December 1, 2021

Anti-vax, election conspiracy theory-promoting GOPer joins the "f'ed around and found out" club

(Detroit Free Press) William Hartmann, the Republican member of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers who made national headlines for initially refusing to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election, died Tuesday following a battle with COVID-19.

Douglas Reimel, Hartmann’s friend, shared the news on Facebook, and others who knew Hartmann offered their condolences online. Hartmann was 63.

Hartmann's fight with COVID-19 landed him in the ICU, where he was on a ventilator, according to a Facebook post from Elizabeth Hartmann, his sister. He was hospitalized at Wyandotte Hospital, according to Reimel. A spokesperson for the hospital did not immediately respond to a request for details.

Hartmann's death comes amid the latest surge in COVID-19 in Michigan that has filled hospital beds across the state. Michigan remains the nation's worst COVID-19 hot spot, leading the country in cases in recent weeks, according to the CDC. ..........(more)

https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/wayne/2021/12/01/william-hartmann-obituary-covid-19-wayne-county-gop-canvasser/8814707002/

December 1, 2021

Paul Gosar's death-threat video is no joke -- it's part of the Republican terror strategy

Paul Gosar's death-threat video is no joke — it's part of the Republican terror strategy
When fascists threaten you with deadly violence, they're not kidding. Americans may learn that lesson the hard way

By CHAUNCEY DEVEGA
PUBLISHED DECEMBER 1, 2021 6:30AM


(Salon) When someone threatens to kill you, believe them. It is not a joke or hyperbole or just "heated words." It is not mere partisanship, symbolism or a game.

Earlier this month, Rep. Paul Gosar, a far-right Republican from Arizona, shared a clip from a Japanese anime video on social media that had been edited to show a version of him, first killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and then attacking President Biden. This is part of a larger pattern of violence in which Republican elected officials (and their voters) threaten Democrats with physical harm, or incite others to do so.

On Nov. 17, the House of Representatives voted to censure Gosar and strip him of his committee assignments. All Democrats supported this resolution. Only two House Republicans voted in support of it. Predictably, Republicans are claiming that Gosar's death threats are a matter of "free speech" and therefore should not be "censored."

Republicans also claimed that Ocasio-Cortez and the Democrats in general are too "sensitive" in their response to Gosar's supposed attempt at humor. This is the logic of abusers and terrorizers: The victim is somehow always to blame.

Rep. Ted Lieu, a California Democrat, correctly summarized Gosar's dangerous behavior and the near-unanimous Republican support by saying, "In any workplace in America, if a coworker made an anime video killing another coworker, that person would be fired." ...........(more)

https://www.salon.com/2021/12/01/paul-gosars-video-is-no-joke--its-part-of-the-terror-strategy/

December 1, 2021

Oxford High School shooting leaves 3 dead, multiple injured: Everything we know

(Detroit Free Press) Three people were killed and eight injured in a shooting Tuesday afternoon at Oxford High School in Oakland County, roughly 45 minutes northwest of Detroit.

A suspect was taken into custody at the scene.

Here is what we know so far.

(This breaking news story will be updated as more information becomes available.)

What happened at Oxford High?

At 12:51 p.m., police dispatchers received a 911 call — more than 100 ultimately came in — for an active shooter at Oxford High School in Oakland County.

Within about five minutes of the call, Oakland County sheriff's deputies had taken a suspect into custody, Undersheriff Michael McCabe said during a news conference Tuesday afternoon.

Police believe about 15 to 20 shots were fired in the incident, and in the south end of the school, McCabe said. ...........(more)

https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/oakland/2021/11/30/oxford-high-school-shooting-michigan/8812485002/

November 30, 2021

Omicron may cause milder symptoms. But experts aren't breathing easy yet.

(NBC News) Amid the global concern over a new coronavirus strain has been one piece of hopeful news: Those infected with the omicron variant appear to have “very mild” symptoms, according to the South African doctor who first spotted the variant.

Dr. Angelique Coetzee told the BBC that neither she nor her colleagues had admitted anyone who had the strain to the hospital so far. Her patients had experienced extreme fatigue but no loss of taste or smell, which are often telltale symptoms of Covid-19, she said.

The early reports are encouraging, epidemiologists and other experts said.

But they cautioned that there is too little data to draw any conclusions yet. Their bigger concern, they said, is how quickly the omicron variant, with its high number of mutations, might spread and how it will match up against vaccines.

“I don’t think we know anything about the virulence. What we’re worried more about is the transmissibility and the immune-evasion capabilities,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease doctor who is a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. ...................(more)

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/omicron-may-cause-milder-symptoms-experts-arent-breathing-sigh-relief-rcna6920

November 29, 2021

S.African doctor says patients with Omicron variant have "very mild" symptoms

JOHANNESBURG, Nov 28 (Reuters) - A South African doctor who was one of the first to suspect a different coronavirus strain among patients said on Sunday that symptoms of the Omicron variant were so far mild and could be treated at home.

Dr. Angelique Coetzee, a private practitioner and chair of South African Medical Association, told Reuters that on Nov. 18 she noticed seven patients at her clinic who had symptoms different from the dominant Delta variant, albeit "very mild".

