One of the highlights of the midterm elections was being able to say: Senator-Elect Fetterman. John Fetterman will make a wonderful addition to the Senate. He’s from the school of hard knocks, and he knows how to pick himself up after tough times.

And another wonderful aspect of the midterms was getting to wave goodbye to his competitor Mehmet Oz. (Shudder.) Mehmet is NOT someone we’d ever have wanted to win. He’s slimy, he’s a dog killer, and we beat him. Winning never felt so good.

And here is some more news that feels very good indeed. It is being reported that Mehmet desperately wants a comeback — only nobody is interested. Can one blame them? Mehmet has shown himself to be a pretty lousy politician. Reportedly “No one in the mainstream will touch him.”

And it’s also being reported that Mehmet’s team had spoken to television executives about career moves for the non-doctor. Their response? Thanks, but no thanks. “You can’t alienate half your audience with a political stance and expect to bring in an audience on your return to television,” said one source.

No, you can’t. But the fact that Mehmet seems to think you CAN show how awful a candidate he truly was. He just can’t read the room. And people say some right-wing stations might have him on as a guest, but what Mehmet really wants is a daily show. and “It is not going to happen.”

I have an idea of what Mehmet could do! Perhaps he could read up on the evils of animal research. That might occupy a bit of his time. So this January, as we embrace Senator Fetterman, Mehmet will be back in New Jersey or wherever he’s living these days — and he’ll be back there unemployed.

The post This just keeps getting even worse for Dr. Oz appeared first on Palmer Report.

Colombia’s highest administrative court said on Thursday it had annulled the appointment of central bank co-director Alberto Carrasquilla on the grounds that his appointment violated an existing gender quota law.

Carrasquilla was appointed in August last year by former president Ivan Duque, replacing Carolina Soto.

Just 13% of women who are physically or sexually assaulted by their partners in Mexico report it to an authority, according to a report the national statistics agency issued ahead of an international day of activism to combat violence against women.

Women’s rights activists are set to take to the streets around the world on Friday to protest against pervasive gender violence and call for stronger action from authorities.

In Mexico, where some 20 women are killed each day, this comes as prosecutors in the state of Morelos are accused of covering up the killing of 27-year-old Ariadna Lopez, initially ruled dead as a result of alcohol intoxication.

The likelihood of women reporting physical or sexual assault was low across various circumstances, the agency, INEGI, found.

If the perpetrator was a partner, only 13.1% of women reported. For sexual and physical assault occurring at school, the ratio was just 7.8%, and it dropped to 7.1% in instances within a family, 6.5% for those at work and 4.3% in the wider community.

Meanwhile, one in two women said they had been sexually assaulted during their lives, one in five over the past year. More than a third said they had at some point been physically assaulted, including one in ten in the past year.

Not considering the incident important enough was the most common reason for not reporting it. Women also mentioned not knowing how to, being afraid of repercussions, being blamed or not believed, and feeling ashamed.

When they did report it, they were more likely to go to a public ministry than the police, though if it happened at work they were more likely to seek out a trade union or manager. If they were students, they would more likely go to a school authority.

The survey, which covered women and girls aged 15 and older, recorded highest rates of violence among those aged up to their mid-twenties.

Herschel Walker had two Senators as chaperones for his latest television interview and he still referred to the election as the “erection.” This really happened. And no one is even surprised. Walker sounded completely mentally vacant at the beginning of this campaign. It now feels like he’s getting even worse, though that should be impossible.

– Trump’s 2016 “win” was a compromised fluke and everyone learned the wrong lessons from it. GOP still runs shitty public figures like Oz, Lake, Walker, and wonders why they lose. Media still obsessing over Trump’s base. No one will admit Trump was always an ineffective campaigner.

– Donald Trump and Kanye West met yesterday to discuss who can do the stupidest job of pretending they’re running for President in 2024.

– Mental health is a crisis, but addressing it will cost money, so right wingers always want to ignore it. Except when there’s a mass shooting and we need to talk about the gun crisis, in which case right wingers suddenly want to talk about the mental health crisis instead.

The post This week in stupid appeared first on Palmer Report.

(NewsNation) — A poll from Quinnipiac found 65% of Americans are hoping to avoid talking politics at Thanksgiving celebrations this year.

It coincides with another poll from Axios/Ipsos that found 77% of Americans agree Thanksgiving just isn’t the time for political conversation. So, what else is there to talk about?

