Pfizer/BioNTech’s updated COVID shot shows strong response against BQ.1.1 (Reuters)

Pfizer says omicron booster is better against new subvariants like BQ.1.1 than old shots (CNBC)

Flu variant that hits kids and seniors harder than other strains is dominant in U.S. right now (CNBC)

Never Forget! Here’s Some Of The Dumbest COVID Restrictions

Group Calls On Authorities To Investigate CDC Over Misinformation About Child COVID Deaths

Lawsuit Claims Massachusetts Installed COVID-19 ‘Spyware’ On 1 Million Devices

The Maskparade Charade

Jesus Accused Of Being A Christian Nationalist After Saying He’s Going To Establish His Kingdom Over The Whole Earth (Babylon Bee)

Twitter Lifts Bans on The Babylon Bee, Jordan Peterson, and Kathy Griffin

N.Y. Schools Ordered to Change Native American Team Names, Logos

UN Secretary-General Again Calls for Crackdown on ‘Disinformation’

“Election Denial” for Me, But Not for Thee: YouTube Censors TK-Produced Videos, Again, Despite Factual Accuracy

House Republicans announce plans to produce content for Fox News (Washington Post)

Why misinformation didn’t wreck the midterms

Gov. Hochul faces backlash by calling Buffalo ‘thundersnow’ storm a ‘major disaster,’ but shuns migrant crisis (New York Post)

Moms Clean House in SC

Dem Senator and Wife Under Scrutiny in Federal Corruption Investigation  Again.

Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX Cronies Gave $300k to House Committee Members Investigating Him

Workers Bolting Twitter After Musk Takeover

Twitter Reinstates Banned Users Griffin, Peterson; No Decision on Trump Yet

Don Lemon Doubts There’s Any ‘There, There’ In House’s Probe of Hunter Biden

CNNers Annoyed Jeopardy! Contestants Don’t Know Who Justice KBJ Is

Bill Would Block Taxpayer Funding of Teachers Unions

Election denier Hakeem Jeffries could replace Pelosi as House Dem leader

Court awards $6 billion in student loan relief to borrowers (The Hill)

Judge rejects former White House press secretary Jen Psaki’s effort to quash subpoena (CBS)

US farmer worried Biden’s policies put industry in jeopardy (Fox)

House Judiciary Republicans Setting Sights on DHS’ Mayorkas

Wealthier Shoppers Flocking To Walmart As Inflation Bites

Washington Post Publisher Hits Biden Over MBS Immunity

House Republicans Introduce Resolution To Audit Ukraine Aid

Border Crisis Likely to Worsen After Federal Judge Orders End to Title 42 Expulsion of Illegal Aliens

House GOP Will Subpoena Hunter Biden but Not President

FBI Director Wray Defends Using Bureau Jet To Go On Vacation

Lawyer who firebombed NYPD cruiser sentenced to only 15 months after Biden admin intervention

WATCH: Joe Biden’s Senior Moment of the Week Vol. 20

Read it.

A Republican lawmaker on the House Financial Services Committee says the panel will look into a committee Democrat’s hiring three years ago of the brother of Samuel Bankman-Fried, whose cryptocurrency empire collapsed last week.

“While there is still much to be learned and investigated, it appears FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried and his family had no shortage of influence within the Democrat Party,” Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., told The Daily Signal on Thursday evening.

In an email, Loudermilk said that influence “could amount to conflicts of interest, especially if individuals within the Democrat Party accepted money with knowledge of potential criminal activity occurring at FTX.”

Read it.

Naomi Biden, the oldest legitimate daughter of amateur adult film star Hunter Biden, lives at the White House with her fiancé and elderly grandfather, according to the New York Times.

The newsworthy revelation was included as an aside in a fawning piece about Naomi’s plans to marry her fiancé, former Hillary Clinton intern Peter Neal, at a White House ceremony on Saturday, which happens to be President Joe Biden’s last day as a mere septuagenarian. The hard-hitting journalists at CNN report that the wedding will offer a “youthful spin” for the president on his 80th birthday.

The news that one of Hunter’s legitimate daughters is living at the White House comes after House Republicans announced plans to investigate “all avenues” of Hunter’s shady foreign business arrangements, and the extent to which President Biden was aware of and helped facilitate his troubled son’s money-making ventures. It is not entirely clear why Naomi and Peter—both lawyers who could certainly afford their own apartment—are living in a taxpayer-funded mansion, and why it is just now being reported in a mainstream news outlet.

BBC.

Protesters in Iran have set fire to the ancestral home of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Images posted on social media show part of the structure in the city of Khomein being set ablaze.

News agencies have verified the videos’ location, but regional authorities denied there had been an arson attack.