Now designated Omicron by the World Health Organization, the variant was detected and announced by South Africa's National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) on Nov. 25 from samples taken from a laboratory from Nov. 14 to Nov. 16.

Coetzee said a patient on Nov. 18 reported at her clinic being "extremely fatigued" for two days with body aches and headache. .............(more)

https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/safrican-doctor-says-patients-with-omicron-variant-have-very-mild-symptoms-2021-11-28/

November 29, 2021

Snow plough clears escape path for guests trapped at UK's highest pub

(Guardian UK) About a dozen of the 61 people snowed in at Britain’s highest pub have managed to escape a fourth night of being trapped.

The guests had been staying in the 17th-century Tan Hill Inn in the Yorkshire Dales since Friday night as Storm Arwen hit the UK, after travelling to watch an Oasis tribute band.

Alongside others, the members of Noasis managed to dig out their vehicles on Monday morning and follow a path cleared by a snow plough, after three days of pub quizzes, board games and karaoke.

Blizzards causing 9ft-high snow drifts meant a tunnel had to be cut from the front door, but the roads remained impassable over the weekend owing to fallen power cables that had blown over in the high winds. ............(more)

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/nov/29/customers-face-fourth-night-snowed-in-at-britains-highest-pub-storm-arwen

November 28, 2021

US Christian right group wages culture war with books, cartoon and nature doc

(Guardian UK) The son of pastor Douglas Wilson of the controversial Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho, and a close associate have made significant inroads into mainstream culture in America with a successful streaming cartoon based on a book published by the church’s own imprint.

The Guardian has previously reported on how the church, which aims to create a theocracy in the US, has increased its power and influence in its home town, while also campaigning vociferously against efforts to curb the coronavirus pandemic. Those developments come amid a broader rise in the right wing across the US.

At the same time Christ church is seeking to use television and book publishing to enter US popular culture and promote its interests.

Wilson’s son Nathan Wilson and his manager and close associate, Aaron Rench, have simultaneously been attempting to crowdfund a creationist nature documentary starring Douglas Wilson’s brother, Gordon, and have continued to market young adult fiction through a mainstream publisher.

They have also entered into complicated financial arrangements which appear to divert money to a troubled charity associated with Christ Church and silently taken control of a number of Christ Church-associated businesses through LLCs which have limited legal and financial reporting obligations. ................(more)

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/28/christ-church-us-christian-right-group-books-cartoon-nature-doc

November 28, 2021

Florida man arrested after sitting on woman to use gym equipment, deputies say

CLEARWATER, Fla. (WFLA) — A Clearwater man was arrested Thanksgiving morning after getting into an altercation with a pair of sisters over using gym equipment, according to the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office.

An affidavit states that the sisters were using an exercise machine while the man, identified as 78-year-old Robert Edward Dvorak, was waiting for his turn.

Authorities said the man then sat on one of the women to use the machine instead. .......(more)

https://www.wfla.com/news/national/clearwater-man-arrested-after-sitting-on-woman-to-use-gym-equipment-deputies-say/

November 26, 2021

Bolsonaro Launched A Trumpian Anti-Vaccine Campaign. Brazilians Got The Shot Anyway.

(HuffPost) Far-right Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro has warned that COVID-19 vaccines will turn people into crocodiles. He has spread conspiracies that the vaccine could give people AIDS. Bolsonaro has pointedly refused to get vaccinated himself ― at September’s G-20 summit in New York, he was the only world leader present who said he had yet to take the jab.

Bolsonaro has mimicked the worst tendencies of his American idol, former President Donald Trump. But his attempts to foment the sort of skepticism and hesitancy Trump helped generate in millions of Americans have fallen completely flat.

Last week, Brazil reported that 60% of its population is now fully vaccinated, pushing it past the United States, which had a four-month head start. More than 97% of Brazilian adults have received at least one shot, and virtually every adult in São Paulo, the country’s largest city, is inoculated. Polls in July showed that just 5% of Brazilians said they’d never get the vaccine; in the U.S., somewhere between 13% and 19% of Americans still say they won’t.

More than 610,000 Brazilians have died from COVID-19, a death toll that trails only the United States’. But as the U.S. stares down the beginnings of another winter surge, Brazil’s daily case numbers are at their lowest points since this time last year. Daily death tolls in the majority of its states are in the single digits, and special hospital units in former hot spots like Rio de Janeiro are completely empty for the first time since the pandemic began.

That’s a credit to the country’s public health system and cultural faith in vaccines. The question is whether Bolsonaro’s rhetoric will have a corrosive long-term effect. ...........(more)

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/bolsonaro-covid-vaccine-brazil_n_619c3cf9e4b0ae9a42a4fafd?

November 25, 2021

Bald eagle has little respect for Florida Man

In Dunedin, Florida, Chad Rissman and his uncle Darrin Vick spent the day fishing but had no luck. Finally at dusk, a tiny shark took the bait. But just as Vick began to reel in his catch, a beautiful bald eagle swooped down and snatched the shark.

"It's just like brushing the greatness of the country all into one picture and one experience," Vick told local news.

Uh-huh. Anyway, from Fox13:



https://boingboing.net/2021/11/23/watch-florida-man-hooks-a-shark-which-a-bald-eagle-promptly-swipes-from-him.html