Jilly_in_VA
Jilly_in_VA's JournalCalifornia hometown sheds few tears for retiring McCarthy: 'Don't let the door hit you on the way out, Kevin'
For the brief period that he stood at the pinnacle of national politics, Kevin McCarthy cast an odd sort of light on Bakersfield, his unfashionable, hardscrabble home town in southern California that might never have penetrated the national consciousness without him.
The city has none of the trappings of what we think of when we think of the Golden state – no beaches, no cable cars, no redwood forests, and only an intermittent view of the Tehachapi mountains, depending on the intensity of the smog that rises from the inland oilfields and large tract farms that provide its lifeblood. The Beach Boys never immortalized Bakersfield in song – and neither, for the most part, has anyone else.
Yet for the past year, as McCarthy struggled to lead the new Republican majority in the House of Representatives, the city has enjoyed a quirky notoriety as the place that formed the man that wielded the speaker’s gavel, albeit for an agonizingly – and historically – short time.
Journalists from national publications have dutifully made the trek up from Los Angeles in search of the sandwich counter that McCarthy ran as a young man inside his uncle’s strip-mall yogurt shop (both long gone), or to eat a steak and pasta lunch at Luigi’s, which McCarthy once lauded as the kind of place that is reliably hopping by 11am because the good, hardworking people of Bakersfield start their jobs at sunrise.
The reporters would try to figure out whether the city saw McCarthy as the smiling, happy-go-lucky favourite son portrayed by his friends and allies, or just another ambitious politician more interested in building his power base in Washington than in serving his local constituents.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/dec/09/kevin-mccarthy-bakersfield-california
Face it, Kevin---nobody likes you very much!
Robbed, Silenced, and Betrayed: Gaza Turns Away From Hamas
It is incredibly difficult for them to say so in public, but many Palestinians in Gaza are furious with Hamas, their de facto rulers who invited a brutal Israeli backlash by launching the Oct. 7 attacks.
The Daily Beast was told to stop reporting and forced to delete videos while working on this story, but we can report that residents of Gaza say they have been robbed, silenced, and betrayed by Hamas.
As lawlessness rises in the smoldering rubble of Gaza, one resident said Hamas operatives stole valuables from her and other women.
A 45-year-old female refugee told The Daily Beast that Hamas agents were instructing women to remove their gold jewelry and cellphones before reaching an Israeli checkpoint on Salah al-Din—the main road through the center of Gaza—warning that these items might be confiscated or cause problems during inspection.
“I don’t know if it was naive of us, but we complied and handed over our mobiles. I even removed my ring, like other women with their jewelry,” she said. “We easily passed through the checkpoint and continued walking north. Despite feeling exhausted, we realized we had been deceived into surrendering our belongings.”
https://www.thedailybeast.com/robbed-silenced-and-betrayed-why-gazans-turned-away-from-hamas?ref=home
I don't think this is by any means just one group of women...
Even This 12-Year-Old Knows Bridget Ziegler Is a Hypocrite
Tallulah Brand, aged 12, of Sarasota, Florida, was doing her homework last Thursday when she heard the last name “Ziegler” emerge from the TV news.
“Her ears kind of perked up and she looked on the TV and saw Christian Ziegler,” her mother, Kia Brand, told The Daily Beast.
Christian Ziegler is the chair of the Florida GOP, and his wife, Bridget Ziegler, who was also mentioned in the news report, was chair of the Sarasota School Board.
Tallulah had spoken with precocious eloquence against book banning during the public comment session at several board meetings. And the Zieglers were now both involved in a scandal.
“I thought it was just another thing that would come and pass,” Tallulah recalled.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/even-this-12-year-old-knows-bridget-ziegler-is-a-hypocrite?ref=home
Kids understand a lot more than you think they do....
First Medicine Using CRISPR Gene-Editing Gets the Go-Ahead
The Food and Drug Administration approved on Friday two breakthrough treatments using the gene-editing tool CRISPR, a Nobel Prize-winning medical technology.
