more likely to spread when people breathe, sneeze and cough.

Like Delta, Omicron also carries a mutation called D614G, which appears to help the virus better attach to the cells it infects.

"The number of mutations per se does not mean that the new variant will cause any problems; although it may make it more likely to look different to the immune system," Dr. Peter English, former chair of the British Medical Association's Public Health Medicine Committee, said in a statement.

What worries scientists is the number of mutations affecting the spike protein. That's because most of the leading vaccines target the spike protein. Vaccines made by Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca and other companies all use just small pieces or genetic sequences of the virus and not whole virus, and all of them use bits of the spike protein to elicit immunity. So a change in the spike protein that made it less recognizable to immune system proteins and cells stimulated by a vaccine would be a problem.

So far, there's no evidence this has happened but there is no way of knowing by looking at the mutations alone. Researchers will have to wait and see if more breakthrough infections are caused by Omicron than by other variants.
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A Spanish Man and a Portuguese Woman Walk On To An Airplane

Dutch police say they have detained a couple who escaped from a Covid-quarantine hotel.

The arrests were made on a plane in Amsterdam's Schiphol airport just before it departed to Spain on Sunday.

The Spanish man and Portuguese woman were later handed over to the country's health service, local media reported

Local media are reporting that they managed to flee a quarantine hotel in the north-western Kennemerland region, where travellers from South Africa are currently in self-isolation.

The escapees could be prosecuted for violating Dutch quarantine rules, De Telegraaf newspaper says.
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He Built a Mausoleum For His Wife To Live In.  Hmm!

A 52-year-old Indian businessman has built a scaled-down replica of the iconic Taj Mahal as a home for his wife of 27 years.

Anand Prakash Chouksey built his "monument of love" in Burhanpur city in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.

"It was a gift for my wife but also for the town and its people," Mr Chouksey told the BBC.

The house cost about 20 million rupees (£199,000; $260,000) to build, he said.



There Goes the Neighborhood
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Bannon Will Be Bannon

Prosecutors have accused former President Donald Trump's ex-adviser Steve Bannon of attempting to try his criminal case through the media instead of in court and have asked a judge to limit what Bannon can release publicly throughout the case, according to a new filing in DC District Court.

Bannon is trying to convince a judge not to bar him and his lawyers from sharing documents he receives from the Justice Department with the public before his trial.

The DOJ prosecutors said in the filing Sunday some of those records must stay private while the case is pending, because they include internal communications between congressional staffers and notes of FBI interviews with witnesses who could testify against Bannon at trial.

Steve Bannon's lawyers signal they want to slow walk the criminal case against him

Steve Bannon's lawyers signal they want to slow walk the criminal case against him

"Allowing the defendant to publicly disseminate reports of witness statements will have the collateral effect of witness tampering because it will expose witnesses to public commentary on their potential testimony before trial and allow a witness to review summaries of other witnesses' statements recounting the same event or events," the prosecutors wrote on Sunday.
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The US Economy in 12 Charts

I Can't Copy Them Here, But They Are Worth a Click

Other Than Inflation, Things Are Looking Really Good
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Embid Hit Hard By That Jawn

Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid returned to the court on Saturday night after being forced to miss nine games due to a positive Covid-19 result.

Embiid told reporters after the game he thought he wasn't going to make it.

"That jawn hit me hard," Embiid said. "I really thought I wasn't going to make it. It was that bad. So, I'm just thankful to be sitting here. I struggled with it, but I'm just glad I got over it and I'm just here."

"Jawn" is Philadelphia slang, which can be used in place of almost any noun.

Embiid said he had trouble breathing and had "headaches worse than migraines."

"The whole body was just done, I guess. It was not a good time," Embiid added.

CNN has reached out to the 76ers to confirm Embiid's vaccination status, but the team wouldn't confirm.
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Tis the Season To Pass Legislation.  Fa La La La La, La La, La La.

Congress will confront a packed agenda when it returns from Thanksgiving recess, from facing hard deadlines to keep the federal government running to passing President Joe Biden's $1.7 trillion safety net and climate legislation.

"When I look at this drama in the next month, I break it down into a miniseries. And the first part is the defense bill and a bridge to the budget. Vast majority of senators support that. We’ll get that done," Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said Sunday on ABC's "This Week."

"Second thing, the debt ceiling. If the Republicans want to scrooge out on us and increase people’s interest rates and make it hard to make car payments — go ahead, make that case. We're going to stop them from doing that," she said before mentioning voting rights and Biden's social spending bill. "And, finally, what we just talked about, the Build Back Better bill. We can get this done."
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Remember, Democrats Were Gleeful About Trump's Nomination in 2016.

A new Marquette Law School poll suggests that even though Donald Trump is likely a shoo-in for the GOP nomination in 2024, he also has a decent likelihood of repelling a lot of voters in the general election.

Among Republicans in the survey, 60% say they want Trump to make a 2024 bid, but fully 40% of Republicans say they don't want him to run.

The numbers for Trump are far worse among independents, with 73% saying they don't want Trump to run again while just 26% indicate they do hope he runs.

Not surprisingly, 94% of Democrats want Trump to take along walk off a short pier. And among all respondents, just 28% wish Trump would run again while 71% hope he doesn't.

A Democrat’s perception of whether those data are good news or bad news comes down to whether one wants to face Trump again in the 2024 general election.

As anti-Trump Republican Sarah Longwell tweeted, "It’s bad news. 60% of Republicans actively want Trump to run in 2024. He wins the nomination in a walk. And what are the chances he doesn’t take that opportunity?"

Zero chances, if he's still alive.

However, if you're a Democrat and like the odds of running against someone who divides Republican voters and alienates nearly three-quarters of independents, then maybe you don't mind the idea of Trump throwing his hat in the ring again.

And That Was Before The QOP Passed All Those New Election Rules.
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Real Conservatives Flock to Flee From Fox




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Have You Heard This on the News?




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The Festival of Lights




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I Wonder If He's Vaccinated

The former White House doctor who raved about Donald Trump’s “excellent” health to a skeptical public is now claiming that the disturbing new COVID-19 variant omicron is nothing but a midterm election ploy by the Democrats.

Dr. Ronny Jackson, now a Republican MAGA congressman from Texas, scoffed at the variant the World Health Organization has deemed “highly transmissible” and “concerning.”

“Here comes the MEV - the Midterm Election Variant!” Jackson quipped in a tweet Saturday, calling it nothing more than a trick to “push unsolicited nationwide mail-in ballots.”
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Of Course It Is

Former FDA commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb said the omicron variant of COVID-19 is "almost definitely here already."

The CDC said Saturday that no cases of the variant have been detected in the United States yet.
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