In the global meme wars, it’s time to side with the elves against the trolls (Washington Post)

The Mid-Terms: The Hunger Gaming Of America

January 6 subcommittee to examine criminal referrals it might make to DoJ (The Guardian) Better hurry up.

Attacks on Candace Cameron Bure Expose Ruthlessness of LGBT Activists Against Christians

MSNBC’s Joy Reid & Virginia Dem Lie About Youngkin’s Education Reforms

House Republicans vow to investigate Biden and his family’s business dealings (CNN)

After midterms, the return of the ‘pen and phone’ (The Hill)

Majority of Hispanic Voters Want Government to Do More to Enforce Immigration Laws, Exit Poll Finds

Biden Admin Warns Of Bankruptcy Surge As It Asks Supreme Court To Resume Student Debt Forgiveness Plan

Wray wriggles

Watch: Thermal Drone Footage Shows Army Of Illegals Entering US

The Case for Conservative Faculty (Harvard Crimson)

California county to look at ending zero-tolerance policy for illegal drug activity in taxpayer-funded housing (Fox)

NYC Council to probe Mayor Adams’ handling of migrant crisis, tent city (N.Y. Post)

US Catholic bishops worry about abortion views in the pews (Associated Press)

GOP civil war spreads to Georgia runoff (Politico)

The Democrats Remembered How Politics Works Again (New York Magazine) Yeah, if you want something, steal it.

Fact-Checking 7 Claims by Defenders of Democrats’ Marriage Bill

Using Military Wokeness to Justify Affirmative Action

Probe Opened Into Election Conduct in Harris County, Texas

Man Suspected of Running Down Sheriff’s Recruits Out of Jail California justice.

Man Who Allegedly Drove Over 75 Police Recruits Released, ‘Insufficient Evidence’

Classic Leftism: Ye and Irving Face Annihilation While Worse Antisemite Has MSNBC Job

Washington Boy Sets School Record … On Girls’ Cross-Country Team

‘Who Raised You?’ Mika Demands GOP ‘Make Your Mother Proud’ And Praise Pelosi

Left-Wing Lawyer Who Firebombed Police Car Dodges Five-Year Sentence, Will Spend Just 15 Months in Prison

Red meat is not a health risk. New study slams years of shoddy research

Wikipedia Is a Source of Political Propaganda

Michelle Obama says Americans ‘weren’t ready’ for her natural hair (The Guardian) She’s so oppressed.

Michelle Obama says Americans weren’t ready for her natural Black hair (Washington Post) She’s so oppressed.

Black Alumni Reflect on if Harvard was ‘Worth It’ at Radcliffe Institute Event (Harvard Crimson) They’re so oppressed.

4 largest cities in America will be led by Black mayors (CNN) They’re so oppressed..

Conservative Think Tank Report Urges Congressional Investigation On Black Lives Matter Organizations

How the world turns a blind eye to African slavery

Pelosi’s Replacement Hakeem Jeffries Is Nephew of Black Supremacist HBD Theorist Leonard Jeffries

Amid Financial Chaos, Stacey Abrams’s Nonprofit Flouts Federal Law  She’s so oppressed.

As bivalent booster uptake crawls, Pfizer and BioNTech start early-stage pan-variant trial (Endpoints Newz)

Why Did Flu Season Start So Early This Year? (‘Scientific’ American) What started early was the PANIC!

Big Pharma may have to reveal government deals in WHO’s draft pandemic rules (Reuters)

G20 Pushes Vaccine Passports For All Future International Travel

Association between Vitamin D supplementation and Covid infection and mortality “Among VA patients, vitamin D₃ and vitamin D₂ supplementation reduced the associated risk of COVID-19 infection by 20% and 28%, and COVID-19 infection ending in death within 30-days by 33% and 25%.”

Read it.

A group of researchers may have figured out how. Mice paralyzed by severe SCI regained the ability to walk three weeks after a single injection of their new therapeutic, according to a recent study published in Science.

Steve Sailer is on the case.

Last January, I posted on the endemic burglaries of freight trains in East Los Angeles. A huge fraction of merchandise imported from China comes in through the port of Los Angeles/Long Beach and then is loaded onto trucks or trains. At a slow point in the tracks, the goods get looted in vast numbers.

There was some discussion in the comments of the likely ethnicity of the crooks.

Turns out they’re all ‘Latinx’.

Insider.

I’m afraid we’d get more like Hunter Biden or Chelsea Clinton. But hey–not my circus, not my monkeys.

Read it.

I have my doubts. (It is, after all, NPR.) But the only way to find out is to try it, and if actual companies want to do so, good on them.

Diesel hits record premium over gas, oil (Fox)

How Much Diesel Is Left? Shortage Fears as East Coast Supplies ‘Very Low’ (Newsweek)

U.S. will begin deporting Cubans by plane in ‘coming weeks,’ U.S. officials say (NBC)

Justice Department Announces Director of the Office of Environmental Justice (DOJ)  What’s next? An office of Black Lives Matter?