The first therapy, Casgevy, was developed by Vertex Pharmaceuticals and CRISPR Therapeutics and will be used to treat sickle cell disease, a condition, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, that affects 100,000 Americans, a majority of whom are Black. Lyfgenia, a second gene treatment for sickle cell, was developed by bluebird bio, Inc.
“Sickle cell disease is a rare, debilitating and life-threatening blood disorder with significant unmet need, and we are excited to advance the field especially for individuals whose lives have been severely disrupted by the disease by approving two cell-based gene therapies today,” Nicole Verdun, M.D., director of the Office of Therapeutic Products within the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said in a statement.
“Gene therapy holds the promise of delivering more targeted and effective treatments, especially for individuals with rare diseases where the current treatment options are limited.”
https://www.thedailybeast.com/first-medicine-using-crispr-gene-editing-gets-the-go-ahead
I am really chuffed about the CRISPR therapy for sickle cell. I had a patient who eventually died of the disease and I still think of him, especially now.
Bankrupt Alex Jones Tells Tucker Carlson: 'I'm Almost Obsolete'
Self-described “almost obsolete” Alex Jones told his old pal Tucker Carlson in an interview on X Thursday that he is waiting for other right-wing media figures like Carlson “who actually know what’s going on” to grow in influence before he can “hang it up.”
“Now there’s been a paradigm shattering, and I’m almost obsolete, Tucker,” he said. “As soon as I see a couple hundred more prominent people who actually know what’s going on, when we’re already reached chain-reaction point, I’m going to hang it up and disappear like Obi-Wan Kenobi,” the InfoWars host told Carlson at the conclusion of the 90-plus minute sit-down.
Moments earlier, Jones lauded the former Fox News host as “our champion” in his imagined fight against “the globalists.”
“The more they throw against me, the more support I get, and it’s really become a historic battle,” the conspiracy theorist claimed proudly. “If I’m completely banned and defanged and shut down and can’t operate, only then would I try to evacuate somewhere to try to keep my show on the air. But… once they disrupt and shut down something, it’s very hard to restart it.”
“The good news is, there are so many other great talk show hosts, so many other great people that now understand this, and even have perspectives better than mine,” he added, citing Russell Brand, Joe Rogan and Steve Bannon. “I’m not obsolete yet, but … thanks to you, I know that no matter what happens to me, men and women are going to continue the fight forward into the future.”
https://www.thedailybeast.com/bankrupt-alex-jones-tells-tucker-carlson-im-almost-obsolete
I hope they both are!
Teen with rare disease seeks help to pay for surgery
A teenager in Seymour who is fighting a rare bone disease is asking for the community’s help after hitting a roadblock in her treatment.
Kaylee Fisher was diagnosed with osteochondromatosis when she was just nine months old. The condition causes benign tumors to form on growth plates.
The last time Kaylee had a full body scan in 2017, they found 28 tumors inside her body.
“People like me struggle not only medically, but socially, mentally, because, I’ve been in pain pretty much my entire life, and just when you think you make a breakthrough, you get set right back,” Fisher said.
A teenager in Seymour who is fighting a rare bone disease is asking for the community’s help after hitting a roadblock in her treatment.
Kaylee Fisher was diagnosed with osteochondromatosis when she was just nine months old. The condition causes benign tumors to form on growth plates.
https://www.wate.com/news/top-stories/east-tn-teen-with-rare-bone-disease-needs-help-to-pay-for-120000-surgery/
What's criminal is that she has to seek help because her insurance denied her. ALL Americans should get this help.SINGLE PAYER NOW!
Prescription for disaster: America's broken pharmacy system in revolt over burnout and errors
Emily Le CozPharmacists with the nation’s largest retail pharmacy chain felt dangerously burned out.
It was August 2020. The pandemic was in full swing, straining an already weary workforce hit by a decade of relentless budget cuts and rising demands.
One by one, the pharmacists dialed into a weekly conference call with their boss. He could have empathized with them or addressed the reality of their pressure-cooker environment – one that breeds medication errors and creates missed opportunities to prevent potentially deadly mistakes.
