Little did a man know his staircase doubled as a neighborhood expressway until he noticed notifications coming from his home security camera. Once he viewed his footage he discovered this constant critter parade:
Front page thumbnail image: Patrick Hatt / shutterstock.com
When disabled, accessibility travel blogger Cory Lee landed in Atlanta, Georgia on November 13, he insisted on waiting on the plane until his wheelchair arrived at the jet bridge since he is "unable to sit upright in an aisle chair for an extended period of time." But unsympathetic flight attendants did not take kindly to his request and tried using scare tactics by saying the TSA would would force him off "with all their guns" if he didn't comply (see video below).
But waiting on the plane was his right under the Air Carrier Access Act, according to Yahoo!, "which allows a passenger to remain seated until their wheelchair is brought to them."
Lee, who has been using a wheelchair nearly all his life after being diagnosed with muscular dystrophy as a toddler, says he's flown into Atlanta hundreds of times and has never had a problem receiving his wheelchair before — let alone been threatened with guns the way he was.
"I don't know why they were so adamant about not bringing it today, but to threaten us with guns?! What in the world?!"
From Yahoo!:
According to the US transportation department, the law mandates airlines return wheelchairs to users as closely as possible to the door of the aircraft, if requested.
Mr Lee said it can take nearly an hour for his chair to get to the jet bridge and explained that the aisle chair used to transport wheelchair users to their own wheelchairs is uncomfortable for him. …
"They were talking to each other, saying, 'He just doesn't want to get off the plane'," Mr Lee said.
"Believe me, I definitely wanted to get off the plane."
He added that the altercation escalated when a flight attendant asked him to exit and wait for his wheelchair or the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) would make him "get off the aircraft with all their guns and stuff". …
"I have had a lot of wild travel experiences across 40 countries over the past nine years, but this one was hands-down the worst of all," he added.
Delta Airlines said in a statement that they "are reviewing what occurred here and will follow up as appropriate with our people." They have also allegedly reached out to Lee to hear his side of the story, and to apologize.
Two pumped-up gentlemen stole the show at a hockey game when they each tried to pummel the other in front of the spectators. But the chap who was bested in the impromptu tournament wasn't satisfied with mere defeat at the hands of his combatant. When he couldn't knock out his opponent, he made sure to knock out himself out instead.
Republican officials in Arizona's Cochise County refused to certify midterm election results after the candidates of their choice did not win. So, after the rural county missed Monday's state deadline to approve the final vote tally, governor-elect Katie Hobbs, who is currently Arizona's secretary of state, sued the GOP-controlled community.
From The Guardian:
In a lawsuit on Monday, the secretary of state, Katie Hobbs, a Democrat who narrowly won the race for governor, asked a judge to order county officials to canvass the election, which she said was an obligation under Arizona law. Lawyers representing a Cochise county voter and a group of retirees filed a similar lawsuit on Monday, the deadline for counties to approve the official tally of votes, known as the canvass.
The two Republican county supervisors delayed the canvass vote until hearing once more about concerns over the certification of ballot tabulators, though election officials have repeatedly said the equipment is properly approved.
The state elections director, Kori Lorick, wrote in a letter last week that Hobbs was required by law to approve the statewide canvass by next week and would have to exclude Cochise county's votes if they weren't received in time.
That would threaten to flip the victor in at least two close races, a US House seat and state schools chief, from a Republican to a Democrat.
And according to ABC News, Arizona officials aren't the only victims of Trumpist delusions. Republicans in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania — sore that candidates Blake Masters and Mehmet Oz lost the statewide election — also voted against certifying election results, citing, as one official put it, "irregularities," discrepancies," and "disenfranchisement of disenfranchised voters." In other words, the vote didn't go their way, so it wasn't fair.
Around 2.3 million residents in Houston, Texas have been told to boil their water until at least Monday night or Tuesday morning, according to ABC13, thanks to a power outage that might have contaminated a water treatment plant.
This means everyone needs to boil their water for 2–3 minutes "before drinking, cooking, bathing, and brushing your teeth," says a notice issued by the City of Houston (see below). It also means avoiding ice from automatic machines and cold water from refrigerator lines. And for thousands of kids living in Houston, it means no (public) school, as they've been shut down for the day.
From ABC13:
On Sunday at 10:30 a.m., the water pressure dropped below the city's required minimum of 20 PSI due to a power outage at the East Water Purification Plant, according to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. …
Houston Water Director Yvonne Williams Forrest said the city's pressure system was never at zero, just below the regulatory limit. That pressure is important because it prevents anything from infiltrating the water system. …
The concern over the water pressure is that when it dips below a certain point, that's when contaminants could be introduced. …
What happens next? City officials said they are testing the water across the city, collecting samples that will be submitted to the state. They are now at a City of Houston lab and must be observed and tested.
