Crooked Media - What A Day: Brandon Builds Back

 -Nikki Haley, unironically, on things politicians should have to do

A national case of Bad Vibes around the lingering pandemic and resulting economic setbacks almost certainly fueled the scary rightward swings in this week’s elections. Fortunately, a Friday vibe check suggests those black clouds might be on their way out.
 

• The U.S. economy added 531,000 jobs in October, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, streaking past economists’ predictions of 450,000. That’s the best monthly gain since July and a major rebound from September’s report, which said that the economy added just 194,000 jobs after estimates for 500,000. The U.S. actually gained closer to 312,000 new jobs in September, Friday’s analysis concluded, indicating that the malaise-inducing Delta setbacks weren’t as bad as they looked. So, uh, everybody go back to last week and start feeling better.
   
• Companies added workers in nearly every industry, with significant gains in restaurants and bars. The unemployment rate also hit a new pandemic low, declining to 4.6 percent from 4.8 percent in September. President Biden touted the progress in remarks at the White House: "Before we passed the Rescue Plan, forecasters said it would take until the end of 2023 to get to the 4.6 unemployment rate. Today, we’ve reached that rate two years before forecasters thought it was possible."
   
• Biden acknowledged that there’s still work to be done to address inflation and supply-chain backlogs, but the October jobs report is a strong indication that the recovery remains on track. In an under-the-radar indicator of American life getting back to normal, the share of employed people who worked remotely in the last month fell to 11.6 percent from 13.2 percent. Slowly but surely, the sweatpants are coming off.

All of that good news (and the arguably devastating sweatpants news) is a function of improving coronavirus numbers across the country, and the Delta variant just took another few blows.
 

• Pfizer announced on Friday that its experimental antiviral pill reduced the risk of hospitalization and death by 89 percent in high-risk coronavirus patients, a potential game-changer for the global pandemic response. Those results suggest that Pfizer’s pill is even better than Merck’s, which last month was shown to halve the risk of serious illness. The U.K. became the first country to authorize Merck’s COVID treatment on Thursday, and the FDA’s advisory committee is set to meet about it later this month. Pfizer said it would apply for authorization as soon as possible.
   
• Meanwhile, 28 million U.S. kids aged five to 11 became eligible for the Pfizer vaccine this week, with some state and local governments offering cash incentives to get more children vaccinated. Major school districts have also taken the lead in distributing shots, and while school vaccine mandates could be a while off, they’re probably on the horizon—California has already announced a statewide K-12 vaccine requirement that will kick in as soon as the FDA grants full approval for younger age groups. 

After a thorough electoral ass-kicking earlier in the week, the Biden administration can now reset the conversation with some solidly good news on the economic recovery and its prospects going forward. Take it as a reminder not to lose hope about the difficult midterm fight to come—a whole lot can change in a year.

The stakes couldn’t be higher as we head into 2022. That’s why Vote Save America is working to raise $1.5 million through our No Off Years fund. Donations will go to help voter registration efforts in places where reaching new voters will help make the difference in our ability to win next year and beyond like Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin. We’ve raised over $330,000 so far, which will help organizers get a critical head start on building relationships and expanding their work to reach every last voter. Help us get there by heading to votesaveamerica.com/donate. 

Riding high on a strong jobs report and news of a miracle coronavirus treatment, President Biden urged House Democrats to keep the party going and “vote yes on both these [infrastructure] bills right now.” A handful of moderates opted to maintain their reputations as party-ruiners, thwarting leaders’ plans for Friday votes by saying they would vote against the reconciliation package without first seeing a Congressional Budget Office analysis first. House progressives, while now prepared to pass both bills without a public commitment from Smanchinema to vote for Build Back Better, reiterated that they wouldn’t pass the BIF on its own. “If our six colleagues still want to wait for a CBO score, we would agree to give them that time—after which point we can vote on both bills together,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) said on Friday. So ends another thrilling week of infrastructure negotiations; see you back here for round 98625.

• Former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark stonewalled the January 6 committee on Friday, appearing for a deposition in response to a subpoena but refusing to answer any questions. Instead, he delivered a letter from his attorney stating that he wouldn’t testify until the courts had ruled on Donald Trump’s executive privilege claim.
   
• Ohio Republicans have introduced an abortion ban that’s modeled on Texas’s law but even more extreme, aiming to prohibit abortions at any stage of pregnancy.
   
• Trump-backed Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake posed with and thanked a Nazi sympathizer at one of her campaign events, amid her wider embrace of far-right extremism.
   
• A Buffalo poll worker pre-stamped ballots with write-in mayoral candidate Byron Brown’s name before they were handed to voters, but could not have stamped more than 50, according to the Erie County elections commissioner.
   
• In much funnier attempted fraud, Glenn Youngkin’s 17-year-old son twice tried to vote for him on Tuesday. The Election Integrity Candidate, off to a great start.
   
• The FBI searched two locations connected to Project Veritas on Thursday as part of an investigation into Ashley Biden’s stolen diary.
   
• More than 30,000 Kaiser Permanente workers plan to strike later this month if contract negotiations don’t improve.
   
• Aaron Rodgers is unvaccinated and tested positive for COVID but it's all fine because he's following medical advice from Joe Rogan. 
   
• Jellyfish keep clogging the cooling pipes of nuclear power plants and it’s time to send Katie Porter into the ocean to find out whether Big Oil’s putting them up to it. 

The pledges that COP26 attendees made, if honored, would limit global warming to 1.8 degrees Celsius, according to the International Energy Agency. That’s above the 1.5 degree threshold that scientists say marks the point at which all hell would break loose, but it’s a major step forward from projections last month that showed the world hurtling towards 2.7 degrees of warming. The new developments include India’s promise to reach net-zero emissions by 2070, a nearly 100-nation pledge to cut methane by 30 percent by 2030, a promise from key leaders to halt and reverse deforestation by 2030, and a pledge from more than 40 countries to phase out coal domestically (which, unfortunately, the U.S., China, and India did not sign). There’s much more work to be done, and Greta Thunberg’s extremely unimpressed, but that 1.8 degree projection is a hopeful shift in the right direction.

In 2021 mental health is finally a thing, especially as people are not feeling like their normal selves. Let’s support one another and talk openly. Whether or not therapy is your thing, knowing it’s available and affordable is important, for you or perhaps a loved one.  

Millions of people are trying and loving online therapy. It doesn’t have to be sitting around just talking about your feelings.

So, what is therapy, exactly? It’s whatever you want it to be.

You can privately talk to someone if your stress is too much to manage, you’re battling a temper, having relationship issues, anxiety, depression, etc… Whatever you need, there’s no more shame in these normal human struggles. We take care of our bodies, why not our minds, too? Without a healthy mind, being truly happy and at peace is HARD.

BetterHelp is customized online therapy that offers video, phone and even live chat sessions with your therapist, so you don’t have to see anyone on camera if you don’t want to. It’s much more affordable than in-person therapy and you can start communicating with your therapist in under 48 hours.

It’s always a good time to invest in yourself, because you are your greatest asset. See if online therapy is for you by heading to BetterHelp.com/crooked for 10% off your first month.

Ithaca, NY, has become the first city in the country to vote to decarbonize and electrify every single building.

Voters in seven Ohio cities approved measures on Tuesday to decriminalize marijuana. 

Cleveland, OH, voters approved a ballot initiative to increase civilian oversight of the city’s police department.

Robert Santos has become the first person of color to be confirmed as director of the Census Bureau.