Instead, CVS District Leader Khalil Haidar turned up the heat. He harped on his Texas-and-Louisiana-based team to hit corporate quotas: Sell more store memberships. Push for more prescription pickups. Vaccinate more people. He threatened discipline and staff cuts unless pharmacists convinced at least five customers that week to get a flu shot before flu season had even officially started.
“If you get your goal, nobody will come after you," Haidar said on the call, one of several recorded and shared with USA TODAY. "And many patients, they are ignorant. They don’t know what the flu is ... How are you going to convince them? How can you persuade them? That’s your job as a pharmacist.”
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2023/10/26/pharmacy-chains-dangerous-conditions-medication-errors/71153960007/
I quit Walgreens because they closed in solidarity with other strikers and I couldn't get my meds when I needed them. But I had to go to Walmart because Part D *sigh*
Mom visits school to see her 4-year-old in isolation, and can't get answers
Jhaniyah Holland was excited to visit West Haven Elementary School on Oct. 30 to see her 4-year-old son presented with an award for perfect attendance. Her happiness turned to horror, however, when she arrived at the school and found the little boy isolated in a small room. He was distraught, sitting on the floor in tears and pressing his back to the wall.
The offense that landed him in isolation? He broke pencils and crayons.
The room, with a small, high window that can be closed off, looks like a prison cell, Holland told Knox News. It's only big enough to fit a twin-sized bed, she said.
After two meetings with the school principal, Carl Whipple, her son's teacher and a behavior therapist at the school, Holland is still seeking answers to why the boy was punished with isolation. Chief among her concerns: how long was her son put in isolation, what was done to de-escalate the situation before school authorities decided to isolate him and had this happened before?
"Nothing he did can justify putting him in there," Holland said.
https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/education/2023/12/07/knox-county-schools-puts-4-year-old-pre-k-student-in-isolation/71757086007/
This is so wrong on so many levels I don't know where to start.
With McCarthy's exit, Bakersfield residents reflect on the end of an era
Across Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s central California district, voters reacted with disappointment and uncertainty Wednesday about the future of an increasingly fractured Republican party after McCarthy revealed he will step down from Congress.
McCarthy is stepping down as an embattled politician whose winding career led him from a Bakersfield deli to second-in-line to the presidency as Speaker of the House. Then, earlier this year, a small contingent of fellow Republicans worked together to oust him from the top leadership position – a first in American politics.
McCarthy’s departure from Congress is seen as a dramatic end of a political era in the San Joaquin Valley.
“I hated to see him go,” Len Reinhart, 83, said from Old Town Clovis in the northern edge of McCarthy's sprawling district. “I just don't like their (the GOP’s) future. They're bickering too much. They’re not as strong as they used to be. I don’t know where they’re heading.”
A political feeding frenzy will almost certainly ensue once McCarthy’s seat is officially vacant. If that happens before Dec. 8, Gov. Gavin Newsom must call a special election.
https://www.kvpr.org/local-news/2023-12-06/across-kevin-mccarthys-district-disappointment-and-opportunity-abound-as-he-steps-down-from-congress
Watch him wait until after Dec. 8. Just saying.
US figure skater Ilia Malinin lands quad axel to take lead at Grand Prix Finals
Ilia Malinin had no intention of trying to land the quadruple axel, the most difficult jump in figure skating, while the 19-year-old American sensation was trying to qualify for the Grand Prix Finals.
Once he took the ice Thursday for the marquee conclusion to the Grand Prix season, all bets were off.
Not only did Malinin cleanly land the four-and-a-half revolution jump, which had never been done in a short program, the first skater to land it in competition last year kept piling up points. He added a quad lutz-triple toe loop combination along with a clean triple axel to post a score of 106.90 points, the best total of his international career.
“After Grand Prix France, it was an idea of mine for a long time – I mean, since the start of the season,” said Malinin, who earned the bronze medal at the Grand Prix Finals last year. “I think that at Skate America, without the triple axel getting those points, it really helped me set the base for my motivation and my confidence to try to include it.”
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/dec/07/ilia-malinin-quadruple-axel-grand-prix-finals-figure-skating
Holy Shamoley! Go to the site for the Xitter view of the jump. I don't post anything from there on general principlis.
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