Conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch is publicly rebuking former president Donald Trump — telling him to get over the past and to focus on the future.

Trump — who continues to allege that the 2020 election was “rigged” against him, including recently in News Corp’s Wall Street Journal — should move on, billionaire Murdoch, 90, said Wednesday during News Corp’s annual shareholder meeting.

“The current American political debate is profound, whether about education or welfare or economic opportunity,” said Murdoch, whose family controls Fox News’s parent company, Fox Corp. “It is crucial that conservatives play an active, forceful role in that debate, but that will not happen if President Trump stays focused on the past.”

“The past is the past, and the country is now in a contest to define the future,” Murdoch continued.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/11/18/rupert-murdoch-trump-news-corp-move-on/
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Maybe he should take his own advice and GTFO?

Nikki Wombwell dreamed of getting into a good college. She recalled getting straight A’s. And she was terrified of having a suspension on her record.

Then, in 2014, when she was 15 years old, Wombwell tried to report that she had been raped in the woods near her school, Myers Park School in Charlotte, North Carolina, by a classmate. And, in response, the school principal suggested that Wombwell could be suspended for having sex on campus if her account turned out to be untrue, according to interviews with Wombwell and a lawsuit she filed in 2019.

Wombwell didn’t pursue an investigation. “Nothing happened,” recalled Wombwell, now 22.

Wombwell is one of multiple women to say that they tried to report sexual assault to officials at Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, only to meet with indifference or even aggression. One woman, Serena Evans, said that after she was raped in a Myers Park bathroom in 2016, she, too, was threatened with suspension. Another former student told VICE News that she reported being raped to Myers Park officials in late 2014 and they seemed to believe her—but said that, essentially, there was next to nothing she or they could do about it. And yet another woman has anonymously filed a still-pending lawsuit against Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, in a case that sounds deeply similar to Wombwell’s.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/88gn8z/north-carolina-schools-allegedly-silences-rape-survivors

Rep. Lauren Boebert used the censure of her fellow right-wing colleague to throw a best-of list of unproven Republican personal attacks at prominent House Democrats—including one of the most prominent progressives in Congress, Rep. Ilhan Omar.

Boebert spoke on the House floor Wednesday as the House deliberated a motion to censure Rep. Paul Gosar, a fellow far-right Republican who posted a staff-edited anime video showing characters with Gosar, Boebert, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s faces fighting Omar ally Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and President Joe Biden, and Gosar killing Ocasio-Cortez’s character with a sword.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/jgm8dx/lauren-boebert-racist-conspiracy-theory-against-ilhan-omar
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Boobert is the next one begging to be censured

As world leaders met at the COP26 summit to debate how to tackle climate change, misleading claims and falsehoods about the climate spiralled on social media.

Scientists say climate change denial is now more likely to focus on the causes and effects of warming, or how to tackle it, than to outright deny it exists.

The 'd-words' v the planet

We've looked at some of the most viral claims of the past year, and what the evidence really says.

The claim: A 'Grand Solar Minimum' will halt global warming
People have long claimed, incorrectly, that the past century's temperature changes are just part of the Earth's natural cycle, rather than the result of human behaviour.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-59251912
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Lots of good stuff here to help you rebut your denialist friends and family!

The head of the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) has cast doubt on an email released by Chinese state media attributed to tennis player Peng Shuai.

The tennis star has not been heard from since she made sexual assault allegations against a top Chinese government official two weeks ago.

In the email, Ms Peng purportedly says the allegations are "not true".

Steve Simon, chairman of the WTA, said the message "only raises" his concerns about Ms Peng's safety.

"I have a hard time believing that Peng Shuai actually wrote the email we received or believes what is being attributed to her," he said in a statement.

Rights group Amnesty also said the words "should not be taken at face value" but the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said it favoured "quiet diplomacy" and would not comment.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-59325399

A Pennsylvania grand jury must decide whether police were justified in their use of force during an August shooting that left an eight-year-old girl dead.

Two teenagers face murder charges for the incident, which prosecutors say began when they exchanged gunfire outside a stadium.

Responding police officers fired the gunshots that killed Fanta Bility and wounded three others.

A lawyer representing the family says they feel police are responsible.

Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer said the two teenagers, aged 16 and 18, "exchanged multiple gun shots" in the 27 August incident outside a high school football game in the Philadelphia suburb of Sharon Hill.

"This gunfight wounded one person caught in the crossfire and precipitated the responsive discharge of weapons by police officers stationed near the entrance to the football stadium," Mr Stollsteimer said in a statement.

The district attorney's office acknowledged that it was police gunfire that struck Fanta and three bystanders. They determined, however, that the teens be held responsible because they "initiated the deadly events".

On Thursday, a grand jury will review the case and determine whether the police's use of force in the incident was justified.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-59337964

In a video shared on Wednesday afternoon, Governor Bill Lee made a pitch to law enforcement officers from the west and east coast to apply with the Tennessee Highway Patrol. The call is made specifically toward qualified law enforcement who are leaving states with restrictive mandates, according to a news release.

He calls out to officers in New York and deputies in Los Angeles to apply at THP in order to live in a state with a low cost of living and no income tax. But that wasn’t all, he said, “There are many highly skilled law enforcement personnel who want to work in a state that doesn’t get in the middle of personal health decisions yet also provides for a wonderful quality of life.”