These samples have to sit for 18 hours to see if anything grows. The hope is that there will be an all clear by 3 a.m.
A delivery driver was only meant to deliver a package to the inside of a garage, but also ended up trying to deliver a loose chicken that had escaped as soon as he opened the door. And it wasn't an easy "delivery," as the chicken — who was healing from an injury, according to Ring — was fast and persistent in her mad dash for the outdoors, even managing to break free of her cage and charge toward the door after the driver thought he'd temporarily trapped the bird.
Throughout the hilarious scene reminiscent of a classic Looney Tunes cartoon, the responsible driver kept his patience and a sense of humor — addressing the rambunctious creature as "Mr. Chicken Man" and "dude" as he tried to talk the bird into staying put. This driver deserves a Thanksgiving bonus!
Front page thumbnail image: Kathy D. Reasor / shutterstock.com
A ragdoll kitten hasn't yet learned he is a cat, waiting for his human at the front door as any excited pup would do. And then when the door opens, the energetic kitten sprints down a building hall to greet said human.
Not wanting to pop the little guy's bubble, an older cat-mate doesn't let on, feigning the same unconditional love for their caretaker as the kitten does, even rushing out the door before the kitten. But once out in the hall, the older cat is done with the charade and simply plops to the floor, letting the young'un carry on without him. (See video below.)
Via Newsweek
Front page thumbnail image: Nils Jacobi / shutterstock.com
Marjorie Taylor Greene isn't just using Twitter to sucker her fans (or fan her suckers) out of $700,000 — she's also, predictably, back on the platform to troll the libs by promoting her usual, thinly veiled white nationalist rhetoric.
"Come to my house, Juanita!" she tweeted yesterday in response to a post by anti-vaxxer Juanita Broaddrick (who once accused Bill Clinton of rape, which he denied) who tweeted a Thanksgiving pie with the frosted message: "Unvaccinated and ready to talk politics."
"We will call our gathering 'Pure Bloods and Politics,' Greene continued. "We'll cook and discuss how we will ever survive another upcoming dark winter that Fauci has just announced."
Don't let Qongresswoman Greene fool you. Yes, "pure blood" is an anti-vax/Harry Potter term, but it's also coded language the Georgia lawmaker is using to push her anti-semitic messaging right out into the open.
Via HuffPost
Front page thumbnail image: lev radin / shutterstock.com
The internet has been hard on Herschel Walker after his slip of the tongue yesterday on Fox. While stiffly standing between Senators Ted Cruz and Lindsay Graham, the Georgia candidate, hoping to beat Raphael Warnock once and for all, soiled his message to his body of voters.
"This election is about more than Herschel Walker, this erection is about the people," he uddered. To which Cruz and Graham woodenly nodded and agreed.
His unexpected gaffe has since become viral (see video below).
Via Daily Beast
Front page thumbnail image: Chris Casanova / shutterstock.com
It's not just Washington Republicans who are stepping away from Donald Trump. Now the former one-term president — and the GOP's unsavory 2024 presidential candidate — is getting snubbed by a growing number of Christians — the most reliable swath of voters in his base.
As of yesterday, nearly 15,000 Christians had so far signed a petition calling for people to "speak out" and "make it clear that Donald Trump does not share our values and will never have our votes," according to Insider,
From Insider:
The petition was launched on November 16 by Faithful America. The group says it is an online Christian community founded in 2004 that is "organizing the faithful to challenge Christian nationalism and white supremacy."
At press time, 14,904 people had signed the petition — just shy of the organization's goal of 15,000 signatures.
"We don't know much yet about how the 2024 election will play out, but one thing is certain: Another Trump presidency would be a disaster for our country," the organization wrote on the petition.
Faithful America's position comes at a time when several of Trump's evangelical allies have either held back from backing him, or have publicly slammed him.
Nathan Empsall, a reverend of Faithful America — which has at least 181,349 members according to its website — stated the obvious, saying Trump has "weaponized religion," and that "neither the country nor the church can afford another four years of this charlatan's fascism, racism, misinformation, or ego." Yep, could have told you that a decade ago. But nonetheless, amen.
The Indiana Pacers hosted a puppy race for some halftime entertainment yesterday, which didn't go quite as planned. The goal was to get nine pups — from IndyHumane animal shelter — to race each other down the court. But, comically, no amount of pep or gentle pushes from the patient cheerleaders could get even one of the little dogs to budge — until they were eventually picked up and carried to the finish line. What these young competitors lacked in enthusiasm, however, they made up for in sheer adorableness. Hopefully viewers in Indianapolis are now racing to the puppy shelter!
Via USA Today
Front page thumbnail image: Elliot Photography / shutterstock.com
A pickpocket robbed Argentinian reporter Dominique Metzger while she was on camera at the World Cup in Qatar. She had been dancing with fans on live TV when somebody pinched "money, documents, and credit cards" from her purse, according to Mediate.