DHS blocked vital research on domestic threats, say terrorism experts (Washington Post)

Wray Refuses To Say If FBI Had Sources ‘Dressed As Trump Supporters’ On January 6

Congress Eyes Investigation Into Anti-Israel Bias at Biden Justice Department

Inside the White House’s months of prep-work for a GOP investigative onslaught (CNN) Shredders overheating, cellphones being smashed, etc. etc.

High Inflation: The Gift That (Unfortunately) Keeps on Giving This Thanksgiving

Poll: Majority of Hispanic Voters Want Tougher Border Enforcement

San Francisco launches guaranteed income program for transgender people (Fox)

Prominent Democrat voices support for border wall as Philadelphia rages at Abbott over migrant bus

Chuck Schumer Calls For Amnesty For Illegals Because Americans Are ‘Not Reproducing’

Sheriffs Refuse To Enforce Democrat-Controlled State’s New Gun Law

STUDY: Broadcast Networks Bury FTX CEO’s Massive Donations to Dems  Gee, I wonder why?

Leftists Blame Everything on So-Called ‘Misinformation’: Midterm Election Edition!

WSJ: Meta Insiders Caught Selling Account Access to Hackers

Crypto Fraud Exposes Woke Capitalism As A Scam

This Is What’s Going to Happen If Candidate Trump Gets Indicted (Politico)

Trump criminal probes will proceed — even as he’s candidate (Associated Press)

The New York Post just brutally trolled Donald Trump (CNN)

Trump’s 2024 Announcement Was So ‘Low Energy’ Even Fox News Cut Away (MSNBC)

Mr. Attorney General, the time to indict Trump is now (N.Y. Daily News)

Has Donald Trump finally in fact become boring? (N.Y. Daily News)

Democrats Fundraise on Trump’s 2024 Announcement

Facebook Will Stop Fact-Checking Presidential Candidate Trump  Apparently they don’t want a Musk in their future.

Why DeSantis Is A Major Threat To Trump’s Reelection (FiveThirtyEight)

Key Allies Are Inching Away From Trump (N.Y. Times)

Second GOP Mega-Donor Talks Greasy About Trump

At long last, Trump gives his concession speech (Washington Post)

Covid Lockdowns Disqualify Trump in 2024 (Wall Street Journal)

The Leech Dismount  Ann Coulter really doesn’t like Donald Trump.

Trump Faces Five Major Investigations. He Has Dozens of Ways Out. (N.Y. Times)

Trump’s running for president again. Does that get him off the legal hook? (CNN) What ‘legal hook’? You mean the witch-hunt?

Trump Candidacy Will Complicate, But Not End, DOJ Investigations of Him (Bloomberg)

Murdoch, Fox Ramp Up Attacks on Trump

Trump sets off GOP identity crisis heading into 2024 (CNN)

SHOCKER! WaPo Update About Mar-A-Lago Raid Doesn’t Fit the Narrative  Never mind!

Dough! Lightfoot lambasted after guards park in bike lane while she buys doughnuts (Chicago Sun-Times) BRAAAAAAAINS! Or not.

Darrell Brooks Jr., Wisconsin Christmas parade killer, sentenced to six consecutive life sentences

Mayor Lori Lightfoot Accuses 75% of Chicago of Being Sexist Racists  I guess that’s how she got elected. BRAAAAAAAINS!

Covid-19 rebound may be more common in people who take Paxlovid, early study suggests (CNN)

Support for Paxlovid Treatment in Older Patients; the Silver Lining to Amoxicillin Shortage; and an App Eases Cancer Fear (Medscape)

Tyson Foods ends COVID-19 vaccine mandate for all employees (Fox)

Fauci’s Pandemic Leadership Needs To Be Investigated: Dr. Scott Atlas

Before FTX collapse, founder poured millions into pandemic prevention (Washington Post) Nothing is easier than spending other people’s money.

The Road To Totalitarianism (Revisited)

Fired For Declining Vaccination, Ex-Washington State Coach Files Suit

NYC Halts Monkeypox Vaccine Van Program

U.N. publishes draft COP27 climate deal (Reuters)

Fight over aid for climate losses divides UN talks (Associated Press) GIVE US MONEY!

Can the world feed 8bn people sustainably? (The Guardian)

The world’s population has reached 8bn. Don’t panic (The Economist) Don’t take off your shoes!

Overhyping hydrogen as a fuel risks endangering net-zero goals (Nature)

What happened at Cop27 on day nine? (The Guardian) GIVE US MONEY!