Lee added, “In Tennessee, you’ll be given our full support and respect, and I’ll work to make sure your freedoms are protected.” To accompany the efforts that have been upped to get more troopers on the road, and he says assistance with relocation expenses will also be offered.

To go along with relocation expenses, THP is also offering other things like a full benefits package, self-issued vehicles, complimentary uniforms and equipment and all training academy fees will be paid for by the department.

https://www.wate.com/news/tennessee/dislike-mandates-come-work-in-tennessee-governor-says/
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Gov. Billy Bob continues to compete with Gov. DeathSentence in the race to the bottom

Complaining about jail conditions, a top leader of the Proud Boys far-right extremist group asked a judge on Monday to free him before he finishes serving a five-month sentence for burning a Black Lives Matter banner taken from a historic Black church in Washington, D.C.

D.C. Superior Court Judge Jonathan Pittman said Monday he would rule by the end of the week on whether to reduce Proud Boys chairman Henry “Enrique” Tarrio’s sentence to 90 days. But the judge struck a consistently skeptical tone that left Tarrio, testifying by video from jail, visibly slumped in frustration.

Tarrio asked that his sentence be reduced or that he be allowed to finish it under house arrest because he claims he has been harassed by correctional officers and exposed to inhumane jail conditions. He said his cell has regularly flooded with dirty toilet water from a neighboring cell.

“I’ve been to jail before and what I’ve seen here, I’ve never seen anywhere else,” Tarrio said, wearing an orange jumpsuit and a mask over his face. “This place needs to be shut down immediately.”

He detailed abusive guards, constantly flooded cells, smoke-filled hallways and medical neglect, saying he witnessed a prisoner have a seizure who lay there for a half hour before any help arrived.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/proud-boys-leader-complains-jail-conditions-wants-early-release-rcna5683
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Suffer, baby! (He only wants it for himself, he doesn't care about the guy having the seizure)

Early in the pandemic, Covid outbreaks were rampant in America’s meatpacking plants – the factories that kill, cut and package animals.

But the chairman of one of biggest meat companies in the US, Tyson, argued that these factories should stay open to feed Americans.

“It is as essential as healthcare,” John Tyson wrote in several newspaper ads. Days later President Donald Trump issued an executive order to keep meat plants running.

The following month, 49 meatpacking workers died of Covid.

The message was clear: Americans needed meat, and workers needed to risk their lives to provide it. And Osha – the labor department agency that is supposed to protect workers – could seemingly do little to protect them.

In a factory in Greeley, Colorado, owned by meat conglomerate JBS, at least six workers died early in the pandemic. Osha is supposed to investigate every workplace fatality reported to them, but it took months for them to send an investigator.

When Osha finally showed up to investigate, it found JBS failed to make its workplace free of “hazards that were causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm”. The penalty: a proposed fine of $13,494.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/nov/16/meatpacking-industry-covid-outbreaks-workers
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It's still The Jungle out there.

It was late at night on 15 November 2019, on the Samoan island of Upolu – a tiny jade-green splodge in the Pacific Ocean, somewhere between Hawaii and New Zealand. Government officials were rushing to attend a meeting in the sleepy harbourside capital to discuss an urgent public health issue. By the end of the evening they had declared a state of emergency, with immediate effect.

Three months earlier, a member of the public had developed a characteristic red-brown blotchy rash after arriving on a flight from New Zealand, where there was an ongoing measles epidemic. They were swiftly diagnosed as a "suspected" case, but no further action was taken.

By 2 October, another seven measles cases had materialised. Schools – ideal environments for the virus to spread among its preferred victims – continued as normal, with the small concession that prize-giving ceremonies were banned. Even then, some ignored this. Just over a month later, the outbreak had spiralled to alarming proportions – with 716 people infected, out of a total population of around 197,000.

But with the new state of emergency in place, the country radically stepped up its efforts to halt the spread. Schools and businesses closed. Workers abandoned their offices. Residents were advised to stay in their homes. In a sinister echo of the red crosses marked on doors during medieval plague outbreaks, red flags popped up outside the homes of unvaccinated families across the country, draped on bushes, tied to columns and hung from trees. This allowed doctors to go house to house, administering compulsory vaccinations to those who needed them. Otherwise, Samoa became a ghost island – with empty roads and cancelled flights.

Eventually infections slowed, and the state of emergency ended on 28 December 2019. In all, 5,667 people were infected – including 8% of the population under 15 years old. Of those, 81 died, including three children from the same family.

The epidemic was over – but the virus hadn't necessarily taken its last victim.

Enter "immune amnesia", a mysterious phenomenon that's been with us for millennia, though it was only discovered in 2012. Essentially, when you're infected with measles, your immune system abruptly forgets every pathogen it's ever encountered before – every cold, every bout of flu, every exposure to bacteria or viruses in the environment, every vaccination. The loss is near-total and permanent. Once the measles infection is over, current evidence suggests that your body has to re-learn what's good and what's bad almost from scratch.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20211112-the-people-with-immune-amnesia
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THIS explains why we were all so sick the year I was 9 and we started with measles in January.....