Try sports, says Mychael Schnell. The Hill reporter joined “Rush Hour” to discuss the polling and how Americans can have amenable gatherings this holiday season.

Watch the interview above.

Oh Republicans, Republicans — have you no shame? The answer to that question is no, they do not. If lies were like snowflakes, the GOP would be perpetually snowed in. Since the midterms, Republican lying has reached critical mass. On and on the lies go, falling in masses of fluffy white flakes, down from the sky. Where do they end? I don’t think they do.

One of the lies that Republicans have started telling us is that Jack Smith, our new special prosecutor, has it in for Trump. We knew this was coming. They can’t seem to help themselves. The GOP, indeed, has a lying problem.

Smith’s wife donated to Democrats! That is the latest scream of outrage from many a republican misfit. We are hearing it from the New York Post. We hear it from Fox non-news. On and on the Republican spin goes. They have worked themselves into a tizzy because — democrats bad.

Of course, these are the SAME people who continue to insist that Democrats are unfairly persecuting Extreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s wife for the minor issue of sympathizing with insurrectionists.

Rules for thee but not for me should be the Republican motto. Smith’s wife is also credited for producing a documentary about the Michelle Obama. One would think the sky had fallen the way Republicans are carrying on about this.

And it’s funny. Republicans are great at manufacturing false outrage. In the coming months, I am sure they will manufacture more. The reason is because the Republican Party is now the party of outrage — not of ideas.

The post No shame at all appeared first on Palmer Report.

Dear Palmer Report readers,

This Thanksgiving we have a lot to be thankful for – and a lot to celebrate.

We came together to keep Donald Trump in check and then defeat him in 2020. We’ve since come together to support a Democratic agenda for two years. And now we’ve come together to win the Senate majority, defeat Mitch McConnell for the second time in a row, keep the House close, and win many of the most crucial races for Governor and Secretary of State around the nation. We’re getting pretty good at this, aren’t we? I’d like to think we’re just getting started.

I want to keep Palmer Report going forever, through 2024 and beyond. In these uncertain times I need your help. All of our content is always available for free, with no subscriptions or paywalls. But if you can afford to, we do need your help:

Send $5 to Palmer Report:

Send $25 to Palmer Report:

Send $75 to Palmer Report:

Sincerely,

Bill Palmer and the Palmer Report team

The post Happy Thanksgiving from Palmer Report! appeared first on Palmer Report.

GOSPORT, England/LONDON (Reuters) – Chukwudubem Ifeajuna, a nurse in the south of England, loves his job, but next month will walk out for two days as part of British nurses’ biggest ever strike action, which he says is necessary for staff and patient welfare alike.

The industrial action on Dec. 15 and Dec. 20 is unprecedented in the British nursing union’s 106-year history, and comes as the state-run National Health Service (NHS) braces for one of its toughest winters ever.

Ifeajuna has seen members of his team leave to work in supermarkets, where there is less stress and better pay, while he has had to cut back on spending.

“I have a few staff who are using food banks at the moment. I’ve had to cut down on a lot of things with the kids which I can’t afford to provide for them because of the high cost of living. So it’s really really tough, for everyone, not just myself,” he told Reuters.

“We are striking because we deserve to be paid better. We haven’t had decent pay for over a decade now.”

Strike action is also impacting Britain’s rail, postal and education sectors as workers struggle with soaring prices.

Patricia Marquis, director of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) union in England, said the government must listen.

“This is not something that nurses do at the drop of a hat,” she told Reuters.

‘MOST VICIOUS OF CYCLES’

The RCN says experienced nurses like Ifeajuna are 20% worse off in real terms than they were in 2010 after a string of below-inflation pay awards, and are seeking a pay-rise of 5% above RPI (retail price index) inflation.

That would amount to a payrise of 19.2%, based on October’s inflation data. The government says the RCN demands would cost 10 billion pounds ($12.14 billion) a year and are unaffordable.

But the RCN’s Marquis said that without higher pay, staff would continue to leave the profession, increasing the pressure on those who remain and ultimately damaging patient care.

Billy Palmer, at the Nuffield Trust health think-tank, told Reuters that those who were considering leaving “often cite issues around not having enough staff to do a good job”, but their departure further exacerbates the staffing problem.

“It’s the most vicious of cycles,” he said.

Ifeajuna says he has also sometimes considered quitting.

“But each time I’ve had the chance, I sort of had to pause for a minute and say ‘I can’t leave my patients. I can’t leave my colleagues to suffer alone’,” he said.

($1 = 0.8237 pounds)