Earth can regulate its own temperature over millennia, new study finds

Pols who push electric cars ignore basic math and physics (N.Y. Post)

Climate Change Conference Walks Back 1.5-Degree Limit Goal

COP27 — Colombia Claims an Absurd $800 Billion a Year “Loss and Damage”  GIVE US MONEY!

“Green” Energy Circles the Drain

Extinction Rebellion Activists Have Worn Out Their Welcome And The Public Is Angry

Bureaucracy Is Blocking the Green Energy Revolution  (Wired ‘Science’) All in on ‘climate change’.

COP27 Climate Virtue-Signaling Boondoggle Ends In Failure, Leaves Out Fossil Fuel Pledge

UN Climate Summit Wants Climate Green Indoctrination in Schools

FLASHBACK: Founder of Climate Group Vandalizing Famous Paintings Said Holocaust was ‘Normal Event’

Investigating the investigators: Dem strategists to launch counterpunch to House GOP (Politico)

Pence Says He Will Not Testify Before House Jan. 6 Panel

GOP Authoritarianism Isn’t Going Anywhere After the Midterms (Daily Beast)

‘Defund NPR’ Tweets Break Out After NPR Spins Trump’s 2024 Announcement Speech

Meyers Wonders Which ‘A******’ Will Win 2024 GOP Primary

House of Horrors: The Marjorie Taylor Greene Congress Is Upon Us (Vanity Fair) No, we entered the House of Horrors when Biden became President. MTG is the response to the House of Horrors. And you’ve nobody but yourselves to blame.

CBS Sneers at Pence for Not Sharing Their Virulent Hatred of the GOP, Trump

Read it.

Patients at North Carolina-based Atrium Health get what looks like an enticing pitch when they go to the nonprofit hospital system’s website: a payment plan from lender AccessOne. The plans offer “easy ways to make monthly payments” on medical bills, the website says. You don’t need good credit to get a loan. Everyone is approved. Nothing is reported to credit agencies.

In Minnesota, Allina Health encourages its patients to sign up for an account with MedCredit Financial Services to “consolidate your health expenses.” In Southern California, Chino Valley Medical Center, part of the Prime Healthcare chain, touts “promotional financing options with the CareCredit credit card to help you get the care you need, when you need it.”

As Americans are overwhelmed with medical bills, patient financing is now a multibillion-dollar business, with private equity and big banks lined up to cash in when patients and their families can’t pay for care. By one estimate from research firm IBISWorld, profit margins top 29% in the patient financing industry, seven times what is considered a solid hospital margin.

Funny thing how people who work at NPR seem to think that certain class of people ought to work for free. In the old days that was called ‘slavery’; I suppose it’s no surprise that Democrats are in favor of it.

ZMan turns over a rock.

The thing that has been lost in all of the censorship and cancellation campaigns is the panic that motivates these things. The people trying to purge the public square of normal debate are doing so out of fear. That fear comes from a lack of confidence and that is driven by a sharp decline in intellect. The Great Fear we are experiencing is mostly due to a growing intellectual darkness that is consuming the liberal class that controls the institutions of cultural production.

You can get a sense of it from the Twitter drama. Musk bought a company that had 7,500 fulltime employees and 5,500 contractors. He summarily fired half of the staff and ninety percent of the contractors. Twitter has not gone dark or failed to work properly since the mass layoffs. It appears there were sabotage efforts, but those have either failed or were found out before they could be executed. In other words, half of the people working at the firm contributed nothing.

Slowly we are getting some insider accounts of what life was like for the people inside this company and it offers an insight into the rest of the hive. Most of the “workers” did no actual work, even people employed as programmers. Instead, they spent their days playing make believe, creating things like workers co-ops and support groups for increasingly exotic identities. Twitter had become an adult daycare center that catered to the needs of the increasingly unfit.

I really don’t give a @*#@. Ask anybody.

Joel Kotkin.

In earlier times, even with a soaring population, Americans knew how to accommodate housing demand. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries we built cities from scratch along the frontier. The existing major urban centers—Boston, New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia—all expanded rapidly, both by density and expansion into land on the periphery.

After the Second World War, mass suburbia and its expansion in homeownership ushered in a period of sustained prosperity that lasted until the 1970s. After 1940, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. homeownership rates grew rapidly, from 44 percent to 63 percent over the next three decades.

But now, in many places, it is exceedingly difficult, even impossible, to build the kind of family-friendly housing long sought by most Americans. Instead we are being left with two negative trends: increasingly low housing affordability for many, and the forced march of a whole new generation into the kind of small, crowded spaces they generally eschew, particularly after they enter their thirties.

Read it.

Because he is the sole political figure in living memory who kept each and every campaign promise made previously, and moreso, it may be wise to list the specific campaign promises made in his stump speech, and, if he wins, note if and when and how they are kept. Some are vague and aspirational, others specific.