Of course, pickpocketing can and does happen everywhere, so the fact that it happened in Qatar isn't the interesting part of the story — what's fascinating is how police handled it at the station. After taking down Metzger's information, police granted her the power usually assigned to a judge, asking how the thief, when caught, should be punished.
"What justice do you want?" asked police, who insisted that with "high-tech cameras everywhere," they would "locate him with face detection," according to Yahoo! "What sentence do you want us to give him? Do you want him to be sentenced to five years in prison? Do you want him to be deported?"
But Metzger, who was "taken aback," didn't want any part of her new position as sentencing judge — she only wanted her stolen stuff returned.
"I told them I just want my wallet back — I won't be making the decision for the justice system."
Front page thumbnail image: Ground Picture / shutterstock.com
On Saturday, FIFA President Gianni Infantino lashed out at his critics in a one-hour monologue, calling out the "hypocracy" of those who criticize the World Cup taking place in Qatar. He then slipped into naval-gazing mode, finding himself to be a complex man who felt many, many things all at once.
"I have very strong feelings, I can tell you that," he said, before listing how he simultaneously felt "Qatari," "gay," "disabled," and so much more.
But rather than listen to him tell us, the Late Show did us a favor and recreated his bizarre therapy session into this more digestible musical (see below) — an amusing twist on West Side Story's "I feel pretty."
And in FIFA president Gianni Infantino's words without musical accompaniment, here's a partial clip:
Front page thumbnail image by Mikolaj Barbanell / shutterstock.com
About as informed on the law as she is on gazpacho police and space lasers, lawmaker Marjorie Taylor Greene spent her first day back on Twitter (2.0) confusing business rights with the First Amendment — before begging for money.
"Free speech is dead. And I know that sounds like something interesting to say, especially the very day that I get my personal Twitter account back. But the reality is I should have never lost it in the first place," said the Georgia Qongresswoman, who, although aligned with MAGA's "freedums" party, thinks the government should have intervened with Twitter's right to permanently ban a customer who was dangerously spreading misinformation on covid vaccines.
Greene then spent over an hour on her reinstated Twitter account spewing lies and hate on live video such as: the injustice of antifa never getting charged for the Capitol insurrection; masks don't work; teachers groom children; and catching covid will boost your immunity against covid better than getting a covid vaccine.
And then for her grand finale, Greene cried the blues about how she hadn't been able to use Twitter to campaign or "fight back against the attacks" against her, so now she's asking her viewers to help her out financially. "My attorney fees were approximately around $700,000," Greene complained. "So if any of you out there want to help me pay my attorney fees, you can go to MTGforAmerica.com."
Per usual, the only kind of handout a Republican likes is the one that lands straight into their own palm.
Like a self-fulfilling prophecy, "anti-woke" banking startup GloriFi is "going to sleep" after less than three months of business. Although the pro-gun financial company had pitched itself to conservative folk as a banking institute where like-minded customers were "free to celebrate your love of God and country without fear of cancellation," it's now cancelling itself.
"Effective immediately, we have begun the process of helping our customers resolve their accounts," GloriFi says on its now stripped-down website.
From Rolling Stone:
The company has laid off employees and informed them the end is nigh, via an email from Chief Marketing Officer Cathy Landtrop obtained by the Wall Street Journal. Landroop cited "financial challenges related to startup mistakes, the failing economy, reputational attacks, and multiple negative stories," as reasons for the downfall.
The Journal reports the company's fate was sealed Friday when a funding arrangement fell through.
Founder and CEO Toby Neugebauer pitched plans to offer gun owners discounts on home insurance, credit cards made of shell casing material, and assistance paying legal bills if customers shot someone in self-defense. Over the summer, GloriFi secured conservative commentator Candace Owens as a co-founder and spokesperson for the brand. …
But GloriFi was unable to translate ideological grandstanding into functional corporate management. Even before its public launch, the startup was plagued by reports of chaos amongst staff and financiers. GloriFi missed its planned launch date several times, at one point due to clashes with Texas financial regulators.
So in the end, although GloriFi used to say on its About page (when it still had an About page), "We are one nation under God," the startup is actually just one bank under water.
Two golden retrievers were petrified at the top of a staircase when they spotted a canine intruder staring up at them from inside their basement. No matter that the huge scary dog was only a face — plastered onto the side of a dry dog food bag. It still warranted a frozen stance and low growl before the doggos mustered up the courage to scamper away.
Via Hindustan Times
The gunman who allegedly killed five people and injured at least 25 others at a Colorado Springs gay bar on Saturday has been identified as Anderson Lee Aldrich. He is also the grandson of outgoing California State Assembly member Randy Voepel, a pro-Trump MAGA Republican who once said the GOP had become too liberal for him, according to LGBTQ Nation.