This also will serve to silence those who mock him for having no plans or no vision, or for dwelling on past deeds and misdeeds.

Read it.

Organized retail crime is when dozens of criminals descend on a store and loot it. Store employees are almost always told not to interfere, and police rarely do anything. In California, theft has been more or less legalized up to $950. It is a misdemeanor, which means it is rarely prosecuted. Major retail chains have closed their operations in San Francisco, among other cities, because they were helpless against teams of organized looters.

Looters don’t consume the stolen property themselves, they sell it on Amazon or other services. This is why it is “organized retail crime.”

UPDATE: Shoplifting Costs Target $600 Million More This Year

Read it.

The balance of power in Washington is still up for grabs after a contentious midterm election, but one group can celebrate regardless of which party comes out on top: the anti-Trump political action committees whose leaders pocketed the money they ostensibly raised to attack the former president.

These groups raised millions from progressive donors, pledging that their funds would help elect Democrats across the country. The Democratic Coalition, which senator-elect John Fetterman’s (D., Pa.) campaign slammed as a “scam PAC,” spent just $2,840 of the $375,000 it’s raised on campaign advertisements, but doled out $65,000 to executive director Scott Dworkin’s consulting firm. Dworkin was one of several Democratic grifters who came together at an Oct. 21 White House social media summit.

This was the latest election cycle where anti-Trump PACs profited without making a real impact. The Lincoln Project, whose cofounder once touted the organization as a vehicle for its leaders to attain “generational wealth,” raked in $90 million during the 2020 election cycle, over half of which went to its founders’ consulting firms, according to Fox Business. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) in 2020 dismissed the group as a “scam.” Wary of its reputation, Ohio Democratic Senate candidate Tim Ryan’s campaign begged the Lincoln Project to stay away from the race in May.

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine: Yeah, Sure, BLM Has Meant Black Lives Murdered, But We Should Double Down Not Reassess

“A New Racial Disparity in Traffic Fatalities”

U.S. World Cup Soccer Team Is 46% Black and 0% Mexican  I guess diversity means nothing these days.

UVa knew of gun conviction against student before triple murder but never started discipline process (NBC)

Prosecutor: One U.Va. Shooting Victim Killed While Sleeping

Reid Spreads Fake News About Georgia Limiting Voting To Honor Robert E. Lee

New York Disbars Left-Wing Lawyers Who Firebombed Police Cruiser  Neither of whom was a white male, oddly enough.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott invokes constitutional ‘invasion clause’ amid immigration crisis (Fox)

Special protections for about 300,000 immigrants are extended amid federal lawsuit (NPR)

Biden administration approves $250M for energy efficiency upgrades in homes, businesses (The Hill) SPEND! SPEND! SPEND! FREE GOVERNMENT MONEY!

Judge strikes down Title 42 policy blocking asylum-seekers (The Hill)

DHS blocked vital research on domestic threats, say terrorism experts (Washington Post)

Inflation risks remain as Congress eyes billions in year-end spending spree: budget hawk (Fox)

Top Biden DOJ Official Working for Law Firm Defending Hunter Biden

Governor Abbott Announces First Bus Of Migrants Departs For Philadelphia

Oregon voters approve permit-to-purchase for guns and ban high-capacity magazines (NPR)

Oregon sheriffs won’t enforce new gun law: ‘Infringes on Second Amendment’ (Fox)

Gunderson to stop making railcars in Portland; future of barge operation uncertain (OregonLive) Time to leave.

Illinois’ hospital safety ranking drops again, with one Chicago hospital earning an ‘F’ (Chicago Tribune)

Twitter fact-checks Sen. Warren’s student debt claims (Fox)

Kevin Costner says it’s ‘OK’ if he loses fans over political views (The Hill) Just so long as the Cool Kids like me.

Austrian mayor defies Vienna and orders migrant tents to be dismantled (EuroNews)

Texas governor calls for investigation into Houston-area elections (The Hill)

Teachers union infuriates parents with ‘astonishing’ tweet: ‘Trying to gaslight Americans’

How Brexit Britain went awol in the struggle to defend liberal democracy (The Guardian)

NYPD Arrests Cyclist for Uncovering Obscured License Plate, Lets Driver Go

Top Biden DOJ Official Working for Law Firm Defending Hunter Biden  One hand washes the other.

UC Berkeley Calls Cops on Protest Against “Jewish Free Zones”

WEF’s Klaus Schwab Gives Speech To G20 On The “Need To Restructure The World”

Arkansas AG: New Law Banning Gender Transitions for Minors Will Protect Kids  Electing Republicans has consequences.

“Organized Crime” Looters Steal Astounding $400 Million In Goods From Target Stores  Get Woke, go broke.

DC Council Lowers Sentences for Gun Crimes as Homicides Surge

Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner Faces Impeachment Vote

Pennsylvania AG Josh Shapiro Charges His Own Former Campaign Consultant with ‘Wide Scale’ Voter Fraud

Pennsylvania Lawmakers Vote To Impeach Philly’s Soros Prosecutor

Impose climate tax on fossil fuel giants, media groups urge (The Guardian)

Rich countries are trying to hit pause on climate summit’s key issue (CNN) GIVE US MONEY!

Cop27: Paris agreement architects demand deal for nature – live (The Guiardian) Climate panic theater.

NASA Study: Rising Sea Level Could Exceed Estimates for U.S. Coasts (NASA) Call me when real estate prices in Malibu and Martha’s Vinyard start going down.

Rich nations stick to coal phase-out as China builds new plants (Reuters)

COP27: Talks on carbon market rules off to slow start (Reuters)

Decarbonization of US aviation sector ‘within reach’: study (The Hill) Just stop flying Easy peasy.

COP27: Oil pollution in Egypt threatens one of world’s few thriving coral reefs (BBC)

Biggest rainforest nations form triple alliance to save jungle (CNN)

Africa: The Place where Claims Renewables are Cheaper Go to Die

Welcome to COP27. Thank You for Not Protesting  (Wired ‘Science’) A reminder that protesters would get nowhere without the complicity of ‘authorities’.

Overhyping hydrogen as a fuel

Wrong Again: Al Gore Nobel Lecture Edition

CNN Hypes Dopey Global Warming ‘Name Change’ of ‘The Office’ Actor

Electric Cars: Inconvenient Facts, Part 2

COVID in California: Newer variants cause more symptoms, study says (S.F. Chronicle)

BA.5 May Not Be the Dominant Variant Much Longer. Here’s Why and What That Means (NBC)

New round of free COVID tests available ahead of the holidays (CBS) Free to the user, that is, not free to the taxpayer.

U.S. FDA authorizes Roche’s monkeypox test (Reuters)

Australia recommends against fifth vaccine dose as fresh COVID wave builds (Reuters)

Europe faces ‘cancer epidemic’ after estimated 1m cases missed during Covid (The Guardian)

Sick with a new Omicron variant? Be prepared for this symptom, new study says (Fortune)

Moderna’s Spikevax carries higher risk of myocarditis than Pfizer’s Comirnaty, study says

NBC Pushes ‘Tripledemic’ Fear Mongering – Claims Children At Risk During The Holidays

Watch: NBC News Advises Parents To Keep Kids Away From “Unvaccinated Individuals” Apparently being unvaccinated is a communicable disease.

Read it.

A team led by King Abdullah University of Science & Technology (KAUST) has shown how ultrathin polymer-based ordered membranes can efficiently remove salt from brine and seawater, offering a potential alternative for current desalination systems.

“Water desalination membranes should simultaneously exhibit high water flux and high salt rejection,” says Yu Han, who led the study. Carbon nanomaterials, such as carbon nanotubes and graphene, are projected to match these requirements because of their unique surface chemistry and tendency to stack into channels with diameters less than one nanometer. However, the challenges of channel alignment and stacking prevent their large-scale use in membranes.

Read it.

Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) scientists have invented a new type of insect-repellent delivery device. The active ingredient is first “encapsulated” and shaped into the appropriate shape, such as a ring, which may then be worn and releases an agent meant to repel mosquitoes for an extended period of time. The team published their findings in the International Journal of Pharmaceutics.

ZMan.

In the before times, Bill Buckley would claim that he could know everything about a man’s politics based on his opinion of Israel and abortion. These were clarifying issues that did not easily allow for nuance or ambivalence. If you had any politics at all, you had an opinion on these issues. To some degree it is still true, but the clarifying issue of this age is Donald Trump. You cannot engage in politics at any level without having a position on the most famous pitch man in history.

Whenever somebody asks me ‘What do you think of so-and-so?’ I always say ‘He’ll never be the quarterback that Unitas was.’ That usually ends the conversation.

There is nothing new under the sun.

John Hinderaker at Power Line.

When I was a kid growing up in Watertown, South Dakota, we had a Carnegie Library. It was an imposing stone building, and I spent many happy hours there. The library was a haven of peace and quiet, as it was manned by middle-aged librarians who would shush anyone who started to talk.

One thing we did not have was drag queens. I don’t know what would have happened if a drag queen had shown up and started hanging out with the kids, but it would not have ended well.

Weirdly, for reasons I cannot fathom, the concept of a “drag queen story hour” has gained currency. Someone apparently thinks it is a great idea for drag queens to be stationed in libraries, reading to children. To me, it seems like the product of a random bad idea generator. Happily, that appears to be the majority view.