Voepel, a former mayor of Santee, California — a suburb in San Diego County — was highly criticized after he praised the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, comparing it to the Revolutionary War. "This is Lexington and Concord. First shots fired against tyranny," he said after the Capitol riot, predicting that tyranny would "follow in the aftermath of the Biden swear in on January 20th."
Voepel "lost his bid for reelection in the August Republican primary," says LGBTQ Nation.
As for Voepel's grandson, this wasn't Aldrich's first time in trouble with the law.
From LGBTQ Nation:
According to multiple news outlets, Aldrich was previously arrested in 2021 and charged with five felonies after threatening his mother with a homemade bomb and multiple weapons. The threat resulted in a standoff with police. The New York Times reports that police were unable to find any explosives at the time, and Aldrich was never prosecuted.
Leslie Bowman, who had been renting a spare room to Aldrich's mother at the time, expressed outrage following Saturday's mass shooting that he had been allowed access to firearms.
"Why is he not in jail, after that happening?" she said of the 2021 arrest. "After that initial day, police never reached out to me for additional information. I'm a Second Amendment supporter, don't get me wrong. But for him to be out there, and have access to weapons after that incident, I don't understand it."
The Club Q mass shooting is being treated as a possible hate crime.
Chair of Maricopa Elections Department Bill Gates has reportedly gone into hiding after alleged threats by MAGA voters and officials whose GOP candidates — such as election-fraud promoter Kari Lake — lost in Arizona's midterm elections.
After Lake lost to governor-elect Katie Hobbs, she tweeted, "Arizonans know BS when they see it," fueling her already enraged base by continuing to pound her — and Donald Trump's — Big Lie drumbeat.
Soon after, Maricopa County Attorney Tom Liddy "reported what he considered to be a threat from the Lake campaign to the local sheriff," according to HuffPost, saying that "there were a 'lot of irate people out there' whom the campaign 'can't control.'"
On Sunday, Gates, a lifelong Republican who has staunchly defended Arizona's voter integrity, "was moved to an 'undisclosed' location," where officers from the Sheriff's office will be on guard. He confirmed with an Arizona Fox station that he moved "for his own safety," according to HuffPost.
From Fox10:
His [Gates'] stance has caused a slew of backlash online and in person. Some people were seen launching verbal attacks on Gates during a meeting with the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors earlier this week.
Other county officials have reported receiving calls they considered threatening from campaign volunteers.
And from HuffPost:
He [attorney Liddy] said an attorney from the Republican National Committee speaking on behalf of the campaign warned Liddy on the phone a week ago that there were "a lot" of Lake supporters who were really "irate" and the campaign was unable to "control" them. Lake was about to be projected as the loser in her race.
Both the RNC attorney and Lake campaign have denied any threat against Liddy.
Kari Lake has still not conceded to governor-elect Katie Hobbs, even though she lost by more than 17,000 votes.
In the same week that Ivanka Trump announced she would not take part in Daddy Trump's 2024 campaign, she also hired her own attorney to get herself excluded from a court-appointed monitor that is watching over her — and the rest of her family's — finances. But, predictably, her last-ditch effort was fruitless, as a New York state's Justice Arthur F. Engoron was unfazed by her plea, according to Daily Beast.
From Daily Beast:
In private letters, Ivanka's attorneys tried to exclude her—and only her—from a New York state judge's order that laid out how the family company is going to be overseen in the coming months, this source said.
On Thursday, Justice Arthur F. Engoron took the boldest move yet against the former president's company. He gave the Trump Organization two weeks to give retired federal judge Barbara S. Jones "a full and accurate description of the corporate structure," empowering her to review "all financial disclosures to any persons or entities" by the company. The Trumps must also inform the judge 30 days in advance of shifting any assets, ensuring they cannot outrun the New York attorney general's $250 million lawsuit
AG Letitia James' three-year investigation exposed how the family-run company routinely inflated the value of the properties it owns to snag better bank loans or maximize tax-write offs for donated land. She filed a lawsuit in September against the company's various entities, some of its top brass, former President Donald Trump, and the offspring he made executives there: Don Jr., Ivanka, and Eric. …
Ivanka was, notably, the only defendant in the lawsuit who tried to negotiate for a better deal on her own, according to the source who spoke to The Daily Beast.
Sorry, Ivanka, but it's a bit late for family emancipation.
A German shepherd is smitten with what used to belong to the birds, using a cement birdbath for all of his needs. First it's a wading pool to play in, then a bowl to drink from, and finally a refreshing bed to plop down in as the doggo enjoys the sunny outdoors. And no, as his canine buddy noticed, there's no room for sharing. (See video of the "German shepbird" below.)
Image: scrapitsideways / shutterstock.com