Appeals court blocks Biden student debt cancellation plan (The Hill)

Federal appeals court blocks Biden student debt relief program nationwide (CNBC)

Biden quickly regrets making news on abortion at press conference: ‘I shouldn’t have answered your question’ (Fox)

White House response to University of Virginia shooting invokes ‘assault weapons’ ban (Fox)

White House Presses for ‘Assault Weapons Ban’ After UVA Shooting  How about a ban on black people carrying guns?

Chinese Fentanyl Not Discussed in Biden, Xi Meeting

Biden Hands China’s Xi Propaganda Victory at G-20

Biden’s Climate Change Policies Work More In China’s Interest: Ex-NSA Officer

Cubans, Nicaraguans Drive Illegal Border Crossings Higher  C’mon in! Have some U.S. taxpayer money! Make yourselves at home! Be sure to vote Democrat, the Free Stuff party!

NYC Mayor: Waiting on Reimbursement for Housing Migrants  GIVE US MONEY!

Sen. Rick Scott: Biden Inflation Destroying American Dream

Yellen Contradicts Biden: ‘No Basis’ to Probe Elon Musk’s Purchase of Twitter

Texas Gov. Abbott Invokes Invasion Clause to Deal With Border Crisis

Philly Mayor Says Migrant Buses Coming From Texas; Abbott Disputes Claim

Biden Requests $9.25B for COVID, $37.7B for Ukraine From Congress

Moderna says new Covid booster better against omicron BA.5, triggers immune response against BQ.1.1 (CNBC)

CDC map puts 7 states in worst category for flu activity (The Hill)

As flu hospitalizations surge in the U.S., the Southeast is the hardest hit (CNBC)

CDC now tracking BN.1, the latest new COVID variant on the rise (CBC) Time to PANIC!

Team Biden’s extending the COVID emergency again — to expand the welfare state (N.Y. Post)

NBC Suggests Parents Stay Away From ‘Unvaccinated Individuals’ To Protect Children From Illness That Doesn’t Have Vaccine  I guess being unvaccinated counts as a disease in itself.

Pfizer And Moderna To Investigate Their Own Vaccines For Myocarditis Risks

‘It’s Coming Back!’ The View Panics Over COVID, Whoopi Got It AGAIN

Boebert Colorado Race Rests With ‘Cured’ Ballots  I predict that this will wind up another Democrat-stolen election.

Katie Hobbs Projected To Win Arizona Governor’s Race With 108% Of Precincts Reporting  (Babylon Bee)

Goat yoga to homeopathy: is alternative medicine just pseudoscience? (The Guardian)

Why White Christian Nationalism Isn’t Going Away (TIME) For one thing, the Narrative Media are obsessed with it.

‘Campaign season’ kept Kathy Hochul from getting NY aid for $600M migrant tab: Eric Adams (N.Y. Post) Of course, politicians can’t do their jobs while running for re-election.

Canada’s expansion of immigration sets a model the U.S. should follow (Washington Post)

The Secret Injustice: Circumcising Infants is Wrong (Harvard Crimson)

Doctors Finally Join the Labor Movement (The Nation)

Joe Manchin Projected To Retain Control Of The Senate (Babylon Bee)

New Solution To Holiday Singleness: Marry Yourself

10 Exciting New Pronouns To Try Out Today (Babylon Bee)

Senators reach deal on changes to marriage equality bill, teeing up first vote this week (CBS)

Infant Baby Burned To Death In Phoenix Homeless Camp  As opposed to a non-infant baby, I guess.

Parental Rebellion Pays Off: Conservatives Win School Board Seats

How Democrats Quietly Meddled in G.O.P. Senate Recruitment (N.Y. Times)

Iran protests: Tehran court sentences first person to death over unrest (BBC)

When Protecting Criminals’ Rights Comes At The Expense Of Victims

Voters Worry About Election Cheating, Don’t Trust Mail-In Voting

RNC Member: GOP Must ‘Adapt or Die’ to Ballot Harvesting

Sam Bankman-Fried Is Not Alone: Some of History’s Greatest Monsters Were Democratic Megadonors

Co-Opting Toronto’s Public Education System in the Name of Social Justice Activism

Meet the New AOC: NPR, PBS, MSNBC, CNN Gush Over 25-Year-Old Socialist Maxwell Frost

FTX Was Registered with and Licensed by the CFTC, Which Failed to Regulate FTX  Elizabeth Warren’s totalitarian brain-child and its massive failure.

Europe’s Cities Are Getting More Crowded—That’s a Good Thing  (Wired ‘Science’) From the Narrative point of view, at least.

‘The weirdest election I’ve ever been a part of’: How the GOP almost blew the House (Politico) Pushing the Narrative that the election wasn’t stolen, perish the thought.

Democrats Meddled in Republican Primaries. Good. (Washington Monthly) The mask comes off.

Meyers, Handler Express Thanks For Their ‘Platform’ To Push Abortion

Dems Meddled in GOP Senate Recruitment to Create Election Chaos  My, what a surprise.

Hiring Police Officer Problems in Portland  Gee, I wonder why?

eRaced: Guy Wins Prestigious Women’s Cycling Event

Lady Bits AND Man Bits? No Bits? When Typical Trans Surgery Is No Longer Enough

Judge Overturns Georgia’s Ban on Abortion After 6 Weeks

Canada set to put into effect medically assisted suicide for the mentally ill I don’t think Josef Mengele has much attention to spare where he’s at, but if he does, he’s probably smiling.

Nevada’s Vote-by-Mail System Is a Total Disaster

UPDATE: Uncle Fester John Fetterman Wears Suit to Capitol, Looks Terrible

Ariz. Votes to Offer Migrant HS Graduates In-State College Tuition Rates

Relationship Among FTX, Ukraine, And Democrats Sparks Speculation

House passes bill to solve Civil Rights Cold Cases (CNBC) Why didn’t we think of this before? Just pass a bill to solve cold cases!

Ex-Wife Asks Court To Bring Warnock in for Questioning in Child Custody Battle

Fake Noose: Hate Hoax or Hate Hypochondria?

The Growing Threat Of Christian Nationalism In American Politics (MSNBC)

Dave Chappelle’s ‘SNL’ monologue sparks backlash as being antisemitic (CNNO Which it wasn’t.

Prosecutors: No Criminal Charges Expected From Giuliani Raid

F.B.I. Had Informants in Proud Boys, Court Papers Suggest  (N.Y. Times) Of course they did.

MSNBC ‘Republicans’ Who Want to Burn Down the GOP

ADL’s Greenblatt Slams Chappelle for ‘Popularizing Antisemitism’ in SNL Monologue

Far-Right Statehouse Candidates Won Big—Unopposed (Daily Beast) For the Narrative Media, there is no right but the far-right.

The View: DeSantis ‘Looked Like the Devil,’ Kari Lake Has Ugly Face  You want to see an ugly face? Try Whoopi Goldberg. Try Joh Behar.

Read it.

A growing list of Illinois counties disenfranchised with the goings-on in Cook County have voted in nonbinding resolutions to leave Illinois and form a new state.

Residents in three more counties—Brown, Hardin, and a portion of Madison County—voted in favor of a nonbinding resolution allowing their county board to explore the possibility of leaving the state, bringing the total to 27. In all, three counties—close to 75% of residents—were in favor of the idea. Illinois has 102 counties, with Cook the most populous.

The driving force behind the referendums was to allow the county board of each area to coordinate with other county boards to explore the possibility of leaving Illinois because of the influence that Chicago and Cook County have on the state’s political decisions.

The Great Realignment?

Read it.

A writer for the proglodyte Brit tech site The Register actually drinks the Kool-Aid while we watch.

Climate change goals? Tick. Upping wages and improving working conditions for warehouse staff? Come on Jeff, charity begins at home.

Except that you don’t get to sit at the Cool Kids table by treating your employees well, but by pledging allegiance to the Narrative. You don’t actually have to do anything, just say you will.

I’ll believe it when I see him pass out the checks. And I want to see how much the hottie for whom he dumped his (lovely and talented) wife will wind up with.

Read it.

Remember orphanages? Orphanages used to be good places. Places that created a home for the homeless, structure for the parentless, love for the abandoned and lost. Alexander Hamilton was an orphan. His widow, Eliza, was rightly praised for founding the Orphan Asylum Society, the city’s first private orphanage, a home for hundreds of children.

And then, along the way, the orphanage, like so many institutions that are born with the best of intentions, became corrupted. It turned, over time, from its primary mission, and, slowly became a place for the administration and staff to assure their own futures. When the full weight of the inhumanity of orphanages became clear to all, they were phased out in favor of foster care and other approaches. (Note that Hamilton’s orphanage continues, in a different form, today).

And, of course, everyone who was forced to read Dickens in school (and, like Hillary Clinton, has never had an original idea or ounce of curiosity) thinks that it’s still 1840 England and orphanages are still the hellholes he described … much like the people who think this is still 1858 and blacks are still slaves.

We have seen this trend across virtually every institution that was designed to care for others. Public schools were once truly excellent. Then, as the institutions aged, they sought to do what all bureaucracies do over time: perpetuate themselves and maximize power. Teachers’ Unions are now about the teachers, not the students. And in recent years, we have seen the corruption of the once great institution of public schools extend to include the promotion of transgenderism and grooming. The question of whether students are being treated kindly is laughably distant from reality: today’s children are being brutally used and manipulated to promote and expand specific ideologies.

Much like schools in totalitarian states like Soviet Russia and Communist China. Or any Muslim-majority state anywhere.